The most difficult thing in summing up is not to confuse the large-scale with the important, and do not forget to correct for the distortion of perception in the time perspective, which deceptively suggests that recent events are much more important than those that have already been almost erased from memory due to new scandals and news.
Renovation
It's easy to name the event of the year in Moscow this year. It was certainly the program for the renovation of the housing stock, the talk of which began in February. The program of demolition of dilapidated "five-story buildings" has been successfully implemented in Moscow since the Luzhsk times and was almost successfully completed, when it suddenly turned out that the remaining five-story microdistricts occupy a huge area of the city, which can be used more efficiently. The degree of comfort of panel, lift-free and cockroach-infested houses was declared inappropriate to modern requirements for the quality of the urban environment, and in order to cultivate not only public spaces, but also mass housing in Moscow, it was decided to continue replacing the dilapidated fund with comfortable residential complexes, only on a larger scale and with an unprecedented scale not only for Moscow, but also for Europe.
The announcement of the start of the renovation program divided the society and the professional workshop into ardent opponents, no less ardent supporters and practical philosophers, ready to accept new rules of the game, realizing their inevitability and hoping to derive at least some benefit from them. The assessments varied from one extreme to another: at the beginning of the year, the program was criticized for non-observance of constitutional rights, Russian legislation and regulations, haste and many other, quite reasonable things. Architects did not hide their skepticism, many publicly announced their refusal to participate in the program.
In the middle of the year, after some adjustments were made to the principles for the implementation of the program and an open vote was held among residents of five-story buildings to include or exclude their houses from the program, and a large-scale architectural and urban planning competition for the development of concepts was launched
experimental sites for the renovation of the housing stock in Moscow, the tone of the discussion changed from critical to constructive. Those who were going to participate in the competition discussed the potential inherent in the program, and those who were not going to discuss those who are participating.
The second half of the year gave the program some dramatic moments. The first is the composition of the finalists, among whom there were several recent opponents of the program. Second, the announcement of the results and presentation of the winners' projects were planned
at the Cultural Forum in St. Petersburg, but did not take place. The Moscow government preferred to follow the democratic path again and hold a public discussion of the projects, and only then, taking into account the reaction of the audience of the show (just some kind of "Voice"), determine the best concepts for each experimental site. So the architectural life was enriched with another extraordinary format of interaction between professionals and society, and the authors got the opportunity to present their projects of ideal city blocks in a bright and intelligible form. The results of the competition and the names of the winners are planned to be announced not earlier than the beginning of February next year. According to the most rough estimates, we still have 15 years ahead of us before the implementation of the program.
In search of the mass ideal
How important not only for Moscow, but also for the whole country, the topic of mass housing development - can be imagined by counting the number of different programs. At the initiative of the Ministry of Construction and the reformatted AHML, which received almost unlimited powers, several national projects with the eloquent names "Housing and Utilities and the Urban Environment", "Formation of a Comfortable Urban Environment" were presented during 2017. Staggering figures: more than 25 billion rubles allocated to finance these projects are approaching the annual budget of a small state. It remains to be wondered if the timing of these programs coincides with the 2018 elections.
Planning to find models for different types of development: from low-rise to superdense, the Ministry of Construction and AHML announced
competition for standard housing and residential development projects.
Petersburg held its own competition, a smaller one, for an exchange with Minsk. It is possible that soon a wave of tenders for the concept of mass development will sweep through the cities of the country, especially since next year it is planned to approve the standards for integrated development of territories that are currently being developed by AHML and KB Strelka. ***
Make way for the young
The mental legacy of the Soviet era, which demanded to give way to the young on every issue important for the country, is noticeable even now. The series of competitions for seasoned designers was complemented by a competition of a new format: the biennial of young architects, where the curator Sergei Tchoban invited the participants to come up with an area in which they would like to live themselves. In some places it turned out quite provocatively, in others - in a quarterly-urbanistic way, but the intention was repeatedly voiced to implement projects and involve young authors in their implementation.
Morning paints
The loudest opening of 2017 -
the opening of the Zaryadye park, created according to the winning concept of the consortium Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the authors of High Line Park. The motto of the winning project was the idea of "natural urbanism" and now, when the park has been built and opened, it is more or less clear why it is so different from a park and why it is pointless to criticize it for it. The declared wild-urbanism is embodied in a huge attraction, where futuristic architecture coexists with not quite natural nature.
