About career
After graduating from the university, the student comes under serious pressure. It often happens that, starting to work in a bureau, even a large and eminent one, a young man realizes that he does not agree with the leading architects, but no one listens to him. First, you need to be patient - patience is an important point. Secondly, to understand that when creating an archbureau, the goal of its founders was to promote themselves as personalities. Architecture in general is the profession of ambitious and proud people. And the rent that an architect has from his professional activity is more of fame than money. Therefore, they are always treated much more scrupulously. It's much easier to talk to an architect even about royalties than about the nuances of copyright. This should be treated with great understanding. And if you want to develop yourself as a person, you need to prepare for your own practice. I see no other way. Even the wonderful, very strong specialists who work in Zaha Hadid's office and do great projects will never become such a star as Zaha was.
I am often asked how it happened that they put me in charge of the architecture of all of Moscow, where did this experience come from? When I was young, I tried to work for hire and realized that it was not mine. Therefore, even before I graduated from Moscow Architectural Institute, my friends and I organized my own bureau. And then we created SPEECH with Sergei Choban, and there were many projects - in Moscow, these are Aquamarine, Lotus, the Microcity "In the Forest", an important project that even at that time showed how, thanks to good architecture, quite budget community, the added value of the project, that people like to live there, they vote for this project with their money and their emotions.
It was very difficult to go my own way, but I am satisfied. This choice brings a lot of complications and stress and getting out of my comfort zone, but I’m sure that otherwise I would not have had the interesting experiences I have now.
About changing the status of the profession
Under Luzhkov, Moscow did not become the capital of architecture, despite the huge investments that poured into it. And when I came to the position of chief architect, I began to implement other principles. For example, I strongly believe in personal development and partnerships. At that time, there were not many architects in Moscow at all, so the development of a new generation, a new landscape of architects, through competitions that give young people the opportunity to work, compete with each other and even with stars, including world stars - all this was in our program … Plus the invitation of international celebrities to create lighthouses, objects of attention and generally show the whole world that we are interested in this.
We can already see the results of this work today. When I was a student, we could only see projects of stellar modern architecture in pictures. Now in Moscow you can not only see, but also touch the objects of the most prominent architects of our time, and soon we will see even more completed projects of such stars as Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Renzo Piano and Herzog & de Meuron.
In general, over the past 10 years, global changes have taken place in Moscow. Now we have many architects, the market has expanded, and there are those who work not only in Russia, but also abroad. For example, Yuri Grigoryan, as you know, builds in New York. I believe that we can say that the Moscow architectural community has reached a new level of perception, including thanks to the work of our block.
Whyarchitecture is not a romantic profession
My most difficult project is Zaryadye. In general, a large team of engineers and architects worked there, and not only from Russia, and everyone said that they had never been able to design and build anything more complicated. I was even asked what I would do next, if even before the age of 40 I handed over such a complex object with many communications, with an underground Philharmonic hall and many others. But, I want to say that the process of construction and architecture is, in principle, laborious. Many people think that architecture is a romantic profession, like painting pictures or writing music, and many go to university for this. But in architecture there is a completely different ratio of creativity and hard sweatshop labor, and, unfortunately, especially in Russia. We have a lot of questions for construction management, for the culture of construction. I hope that in the future we will overcome these difficulties, because our global goal is still to enjoy our work.
About changing priorities
As architects, you must understand that the biggest challenge for you is not in structures, materials or engineering networks, but in the minds of your opponents, both customers and society. This is very clearly illustrated by the example of Zaryadye. The park was immediately accepted by a large number of people, about 12 million people visited it during the year, the project has earned many international awards, and I am sure it will still work, it has become truly explosive with a plus sign, but at the stage of the competition we faced a lot of criticism. Including because the concept was implemented by the American bureau. And we heard that this is not ours, not Russian. I want to remind you that Aristotle Fioravanti came to Russia at the age of 60, never learned Russian, and built the Kremlin's Assumption Cathedral.
It does not matter what nationality the architects are involved in the project, it is important that their experience becomes part of our national culture. And it is important that through this cooperation we open up to the rest of the world. Today we work with many countries and this is very important for Moscow. Architecture in the literal sense is becoming a soft power for the advancement of our city and Russia as a whole and a real instrument of dialogue with the entire international community. ***
Material provided by the Open City conference.
Open City is the largest education and career event. The conference is for everyone who is interested in the topic of architectural education and the development of Russian cities. Applicants, students, teachers, young professionals and successful architects, representatives of construction and development companies and simply not indifferent townspeople - everyone in the program of the event will have interesting sessions, case studies, expert presentations, as well as live communication and useful acquaintances. The event is held under the auspices of the Moscow City Architecture Committee. In 2018 it will take place on September 27-28 at the Museum of Moscow, Zubovsky Boulevard, 2
