Press / VDNKh
In the June issue of The Art Newspaper Russia, Elena Gonzalez asks the question: will VDNKh be a park of the Soviet period or will it become a demonstration of the achievements of modern Russian science and culture. What is happening now with the buildings of the former All-Russian Exhibition Center cannot be called either repair or restoration - the original details are lost, the elements of the buildings are roughened and distorted. Only 40 buildings have the status of a monument, the rest are not protected by anything. The author reminds that "Shipbuilding", "Computing equipment", "Radioelectronics" have already been destroyed, the "Gas Industry" pavilion has been disfigured by new windows. Minor and small objects (fountains, steles, lanterns) are destroyed or rebuilt to an unrecognizable appearance. As a result, VDNKh is losing not only its strong architecture, but also part of its history. Elena Gonzalez comes to the conclusion that the pre-war and post-war period of the "Stalinist" classics is chosen. Visitors to the exhibition may like this, but experts are sure that it is impossible to make taste decisions. Attached to the article is a short guide to authentic architecture, which you can still see at VDNKh.
Despite criticism from the expert community, work is progressing at an incredibly fast pace. Izvestia reports that the mayor's office has allocated more than 3 billion rubles for the complex. Subsidies will go to emergency work in 118 pavilions and buildings, landscaping, summer grounds, exercise equipment, cafes, etc. By August 1, priority work should be completed in the Space and Ukraine pavilions, as well as in the Green Theater. Also, by August, they plan to restore the Central Pavilion of the exhibition and place in it the historical exposition of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition - VDNKh. Kommersant believes that the architectural monuments will probably be temporarily mothballed pending approval of projects for their restoration. As for the renovation of the pavilions themselves, the authorities are counting on investors' funds, Rosbalt reports. According to the Deputy Mayor of Moscow Natalya Sergunina, a survey of the pavilions is underway, the results of which will make it possible to more clearly determine how much money will be required for repairs.
Petersburg: gradsovet and dissonance
The last St. Petersburg City Council discussed the space-planning solutions of the Marine Facade complex on the reclaimed territories of Vasilievsky Island, the possibility of high-rise accents in this place, as well as the fate of the city activist Denis Levkin, sentenced to four years in the case of seizing the Varshavsky railway station pagkauz going for demolition. Sankt-Peterburgskie vedomosti, RBC and Petersburg Diary wrote about the discussions, and Vladimir Frolov, editor-in-chief of Project Baltia magazine, inspired the debate to speculate about the role and place of boredom in architecture.
St. Petersburg officials have prepared a list of "discordant objects", which will become an appendix to the draft amendments to the law on the boundaries of protection zones for cultural heritage sites and land use regimes. It included about 80 buildings, including the Stockmann department store, the Mont Blanc residential complex, the St. Petersburg bank building, and the Oktyabrsky Big Concert Hall. According to the Metro newspaper from the words of the vice-governor Marat Hovhannisyan, the list is only a declaration of the existence of public disagreements over this or that building. Ok-inform adds that there are no plans to reconstruct or demolish these buildings. Maria Elkina from ART1, criticizing the very concept of "discordant" ("the building of the General Staff is discordant with the Winter Palace, it is impossible not to notice"), came to the conclusion that the list was compiled in support of architecture that imitates historical styles ("albeit extremely ineptly"); "Anything without plaster and columns is for ejection, nobody needs it here." - concludes Maria Elkina, expressing fear for the fate of the Oktyabrsky Big Concert Hall and defining the list as an example of "an increase in entropy in closed systems."
"Nevskoe Vremya" talked about the problems of the northern capital with Jan Gale. The guru of modern urbanism is horrified by the number of cars on the streets of the city, but sees good prospects for St. Petersburg. He advises to gradually give more and more urban space to pedestrians and, in particular, to reconstruct Nevsky Prospekt following the example of the Champs Elysees. The author of the concept of “cities for people” said that the government of St. Petersburg was asked to conduct the same research that was recently conducted in Moscow.
Competitions and exhibitions
The winners of the competition for youth projects in the field of architecture and design ArchiChance-2 "Entrance to the World of Science" were announced in St. Petersburg. Students developed interior designs for the lobby of the Center for Entertaining Science in the multifunctional complex "Lakhta Center".
Rossiyskaya Gazeta writes about the architectural exhibition "New Moscow" taking place in Berlin, which should show the Europeans how the urban planning policy of the Russian capital has changed using just two examples - Zaryadye Park and the Center for Contemporary Art on Khodynskoe Pole. We have prepared a report from the opening of the exhibition. Kommersant-Vlast publishes interesting material about Bernard Chumi's exhibition at the Pompidou Center, which “looks more like materials for a philosophical conference than a purely design exposition”.
Blogs
The RUPA community of planners is discussing a lecture by Sergei Kuznetsov, which took place as part of the presentation of the new issue of speech: magazine, the topic of which was affordable housing. The main message of the lecture: such a modern city as Moscow forms citizens of a new type, which requires a fundamentally different approach to mass urban development. Alexander Antonov believes that a new approach is required not only for Moscow, but also for all other cities in Russia. And he comes to the conclusion that Mosoblast is now leading in quality affordable housing. The rest of the participants in the discussion are trying to figure out whether there is any block development in our country at all, and how it differs from imitation fitted to the concept.
Arkady Gershman publishes a report on the work at VDNKh: the whole complex is surrounded by cars, very crowded on weekends, the restoration of the pavilions continues. New objects are everywhere: temporary photo exhibitions, public areas, good children's and sports grounds. The author also toured the Ostankino Park, which is now merged with VDNKh; work there is also in full swing. After reconstruction, the old entrance hall of the VDNKh station was opened. In addition, Arkady Gershman writes about the need to use high-quality materials in urban decoration, minimizing "products from polycarbonate and scrap metal."
The big city has collected detailed information about where the new stations of the Moscow metro will be located, how they will look and when they will open to passengers. tema discusses what the entrances should be like in our houses, and the moscowwalks blog publishes the second part of an interesting collection “Destroyed but not demolished”, dedicated to the buildings rebuilt beyond recognition.