Not everyone was happy - opinions about the park are still extremely diverse;
some projects are distorted; not everything was revealed at once. Meanwhile, we must think that emotions will subside, the polar assessments of the project are likely to be leveled and we will learn to walk along the dash-dotted granite paths without trampling the delicate vegetation. It is not excluded that students of architecture universities will study Zaryadye as an example with the brilliance of finding a way out of a hopeless situation. Unless selfies at the edge of the "Floating Bridge" are unlikely to lose their relevance. ***
On other shores
The implementation of the American - although, definitely, significantly corrected by me with the participation of Russian colleagues - project under the walls of the Kremlin in the summer of 2017 was quite unexpectedly supplemented by the news of the project of a 305-meter skyscraper by Russian architects "Project Meganom" in New York, Manhattan, at 262 Fifth Avenue. Due to the limited building area, the skyscraper turned out to be very thin and, in order not to lose valuable useful floor area, the planning scheme was fundamentally changed here. Instead of the standard location of the staircase and elevator node in the center of the tower, it is shifted to the western facade, thereby freeing up about most of the floor for apartments.
Red carpet and 101 kilometers
Of the international successes, one cannot fail to note another stunning installation by Alexander Brodsky. The most poetic and philosophical architect-artist of Russia created the object within the framework of the project "101st kilometer - Further everywhere", initiated by the cultural center "Pushkin House" in London. A small pavilion created by Alexander Brodsky is located in a public garden on Bloomsbury Square. A simple parallelepiped with thin support legs resembles the heating cars in which prisoners were transported. Inside it are leaflets with poems by Mandelstam, Tsvetaeva, Khodasevich, Pasternak, Joseph Brodsky … The installation lasted a little less than a month.
Almost simultaneously with the London installation in the Moscow Triumph gallery, a personal exhibition of Alexander Brodsky with art works and art objects of the last few years was opened, the main of which, which gave the name of the entire exhibition, was
composition "Red carpet".
As always with Brodsky, the possible associations are varied and an unambiguous decoding is not offered. Rather, it is a cause for thought; in itself, the level of poetry is some kind of transcendental, extra-architectural and at the same time invariably involved, so that each work of Brodsky is perhaps that important and worthy of mention among the events of the year. ***
The carriage will move …
The choice of the curator of the Russian pavilion at the Biennale of Architecture in Venice happens to be a surprise, or even a reason for conspiracy searches for an oligarch or a powerful structure, eager for a positive self-presentation in the Giardini.
In mid-November, the new commissioner of the Russian pavilion, Semyon Mikhailovsky, named the theme of his exposition - "Station Russia", and hard work
He also took over the curator himself, although usually this is not done.
According to official information, it is planned to create an image of a railway station with five sections inside the pavilion. One of these sections will be an architectural workshop, which will integrate station projects developed by Studio 44 by architect Nikita Yavein and the Moscow Institute Metrogiprotrans.
Over the past six ten years in Venice, except perhaps in 2014, when the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design showed the Fair Enough exposition in the Russian pavilion, Russian expositions are not distinguished by overly complex intellectual, ethical or philosophical concepts. We usually have the scale and pathos of the performance on our side. Apparently, this time too, a theater of ambition will unfold under the lanterns of the Shchusev pavilion. One hope is that the participation of Studio 44 and Metrogiprotrans will guarantee the quality of the exhibited architecture. ***
Museum affairs
After the hasty departure of Irina Korobyina from the post of director of the Moscow Museum of Architecture at the end of 2016 and the announcement of a competition for filling the vacant position, the entire architectural community held its breath in anticipation of an answer - who would dare to apply for the leadership of a very, very difficult museum and who would be chosen by the Ministry of Culture. The new director was appointed
Senior Researcher of the Museum Elizaveta Likhacheva, whose media image was mainly formed during the battle for and against the Melnikov House. The Ministry based its choice on the literacy and realism of the Museum's development program proposed by the new director; it was one of the mandatory elements of the application for participation in the competition. The architectural community was categorically not satisfied with such a choice and such an explanation. In March 2017, a rather fierce information campaign was launched demanding a reconsideration of this appointment. But, as is often the case, the violent reaction was the exact opposite of its duration.
After just a month, the excitement subsided and positive news about the long-awaited opening after the reconstruction of the legendary Ruin wing came to the fore.
The project, developed by the Rozhdestvenka bureau and implemented mainly under the previous management of the Museum of Architecture, was opened by both directors, the previous and the current one, who demonstrated an emphasized neutrality. Potential conflict and recent angry controversy overshadowed enthusiasm for the quality and virtuosity of the reconstruction. The Ruin received new walls, windows and doors. The redevelopment made it possible to place several halls inside, a normal wardrobe and the necessary infrastructure. And also find a place for a small sanctuary - David Sargsyan's office with a table full of endless artifacts. It can now be seen in all its details behind a huge display glass.
The architects of the Rozhdestvenka bureau under the leadership of Narine Tyutcheva managed to transform one of the most popular exhibition halls among Moscow architects, preserving its slightly marginal spirit.
Rozhdestvenka's work on the museum complex continues. The next in turn is the lobby of the main building. ***
Competitive weekdays
This year's competition practice did not spoil the architects with opportunities to prove themselves - the scale of the objects has changed, mainly
metro stations or interiors.
Large developer orders for reconstruction, residential and business complexes, if they are carried out through a competitive procedure, then mainly through a closed system, with the participation of pre-selected teams.
