Such a venue, as well as the appearance of a solid sponsor, forced the organizers to take a stricter approach to the formation of the festival program. Although, of course, experience also helped: former students work in architectural firms on serious projects, and the traditional May parties are "reformatted" along with them. This time, as if by order of "gardeners", the Nizhny Novgorod cultural foundation FUTURO held a grant competition for festival projects - young architects became winners along with three other organizers of city holidays. It is also important that O'gorod in the Garden is being held for the second time.
Garden
One would like to sing about the Alexander Garden in Nizhny Novgorod, and not say in words from a reference book. Only the song turns out to be short: a cascade of green terraces faces the Volga and the endless sky. In Soviet times, people came here to the shell stage: symphony concerts were performed here in the summer. Nowadays, a variety of activities take place in the Garden: from wedding photo shoots to games and competitions, but the view of the recreation area (if you do not revel in the distance) is dull and neglected. Not so long ago, city rights activists defended the territory from entrepreneurial initiative: they began to cut down blue spruces for the construction of a restaurant.
Of course, they are trying on the Garden even now, but not a single investor has openly announced their intention to breathe new life into the recreation area. Only the mayor of Nizhny Novgorod, whose wife - the main developer of the city - held a competition to revive the very "shell", however, on the way the scene turned into something else, which received a lot of interpretations in the comments on the Internet. By the way, the competition itself was networked: three sketches of unknown authors were put up, the people voted. Now it is considered the choice of Nizhny Novgorod residents …
One might not even remember this, but O'gorod is the only example of a civilized professional attitude to a place significant for the city today.
Indeed, if it is expensive and significant, you cannot just quietly “weaken” something at dumping and pass it off as a generally accepted decision. Before building, the O'gorod festival holds a competition, experts examine the work and choose what is appropriate. The procedure is obvious, but for our conditions it is ideal, like any honestly organized competition. Therefore, thanks to the festival for the clearly held competition.
The choice of materials can also be called honest in relation to the Garden: all objects are easy to disassemble and dispose of. Moreover, the question of their further operation and maintenance is beyond the scope of the festival. Architects simply propose, without insisting on anything: they invite you to watch, play, master and accept, if you like. The theme of this year was observation decks, and, it seems, viewpoints. You can search for new ones endlessly, making pleasant discoveries. Trying on for the perfect fit.
So the Garden is quite recognizable: the same paths, alley, glades, slopes, turns. I just cheered up during the festival. Compared to last year's compaction by the objects of the children's square, it seems that the festival managed to overcome the desire to hold an exhibition of environmental design for the sake of working with space. At least at the level of the general concept.
Garden
The Aleksandrovsky Garden found its own sign: at the end of the shady alley, the "gardeners" installed a three-dimensional letter "A" made of plywood, as if eaten by beetles. Holes and slots are needed for the liana: plants are planted at the foot of the letter-sculpture. This simple decision does not seem formal, on the contrary, it evokes associations with summer reading in the garden, or the desire to examine the bark of a tree - closely and closely. Another sign, inherited by the Garden from the festival, stands against the background of the Kremlin tower. Such ambitious signs that "embed" a settlement into a network of global cities are not uncommon, but different coordinates are given here: mountains, straits, rivers, volcanoes, reserves, capes. North, south, west, east, and up - look at 100 kilometers - the Karman line - the border between aviation and astronautics. Between these signs, the following scenario is built: entered the garden - went out into the Universe. From the outside it’s funny, but for Nizhny Novgorod it’s the truth: here on excursions they say that space is visible from the Slope. Fortunately, the pointer to the wonders of the universe is adjacent to the "Hammocks", similar to a simulator for pilots. Before you feel almost weightless, you need to crawl along the grid, find a balance point where you can freeze.
You can continue to work with these signs: in general, on their basis, let's say, come up with a theme for next year (if the Garden is not spoiled by some crazy construction). In the meantime, they are already influencing the imagination, significantly expanding the boundaries of the park.
