The material is part of a series of texts about the structures of the pavilions of the All-Russian Exhibition of 1896 discovered at Strelka in Nizhny Novgorod. We also published materials about their history and foreign experience of using such architectural monuments.
As a reminder, within the framework of the annual Nizhny Novgorod festival "International Day of Architecture", there was a walk to Strelka with Professor Tatyana Pavlovna Vinogradova, a specialist in Shukhov's structures. The focus was on the unique foundations of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the metal structures of the warehouses along the Volga. Professor Vinogradova, like most of the participants in the walk, entered these warehouses for the first time (this is not surprising: the port is a closed area, and the construction of the stadium for the 2018 World Cup has further increased the secrecy of the facility). And after the appearance and discussion of the photos of the warehouse in social networks, the architect Denis Plekhanov suggested the origin of the structures … This fact impressed many - after the press conference there were a lot of publications, stories on the central channels. Anna Bronovitskaya, a member of the Federal Scientific and Methodological Council on Heritage under the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, is sure that "these unique structures must be preserved, restored and opened to the public."
And yet this discovery cannot be called accidental. Three springs in a row - from 2011 to 2013 - organizers of the "Days of Architecture"
supervised experiments at Strelka by French professor Xavier Juillot with students of the Parisian school of La Villette and NNGASU. Then the warehouse was divided into compartments and loaded "to the ceiling", but fragments of openwork ceilings were then photographed. And since the interest has not cooled down, I wanted to understand what is hidden behind the dilapidated brick shell of the warehouses.
By the way, what were the French doing at Strelka? Arranged artistic intervention - for future architects from La Villette, such classes are provided for in the curriculum. Temporary objects were created using plastic - a wide film - and the wind. We tried to capture and fix the spirit of the place. In such a game, ideas and forms of future architecture arise. Unfortunately, our designers are not familiar with this practice, and the Nizhny Novgorod authorities could not at all understand what it is. Only at Arch Moscow, where Lift Forces by Xavier Juillot were shown at an exhibition about the search for identity, experts were surprised that such pre-design studies were possible in Nizhny Novgorod. Previously, it was possible - and since 2014 the port leadership has changed, the construction of the stadium has begun …
Nizhegorodskaya Strelka - at the confluence of the Oka and Volga, the confluence of the elements - water and wind, as Nizhny Novgorod residents like to tell, is a metaphorical and metaphysical place. But it is in no way possible to express its essence in modern language. The port is still preserved here - the heir to the Siberian piers of the Nizhny Novgorod fair. The removal of the port to another territory was planned for a long time, but the idea of the functional content was constantly changing. In the 90s of the last century, it was supposed to stretch a fair on the Strelka - two accordion buildings, reminiscent of port warehouses, are visible on the layout. There were sketches of housing - low, blocked, so as not to distract attention from the cathedral - the main dominant of the space. The only vertical reference point is in the drawings of the 30s, however, then the truncated cathedral was considered as the pedestal of the monument to Lenin.
Since 2006, the Nizhny Novgorod region has been actively participating in the MIPIM shows in Cannes, and
The Strelka-City (or City-Strelka) project was created to attract large investors: “About $ 4 billion will be invested in the construction of the City-Strelka business center in Nizhny Novgorod. The project will be implemented by OAO Development of the Nizhny Novgorod Region over the next 6 years. The complex includes a cascade of high-rise buildings of superior comfort. In addition, the project provides for the construction of a hotel, office, sports center and shopping and entertainment centers. " At the same time, developers were looking closely at this territory. Yuri Vissarionov's bureau has completed a project for the SISTEMA-GALS company. Bureau of Oleg Kharchenko - for the subsidiary company "URBIS-SPb".
There are no claims to the designers regarding the delicate attitude to the heritage: it is now officials who say that they have long known everything about the metal structures of the All-Russian exhibitions. But why did no one ever write about them, did not worry about their safety, did not include them in the TK? In Nizhny, there is already an experience of returning a monument from oblivion - reconstruction and adaptation of the Arsenal building in the Kremlin as a branch of the NCCA. The object had not been noticed for decades. And the structures of the port warehouse do not have the status of a monument, and, hidden in a kurguz shell, in a closed area they did not at all inspire either the guards or the designers. And this despite the fact that, in the opinion of the historian of architecture, head of the sector of the scientific department of the State Museum of Architecture. A. V. Shchuseva Lyudmila Vladimirovna Saigina, “the discovery of parts of the pavilion of the Moscow and then Nizhny Novgorod All-Russian exhibitions on the Strelka in Nizhny Novgorod is news that can delight a researcher”. Lyudmila Vladimirovna says: “Exhibition buildings of the 19th - early 20th centuries. practically have not survived: from all 16 All-Russian exhibitions to this day, only the Tsar's pavilion of the All-Russian art and industrial exhibition of 1882 (now the Parisienne restaurant on Leningradsky Prospekt in Moscow) has survived - and now fragments of the central pavilion of the same exhibition discovered by Nizhny Novgorod residents have been added to it. then transported to Nizhny Novgorod and played the main role in the complex of the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896 (of the foreign exhibition pavilions of the Russian Empire, today there is only the pavilion of the Venice Biennale of the architect A. V. Shchusev). This is an incredibly valuable discovery, since the enormous talent and creative generosity of domestic architects and engineers were invested in the creation of exhibition pavilions for national and international exhibitions, and no money was spared for their implementation in tsarist Russia - and we can only judge them by drawings and photographs”(for more details on the history of the currently preserved structures, see the article by Tatyana Vinogradova).
They started talking about the new content for Strelka in 2008: designers began to draw Victory Park on the cape itself. You can understand where the idea of this park came from if you know that there is already one Victory Park in Nizhny - downstream of the Volga, at the foot of the Slope, opposite the Grebnoy Canal. Just in 2008, at the City Planning Councils, Sergei Tchoban showed the project of the Kempinski Plaza complex exactly on the site of the park that had already existed since 1985. Then, it seems, they decided to add a park on Strelka, just like later - the future football stadium - instead of the outskirts with reliable transport infrastructure - in the symbolic, metaphorical, metaphysical center of Nizhny Novgorod. But before, in the Meshcherskoye Lake microdistrict, the Seventh Heaven quarters were densely built along the Volga, blocking the residents of the experimental district of the 80s with panoramic views of the river, and the Strelka territory - the possibility of free, without looking back, development. In addition, the shopping center "Seventh Heaven" with a huge parking lot stood on the border of the blocks, as it turned out now - right next to the stadium. So much so that you can't turn around with parking lots for fans, you will have to use the store, and at the same time tear up the entire Strelka for transport.
The last project, after all, provides for the preservation of one of the warehouse pavilions. And the second one prevents the installation of a 15-meter-high chapel on the Strelka cape, according to members of the City Council. But both pavilions are equally valuable and can play an equal role in the overall composition. Which one? Here a self-respecting city would announce an open competition, loudly and clearly tell about a find that was almost unexpected for it. The fact that he was once on an equal footing with the capitals, knows a lot about engineering, appreciates domestic and world history.
