Press / Melnikov House
Journalists continue their attempts to understand the scandal that erupted around the Melnikov house last week, and to understand who is right and who is wrong.
Afisha-Gorod lists the characters and the background to the conflict, describes the current situation and the recent incident with the infiltration of the Museum of Architecture representatives into the building, and also quotes from a press conference that took place in this museum on 15 August. According to the author, these excerpts "resemble either Ryazanov's film Garage or Sorokin's texts." Nikolay Vasiliev, the head of the Russian branch of the Docomomo organization, gave his comments.
The Village asked representatives of both sides to explain their position, the same is done by Nezavisimaya Gazeta, and Radio Liberty publishes an entire interview with Elena Melnikova. But the picture hardly becomes clearer from all this.
Konstantin Mikhailov in Gazeta.ru gives an answer to the question why even cultural figures cannot come to an agreement among themselves. In his opinion, “when the keepers of culture communicate with each other through the mediation of private security companies, this means only one thing: that they, the keepers, do not have any higher cultural authority, a kind of council of elders, to which they could turn when faced with a difficult problem to solve..
Until there is such an instance, one can be guided by the authoritative opinion of Grigory Revzin, who has been covering the conflict since the appearance of the will. On his Facebook page, he explains: "Catherine must approve the concept of the museum, after which the will will come into force, before that there is no Melnikov museum, and there is no director, and the attack on the house is a criminal act." The Melnikov House is a private property voluntarily donated to the state under certain conditions - regarding the status, type, method of visiting, composition and storage of the exposition. "These conditions may be strange, impossible, and then this is a reason not to take the gift or try to find a compromise."
Another problematic monument in Moscow, the Shukhov Tower, is doing a little better now. Izvestia reports that the Moscow City Heritage "developed the object of the tower's protection" and took it under its wing. The location of the tower, volumetric-spatial composition, constructive solution, material and construction are subject to protection. According to the Ministry of Culture, due to the peculiarities of the legislation, the restoration project can be developed exclusively by domestic specialists; an international competition is currently impossible.
Sergei Choban on regulations and modern architecture
Architect Sergei Choban spoke in detail with the ART1 correspondent about the problems of construction in the historical center, the need for a design code and the importance of competent adaptation of monuments.
In an interview, he talks about the fact that now the architecture of St. Petersburg is "torn apart" by several trends: poor quality of construction, the desire of architects to be modern, as well as "the absence of a language that would have the same richness of ornament, decor, relief, as it was in historical buildings ". In addition, there are pain points that city defenders pay special attention to: the height of the building, the ratio of the window to the pier, and the material. As a result, two typical approaches arise: stylization or an attempt to show oneself.
Sergei Tchoban sees a way out in the development of design codes or regulations: it is the rigid framework that will make it possible to create interesting objects. “It is important to build understandable conditions for the game, which would lead to the fact that everyone knows which borders cannot be crossed,” and this could work in new districts of St. Petersburg as well. The Moscow Archives' Portal also writes about the search for a design code.
An essential part of the interview is devoted to the problem of choosing a modern function for architectural monuments.
Regions news
The site "Archinovosti" tells about the prospects for sustainable development of Vladivostok on the examples of term papers and theses of students of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the FEFU, who are trying to respond to the numerous challenges of the city - the tightness of its borders, the dominance of cars, the preservation of the ecological balance and rich natural resources. The VladNews portal writes about the projects that were discussed at the last town planning council of the city.
Delovoy Kvartal reports that the administration of Yekaterinburg for the current year issued a permit for the construction of 19 high-rise residential buildings, which continues the trend of turning the capital of the Urals into a city of skyscrapers. Since 2005, 60 buildings with a height of 75 m and more have been commissioned here.
Kazan received a certificate of inclusion of the Bulgarian Historical and Archaeological Complex in the UNESCO World Heritage List, as reported by Interfax. It became the 1002nd item on this registry.
Theory
The UrbanUrban portal explains why you shouldn't hate panel houses, tries to dispel the prejudices associated with them and even find reasons to love them.
Probably, the usual panel building will soon become a thing of the past and will indeed become the subject of nostalgia. "Afisha-Gorod" lists the requirements that have been developed in Moskomarkhitektura for new houses. Various materials and colors will be used for the development of residential areas in the capital, buildings will be of different heights, etc.
General Director of the National Agency for Sustainable Development Svetlana Duving told the GreenEvolution portal that over the next 5-10 years, the bulk of the requirements for "green" construction in Russia will become the norm. This will require a large information campaign and an adequate regulatory framework. The most interesting "green" project in Russia, Duving calls the "House of Hope" in the Tula region, which could demonstrate the availability of innovative technologies in the social sector, but was never implemented.
Expert Online provides 8 principles of public space formation from New York landscape architect Jerry van Eyck (bureau! Melk): attention to context, communication with citizens, programming and planning, sustainability, balance of rational and irrational, organization flows, execution, mobilization and coordination.
Blogs
Almost a thousand comments were collected by Alexander Belenky's post about the "ghost towns" of Sochi: Rosa Khutor and Gorki. The photographs show that there are practically no people on the streets, cars do not drive on the ideal asphalt, tourists do not dine in street restaurants. According to the author, "the place is lifeless, it does not work even for five percent of the facilities that have been built."
The rebuttal was not slow to appear: the author of the blog Fun Sochi paints a completely different picture and almost complains about the queues.
Ilya Varlamov published three projects to change the "landscape" of the electoral district of Maxim Katz: two concern the reconstruction of courtyards (on Narodnogo Opolcheniya street, 4, from the architectural bureau "Megabudka" and on Berzarina street, 21, from the architectural bureau "Narodny architect"), one - a whole microdistrict (local planners company).
Also, the blogger could not help but react to the situation with the Melnikov House. His post contains a selection of interesting photographs, the text of the will of Viktor Melnikov, the positions of the parties and many comments.
Arkady Gershman talks about how the development of the territory can affect the development of the city. An example is the French Le-Plessis-Robinson, which for a long time was built up with typical microdistricts. In 1989, the government changed, and with it - the building. The old panel houses gradually began to be demolished and in their place - to erect housing according to individual projects. As a result, unemployment in the city has dropped three times, private business has developed, real estate prices have reached Parisian levels, crime has decreased, and the city's renovation project has been recognized as the most successful in Europe. One of the commentators shared a link to a film about the Prut-Aygo area.
In the blog of the architect Sergey Oreshkin, you can see an interesting project for the renovation of the Voronezh Sea embankments, which was developed by the winning Polish bureau BUDCUD, as well as a small selection of architectural graphics from the masters: Bernard Chumi, Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry.
Finally - a photo of the Hilton Garden Inn Moscow New Riga hotel, which amused the readers of Yaroslav Kovalchuk's Facebook page a lot.
