The discussion was devoted in large part to the experience of coordinating the AGO - the architectural and urban planning appearance, buildings in the Moscow region. Some of the speakers who took part in the discussion - the head of JSB "Mezonproject" Ilya Mashkov, the head of the "Laboratory of virtual architecture" Stanislav Kulish and the head of JSB "Ampir" Mikhail Tumarkin - are included in the working group of the architectural commission of the Moscow region, and the chief architect of TPO "Reserve" Vladimir Plotkin and Andrei Gnezdilov, co-founder of Ostozhenka, was a member of the architectural commission and, in addition, the Moscow Architectural Council. The chief architect of the Moscow region, Alexandra Kuzmina, is in charge of both the working group and the architectural commission of the Moscow region. Thus, the participants in the conversation are firsthand familiar with the procedure for discussing and agreeing on projects, and, of course, in both guises, both authors and experts.
In a short opening speech, Ilya Mashkov suggested thinking about who and how influences the architectural appearance of cities: architects, developers, builders, approval authorities, residents? How is the balance between creativity and regulation achieved to achieve the best possible result?
Then Ilya Mashkov, stressing that the Moscow region is now perhaps the most active in terms of architecture and construction, known, among other things, for exemplary decisions in the field of regulation, gave the floor to the chief architect of the Moscow region, Alexandra Kuzmina.
Alexandra Kuzmina: AGO as a tool for protecting the author's intention
Alexandra Kuzmina, Chief Architect of the Moscow Region, began her presentation by saying that the chief architects of cities and regions are expected to regulate and influence the appearance of cities, but from a legislative point of view, there are no tools. Alexandra Kuzmina told about the experience of the Ministry of Defense: “Our task is the author's idea, fixed in the AGO, ensuring high-quality implementation”.
To date, the author's idea of the architect is not protected from third-party changes by anything other than AGO, - emphasized the chief architect of the region. Based on the existing list of procedures, which is referenced in the City Codex, the Moscow Region issued a “Government Decree on the Approval of the Regulation on the Review of AGOs”, which made it possible to fix a clear administrative procedure for decision-making in all instances.
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zooming 1/8 Fragments of Alexandra Kuzmina's presentation. Instruments for influencing the appearance of cities: AGO Provided by the Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of the Moscow Region
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zooming 2/8 Fragments of Alexandra Kuzmina's presentation. Instruments for influencing the appearance of cities: AGO Provided by the Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of the Moscow Region
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zooming 3/8 Fragments of Alexandra Kuzmina's presentation. Instruments for influencing the appearance of cities: AGO Provided by the Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of the Moscow Region
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zooming 4/8 Fragments of Alexandra Kuzmina's presentation. Instruments for influencing the appearance of cities: AGO Provided by the Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of the Moscow Region
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zooming 5/8 Fragments of Alexandra Kuzmina's presentation. Instruments for influencing the appearance of cities: AGO Provided by the Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of the Moscow Region
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zooming 6/8 Fragments of Alexandra Kuzmina's presentation. Instruments for influencing the appearance of cities: AGO Provided by the Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of the Moscow Region
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zooming 7/8 Fragments of Alexandra Kuzmina's presentation. Instruments for influencing the appearance of cities: AGO Provided by the Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of the Moscow Region
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zooming 8/8 Fragments of Alexandra Kuzmina's presentation. Instruments for influencing the appearance of cities: AGO Provided by the Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of the Moscow Region
The goals of the AGO are: fixing the appearance of the object, comprehensive improvement, pedestrian and transport accessibility, plus for objects financed from the budget - assessing the rationality of the layouts. The visual characteristics are considered by the architectural commission, in an open format, the author presents his project. After discussion with the architect and the customer, a decision is made right there, at the commission. “We have ruled out the feeling that there is some kind of secret that is going on behind closed doors,” stressed the chief architect of the Moscow Region, concluding with the conclusion that AGO is a necessary tool for protecting the author's intention. Further, Alexandra Kuzmina gave examples of how the recommendations of the Moscow region's arch-commission, without changing the architect of the object, led to a better quality of projects. A few examples of such successful project adjustments can be seen below:
Andrey Gnezdilov: To return the concept stage to legislation
According to Andrey Gnezdilov, he happened to be a "witness of victories" when at the councils he was able to "deploy" a project that was unsuccessful, but seemingly ready: several cases when it was possible to turn”.
I would like the projects to come to the commission at earlier stages, - stressed Andrey Gnezdilov: “If the decision on the volume and financing of the project was born from the concept, and the concept was nevertheless considered at the council to begin with, then maybe we had there would be more opportunities to enable the quality filter earlier."
“That is, at the stage that is currently excluded from the legislation, since our legislation has become stage-by-stage, and the architectural and urban planning concept has disappeared from the law as a class,” Aleksandra Kuzmina said. “If we are now at a public forum, then we are obliged to express our position: we want this to be included in the law,” Andrei Gnezdilov emphasized. So, let us emphasize that it is necessary to return the concept of a draft concept to the law, as well as the possibility of its consideration at councils - one of the important positions expressed during the discussion.
Then Ilya Mashkov turned to Vladimir Plotkin with a provocative question (generally speaking, Ilya Mashkov positioned almost all of his questions at this session as provocative) - is not criticism of the Arch Council an oppression of colleagues' creativity?
Vladimir Plotkin: Advice as a tool
Vladimir Plotkin, noting some annoyance that sometimes arises in an architect when submitting his own project for consideration by the council or a working group: “… I did not violate anything, all the regulations were observed, all that was left was mine. and denie, so what the hell? - however, he acknowledged the benefits of the councils of architecture and city councils. On the one hand, the recommendation of each specific colleague itself is a deliberative thing, but a note can also be useful, forcing the author to think about something.
