Press / Biennale
Architectural critics this week continue to reflect on the expositions presented at the Venice Biennale. Alexandra Novozhenova, in her text on Colta.ru, describes the totality of national pavilions as a large postmodern project with all the relying elements (binarity, play, irony, quotation), within which each country is looking for its own language, and the background is set by the main exposition of the Elements of architecture biennale. "Materialized dictionary of the international architectural language". According to the author of the article, curator Rem Koolhaas does not try to solve the question of which phrases will be composed of this dictionary, will they serve good or evil. Evgeny Ass in an interview with the Portal of the Moscow Architectural Council calls the Koolhaas exhibition a failure. In his opinion, it was a way to avoid answering real questions: “When there is nothing to say, we exhibit building elements. But architecture is not a construction industry; it does not fall apart. Personally, I cannot view stairs separately from floors. Architecture is integration, not disintegration. " Regarding the Russian pavilion, which received a special mention by the jury “for demonstrating the modern language of the commercialization of architecture”, Evgeny Ass spoke in a positive way, but the visual component raises doubts: “It turned out to be clumsy and intrusive. Was it necessary to bring it to such an ironic absurdity? " Maria Elkina from ART1 believes that our pavilion turned out to be one of the most boring, but from the general tone of the article it is clear that this is not a compliment.. According to her, “wishing to be ironic, the curators of the Russian pavilion turn out to be closer to the truth than perhaps even they wanted it themselves. " Deutsche Welle also reported about the Biennale, and Anna Shevchenko published her review in the Russian Journal.
Summer at Strelka
For summer events, the Moscow Institute of Media, Architecture and Design "Strelka" this year invites famous architects. Mexican Mikel Rohkind, known for his attention to the social aspects of the profession, gave a lecture "Architecture Beyond Defined Boundaries." In the material of Interview Russia, even through the printed text, the energy of the architect is felt: he talks about the desire to create strategies for new buildings that make the world a better place, the need to educate the customer, the balance of technology and traditional crafts, and much more. In an interview with our portal, Mikel talks in more detail about working with customers and their responsibilities: for example, about Nestlé, for which Rojkind arquitectos eventually built a Chocolate Museum instead of a visitor center for children.
Archi.ru also managed to communicate with the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, who gave a lecture on "Architecture after the Catastrophe" at Strelka. And this Sunday you can listen to Santiago Calatrava, the Spaniard will tell the Russian public about how to give architecture an additional, living dimension.
Evgeny Ass
The website of the Moscow Architectural Council publishes an interview with Yevgeny Ass, in which he shares his thoughts on contemporary architectural exhibitions, and also talks about the work of the Moscow School of Architecture. Evgeny Ass notes that the level of the first graduation projects is very high, they turned out to be realistic and thoughtful despite the fact that the preparation of students at the time of admission to his university left much to be desired. As a result of the work of his studio "Perezaryadye", it became clear that the development of Zaryadye could fundamentally change the whole situation in the center of Moscow: the city is "unlocked", the Kremlin, Red Square, the first floors of buildings in Kitay-Gorod will open, a good city center will appear, attractive to tourists and Muscovites.
Eugene Ass also pleases readers in the most positive and non-ironic sense with a lyrical text in his column on the School's website. His reasoning is devoted to the modern fear of old age, which affects, among other things, architecture, which today is doomed either to eternal youth or to instant death.
Archcouncil of Moscow
The site of the Arch Council has prepared material on high-quality and affordable housing: it should be economically affordable, while creating striking architectural dominants and comfortable public spaces. The authors give examples of this genre, implemented by European architects over the past few years.
The Archcouncil also talks about hotel projects that were considered at working meetings with the chief architect of Moscow. Projects are assessed in terms of the literacy of the transport scheme, landscape-visual analysis, and the uniqueness of the architectural and compositional solution. Due to the capital's great demand for hotel space, many projects are coming in - from modern glass towers to pseudo-classics - but not all of them are approved.
Blogs
In social networks, the Russian pavilion at the Biennale is most actively discussed on Yuri Palmin's Facebook page. He characterizes the exposition as follows: "a punk opera about a road to hell paved with modernist good intentions", "an extremely evil, cynical and funny action that very accurately describes our present, parasitizing on our past at our expense." The “visual hell” of the pavilion seems completely natural to Yuri Palmin. One of the big drawbacks, which all participants in the discussion admit, is that the consultants work for only three days, without them "the performance will end and the exposition will sag." Commentators call the Biennale the most non-photogenic, but worthy to be filmed about it.
Mikhail Belov also writes about the Biennale. In his opinion, special prizes are given "for a high-quality product, for wit and capacity, from the point of view of curators and grandees of world architectural thought." He did not visit the Russian pavilion, but "according to media information" he concludes that this is an interesting and well-made exhibition product, less distant from architecture than everything else at the Biennale.
Arkady Gershman in his blog suggests talking about the ten principles of smart urbanism - the theory of urban square planning, aimed at taking into account various problems, interests and their solutions.
Alexander Shumsky told what awaits Maroseyka and Pokrovka after reconstruction. Traffic improvements have been made - new pedestrian crossings, wide sidewalks and more modest auto lanes. There were more failures: there would be no trees, raised crossings were “hacked” by Mosvodstok due to a complex water drainage system, Moskomarkhitektura categorically opposed the benches, the traffic police “filled up” the islands of safety, the idea of making the carriageway on Maroseyka in cobblestones was rejected by the Department of Transport.
Archiblog Shu describes the shortcomings of modern social facilities and talks about an effective method of "urban acupuncture", the essence of which boils down to the creation of "precedent objects that, appearing in well-defined locations and transforming the territory around them, significantly improve the urban system as a whole." This method was tested in Barcelona and is the best fit for Russia. One of the rare social projects that can become such a precedent is a typical boarding house for the elderly, developed by AMD Architects, which is to be implemented in 2014 in the suburbs of St. Petersburg. The project offers a completely new quality of environment and psychology of perception of space, corresponding to a new generation of elderly people.
Arkhnadzor publishes a collective appeal: experts call on the Minister of Culture to stop the construction of a museum complex on the Solovetsky Islands. They fear that the new building "will inevitably enter into an inappropriate visual rivalry with the monastery, distort the historical panoramas of the architectural ensemble and the Holy Lake." And the ERA group prepared an appeal to the 38th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, in which it expressed concern about the growing threat to the historical center of the city.
And finally: information appeared on Facebook that the Higher School of Urban Studies at the Higher School of Economics is preparing to launch the international peer-reviewed quarterly journal Urban Studies in Russia. At the moment, its first issue is being prepared.
