- Nikita Igorevich, my congratulations, your work seems to be the first Russian projects to be included in the lists of winners in the WAF nominations. What are your impressions of how it went?
Good impressions, we were very warmly received. There is a lot going on at the same time, people are walking around with programs, noting where to go, because they have to choose between a lecture by, say, Jenks or Cook, and one of ten or twelve project presentations. So, in the end, people began to take an interest in us, ten people came to the first show of Kaliningrad, then fifty to sixty people came to the Hermitage, and when we showed the school, the hall, one of the small halls, was full, and it can accommodate about a hundred people. At our last show in the big hall there were probably eight hundred people.
It was not me who spoke, the young architects of the bureau who participated in the design spoke, they know English very well. I think we would have passed last year if I knew English well, but I know French well, and the British started WAF, French is of little use there. Everything is in English, questions, answers, a quick presenter, a very capacious, temporal examination, you need to be ready for this. Many were interrupted immediately after 20 minutes, but, as I say, we were received with interest, we spoke in Kaliningrad for more than 25 minutes, we were asked a lot of questions.
Well, in addition, last year we presented the Olympic Station, so politics prevented us, it was autumn, the Olympics, Crimea, in the midst of all this.
- As it seemed to you, with
master plan for Kaliningrad you are far ahead of the nominees?
It was immediately clear that we were winning with Kaliningrad, the project was adopted almost with a bang. We were immediately understood, they saw our approach: not re-creation and not new, but partly old, on it the new, this is all one with the other, interpenetrates; The jury was also impressed by the variety of city types that we proposed as part of the master plan. Although I don’t know - if not for Altstadt, we would have taken WAF for general planning or not.
The competitors were strong enough: there was a master plan for the Battersea Power Station in London by the bureau of Raphael Vignoli - a loud project, they were confident of victory, since the competition, frankly speaking, is English, the British form a vector there and pull their own, of course, for them it's closer. And within the framework of the questions, they began to catch us. Perhaps this is a technique that was unexpected for us.
What is happening with your master plan for Kaliningrad now?
There, local architects made a sketch, a sublimate between our proposal and the French project Devillers et Associés, which took second place. According to Altstadt, it retains some of our main moments, in other areas the project is closer to the French master plan, everything is divided into squares for housing. There was a second competition for the castle, we seem to go out there for some kind of work. But everything is frozen because there is not enough money. The Kaliningrad authorities counted on federal subsidies, they do not have their own funds: the crisis is affecting the city's economy associated with exports and imports.
The Boris Eifman Dance Academy won in the nomination of schools, how was it received at the presentation?
We were not as sure as with the master plan, but the school passed objectively in terms of the totality of its qualities. In addition, we presented it correctly, with a short film that allowed us to see how everything works; approached quite seriously. Judging by how everyone woke up, got interested, we realized that we could win and were even almost sure. Meanwhile, the nomination was the Burntwood Academy, which won this year the Stirling Prize.
And how did you show the jury of the Academy of Dance awards?
We talked about the space of a vertical courtyard. In ordinary schools there is a courtyard where children run out for recess. And here is our vertical courtyard - a space for dance, relaxation, everything. It's like a soup with a lot of meat. The space is very saturated, there are many objects "suspended", primarily ballet halls. And the children are running there … We made a film and showed that there is a vertical connection between everyone and everyone, it works even more than horizontally.
And second, an atmosphere of detachment reigns in the ballet halls. The halls are a theater of shadows; an absolutely isolated space joins with a completely open vertical courtyard-cloister. And you pass through the vestibule from one space to another, like through some kind of gateway. We specifically tried to highlight this feature of the building in our presentation at the WAF.
In general, the level of the premium is very high. And the level of projects, and the grand jury, and the small jury. Although in the nomination "Culture" there was some kind of strange jury …
- On cultural objects where you showed
reconstruction of the General Staff for a new wing of the Hermitage?
