По-русски

​The Social Biology of Landscape

The list of new typologies of public spaces and public projects has been expanded yet again — thanks to Wowhaus. This time around, this company came up with a groundbreaking by Russian standards approach to creating a place where people and animals can communicate.

Elena Petukhova

Written by:
Elena Petukhova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

06 March 2020
Object
mainImg
The trail of perception

The list of projects that any decent megalopolis must have includes, among other things, a zoo. This has been the custom since about the end of the XVII century, when in Europe court menageries were replaced by public places of such kind — botanical and zoological gardens, in which the enlightened citizens took great pleasure in getting acquainted with the flora and fauna of the faraway lands and continents. However, whilst the format of presenting vegetation was formed pretty soon, remaining unchanged ever since, the format of demonstrating the animals has been constantly changing over the last 300 years, effectively becoming a mirror image of the changes in the relationship of man and nature in general and representatives of the animal world in particular.

The approaches to animal keeping kept changing over several centuries: cramped cages gave way to spacious aviaries, then came the system of “islands”, and still today there is an ongoing search for a method to keep the animals coexisting within a confined territory that would be humane and comfortable for animals and safe for humans. During the XX century, many renowned architects, such as Berthold Lubetkin and Ove Arup (Penguin Pool in London), Norman Foster (Elephant House in Copenhagen), BIG (Panda enclosure in Copenhagen), 3XN (Aquarium in Copenhagen), Fay Architekten and Liquid Architekten (monkey house in Frankfurt-am-Mein), Hascher Jehle (monkey house in Stuttgart), and others tried their hand at designing such spaces.

However, even considering the accumulated experience and a fundamental change in the human stance towards animal protection, it would be a mistake to think that the optimum format of animal keeping has been finally found. And it comes as no surprise that a lot of people, haunted by the idea of animals that are suffering in steel cages, do not visit zoos on general principle.

The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
Copyright: © WOWHAUS


A sad fairytale

The Moscow Zoo was opened in 1864 and is one of the oldest zoos in Europe; at one time, it was also considered to be one of the most advanced. However, already in the middle of the last century it became clear that the 21-hectare territory in the center of the city cannot provide the necessary comfort for the animals. In the 1980’s, a chunk of land in the north part of the Bitsa Park was allotted for a new zoo. However, the good intentions of transferring the zoo to a more suitable place ran into antagonism from the local residents, whose concerns in those perestroika days outweighed the arguments coming from the specialists. Since then, the zoo survived a general reconstruction of the 1990’s, when thanks to Luzhkov’s good graces, it got weird Disney-Land-style pavilions and numerous sculptures by Zurab Tsereteli, the biggest one of which, named “Tree of Fairytales”, can serve as a great illustration of a hard everyday life of the Moscow Zoo, whose inhabitants are locked up in the center of one of the world’s largest megalopolises.

Since that time, no fundamental changes in either structural or functional systems of the zoo took place — that is, up until 2015, when a decision was made about the necessity of an overhaul of the so-called “children’s zone”, a narrow L-shaped strip of the new territory of the zoo, which spills over to the Garden Ring and essentially serves as the entrance corridor for the visitors coming from that side.

The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
Copyright: © WOWHAUS


The burden of discoveries

To develop the new concept of the children’s zone of the Moscow Zoo, in 2015 the city invited Wowhaus, who shortly before that already began working on one of the innovative projects — the City Farm in the All-Russia Exhibition Center. And for both of the locations the architects were able to propose not only the up-to-date form, but also unconventional approach to ideology and the program, fundamentally changing all of the notions of how people and animals can coexist and interact within a city.

The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
Copyright: © WOWHAUS


One of the primary tasks of the project was to bust some of the negative associations. Anna Ishchenko, the General Director of Wowhaus, comments on the self-imposed task: “If you talk to random people on the street, you will find that many people give a very negative feedback to the very “zoo” term, they will go like “oh, a zoo, it’s so terrible, it’s a prison, how can you ever get involved with designing something like that?” Or worse yet: “Is it going to be a petting zoo where children squeeze the animals till they’re numb, and then die from depression?” And when we tried to explain to them that it was not going to be that way, and that our attitude was quite different, people just did not believe us. We, however, did understand that this could and had to be a fundamentally different space with a fundamentally different system of relationships, with a concept of humane coexistence of man and animals, which is more and more actively spreading around the world. And we posed for ourselves a task of demonstrating this new approach to solving this problem here in Russia.”