For contemplation of the surrounding landscapes, projects of teams from Samara and Penza were selected. Despite the well-known, replicated technique with a frame through which they look at some landmark in different cities of the world, a fragment of the "balcony block" stands in the Garden as if it were native. From the outside it looks like an ingenuous portal, you pass - there is a landscaped terrace. It's almost an attraction: to go to the site without a fence. But you can sit down right away, and some kind of flower bed with a pebble completely grounds the fears. The result is a game with the appropriation of space: you go out, again, into the sky, but you remain in the "nest" arranged for you. And the Penza yellow glasses turned out to be the most popular object - as a high-quality advertising structure. Firstly, you can sit and even lie down, and secondly, take pictures.
However, there was a good choice for selfies at the festival. It is a pity that only during the holiday, the works of the Nizhny Novgorod Architectural and Art Studio were placed under the fir trees: the houses hung from the branches, like little men in Magritte's paintings. But the Penza "Flower in a cube" remained. As planned, the planes with the image were supposed to rotate, but the mechanics required engineering precision and, of course, metal. The handle fell off, probably at the first disappointed viewer, but for photographers the object has not lost its appeal.
In several projects it was possible to trace how the scale of the perception of the Garden changes. An arched tunnel made of shovel cuttings appeared in the large alley. There are nests for babies in the trees. Even the "Amphitheater" of the Samara team "KPSS" is more like a pedestal for friends: here you can perform with speeches, songs, sit down, lie down, rearrange the structural elements at your discretion. The constant partner-participant of the festival, the Archilend company, showed how to equip a flower bed in the shade, and interior designers held a master class using easels.
The festival
From year to year, the participants of the festival do not have time to hand over the objects on time. Not surprisingly, they do not always have the necessary materials, tools and conditions. They do everything on enthusiasm, this year - fortunately, not naked. But they do not have strong teams capable of putting together everything for the arrival of guests. Guests come and grumble.
And this time there were complaints: they complained about the get-together, the degree of readiness of the objects, the lack of fun entertainment and something else. First of all, one should be offended by the weather: she scared away the festival concerts under the canopy of lindens.
Here, indeed, the question inevitably arises: where are the boundaries of this holiday? For the participants, it took place: the authors of the projects came, worked together, had fun, collapsed from fatigue. The audience came to the Garden, listened to the masters, drank cocktails, bought good, correct food, and, of course, could not evaluate all the organizers' plans from 1 pm to 8 pm. Even in Nikolo-Lenivets it is impossible to see everything in a day, especially on a festival day. Does an architecture festival need a crowd of people thirsty for entertainment, like in an amusement park? Can a holiday that is intimate in its capabilities be oriented towards monsters like Archstoyanie? In general, how to promote and explain what an architectural festival is?
There is no definite answer - it all depends on the concept. It needs to be thought over and polished - so much so that potential participants would really like to get to this city and see what is nowhere else, and to participate in something fascinating and magical. To do this, the city must understand that a good initiative should not be exploited, but fully supported - honestly.
Here's what its organizers think about the results of O'gorod -2015:
Anya Lipman:
“We have coped with the main task - it has become more pleasant to walk in the Garden.”
Kirill Brosalin:
“I am glad that from what was planned, we were able to show the integration of architectural solutions into the existing natural environment using the example of some objects, to implement“local”and interactive objects.”
Daria Shorina:
“This year we tried to scale the festival and reach a new quality level of both the facilities and the program, in which, in addition to the construction of facilities and the final presentation to the guests of the festival, we planned a lot of cultural activities with a focus on the architectural design of environments of various levels and means.."
Olga Aistova:
“I hope that in the future the number of people who are not indifferent to what we are doing will only grow.”
Dmitry Sokolov:
“O'Gorod 2015 - an experiment on a site relevant for the city. Time will tell how much the city is interested in the qualitative transformation of public urban areas."
Dmitry Baranov:
“Not everything worked out, but a lot has worked out, and we have learned a thing or two during these months. I think the festival has a great future!"
