Archi.ru: The project "NER: History of the Future" includes not only an exhibition, but also a film, a book, a scientific symposium and a series of lectures. How did the idea of such a large-scale project come about?
Maria Panteleeva: The idea for the project originated in different parts of the world - in Paris and New York - about three years ago. Each of us came to her in a different way. I am an architect by education - I graduated from Moscow Architectural Institute, and then left for the United States, where at Princeton University I defended my dissertation on "The New Element of Settlement" - an urban planning concept that was born in the late 1950s - early 1960s within the walls of the Moscow Architectural Institute. I started writing my work six years ago, and initially it was devoted to Soviet experimental architecture, but in the process of preparation I was carried away by the topic of NER, and as a result I completely focused on it. In search of materials, I learned about the existence of the NER archives in Moscow in the family of Alexei Gutnov, one of the founders of this theory, and contacted his daughter, Sasha Gutnova. After our meeting, the idea of an exhibition came up. By that time, while working on my dissertation, I decided to make a film about NER and received a grant from the Graham Foundation for its production. I met with the members of the NER group, and at the same time communicated with the students of Moscow Architectural Institute, who, as it turned out, did not know anything about this phenomenon, despite the fact that Ilya Georgievich Lezhava, one of the group's ideologists, was an extremely popular professor at the institute. So we realized that we needed to do not just an exhibition, but an educational project, so that as many people as possible would learn what NER is, whose ideas were important not only in our homeland, but also abroad, and continue to influence architecture.
Sasha Gutnova: For me, this story is both personal and professional. I also studied at Moscow Architectural Institute, and then completed my postgraduate studies in France with a degree in Urban Planning.
The real work of my father, Alexei Gutnov, one of the participants in the NER, I discovered for myself many years after his death: when he left in the mid-1980s, I was only 16. Several years ago I began to sort out family archives and Having looked at them through the eyes of an experienced architect, I realized that the NER history is worthy of remembrance, study and presentation to the younger generation. Especially today, when we have begun to be sensitive to the material heritage of Soviet modernism, but we often forget about the ideological, mental, theoretical heritage, which must also be protected and protected. We are less and less concerned with global questions about the future, because we are so busy with the present. In principle, any architect is busy creating projections of the future, and NER is a vivid example of visionary work in architecture.
There are several articles on the NER in publications on the Internet, in which this phenomenon is rather extensively and difficultly explained. After reading them, the question remains, what is NER - urban planning theory, a separate project, a group of like-minded people? How would you answer this question?
M. P: Actually, the idea to hold an exhibition about the NER grew into such a large-scale project precisely because we ourselves were looking for an answer to this question. NER members call it a school. The school of ideas. And this is true, although many architects do not even suspect that they are part of this school, being influenced by it through their teachers. You can probably say that this is a philosophical school in architecture.
S. G.: I also asked this question more than once. To define NER, I would use the word “movement ».
First, movement as a kind of direction and unification: it was a time and an era with its own atmosphere, people dreamed of the future and believed in it, and NER in this sense was no exception, it united people who believed that they could change the world.
Secondly, it is movement as a development. This is especially understandable in the context of the late 1960s. When the era of "stagnation" began, the participants in the NER continued to "move" theory and thinking. Proof of this is the entire professional life of Ilya Lezhava, the work of Alexei Gutnov in the department of advanced research at the Institute of the General Plan of Moscow. It is surprising that this movement continues now, but in a different way. Alexander Skokan did it in his own way at the Ostozhenka architectural bureau, Vladimir Yudintsev, Stanislav Sadovsky, Evgeny Rusakov, Sergey Telyatnikov, Nikita Kostrikin and others through teaching at the Moscow Architectural Institute.
Is it possible to formulate the basic principles of the NER in three words?
M. P. The first is a humanistic vision of the city. In principle, in the post-war period, humanism began to return to the city everywhere, we are seeing this revival throughout Europe.
Important in their theory is also the departure from the endlessly growing city - a phenomenon that we have been observing for a long time in our reality, and a more even distribution of cities across the territory, and their development as cultural centers. According to the NER, culture should belong to everyone, and not only to large centers such as Moscow or St. Petersburg.
S. G.: The key concept in the theory, of course, is the NER proper - "New element of settlement" - an alternative to the city spreading out like a blot.