On the other hand, the solidarity position of the members of the Arch Council is able to give the project a reasoned approval (or condemnation, by the way) of one or another author's position, - Vladimir Plotkin continued. For example, the author may come to advice with a project that involves changing the regulations on the site, increasing or decreasing the maximum height, or get (or not get) support. Thus, the discussion at the council can provide the author with a tool for further dialogue with the customer and with the city.
Although, Vladimir Plotkin noted, in New York, if all the restrictions and requirements of the regulations are met, no additional discussions and recommendations are required. Except in unique cases, objects planned in the most important places or capable of having an exceptional impact on panoramas.
The presenter Ilya Mashkov continued his assumed role of a doubter and turned to the next speaker with a question whether the need to approve the AGO was a distrust of the author.
Stanislav Kulish: Advice for the customer
By the way, the founder of the Laboratory of Virtual Architecture recalled the history of the approval of the famous Pompidou Center in Paris: the project was approved only after the change of the Minister of Culture. Stanislav Kulish also noted that not only professional coordination, but also coordination with residents is of great importance in international practice.
In general, Stanislav Kulish sees a positive meaning in the architectural commission, since "for the author, the advice gives a picture of the perception of the object from different angles." Besides, sometimes the only way to protect yourself from the dictates of the customer is to bring the object to the court of other professionals.
Ilya Mashkov supported his colleague: indeed, the client's trust in the architect, the author of the project, often increases after the architectural council and acquaintance with the opinions of other architects, and he agrees with the author on controversial points.
Mikhail Tumarkin: Consulting and sanitary work
Ilya Mashkov prefaced Mikhail Tumarkin, head of the Ampir firm, member of the Moscow region's arch-commission and a representative of the neoclassical direction, with a question whether he, the author of the palace for the Sultan, interfered with the fact that almost all the projects discussed at the commission were made in modernism. Mikhail Tumarkin replied that, of course, in nine cases out of ten he would have made a classic. But in general, he likes an open, professional conversation. The architect emphasized that at the working group of the arch-commission, they look at 95 percent routine, but it is this that forms the environment. This is useful sanitary work: projects are getting better, it shows.
Ethical position
Then the discussion continued with the participation of the audience. Among others, the architect from Voronezh had an ethical question: what to do if the members of the city council begin to enter into negotiations with the client behind the author of the project? To which Ilya Mashkov replied from the position of Chairman of the Board of the Association of Designers of Moscow Region: “We have 60 organizations in the Association. And, consider me naive, but - yes, it turns out. When customers call me as the chairman of the Association in search of a designer, I never offer my organization as a contractor. Moreover, I would say that this can be considered a recipe for the right decision: in no case take a job in such a situation, but find other authors, transfer the work to colleagues. We had such cases, and in the end we got great projects. There are no dishonest people in the working group of the Architectural Commission”. Alexandra Kuzmina continued: “I don’t want to say that everything is perfect here, but I am not for a second ashamed of any of the episodes of project consideration by the working group and the architectural commission. I am eternally grateful to the members of the commission who spend an entire day a week helping us make these often difficult decisions. In any case, in the construction of the work, openness was my choice. You need to say everything. Lively open dialogue. Lack of any decisions taken behind closed doors. We have not had any cases when some of the members of the commission tried to contact the developer and steal the work from a colleague. Alexandra Kuzmina compared the approaches to life of Adam Smith, who believed that a person makes the world better by doing better for himself, and the mathematician John Nash, according to whose theory if everyone contributes to the common good, then his life becomes ultimately better: “I have a balance closer to Nesh,”concluded Alexandra Kuzmina.
According to Andrei Gnezdilov, “we are in vain now complaining about the complexity of the approvals”. In civil society, they take longer and more difficult, especially the coordination with the public. Andrei Gnezdilov also stressed that the situation with the enticement of projects by council members is a consequence of the immaturity of public relations. And he recalled the tough work of the professional ethics commission led by Alexander Larin in the nineties in Moscow. “The concepts of morality and ethics are not published in books. They are absorbed by people from childhood and assimilated during professional practice. This should be treated as a growing pain."
Then the participants in the conversation proceeded to discuss the conditions on which the appearance of the masterpiece depends. This is an urban planning situation, a loyal customer, budget, methodology and something from above - according to Vladimir Plotkin; it is a good basic education and professional "observation" instead of the short courses that have become widespread recently, according to Alexandra Kuzmina.
Mikhail Tumarkin turned the conversation into a very general dimension, referring to the culture of our society as a whole: “… no matter how much we want to say that the architect is good, and the customer or official has ruined the project, in fact, the architect is as good as the customer, and they just form a harmonious pair. This is just our society. We have such cities because we are. Because we allowed values to be blurred. They agreed that the ensemble is nonsense originating from highbrow retrained people, which, of course, should not have been done. I think now the only way out is to defend in each specific case."
Yuliy Borisov: Prevent the commissioning of a building that does not comply with the AGO
In conclusion, Ilya Mashkov read out the message of Yuli Borisov, who could not attend the discussion in person, although he was watching it remotely. The message says that AGO is a necessary document for creating a harmonious environment, but it is important for the designer to have the opportunity to consult with the commission in advance. And the most important thing is to have a really operating mechanism for monitoring the constructed building for compliance with the AGO. A couple of times to create a precedent - not to allow the building to be put into operation due to the discrepancy of the AGO. This would significantly increase the efficiency of this tool. Ilya Mashkov fully agreed with the idea of Yuli Borisov.
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In the end, Alexandra Kuzmina shared the know-how of the Moscow region: “the details and materials of the AGO certificate are“sewn”into the project documentation, which is subject to examination. Then for the State Construction Supervision [together with the regional division of which this plot was developed, - approx. ed.] they become part of the project documentation and the subject of control."
