Receiving two ArchiWOOD prizes in a row for the house in Dukhanino - the grand prix and the first place in the category "Wood in decoration", Alexey Rosenberg said that in modern Russian wooden architecture there is such a "shed" theme, and that in his project he tried to then finally survive and close it. Art critic and historian Larisa Kopylova, who presented both prizes on behalf of the jury, said on the contrary - that the house, and indeed the houses presented this year in the wooden architecture prize shortlist, are so good that it would be nice to launch them into a series and make it typical. It would seem a contradiction, although not quite: if the topic is exhausted, then perhaps the result, a kind of peak of the topic, could really be bronze and become exemplary.
However, I don’t think it’s worth doing. Typical projects are good for overcoming chaotic customer desires, inability of designers and high costs - but they get bored terribly quickly - and tend to discredit a recently favorite topic. In addition, the design process tends to be typified on its own, repeating successful solutions, especially those awarded with awards, and in such repetition, unlike standardization, there is still room for development. In addition, exemplary projects are different: some are imposed by the sovereign to bring individualism to order, others offer a market for cheaper and more profit. There are a lot of nuances between these poles, but now it is known that such log houses are in demand on the market, and the refined "shed" topic is not very much in demand, it requires a customer without prejudice. However, more than one typical project has already appeared on the market from those noted, in particular, by ArchiWOOD - for example,
DublDom Ivan Ovchinnikov.
Alexey Rosenberg, by the way, received three prizes for "Wood in decoration" - two already named, and one more, for "House-depot" in the Tver region, continuing the same theme, so the nomination looks very harmonious. He made both houses in collaboration with Pyotr Kostelov, whose house with ornaments was seriously claimed in the past, in 2014, for the main prize for a country house. The depot house and the house in Dukhanino are noticeably similar, both compare the silvery texture of the board, of different shades, with slightly rusty, and not frankly oxidized, metal, and both fit perfectly into the uncut Russian fields, the most organic structure of which, in our times, is a half-abandoned state farm farm. The shade of kin-dza-dzy, dear to the hearts of critics and connoisseurs, makes these houses uniquely beautiful, but, one must think, alienates them from standard lines for an indefinite period. Although who knows.
Another event of the year was - as everyone unanimously admitted, the long-awaited - victory of the guru of wooden architecture Nikolai Belousov in the Country House nomination. Belousov long ago, about fifteen years ago, became interested in wooden architecture, working on the "Moscow House of Santa Claus" in the bureau of Sergei Kiselev, and since then has become a recognized guru and founded, in particular,
project "Oblo", whose production is based near the city of Galich, Kostroma region. His portfolio includes bigger and smaller houses, Nikolai Belousov advises young architects who are fond of wood; at home Belousov regularly - thirteen times, the press release specifies, - were shortlisted for the award, but have never received the main prizes. The ArchiWOOD jury is capricious and changeable, like almost any meeting of independent experts - and Nikolai Malinin, here we must give him his due, carefully supports the democratic traditions of the project, which, in fact, makes it respected and noticeable among the many Russian awards.
And meanwhile, respect for the opinion of experts, who were not only invited, but also listened, and decided everything by an honest vote, leads to not always expected decisions and may surprise even the organizers, who, again to their honor, skillfully hide their sadness if necessary. … But already last year, when Belousov applied for a prize with a small palace in the spirit of a very charming estate "near Moscow", romantic and literary and reminiscent of the restored Mikhailovskoye, it became noticeable that many were worried. This year from the stage sounded: "justice has been restored", the main result, the long-awaited victory - the prize for the country house was received by the house of Nikolai Belousov with the beautiful name "Trap for the sun" - more intimate than the previous "estate", made up of unpainted and unfinished to a square section logs, but with very large windows - at night, when the windows are shining, it seems that the sun is caught and somehow works from the inside like a large firefly. A subtle play on the verge of a hut and a modern villa does not proclaim any stylistic direction, except perhaps reconciliation and emotional comprehension of both. The house resembles a lot, but it is not like anything - a correct and good quality.
Although this year the jury decided to award the Grand Prix for the first time, all worthy country houses from the short list, nine in number - selected from more than twenty applicants - were not awarded. But the third house, marked in the main nomination by the organizer of the award, Rossa Rakené SPb, the exclusive distributor of Honka in Russia, strictly speaking, could also claim the highest award. And according to the organizers, he was close to her. House in Kratovo Evgeniya Assa develops another popular theme of wooden construction: not a barn, not a hut, not a villa, but a summer residence. The main plot is pergola-lattice terraces, an unglazed paraphrase of the well-known verandas, with which Soviet people tried to expand the area of typical houses of the early seventies. By the way, the house elegantly, albeit on a slightly larger scale, repeats the proportions of those Soviet - it seems to me, exactly Soviet, not Chekhov's time, houses - built according to mandatory projects. In the interpretation of the nostalgic prototype, however, there is a play with form that does not get bored: a house painted with dark paint seems to be strung on a lattice structure, like on a skewer.