The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
Copyright: © WOWHAUS


Interestingly, it has become a good tradition for Wowhaus to bust stereotypes, reinventing old typologies, such as parks, waterfronts, and “outdoor cinemas”, or creating new ones, such as city farms or museum parks. When asked how it turns out that time after time his company is pioneering new typologies, the partner of the bureau, Oleg Shapiro answers: “Each new architectural or town-planning task is a challenge, and we spend considerable time searching for the solution. This is why we believe that it’s better to spend our time inventing something new than just making a mediocre copy of something that’s already been there. This is why every time we try to discover something new for ourselves and for others, hopefully.”

Like a museum, only a living one

Discovering the new typology was by no means an easy task to do. The thing is that in this country zoos are governed by the Ministry of Culture and are considered to be a variety of museums, the only difference from their brothers in respectable status being that their exhibits are still alive, with all the consequences that come with it. Therefore, the reassembling of the children’s zone of the Moscow Zoo was done with consideration for the long list of mandatory requirements for the comfort of animals, visitors, and, last but not least, employees.

However, architects, zoo employees, biologists, ornithologists, zoologists, and animal psychologists, as well as experts of the research company KB23, who joined the team of the project for analyzing the context of developing the new functional and program strategies, extended this list still further by adding a considerable number of positions describing the modern notions of how the museum must look and operate, turning in front of our eyes from a place of passive accumulation of information into multifunctional space that ensures an interactive educational process.

Project of reorganizing the Minor Territory of the Moscow Zoo © Wowhaus, 2015-2016
Copyright: © WOWHAUS


  • zooming
    1 / 6
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS
  • zooming
    2 / 6
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS
  • zooming
    3 / 6
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS
  • zooming
    4 / 6
    Project of reorganizing the Minor Territory of the Moscow Zoo © Wowhaus, 2015-2016
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS
  • zooming
    5 / 6
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS
  • zooming
    6 / 6
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS


In order to form an interactive educational process, the team of architects, together with psychologists, sociologists, and biologists, developed a methodology of presenting the information about animals, which became the key to building the entire structure of the children’s zoo.

According to the architects, “The educational process is built around a game of simulating the animals. For example, rabbits hide in their holes, and the children can also crawl into the tunnel of artificial vine, resembling a furrow, situated on the opposite side. Alpacas and goats skip over rocks, and children can also skip over rocks and wooden constructions, and so on. What we are ultimately getting is a projection — the child looks at the animals, trying to simulate what they are doing. There is no necessity for long drawn-out lectures, because you can see everything firsthand. The plaques, of course, are also there, serving as an addition source of information.”

The path of cognition

The plan of the children’s zone of the Moscow Zoo looks like the “L” letter, and is essentially a broken corridor that links the new territory of the zoo to the Garden Ring. The width of the passage is under 65 meters, the length being 300 meters.

The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo. The simplified master plan
Copyright: © WOWHAUS


The architects laid two routes inside this passage, narrow as it is, by which the visitors will be able to make an exciting journey either to the world of domesticated animals, or, if they are already tired of watching the main part of the zoo, taking in the details of the exposition, they can quickly proceed to the exit. The main route, sophisticated, full of attractors and special edutainment stops, is meant for children who will come here once to become a regular visitor or maybe come back a few times but will always remember the great memories about how he or she was first exposed to the world of animals, could watch the busy life of birds in the aviary, get pushed around by the not-so-sheepish sheep asking for a treat, or understand that rabbits are not only valuable fur but first of all bright personalities and great athletes.

All these impressions and adventures are carefully thought out and distributed along the winding route, allowing the visitors to alternate the exposure to scientific information with various simulation games, as well as with contacts with the animals and many other intellectual and physical activities. The architects designed it in such a way that a few-hundred-meter route includes ten main thematic blocks: a shop, an educational center with a cafe, a “rabbit city”, an aviary, a zone of domestic birds, a pigeon house, a contact area with a “goat mount”, a “farm”, and a technical zone.

