On July 8, at the residence of the Spanish Ambassador in Moscow, an award ceremony was held for the laureates of the Yakov Chernikhov Prize “Challenge of Time”. This time 108 architects from 29 countries of the world were nominated for the award, 10 finalists were traditionally selected from this number, but, unlike in previous years, there was no disagreement in choosing the winner among the jury: the fourth laureates of the award were Anton Garcia-Abril and Deborah Mesa from Ensamble Studio. Let us remind you that the award, founded by the Yakov Chernikhov Foundation in 2005, recognizes architects under the age of 44, whose work is "an innovative response to the present and at the same time a professional challenge to the future."
In the works of young architects, the second edition of the award was looking for "interdisciplinary architectural activity" (then the Japanese Junya Ishigami became the winner), in the third - "new forms of localism" (Norwegians Fantastic Norway), and this time "absolute silence" became the manifesto. The curator of the award, the venerable Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, was unable to formulate a single principle: “Once upon a time we had the feeling that we are all in one big boat sailing into a common future. Now we are disconnected, and many individual boats are chaotically floating on the open sea. Today I do not have a message that I could convey to young architects, and that would suit all of them. So you can tell your nominees that my message to them is absolute silence."
According to Evgeny Ass, who was a member of the jury, it is not surprising that his colleagues were so unanimous in their choice: Anton Garcia-Abril and Deborah Mesa are “some of the brightest representatives of their generation”, and all Ensamble Studio projects are distinguished by “a wonderful combination of the most perfect technologies with the subtlest sense of nature and human presence inside the architecture."
In addition to a check for 50 thousand euros, the laureates were awarded a diploma with the image of one of Yakov Chernikhov's compositions and a silver medal, which is an enlarged copy of his personal seal with the inscription "Research laboratory of Yakov Chernikhov's architectural forms."
It is important to note that not the buildings of Ensamble Studio, but the concept of vertical "three-dimensional" blocks - "Supraextructures", developed by them within the framework of the POPlab research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is strikingly similar to Chernikhov's compositions. "Supraextructures" is a way to stop the expansive development of cities, which implies the constant conquest of new land; instead, it is proposed to develop the city upward. The traditional structure of a skyscraper - the core and the shell - is transformed into many cores connected by huge steel beams up to 100 meters long. And already on these beams houses are being built, roads are laid and gardens are laid out: a multi-level metropolis is obtained. If you imagine the space of such quarters, it’s as if you find yourself inside the graphic industrial and architectural fantasies of Yakov Chernikhov: a tram line runs under your feet, cyclists rush overhead, to the left and right are the verticals of load-bearing structures. Anton Garcia-Abril, at a lecture at the Strelka Institute, says that over time these fantasies will begin to come true, and we will see “three-dimensional” neighborhoods even in Moscow.
By the end of the lecture, Abril's voice sits down very much: a low, hoarse timbre, play of shadows on large facial features, active gestures, every word is like a blow - his provocative answers to listeners' questions in such a visual-acoustic package are perceived as prophecies. The audience wonders how people will live in a three-dimensional grid without feeling the sky above their heads - he replies that we will feel the sky not only above us, but also around us. The audience asks how such extravagant ideas are competitive today - he ironically notes that they have no competitors. The audience does not believe that these concepts are economically justified - he counters that concrete is very cheap (keeping silent about the cost of metal and vertical communications) and that practical implementation is just a matter of time and … a developer who "wants to change the urban paradigm forever."
“Free the land,” says Anton Garcia-Abril. At first it seems that this is an appeal to skyscrapers and multi-level interchanges, but in fact it is the leitmotif of almost all Ensamble Studio projects. Liberation occurs not only due to the transfer of life to the vertical, but also due to the fact that the earth itself becomes a part of architecture, and architecture - a part of the earth.
The already very famous project of the micro-house The Truffle is a huge boulder that merges with the deserted rocky coast of the Costa da Morte - an earthen mushroom that grew out of earth and concrete. The formwork for its inner space was 50 cubes of hay, which were devoured by Paulina's calf during the year, forming a void inside the stone. So a house appeared on the Atlantic coast, and the coast did not even notice it.
García Abril and Mesa play with gravity in the Hemeroscopium and Martemar residences: the main functions are placed on huge beams and consoles, while the land remains free.
The Teatro Cervantes in Mexico City is entirely underground, and its entrance area is a large open space under a canopy, touching the ground with only four pillars.
The project of a cultural center in Montana in a fantastic uninhabited lunar landscape has not yet been completed: architecture here interprets its surroundings, its task is not only not to look like a building, but also not to feel like a building. It only frames the yellow rocky quarries, which become the floors and walls of concert halls, it only corrects acoustics and strengthens the cliffs, and the triangular shape of the building follows the line of the coast.
The winners of the fourth “Challenge of Time” prize believe that the architecture should be exactly the same - so that the land remains free for the organization of parks, and the Ensamble Studio boat sails towards a vertical future. Joining others to this course, as Anton Garcia-Abril is sure, is inevitable: it's just a matter of time.
