As the name of the project clearly implies, Zaryadye, in which Moscow departments now report on the construction of a park almost every week, is considered a city in the diploma. However, the city turned out without pseudo-Russian stylization and lisping about the lost Moscow, but more like a fantasy of the eighties, on the verge of denying modernism and love of its heritage. The city stands on its "feet" right along Corbusier, "a field of columns holds the entire upper city." So the space can be walked in any direction, on the lower level it is not fenced off, it only alternates between dark spaces under buildings and light streets and courtyards. It turns out a hyper-variant of the ancient city's stand, a kind of forum, similar to the plans of cities of the Roman period and to the plans of Rome engraved in the 18th century.
Outwardly, the city looks like a mega-motherboard, proposed five years ago by Rem Koolhaas for Skolkovo. Or to a group of buildings similar to the Central House of Artists - low with courtyards, whose "confined spaces are incubators of the individuality of the community." Accordingly, the forms of buildings are individual and even almost symbolic. Each block is given to a certain community and "develops its own ideas." Particularly remarkable is the building of the "bureaucratic machine" - a hydra with many heads.
Sergey Turchin is a graduate of the Humanities Department of the Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography with a degree in Architecture. Project manager Dmitry Samodov. Below is a review by Andrey and Ivanov and a full description of the project, enjoy.
Andrey Ivanov
architect, professor of MAAM, reviewer of the diploma project of Sergey Turchin:
“The diploma winner was not afraid to pose the most difficult professional questions related to the very essence of the architectural profession: what is a“correct”, real city? What should be a modern living public space? What archetypal architectural and environmental elements can it consist of? How can a completely devastated but once central, active and multicultural urban space be regenerated? Finally, does the architect have the right to go against the accepted official decisions and create a completely alternative, but correct from his point of view, project?
The project proposes the creation of a dense, multifunctional, rich with diverse urban life environment on the site of the ancient Moscow district of Zaryadye, where a public park is currently being built by the decision of the President of Russia and the project of the American bureau Diller Scofidio + Renfo. However, the author completely ignores this given, believing that the historical past of this place is much more important and requires a completely different architectural response.
Thus, the project is not designed for any, even hypothetical, implementation, is fundamentally critical and conceptual in nature and is dedicated, according to the author, "to the study of the fundamental tasks of architecture - the difference between external and internal, global and local, temporary and permanent."
The idea is to create a new dialogical public space, growing from within and reflecting the idea of an organic, self-developing city. Accordingly, the functions of the "antipark" are complex and intertwined - these are housing of various types, trade, food, spectacles, places of work and meetings of townspeople. In fact, what the student would like to create can be called a kind of universal, archetypal City - a kind of modern version of Old Jerusalem with its four quarters (Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian).
At the same time, the unique real urban past of this place has not been forgotten. It appears in the project by taking into account the tracing of the lost streets of this area (Zaryadye, Mokrinsky, Krivoy pereulok), the formation of picturesque micro-spaces around the surviving churches, the use of the principles of spatial construction of the famous Zaryadye gallery "house-ship", prototypes of Judaic architecture (Zaryadye once considered the "Moscow ghetto"), the contours of the foundations of the Zaryadye hotel, etc.
In the center of the territory is the main object of the complex - the so-called. "World Council for the Discussion of World Issues." The Council Hall is completely buried underground so that its roof is at the same time the surface of the central square of the complex. However, the architectural, spatial and interior solutions of the hall seem to be somewhat simplified and insufficiently elaborated for a volume of this magnitude.
More interesting is the solution to the periphery of the territory, where various structures are located that initiate a rich social life - a bathhouse, a linear market-passage, a "kibbutz", a children's center, an office building designed like the well-known "theater of individual perception" (architect L. Pavlov et al..), etc. Significant techniques of Judaic, Islamic, medieval European architecture, architecture of the period of modernism, etc. are widely used here."
Continuation of the leader's story - below, after the projects.
*** Antipark Zaryadye
Sergey Turchin
Zaryadye town
The city consists of 2 parts. The upper one is a heterogeneous structure characterized by isolation and individual characteristics. The bottom is a common open space, the opposite of the top, This is the field of columns on which the top rests. Atriums and courtyards act as intermediaries to unite opposite parts of the city. Unlike the concept of a modernist city, in which there is a division of residential and working zones, the city of Zaryadye does not have such a division. Local communities work in local establishments located on the ground floor. For them, the city is perceived as their own, a positive emotional connection is formed, which gives rise to the experience of their involvement in the city. The city consists of several quarters. It is polycentric, consists of many heterogeneous elements, each of them is autonomous and has its own center, not one of which is dominant. The elements are composed of complex structures that are owned and inhabited by residents.
The character of the neighborhoods reflects the particular characteristics of the residents. Each of them develops their own ideas. For self-determination, they have to turn inward to themselves. The confined spaces of the courtyards are incubators for the individuality of the community. Development takes place from the center to the periphery.
There is a hierarchy of spaces, from general to particular, between which there is a buffer zone, the space “between”. Due to the complex plot and complete unpredictability, control and regulation of the buffer space is excluded. The homogeneous space of the first floor consists of alternating dark (under buildings) and light (streets, courtyards) spaces. A field of columns holds the entire upper city. Stairs descending from above and light wells form links between the upper city and the lower one. The street ceased to exist as an infrastructure and social institution. Social contacts take place in a common space on the border of the private and the public. There, between the private and the general, or between the private and the public, in the situation of this boundary, architecture is realized5. The space "in between" is very important because it excludes the possibility of a person being appropriated by a certain group.
There are no motorways in the city at all. The entire space is at the mercy of the pedestrian, but there is a possibility of passage for official vehicles.
*** Artifacts and city fragments
*** Andrey Ivanov, architect, professor of MAAM, reviewer of the diploma project of Sergey Turchin: [back to top]
“It should be noted that the author is familiar with a number of significant works of architectural theory of the second half of the 20th century (R. Venturi, A. Rossi, R. Koolhaas, etc.) and the desire not only to take into account, but to rework in his work a number of fundamental provisions expressed in them.
The disadvantages of the project include the apparent preponderance of "conceptuality" over the actual architectural solutions, a certain amorphousness of spaces at the level of the first floor of the complex, which is everywhere raised "on legs", the absence of a number of structural schemes necessary for a better understanding of the project, as well as other detailed fragments, except for the hall Council. Apparently, the author simply did not have enough time to convincingly solve all the numerous problems and questions he raised. However, despite all this, healthy young idealism and creative courage of the diploma student, his interest in the metaphysical values of the profession, the belief that an architect can solve important social, political and even philosophical tasks should be undoubtedly supported. " ***
Sergey Turchin
graduate of MIIGAiK, author of the Antipark Zaryadye project:
“My project was greatly influenced by Israeli professor Zeev Drukman, whom I met last summer at Urban Studio. Druckman helped me decide on the topic and advised me in the initial stages by mail. ***