The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
Copyright: © WOWHAUS


Nests, tunnels, and mountains

For each of the blocks, the architects came up with an image of its own, yet still based on the common designer theme of the entire children’s zoo — a paraphrase of the natural elements, but without any direct imitation or playing with literally associations, which did indeed produce a very bleak impression before the reconstruction. In the image of each block, one can easily see a prototype, which was subjected to a thorough architectural arrangement, tying the outward plastique and the constructive skeleton into a single volumetric composition.

  • zooming
    1 / 4
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS
  • zooming
    2 / 4
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS
  • zooming
    3 / 4
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS
  • zooming
    4 / 4
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS


Immediately after the entrance to the children’s zone, the visitors are greeted by two most prominent, because of their imposing size and complexity, modules of the block: the store and the educational center. This place will host hobby groups and lectures, and it will also be the meeting point for the guided tours. The facades of the buildings with an oval plan are formed by the crossed tilted yellow stands, which the architects themselves liken to birds’ nests. Each of the blocks is surrounded by a sophisticated system of staircases, ramps, terraces, and overpasses, with a few playgrounds situated at different levels forming their own adventurous ecosystem.

The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
Copyright: © WOWHAUS


Between the shop and the center, there is a large playground with various games, including a unique erector set, developed in collaboration with the biologist Dmitry Knorre, who also invented the table game “Evolution” and adapted it for the Moscow Zoo in such a way that children can try their hand at coming up with new species, combining bodily parts of real animals in unusual sci-fi combinations.

The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
Copyright: © WOWHAUS


Nearby, starts the S-shaped tunnel of the aviary that also remotely resembles a nest thanks to its shell of wooden planks, which press the mesh down to the metallic framework. The aviary is designed in such a way as to give the birds that live inside an opportunity to independently control the degree of interacting with the visitors. The birds can walk on the ground, sit on the branches, or fly away into the depth of the lush vegetation in the curves of the tunnel, where the visitors cannot get.

The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
Copyright: © WOWHAUS


Similarly, with a division into public and private spaces, are organized the aviaries for domestic birds and the ungulates. Even the inhabitants of the contact zone can choose, in which part of the pen they choose to stay. However, it seems as though for this part of the park they choose the most communicative and the most voracious animals; so much so that the visitor himself will probably want to hide from their importunate interest to the contents of his pockets. All you have left to do is beat a hasty retreat and take a timeout near the enclosures with melancholic alpacas who with equal tranquility take the treats and pose for the photographs.

The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
Copyright: © WOWHAUS


Like a lighthouse that marks the “breaking point” on the territory of the children’s zoo, rises the “Czar of the Mountain” tower that all the visitors take for yet another children’s attraction, while in fact this sophisticated agglomerate of constructions and playgrounds was designed solely for the entertainment of the goat society, whose members, just as they do in their natural habitat, adore climbing and bouncing from one ledge to another. And, in order to make sure that the goats do not get bored climbing up and down the same route, the “Mountain” is engineered in such a way that it can be changed and augmented with new obstacles. And, of course, time, multiplied by the energy of the horned users, will add new “challenging zones” to this construction.

  • zooming
    1 / 3
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS
  • zooming
    2 / 3
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS
  • zooming
    3 / 3
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS


Behind the contact venue, there is the only traditional architectural element — the “farm” — which looks as if it were carried over here by some tender caring tornado from somewhere in the Austrian Alps. The pitched roofs, covered with trimmed straw, look extremely traditional, in sharp contrast to the modernist “nests” of yellow stands. This place, however, is the “rest home” for the inhabitants of the zoo, and the maintenance rooms are also situated here, so the reserved traditional look is the tribute to the function, as well as a means to avoid attracting the visitors’ attention any more than necessary.

The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
Copyright: © WOWHAUS


The yellow color of knowledge

What the design of the infrastructure objects and navigation have in common is the yellow color, which we already mentioned in the part about the design of the shop and the educational center. “Yellow color is to be seen across the entire territory. We used it to mark all of the information and game elements, so as to make them highly visible and easily discerned by the visitors from among the multitude of objects that perform various functions. There are also small information modules that are spread out across the territory as reflections of our main info center. For the little ones, these modules are of no interest, of course, but for those children who are a little bit older, and who want to learn more about the inhabitants of the zoo, and about their lives in natural environment, these will come in very handy. All the more so, because we developed different types of information presentation, laying our main stress on the gamification format” — comments the role of this color in the overall design Anastasia Izmakova, the leading architect of the project, responsible for the designer supervision.