I believe that the Hermitage was the strongest object in its nomination, it could have competed for the grand prix, but, firstly, it is not quite a festival project - too serious for a festival and too large and complex. And, secondly, we were a little unlucky with the jury - there were practically no architects there, there was the editor-in-chief of Architectural Review; someone got sick, there was a replacement. Either they didn’t understand us very well, or we didn’t tell us well. In the nomination of cultural institutions, the competition was perhaps the weakest. The winning project - the Soma City “home for all” hall, was carried out at the expense of social aspects, sympathy for those who lost their homes, that is, not entirely in the architectural part.
- You agree with the decision of the jury that awarded the Grand Prix
residential complex Interlace built OMA in Singapore? Do you like this project?
- In the "Construction" section, he was a clear leader for many reasons. The project is interesting, there is space, I would even say that it reloads the perception of space. It is important that this is a return to the origins, to horizontal skyscrapers, to some kind of constructivist foundations - they are clearly visible there. And in general he is very curious, for example, all these corner joints do not give head-on views. This is not really "firewood" - remember, the project was like that, "firewood" was called it, there are blocks in a rectangular system? In a word, there are no questions about the Grand Prix, this is a symbolic neo-constructivist thing, it absolutely rightly received its award.
In addition, Interlace is a Singapore building, and WAF has been held in Singapore for the last year. Now they will move back to Europe, to Berlin. Then they will go somewhere else, to America, probably. So the jury's decision was easy to predict, both for the quality of the complex and for political reasons. You understand that there is a lot of politics in all such awards. But today WAF is the main creative competition of this kind in the world, not real estate-development and not the kind where everything is decided. There is another similar competition in Europe - the Mies van der Rohe Prize, it is built exactly according to the WAF scheme, there are nuances, but in general it is very similar: also nominees, buildings, projects … But only EU countries can participate there, so for us this the prize is closed. This year at WAF, by the way, there were winners of the Mies Prize and the Stirling Prize, there was a very strong line-up of participants.
- AND
Vancouver House BIG, which was named "The best project of the future"?
- I think BIG won the super prize not so much due to architecture - the project is somewhat controversial - but because of the professionalism of presentation. Our master plan for Kaliningrad, I must say, was one of the contenders for the grand prix in the category of "projects", we went second or third … According to the ideas laid down in the project, we may have been stronger, but we didn’t hold out with the submission, it should be more imaginative. We took old pictures, but we need to prepare specially for WAF. BIG won due to the absolute mastery of the presentation of the material, here they are the undoubted leaders, they turn the presentation into a theatrical performance.
What is their skill?
Each element of the project was shown there as a solution to some global global problem. All this with the appropriate video sequence. Before going to Singapore, I watched Hamlet in Moscow - and so, perhaps, Mironov will be weaker than the BIG artists. At BIG, all design is done through presentations, for them design is preparation of a presentation.
In terms of serving, we are still in a different league, although not that we are completely behind, we are already approaching.
What's the most interesting on WAF? Presentations, communication or exhibition?
The exhibition is interesting. This is such an expanded magazine, sheets with projects are hung like linen, and everyone walks between them. Wednesday is interesting, because there are ten to twelve performances in parallel. You choose something that interests you and run from hall to hall.
Have you been participating in international awards for a long time?
At WAF for the second year. Last year it didn't work out, I swore to mine that next time we would win. And this year, all three objects that we presented were shortlisted, and two upstairs. I even exceeded my commitments.
How would you define the criteria for victory now, if you analyze your experience? It has already been said about the theatrical presentation, but what else?
We need several very serious ideas in the mainstream of world searches, to connect with the world process and books. Reveal not in words, but in images. But ideas should be original, unexpected, you should surprise people with something, so that they get distracted, pay attention to you. By definition, all provincialism is completely excluded.
What does such participation in international awards give you?
There are no customers, there are critics. I don't see a direct way out for money here. I do not receive many orders thanks to premiums, although entering foreign markets in this way can happen, for example, I started working in Astana.
Professional growth, of course. And comparing what you do with the work of your colleagues, those who deserve respect. All 200-250 projects at WAF were very decent, which is what I like. In our contests, I often argue who will win, and mind you, I have never made a mistake, the main thing is to know the composition of the jury. And here it's nice that you don't know who will win.