In terms of competitions, the "leader's jersey" was, perhaps, intercepted by St. Petersburg due to the originality and complexity of the task. At the beginning of the year, KGA held a competition for the development
Concepts of improvement of the territory of the Aleksandrovsky Park. However, also in a closed format.
But the main event in the architectural life of St. Petersburg and its competition practice started in May. The St. Petersburg authorities announced an architectural and urban planning competition for the development of the Concept of the new museum and exhibition complex "Defense and the Siege of Leningrad" on Smolny Embankment.
The complexity and importance of the blockade theme for every citizen of St. Petersburg made the process of discussing the projects presented extremely stormy. Passions especially flared up after the jury refused to name the winner on the scheduled date - September 8th. Instead, it was proposed to conduct an online popular vote on the KGA website. There were some rigging, but in the end three leaders were determined, of which the expert jury chose one winner - the project of "Studio 44" under the leadership of Nikita Yavein. For the team that invested a lot of mental and professional strength in this project, winning the competition meant a lot, but the issue of their further participation in the development and implementation of the project will be decided early next year, when the general designer of the Museum will be selected on the basis of a tender.
Losing yourself
The theme of preserving memory and the value of history can be continued, but in a tragic way. Achievements of the year pale next to the news about the next acts of vandalism, victims of mismanagement and lack of culture, and possibly corruption, which again, like every year before, became regular monuments and historical objects, which still retained a high understanding of the quality of construction and architecture of the past., which is now so sorely lacking, regardless of how large-scale national program or status international project is being implemented by today's developers and politicians.
In the absence of money for restoration, due to dilapidation
the river station in Tver collapsed. And in Nizhny Novgorod, the last remaining structures of the former port warehouses on Strelka are being destroyed. The massive urban protection movement for the preservation and reconstruction of warehouses recognized as identified objects of cultural heritage, in one of which surviving metal structures from the pavilions of the All-Russian Exhibition of 1896 were found, developed on an increasing basis throughout the year, and during this time there were several moments when it seemed that the guardians heritage can win. The materials of the inspection of the structures were transferred for examination, but the city authorities, apparently in a hurry to clean up the territory of Strelka and to deploy the improvement befitting the World Cup-18 stadium built here, began to dismantle buildings that had not yet been broken or burned.
Not that this was a feature of Tver or Nizhny Novgorod - we address you to the list of losses of the year, prepared by
movement "Arhnadzor". ***
Education: growth from below
Who just did not scold the outdated system of specialized education. However, it cannot be said that there are no positive shifts at all - but they are mainly the fruits of the private initiative of architects interested in qualified employees in particular and in positive dynamics in general.
Bureau "Meganom" launched the project "Audience", where they publicly discuss topics of the profession. "Yauzaproekt" created an online project "Yauzashkola" with coursework and a program focused on working in an urban environment using the latest urban methods. Kleinewelt Architekten, in parallel with teaching at Moscow Architectural Institute and MARCH, launched the Ideal City research project, in which more than ten young architects underwent practical training in the office and participated in the analysis of the most comfortable and happiest cities in the world. Wowhaus is regularly recruiting internships.
The half-anniversary of the MARCH architectural school, which celebrated its fifth anniversary this year, did not pass unnoticed
an exhibition of student projects and the release of an impressive collection MARCH V. Judging by the number of new courses and programs announced in 2018, the school is not going to stop there and intends to test several new specializations, including: working with historical heritage (curated by Kleinewelt Architekten), public spaces (curated by Wowhaus) and BIM (in partnership with APEX).
Differences between standards
We will conclude our review with a story about the Zodchestvo festival.
This year, despite the traces of chronic diseases suffered in the past, the festival delighted the guests with a non-trivial theme - “Quality now. Space and Environment”, involuntarily returning us to the very first topic of our review, a new spatial structure designed to solve the problem of an infinite number of project tablets, and a collection of curatorial projects, one of which was our
the project "Standard of Quality" is a collection of art objects with a continuation in the form of a series of interviews in which architects discuss the concept of quality and the means of achieving it.
Another rather unexpected event was the presentation of the Crystal Daedalus prize to the Ingmar ASB design bureau for
sports and entertainment center and yacht club on Bychiy Island in St. Petersburg.
But the main problem of "Zodchestvo" remains unresolved - how to make a professional exhibition interesting for the general population without passing off architecture as real estate?
The new curators of the festival, selected on a competitive basis, will think about this, which is new. Vladimir Kuzmin and Vladislav Savinkin, whose project was chosen from 26 others, proposed the theme “Recontext. Future-Oriented Architecture”. Now their experienced shoulders are faced with the task of continuing the evolutionary development of "Architecture" or taking the risk of taking a more radical path.
Perhaps the example of the festival will turn out to be a worthy role model for the Ministry of Culture in its practice of choosing the curators of the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and our architectural workshop will have more opportunities to present and discuss the most relevant topics.