The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
Copyright: © WOWHAUS


Emergency

The extremely compact territory of the children’s zone of the Moscow Zoo, includes a huge number of various architectural, designer, educational, and entertainment ideas, bright and inspiring. The density of original ideas and solutions per square meter is simply other-worldly. And, as it often happens in our realities, the number of unconventional elements spawned a geometric progression of difficulties at the stages of approval and implementation.

The main loss of the project was the forced abandonment of using the bearing wooden structures. Ensuring fire safety, taking into account the large estimated number of visitors and the proximity of neighboring residential and office buildings, necessitated the replacement of all wood-glued structures with metal ones. In addition, the architects had to abandon the use of natural wood in the braid of the “nests” on the playgrounds and in the decoration of the enclosures. The experience of using the natural tree branches in the “Krasnogvardeiskie Prudy” and “Serp i Molot” parks showed that this natural material soon breaks down, not being able to withstand the sheer energy of the little players, and therefore does not meet the safety requirements. The architects were able to keep the wood in the decoration of the small architectural forms, in the railings, and, partially, in the decoration of the enclosures’ facades.

The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
Copyright: © WOWHAUS


The project of the children’s zoo became a doubtless success, and yet another discovery for Wowhaus, but, at the same time, one of the most complex projects in the history of the company, a four years’ battle for the preservation and implementation of all those ideas, which the architects found together with the guest experts and the employees of the zoo in order to change, once and for all, our notion of what a modern zoo must look like.

  • zooming
    1 / 6
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS
  • zooming
    2 / 6
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS
  • zooming
    3 / 6
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS
  • zooming
    4 / 6
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS
  • zooming
    5 / 6
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS
  • zooming
    6 / 6
    The children′s zone of the Moscow Zoo
    Copyright: © WOWHAUS



06 March 2020

Elena Petukhova

Written by:

