По-русски

Alluvial Skyline

The story of the contest for development of the raised beach territories of Saint Petersburg's Vasilyevsky Island and about his project that shared its victory with the proposal by the consortium "КСАР+Orange" is shared by the leader of the architectural bureau "A.Len" Sergey Oreshkin.

Interviewed by:
Irina Bembel
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

31 December 2015
Interview
mainImg

Archi.ru: Please share about the contest in more detail. As is the practice recently, it took place without much media coverage? 

Sergey Oreshkin: Yes, as a matter of fact, it took some time before I learned about this contest myself - yes, such things are common in this country. Actually, the organizers have a point here - simply because an open contest attracts a crazy number of participants, and this ends up in a waste of time and resources. Even for the most moderate-size team, this means at least two architects that must work two months, plus consider the software and whatnot. In terms of efficiently spending your resources, this is completely wrong. Basically, yes, this is a difficult question - based on which criteria you invite companies to participate. On the one hand, you must encourage the young talent; on the other hand, you want to work with established professionals, so you need to differentiate the process somehow. 

The path that "Glorex Development" took was indeed civilized. The customer invited the company "TOPMARK" as the organizer, and "MARCH" as the consultant, and these all were the industry-renowned names - on behalf of "MARCH", for example, it was Eugene Ace that did the consulting; Elena Gonzales was the curator from "MARCH Lab".

The organizers invited to participate the companies with a good reputation and ones that were known to be active in the field of town-planning; such Russian companies being "Ostozhenka", "Studio 44", and us. We all constantly meet at contests of various levels and we have a lot of projects in construction. As far as our company is concerned, over the last ten years, our projects yielded about 450 000 square meters of residential housing stock built and launched into operation; almost a million square meters is being designed now, and we did more concepts and proposals than I care to remember, so, with all due modesty, we are professionals in this field. 

Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Ostozhenka Bureau. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Studio 44. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


We were invited already at the second round, when the organizers suddenly remembered that our company designed a lot of projects on the raised beaches - these are Saint Petersburg's passenger port (sea cruising terminal, the largest in Europe), and "Me, Romantic" residential complex, and "Waterville" aqua park in Pribaltiyskaya Hotel), Alla Pugacheva's theater that we designed together with the London bureau "POPULOUS". Besides, this year we won a few town-planning contests, and have just won the international contest for the five-star «Radisson Blu Moscow Riverside Hotel&SPA» (MAKE ACTIVE) - probably, this information also got through to the organizers. 

The western companies were also carefully picked. Cino Zucchi is known for his creativity, and this is considering the fact that in Italy it's very difficult to become a "star" architect because the competition there is ten times as tough as it is in Russia. Zucchi came up with a truly Italian project - with its own unique understanding of the quality and coziness of residential space - at the same time reminding the sunny Italy in a barely perceptible way with some of its viewing angles.

Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. CZA. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


"КСАР" has great town-planning expertise and large experience of working in Russia. For example, they developed the concept of developing Perm agglomeration - a huge chunk of work.

The only truly world-renowned company was "Snohetta"; that was a great incentive for us to take our work to the limit. 

Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Snohetta. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


Was the contest organized at the customer's initiative or was it the recommendation of the city? 

Sergey Oreshkin: Organizing this contest was the initiative of the customer, the company "Glorex Development", plus, there was an impulse coming from Vladimir Grigoryev, the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. The way I see it, we are now beginning to follow Moscow's path where for years now, at the initiative of the chief architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov various contests are organized that draw interesting lineups of participants.

Such contests bring a very important thing into our routine: the necessity of elaborating the contest task to the tiniest detail. The western architects have a huge advantage over us because of our soviet "trail" when the depth of elaborating on the details in the project was negligently small. If we are to take a look at today's State Standards (soviet ones, in effect), it provides for the most superficial degree of project elaboration: the parapet unit, the basement floor unit, something else - but the exact degree of project elaboration is not defined. In Russia, this has always been the soil that spawned the conflict between the customer and the architect. While we have three phases of voluminous designing and two phases of town planning, in the rest of the world this number is from eight to fourteen, out of which four are only preliminary ones. I hope that thanks to global integration we will be able to bridge this gap one day.

Did the voice imagery preferences of any kind? Some of the participants, including yourselves, used the images of waves and sails, even though bionics is not characteristic of what you usually do... 

Sergey Oreshkin: Nobody mentioned the stylistic preferences at all. Only the most general considerations were announced: a feeling of a seaside promenade was to be created, a feeling of wind, and vagrant marine life... To this or that degree, all the contestants tried to reflect that. Well, maybe Nikita Yavein came up with a brilliant idea of a theatrical production: the windows of his business center are designed as "television screens" through which people would watch the sailing ships go by. There is always theater and experiment about his work. 

Alexander Skokan reflected the image of Saint Petersburg, tying in his modules to the height of the cornice of the Winter Palace and the rhythm of the Palace Embankment. "Snohetta" used the image of an iceberg as the generalized symbol of the northern sea. 

Our image line includes, first of all, the image of the wind. I proceeded from the image of the Finnish Gulf with which my bright childhood memories are connected: these are the towns of Zelenogorsk and Pesochnoe, the clean sand, the glittering ripples of the sea, and the warm shallow waters. But our main leitmotif was the search for the pure "skyline" of the sea wash-in - by analogy with the famous skylines of the city's main seaside views. If we are to build the virtual outlines of the buildings standing on the streets leading to the Neva embankments, it will turn out that these silhouettes, limited though they are, do carry some interesting esthetics. With the use of today's 3D technologies, these silhouettes can be united into skyline envelopes which we did on the basis of pre-calculated modules of the development of the Vasilyevsky Island. The skyline surfaces created unique silhouettes standing along all the streets of our project. Furthermore, by using the 3D design software, we achieved the result where all the cornices are interconnected by a common cornice line. 

Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


As for the bionics, what we always have is a fight between imagery and rationalism. In fact, we turned to bionics many times, even though we did not really let these projects go public: town-planning commuters usually reject this kind of stuff. But in this particular case we could afford to sacrifice some functionality in favor of the image per se. What is a different thing, however, is the fact that we anyway create the technical rationale for it: what kind of housing it must be, how it should sell, and so on. And it was only after that that we looked for and calculated the best possible angle of roof inclination. In order to do that, like I already said, we covered the whole Vasilyevsky Island with a "virtual blanket" that gave us the scale of that wave.

Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Diagram of town-planning axises. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Building height analysis. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


The Vasilyevsky Island has on it a few zones of buildings of different scale: it's northeast part was built upon Trezzini project, then there is the houses on the Smolenka River built by Lenproject; the riverside quarter built by Eugene Gerasimov, buildings by Ivan Fomin of the 1910... We were just a little short of time to make a real "bomb" out of it. 

Besides, we really wanted to hint, one way or another, that Saint Petersburg is a trading town, and a trading town is always about red-brick warehouses. In Amsterdam, there used to be hooks on the facades of the warehouses; when the ship would come in, the owner had a negotiation on the bottom floor, and then the sacks were hoisted down - meaning, the trade was honed to perfection. So, we also wanted to reflect that element of the trade port period. Hence the brick brown buildings with cut-off corners - these are business centers, while the residential houses are of lighter color. 

Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Search for the image, scale. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Search for the image, scale. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


All the projects, including ours, were based on some brilliant idea. All the participants were experimenting, all were taking risks, and I cannot say that a single project was a "failure". All the works were decent, as was said at the after-contest press conference; there was no significant difference in the level of the submitted projects. 

Did the master plan by "Gensler" get in your way? 

Sergey Oreshkin: Upon closer inspection, the master plan that was developed by the American company "Gensler" back in 2006 for the raised beaches is not at all as harebrained as it might look at a first glance. Since we did some serious research of the problem, we found out that all the radii were drawn from justified, and not arbitrary, points. The members of the expert board who considered that master plan back in the day - they also say that, from a formal standpoint, you cannot really find a single flaw in that project. Probably, its most serious issue is the engineering networks - they do not go well together with acute angles because this requires some serious extra resources to be spent. This would lead to huge extra expenses that would come up further down the road. 

zooming
Project of 2006. "Gensler" architectural bureau. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Diagram of town-planning axises. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


What will be the future of your cooperation with "KCAP + Orange" consortium? 

Sergey Oreshkin: It is planned that our team will be adapting the project developed by "КСАР+Orange. We also work up to European standards, which, I think, was a bit of a surprise for the customer. Before sanctions were imposed on the Russian economy, our technical base was even a little better than that of our western colleagues because we, unlike many other companies, annually updated our software, just as a normal company should. Now we cannot affords to do that, so the odds are getting even. We will definitely use the experience of "КСАР+Orange" consortium, and their focus on creating a comfortable environment for the people to live in - but their specific proposal needs to be revised significantly in terms of the planning borders. From a formal standpoint, it is rather difficult going beyond the borders of the site, changing the shape of the embankments, and digging channels, even though today's technology allows for providing a decent streamflow. By all means, we will their idea of spires - it's a brilliant one. The channels are also a great idea, only we will have to figure out how that could be technically implemented.

Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Diagram of town-planning axises. KCAP+ORANGE. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Diagram of town-planning axises. KCAP+ORANGE. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


Designing the embankment is a separate subject: it takes some serious work, coordination with the designers of the other land sites, and you need to tie it all in with the existing embankments. I think that within the framework of one common town-planning cause, you need to invite different architects to do the work. This is a common practice in Moscow - for example, on the territory of the ZIL Factory. Me personally, after the town-planning phase is completed, I would invite different architects, close in spirit and ready to work within a common architectural concept of the overall style and particularly the facades. This idea was also voiced by the chief architect of Saint Petersburg Vladimir Grigoryev. Where large complexes are built by one and the same hand, there is always a feeling of loss in the environment. In particular, all these modern quarters over 100 000 square meters, "single-handedly" built, all look, as if they were undernourished in terms of getting architectural care and attention. 

Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Master plan. KCAP+ORANGE. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. KCAP+ORANGE. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


What will be your working schedule on this project? 

Sergey Oreshkin: There are no specific terms yet but the customer is looking to do some serious work in Saint Petersburg. You can make this conclusion from the sole fact that "Glorex Development" is launching several projects at once in Saint Petersburg, each being developed by established architectural bureaus, and this in spite of the fact that, essentially, most of these projects are social commission and do not entail any commercial profit. We will sure take a rest during the Christmas season, and then we will resume the consultations.
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Facades. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Facades. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Master plan. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Transport diagram. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Algorithm of the height functional development. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Shape formation. A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Plan of the first floor of Quarter 9 "Sirokko". A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Plan of the first floor of Quarter 8 "Breeze". A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Plan of the first floor of Quarter 4 "Mistral". A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Plan of the typical floor of Quarter 9 "Sirokko". A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Plan of the typical floor of Quarter 8 "Breeze". A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"
Concept of the integrated social and housing project on the Vasilyevsky Island. Plan of the typical floor of Quarter 4 "Mistral". A.Len. Photo courtesy by "Glorax Development"


31 December 2015

Interviewed by:

Irina Bembel
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.