Secondly, the world of the future NER is the world of man, not the world of machines: hence the removal of transport communications and industry outside the residential zones. The main thing in this city is high-quality communication, the space for which architects design with inspiration.
And the third, which should not be forgotten in connection with the NER: it is in the long-term development of this theory that practically the entire vocabulary of a modern urbanist first appears, namely such terms as "frame", "tissue", "cell", "dynamic system", "stable”And“unstable spatial system”. And although the NER themselves do not claim authorship and even avoid it, one must understand that behind this set of concepts there are discussions and reflections of real people who created it. Actually, this is exactly what one of the chapters is devoted to.
books that we will be presenting at the exhibition.
What, in your opinion, was the seed that allowed NER's ideas to survive for so long and to sprout in all new generations of architects?
M. P.: I think that this is communication between members of the group who have kept in touch with each other throughout their lives, and a constant exchange of ideas. Communication is also a key idea of the NER theory: the group members believed that the city should be based on communication, and not on a system of functional elements of architecture.
S. G.: Yes, I agree - this is, first of all, high-quality professional communication, love for what we do, a desire to change our world for the better.
M. P.: It seems to me important that they felt themselves to be future residents of this city, starting with a student diploma, and in many ways the ideas of the NER reflect their own aspirations, relationships with each other, human and professional, so the theory did not stop in its development.
In 2008, Moscow Architectural Institute hosted
an exhibition dedicated to the diploma project "NER-Kritovo", and a meeting of the group members was organized. Everyone remembered with great warmth Alexei Gutnov, who unfortunately left early, and talked about him as the main ideologist of the NER …
M. P.: Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to communicate with him, but through the archives, thanks to Sasha Gutnova and her mother Alla Alexandrovna, I managed to become familiar with his legacy and come closer to understanding his personality. Of course, he was the "cement" and the center of the group. For me, this is a legendary person and, to some extent, a mythical figure. Shortly before the exhibition, we discovered a homemade book "Island of the Sun", made by Alexei at the age of 9, where he still very naively draws ideal cities. This is an unexpected and surprising discovery, which we will also present at the exhibition.
S. G.: When my father passed away, of course, I could not appreciate his importance. For me, he was primarily a dad. I put off the moment for a long time to approach his archives, and for me their opening became a new acquaintance with him.
I am very grateful to Masha for her interest in this story and very much appreciate her view - much more objective and scientific than mine.
With all its personal component, NER is interesting to me as an example of collective work. After all, the beauty of this story lies in joint creativity. Yes, there was Gutnov, who knew how to unite people around him, and although I was small, I felt some amazing quality of communication around me when the group gathered with us.
The motors and locomotives were Gutnov and Lezhava, until the very last they fanatically believed in what they were doing, but everyone was important. Everyone did their bit.
Ilya Georgievich once told me that once they came up with the idea that if the NER group were a bird or a person, then Gutnov would be the head, Baburov - the heart, someone - wings, someone - hands. Each would be a part of the whole, without which existence is impossible. This is a very beautiful image, and I think that my father's talent and merit lies in the ability to see and gather like-minded people, infect and captivate them.
Your project - an exhibition, a book, a film, a scientific conference - is a kind of monument to NER. Does this mean that the NER in the capacity you spoke about is over - "bronzed" and ceased to live?
M. P.: On the contrary, with our project we want to revive interest in the ideas and creative spirit of the NER group. What you will see at the exhibition is a part of history, and it makes no sense to embody or reproduce it in life, but the history of NER itself does not end.
S. G.: We perceive the exhibition and the study of archives as an impetus to something new. We would like those who visited the exhibition to read about the NER and hear the voices of the NER, think about the future. I would like to somehow awaken the spirit of visionary work and reflections on how to live on. That is why we came up with the idea of a design-theoretical seminar "New history will be", where young architects, urban planners, architectural theorists, sociologists and geographers will gather to talk about how we see the future of cities, about how to be and live outside the perspective of 2022, and in the longer term.
Now there is a catastrophic lack of some kind of idealism and humanism in architecture, which were inherent in the participants in the NER. I would like to believe that our project will serve as a stimulus for the emergence of a new vision of the future architecture and dreams.