Elena Petukhova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov
Headlines now
New “Flight”
Architects from “Mezonproject” have developed a project for the reconstruction of the regional youth center “Polyot”(“Flight”) in the city of Oryol. The summer youth center, built back in the late 1970s, will now become year-round and acquire many additional functions.
The Yauza Towers
In Moscow, there aren’t that many buildings or projects designed by Nikita Yavein and Studio 44. In this article, we present to you the concept of a large multifunctional complex on the Yauza River, located between two parks, featuring a promenade, a crossroads of two pedestrian streets, a highly developed public space, and an original architectural solution. This solution combines a sophisticated, asymmetric façade grid, reminiscent of a game of fifteen puzzle, and bold protrusions of the upper parts of the buildings, completely masking the technical floors and sculpting the complex’s silhouette.
Architecture and Leisure Park
For the suburban hotel complex, which envisages various formats of leisure, the architectural company T+T Architects proposed several types of accommodation, ranging from the classic “standard” in a common building to a “cave in the hill” and a “house in a tree”. An additional challenge consisted in integrating a few classic-style residences already existing on this territory into the “architectural forest park”.
The U-House
The Jois complex combines height with terraces, bringing the most expensive apartments from penthouses down to the bottom floors. The powerful iconic image of the U-shaped building is the result of the creative search for a new standard of living in high-rise buildings by the architects of “Genpro”.
Black and White
In this article, we specifically discuss the interiors of the ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh. Interior design is a crucial component of the overall concept in this case, and precision and meticulous execution were highly important for the architects. Julia Tryaskina, head of UNK interiors, shares some of the developments.
The “Snake” Mountain
The competition project for the seaside resort complex “Serpentine” combines several typologies: apartments of different classes, villas, and hotel rooms. For each of these typologies, the KPLN architects employ one of the images that are drawn from the natural environment – a serpentine road, a mountain stream, and rolling waves.
Opal from Anna Mons’ Ring
The project of a small business center located near Tupolev Plaza and Radio Street proclaims the necessity of modern architecture in a specific area of Moscow commonly known as “Nemetskaya Sloboda” or “German settlement”. It substantiates its thesis with the thoroughness of details, a multitude of proposed and rejected form variants, and even a detailed description of the surrounding area. The project is interesting indeed, and it is even more interesting to see what will come of it.
Feed ’Em All
A “House of Russian Cuisine” was designed and built by KROST Group at VDNKh for the “Rossiya” exhibition in record-breaking time. The pavilion is masterfully constructed in terms of the standards of modern public catering industry multiplied by the bustling cultural program of the exhibition, and it interprets the stylistically diverse character of VDNKh just as successfully. At the same time, much of its interior design can be traced back to the prototypes of the 1960s – so much so that even scenes from iconic Soviet movies of those years persistently come to mind.
The Ensemble at the Mosque
OSA prepared a master plan for a district in the southern part of Derbent. The main task of the master plan is to initiate the formation of a modern comfortable environment in this city. The organization of residential areas is subordinated to the city’s spiritual center: depending on the location relative to the cathedral mosque, the houses are distinguished by façade and plastique solutions. The program also includes a “hospitality center”, administrative buildings, an educational cluster, and even an air bridge.
Pargolovo Protestantism
A Protestant church is being built in St. Petersburg by the project of SLOI architects. One of the main features of the building is a wooden roof with 25-meter spans, which, among other things, forms the interior of the prayer hall. Also, there are other interesting details – we are telling you more about them.
The Shape of the Inconceivable
The ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh brings to mind a famous maxim of all architects and critics: “You’ve come up with it? Now build it!” You rarely see such a selfless immersion in implementation of the project, and the formidable structural and engineering tasks set by UNK architects to themselves are presented here as an integral and important part of the architectural idea. The challenge matches the obliging status of the place – after all, it is an “exhibition of achievements”, and the pavilion is dedicated to the nuclear energy industry. Let’s take a closer look: from the outside, from the inside, and from the underside too.
​Rays of the Desert
A school for 1750 students is going to be built in Dubai, designed by IND Architects. The architects took into account the local specifics, and proposed a radial layout and spaces, in which the children will be comfortable throughout the day.
The Dairy Theme
The concept of an office of a cheese-making company, designed for the enclosed area of a dairy factory, at least partially refers to industrial architecture. Perhaps that is why this concept is very simple, which seems the appropriate thing to do here. The building is enlivened by literally a couple of “master strokes”: the turning of the corner accentuates the entrance, and the shade of glass responds to the theme of “milk rivers” from Russian fairy tales.
The Road to the Temple
Under a grant from the Small Towns Competition, the main street and temple area of the village of Nikolo-Berezovka near Neftekamsk has been improved. A consortium of APRELarchitects and Novaya Zemlya is turning the village into an open-air museum and integrating ruined buildings into public life.
​Towers Leaning Towards the Sun
The three towers of the residential complex “Novodanilovskaya 8” are new and the tallest neighbors of the Danilovsky Manufactory, “Fort”, and “Plaza”, complementing a whole cluster of modern buildings designed by renowned masters. At the same time, the towers are unique for this setting – they are residential, they are the tallest ones here, and they are located on a challenging site. In this article, we explore how architects Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova tackled this far-from-trivial task.
In the spirit of ROSTA posters
The new Rostselmash tractor factory, conceptualized by ASADOV Architects, is currently being completed in Rostov-on-Don. References to the Soviet architecture of the 1920’s and 1960’s resonate with the mission and strategic importance of the enterprise, and are also in line with the client’s wish: to pay homage to Rostov’s constructivism.