The prize of the popular vote was awarded to the house-workshop, which Denis Taran built, as they say in the discussion on the site, with his own hands for himself. The discussion, which often happens on the Internet, came across arguments about vote cheating, which, I must say, not everyone believed. However, the project falls out of the general row of more expensive houses, which makes it look really popular.
Not only the house of Alexei Rosenberg, but also several other projects received from ArchiWOODa two prizes each: the white building of the golf club of the Tammvis Antonio Miche bureau, freely located in the fields, is a completely European, light structure, whose gallery is supported by beams of wooden supports borrowed, I suppose, at the metal hi-tech.
The coincidence did not escape the nomination "Interior", where the children's room of the RueTemple bureau of Alexander Kudimov and Daria Butakhina won twice, and the architects who took the stage with their own little child in their arms had to explain that they had designed this particular room not for their own child. - all together it turned out very touching, the child became interested in lighting devices and did not want to leave the stage. The room looks like a smaller version of a studio apartment with a bed on the loft balcony: half of its space is light and free, there you can jump as much as you please, and the second is partitioned off into a bed and a house where a staircase leads. The prize was presented by the co-author of the jury member Martin Rainisch, Martin Claude - an exhibition where you can see the work of both Czech architects, now
opened in the Moscow gallery VKHUTEMAS.
The jury in the Small Object nomination chose the bathhouse in Klyushnikovo, an intricate structure reminiscent of the wooden pavilions of Konstantin Melnikov and the metal pavilions of Alexander Asadov of the late nineties. Somewhat excessive plastic made it, however, an object of attention, although it is cold to look at such a bath from the outside - it seems that the house is heavily blown by the wind and in this sense it is an anti-bath, something opposite to traditional strong huts.
ArchiWOOD approached the history of wooden architecture this time with special grace. First of all, Nikolai Malinin abundantly provided the ceremony with remarkably lyrical and versatile excursions - just right to write a book, - which included a lot: from
Viktor Alexandrovich Hartmann to shots from Burnt by the Sun. The curator skillfully weaved the message into the fabric of the cognitive narrative that the pseudo-copies of the palace of Alexei Mikhailovich in Kolomenskoye, restored on the personal initiative of Yuri Mikhailovich Luzhkov in 2010, will never be at the prize. In the spirit of this statement, the expert council regularly arranges tacit obstruction of teremkas, huts and dumpy bathhouses.
Last year, in an effort to restore balance and show something honest and historical, ArchiWOOD added restoration to the list of nominations; but a year ago the jury considered projects in five years (they awarded the Church of St. George in Kolomenskoye), and in this one year, and the material "did not come together": only one monument was included in the shortlist - a carriage shed in the museum "Bryanchaninovs' Estate" not to give an award without competition, he was removed from the distance, promising to consider it next year.
So the Veps barn had to be responsible for the history - a conscientious historical reconstruction carried out by the Ethnoarkhitektura bureau for the ethnographic museum in the village of Sheltozero without unnecessary nails using traditional technology. The description explains that a barn is not an easy thing and not only an economic one: it was like a treasure chest or, say, a garage with limousines, was a way to demonstrate the well-being of the family, so it was put in plain sight. Or maybe it was put in full view in order to better look after the good - who knows. But this barn is really important. The fact is that the Vepsians, who were called Chudyu before the revolution, are now an endangered people, there are less than seven thousand of them. In 1994, to the south-west of Lake Onega, as part of Karelia, a national volost of Vepsians was organized with the capital in the village of Sheltozero - the same one where the museum, in which the barn is. And in 2005, the volost was liquidated, either not wanting to additionally finance the national identity, or for simplification, or for some other reason. But, as we can see, the museum in the former capital is developing and a charming farm building, restored according to the models of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, seems to be the correct manifestation of nationalism - not boasting, but cultural and research. In addition to the popular vote in the Small Object nomination, the jury awarded this uncharacteristic barn with a special prize.
An unexpected revival was added to the historical excursions by Grigory Revzin, who took the stage to present the prize of the popular vote for "Subject Design" to the Archpole Udderhealth table, simply a table with an udder, in the form of which a box for storing sweets hanging below the table top is decorated. Probably, very few people could develop the topic like that - and Grigory Revzin is not only a well-known architectural critic and political observer, but also a historian, and he remembered the Church of Nikolai Posadsky in Kolomna, which before the restorers restored its "hill of kokoshniks", the great historian of Russian architecture Nikolai Ivanovich Brunov nicknamed "the udder", which later turned into a common story of the Department of History of Art: everyone who came to the church was told it. Now art history has quite accidentally reached the funny design table.