The Northern Thebaid
The central part of Ferapontovo village, adjacent to the famous monastery with frescoes by Dionisy, has been improved according to the project by APRELarchitects. Now the place offers basic services for tourists, as well as a place for the villagers’ leisure.
Brilliant Production
The architects from London-based MOST Architecture have designed the space for the high-tech production of Charge Cars, a high-performance production facility for high-speed electric cars that are assembled in the shell of legendary Ford Mustangs. The founders of both the company and the car assembly startup are Russians who were educated in their home country.
Three-Part Task: St. Petersburg’s Mytny Dvor
The so-called “Mytny Dvor” area lying just behind Moscow Railway Station – the market rows with a complex history – will be transformed into a premium residential complex by Studio 44. The project consists of three parts: the restoration of historical buildings, the reconstruction of the lost part of the historical contour, and new houses. All of them are harmonized with each other and with the city; axes and “beams of light” were found, cozy corners and scenic viewpoints were carefully thought out. We had a chat with the authors of the historical buildings’ restoration project, and we are telling you about all the different tasks that have been solved here.
The Color of the City, or Reflections on the Slope of an Urban Settlement
In 2022, Ostozhenka Architects won a competition, and in 2023, they developed and received all the necessary approvals for a master plan for the development of Chernigovskaya Street for the developer GloraX. The project takes into account a 10-year history of previous developments; it was done in collaboration with architects from Nizhny Novgorod, and it continues to evolve now. We carefully examined it, talked to everyone, and learned a lot of interesting things.
A Single-Industry Town
Kola MMC and Nornickel are building a residential neighborhood in Monchegorsk for their future employees. It is based on a project by an international team that won the 2021 competition. The project offers a number of solutions meant to combat the main “demons” of any northern city: wind, grayness and boredom.
A New Age Portico
At the beginning of the year, Novosibirsk Tolmachevo Airport opened Terminal C. The large-scale and transparent entrance hall with luminous columns inside successfully combines laconism with a bright and photogenic WOW-effect. The terminal is both the new façade of the whole complex and the starting point of the planned reconstruction, upon completion of which Tolmachevo will become the largest regional airport in Russia. In this article, we are examining the building in the context of modernist prototypes of both Novosibirsk and Leningrad: like puzzle pieces, they come together to form their individual history, not devoid of curious nuances and details.
A New Starting Point
We’ve been wanting to examine the RuArts Foundation space, designed by ATRIUM for quite a long time, and we finally got round to it. This building looks appropriate and impressive; it amazingly combines tradition – represented in our case by galleries – and innovation. In this article, we delve into details and study the building’s historical background as well.
Molding Perspectives
Stepan Liphart introduces “schematic Art Deco” on the outskirts of Kazan – his houses are executed in green color, with a glassy “iced” finish on the facades. The main merits of the project lie in his meticulous arrangement of viewing angles – the architect is striving to create in a challenging environment the embryo of a city not only in terms of pedestrian accessibility but also in a sculptural sense. He works with silhouettes, proposing intriguing triangular terraces. The entire project is structured like a crystal, following two grids, orthogonal and diagonal. In this article, we are examining what worked, and what eventually didn’t.
An Educational Experiment for the North
City-Arch continues to work on the projects that can be termed as “experimental public preschools”: private kindergartens and schools can envy such facilities in many respects. This time around, the project is done for the city of Gubkinsky, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. A diverse educational and play environment, including a winter garden, awaits future students, while the teachers will have abundant opportunities to implement new practices.
Alexandra Kuzmina: “Working is easy when the rules are the same for everyone”
The subject matter of Moscow Region’s booth and presentations at Zodchestvo Festival was the concept of “Integrated Land Development”, and for a good reason: this task is very challenging, very relevant, and Moscow Region has already accumulated quite a formidable experience in this regard. In this article, we are speaking to the main architect of the region: about master plans and who makes them, about where you obtain resources for creating a comfortable environment, about her favorite projects, about why there are so few good architects, and what we should do with the bad ones.
The Cemetery: Inside and Outside
The workshop organized by the Genplan Institute of Moscow scored one of the two first places at the “Open City” festival. Its subject is reorganization of municipal cemeteries. Two action plans were proposed, diametrically opposite: one for the downtown and one for the suburbs.
Our Everything
Who is Alexey Shchusev? In the last couple of weeks, since the architect’s 150th birthday, different individuals have answered this question differently. The most detailed, illustrated, and elegantly presented response is an exhibition held in two buildings of the Museum of Architecture on Vozdvizhenka. Four curators, a year and a half of work performed by the entire museum, and exhibition design by Sergey Tchoban and Alexandra Sheiner – in this article, we take you on a tour of the exhibition and show what’s what in it.
For Mental Reboot
At the architectural competition held in 2023 in Novosibirsk, the project by GORA Architects – a pedestrian bridge leading to the town of Bor – was awarded the “Golden Capital” prize. In this country, more than a hundred pedestrian bridges are constructed each year. What makes the Bor bridge different?
Gold Embroidery
A five-story housing complex designed by Stepan Liphart in Kazan, responds to the stylistically diverse context with its form, both integral and agile, and as for the vicinity of the “Ekiyat” movie theater, the complex responds to it with a semblance of theater curtain folds, and active plastique of its balconies, that bear some resemblance to theater boxes. Even if excessively pompous a little bit, the complex does look fresh and modern. One will have a hard time finding Art Deco elements in it, even though the spirit of the 1930s, run through the filter of neo-modernism, is still clearly felt, just as a twist of the Occident.