The jury took the object design more seriously and awarded the snake lamp from Oikimus design.
In the Urban Environment Design nomination, the jury considered the best bridge built in record time over the skating rink at VDNKh last winter - everyone who was at the skating rink probably saw it: a fairly large-scale structure made of white vertical lattice connected the two sides of the main alley, at night reminding, according to the author's intention, the materialized northern lights. Since Nikolai Malinin is a curator very attentive to details, inclined to parallels and interpretations, the prize was presented by jury member Oleg Shapiro, co-founder of the Wowhaus bureau and co-author of the design of the ice rink in Gorky Park with a similar purpose, only earlier and less monumental.
Another very famous project - "Lazy Ziggurat" from Nikola-Lenivets, built by Vladimir Kuzmin and Nikolai Kaloshin in the summer of 2014, was awarded by the jury in the "Art Object" nomination. A leaky transparent lattice-frame with a silhouette and name reminds of a ziggurat made of hay by Nikolai Polissky, which appeared in the fields on the Ugra River a long time ago, fourteen years ago, and if the stepped haystack of Polissky opened the theme of giant structures, then Kuzmin's log house closes it - the organizers are still in the past year they announced that it will be the last large building of "Archstoyanie". The log ziggurat was built from rejected forest affected by a bark beetle, which the authors constantly emphasize: the construction served to clear the forest and did not reduce useful reserves. The bark beetle has affected many trees in the Kaluga region, so the ziggurat has become a monument to them and a reminder of the problem.
Internet voting for art objects chose Tabloid - the most notable building of last year's O'gorod festival in Nizhny Novgorod: a plywood house, rotating colored circles on the walls of which allow simple inscriptions and images to be added - a nostalgic non-electrified version of an interactive media screen …
The hero of another city of festivals of wooden structures - Vologda - was noted by the stop "Drama Theater", designed by the participating-a method, that is, active co-authorship with interested residents. "Days of Architecture" in Vologda continues, - said organizer Konstantin Gudkov, specially summoned to the stage, and specified that this year the festival will have several sessions, in July, August and September.
The Russian Empire was a wooden country. Then the tree was partially banned for fire safety reasons: it is known that the master of cardboard pavilions, Shigeru Ban, was forced to make the frame of the entire structure in Gorky Park concrete and metal precisely because of building codes. On the other hand, timber construction seems to have become even more expensive than similar brick construction. The wooden country has become concrete, and now, in areas two or three hundred kilometers away from Moscow, we can observe that the concrete and metal of the seventies rot just as successfully as the wooden houses of the nineteenth century. The Scandinavian countries and England allow themselves to build multi-storey wooden houses, in our country this is still completely impossible. Although once in Karelia I was completely struck by three-storey wooden houses with apartments without amenities - this, of course, is a completely different story, not close to modern Scandinavian high-rise buildings, bright and cozy. In Russia, while wooden architecture is developing, as it were, reluctantly, in places straying into leavened patriotism, but through the efforts of Nikolai Belousov, Totan Kuzembaev, Roman Leonidov, Ivan Ovchinnikov, architects who have devoted themselves to creating both typical and unique wooden houses, and by the efforts of companies, for example such as the sponsor of the Honka Prize is still evolving. It is unlikely that she will soon move to the area of a multi-storey, and this is probably not necessary - the idea of your own house is much more attractive.
Nikolai Malinin turned the ArchiWOOD prize into a serious study with a tinge of messianism and was even able to look at the topic from, let's say, the “correct” perspective - without the “cabbage soup in the beard”, but that way progressively, and even with the pathos of searching for the pure, the best, the good: namely therefore "there will be no palace."In the field of any art, no matter how many despise this word, fashion is changing; it is changing in the world and in the country, and somewhere we borrow current trends - stability, urbanism, and in some things Moscow, one must think, follows its own beautiful impulses. So in the late eighties they loved the graphics of "wallets", in the nineties they were interested in interiors from the "correct architects", in the two thousandth these architects entered the "box" area, and later the peak of curiosity was transferred to contests and parks. Now a certain silence has come, everything has resolved, the interest is not eternal. So, ArchiWOOD, it seems, manages to turn "good wooden" architecture into an area of interest akin to the interiors of the nineties, to understand it as a sphere where something matures, to find accents and trends. If this undertaking manages to preserve the meticulousness and aloofness of the researcher, the integrity of the critic, and to traverse between art and the market - and all the tasks are not easy, but perhaps in this case, in this case, with the help of exemplary projects or without, we will see some new a turn in the history of "Russian wooden architecture".
