По-русски

​More Metaphorically Than Literally

There is an argument going on in Saint Petersburg: will it be OK to add a new wing (of modern architecture) to the Dostoyevsky Literary Memorial Museum or is it only allowed to recreate the lost tenement house nearby? In this article, we are covering the preliminary concept of the museum building.

Written by:
Seraphima Lvovskaya
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

26 April 2018
Report
mainImg


Known around the world, an indispensable part of the Russian school program, and widely read in the western countries, the writer Dostoevsky spent most of his life in the tenement buildings of Saint Petersburg, which was a custom those days. The historians of his creative work name tens of addresses. However, there is only one memorial museum in the city – the house in which the writer lived the last years of his life and passed away – Kuznechny Alley 5, in the Kuchina tenement house. The entrance to the museum is situated on the corner from the Dostoevskogo Street, downstairs, through the basement floor. The flat itself is on the second floor, with a cast iron balcony, the museum’s theater occupying the basement and the first floor. The museum is extremely active: performances, thematic evenings, and master classes; in April-May, the museum saw six different exhibitions. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that it in a desperate need of extra space; so far, people of limited mobility simply have no access here, there are staircases all over the place.



In December of 2017, the director of the museum Natalia Ashimbaeva and the architect Evgeny Gerasimov, in collaboration with the businessman Andrey Yakunin (the son of the former head of the Russian Railways and a co-owner of the VIYM company) created a nonprofit foundation “Petersburg of Dostoevsky”. Andrey Yakunin handled the fundraising issues, Evgeny Gerasimov developed a concept of the new wing of the museum for free, and he is planning to complete the entire project also on a charity basis. The organizers stress that the project is a nonprofit one; the building will be handed over to the state. Donations are being collected; the approximate anticipated cost of the construction is 700 million rubles. In April, the architectural concept was approved by the Smolny.

The foundation is planning to build the new wing next to the museum: in 1971, to the left of it, a house was dismantled – it was a tenement building of pretty much the same kind, looking very much like the Dostoevsky museum – and there are plans for building the new wing in its stead; the size of the wing will be very close to that of the demolished house, meaning, it is practically going to be a regeneration project. The local preservation activists were vocally critical of the whole thing, specifically, on two points: first of all, the two lawns on either side of the driveway are inside the new construction blueprint. These lawns have already been excluded from the list of “public landscaped areas” but the critics of the project consider them to be a piece of parkland, while the director of the museum Natalia Ashimbaeva, on the other hand, claims that the formal size of a park, in accordance with the effective legislation, is 400 square meters or higher, and the lawns are smaller than that. The real little park with full-fledged trees will be preserved and landscaped inside the yard.







Another, more interesting, issue is the modern style of the proposed architecture of the new museum building. Accusations came up to the effect that the project is “killing the Saint Petersburg of Dostoevsky” because it violates the fabric of the old houses in this area. Some people proposed to restore the house, which was torn down in 1971 and let it host the museum.

However, this solution is fraught with a few paradoxes, though predictable. First, the foundation wants to present the building with a museum, and, although, museums and nonprofit projects are usually a welcome thing, in this instance the public protests. Second, Evgeny Gerasimov, known as the author of many serious stylizations, wants to build a modernist building of the museum, and he is criticized for that. One more thing: competent architects would be unlikely to criticize their fellow colleague for such a solution because – and that’s important – unlike in the times of Roman Klein, who designed and built the State Pushkin Museum, today it is not a common standard to design museums in the style of historicism. True, there are exceptions, but these are few and far between, for example, the Museum in Yoshkar Ola.



The guarded attitude of the people of Saint Petersburg towards modern architecture is something that is widely known; a lot of people believe that in the context of the historical construction you can only build in the historicist style and stylizations in order to avoid violating the integrity of the city environment. However, on the one hand, over the last half a century we saw the forming of the notion of “environmental modernism”, the kind of architecture that is modern but still unobtrusive of its context and delicate enough to adjust its parameters (like height and proportions) to it, and rather neutral without being garish.

On the other hand, a museum is to some extent the paragon of modern culture, a place where it gives meaning to – and in many ways stresses – its difference from the culture of the past, setting itself against it and studying the true artifacts. While in the XIX century a museum would oftentimes use stylizations in order to immerse the visitor into the atmosphere of the epoch that it represented, becoming a theater of sorts, today the last thing that museums want is imitation. Everything that is new in a museum is ostentatiously new, any kind of stylization is perceived as a recently-hacked fake and an insult to the museum cause.

Evgeny Gerasimov has a few more arguments against repeating verbatim House #7 on the Kuznechny Alley. If this building is to be recreated to a letter, it will not be able to serve the function of the modern museum – at least because of the fact that most of its windows will be blind imitations because the two bottom floors (as is planned) will be occupied by the theater auditorium, whilst the two upper floors will be occupied by a lecture hall and a library. Out of the whole set of functions, only the exhibition premises need sunlight, and even these do not always require it. The second argument: the surrounding environment is historical and classicist, yes, it is true, but it does not at all belong to the times when Dostoevsky lived in the Kuznechny Alley! The “InzhEkon” building is neoclassicism of the 1910’s; the Kuznechny Market is the neoclassicism of the 1920’s. This argument, however, is but secondary; it is clear that what matters for the architect is the museum typology, which nowadays allows of no stylization whatsoever.

Evgeny Gerasimov gives examples of modern museum buildings: small, neatly inscribed into the city environment, merging with it in terms of scale and proportion, and not trying to conceal their age. One of such buildings is the Museum for Architectural Drawing in Berlin, founded by his long-standing partner Sergey Tchoban.









Probably, these examples, which helped the architect to place his idea into the context of the museum construction typology, are one of the main components of the concept.

Otherwise – Evgeny Gerasimov stresses – the project is but preliminary, “only a concept”; the inner organization is currently more detailed than the façades. “An active search for their design solution is underway” – the architect specifies. Therefore, one can only speak now about the “treatment of metaphorical meanings of architectural solutions” – the company states.

What is known as of this moment?
The contextual traits: leveling out the height of the building at the mark of the cornice of the old house; the slicing of the wall in accordance with the floors will most likely be preserved, just as the highlighting of the entrance by the vertical of the atrium.

The new wing will merge with the old building but at the same time it will be separated from it by an atrium that will on the inside look like a small dead-end alley with a panoramic elevator at its end and a stained glass window on the street side. “The atrium all about the image of the “water well” yard as the inside of the human soul where most of the writer’s novels take place – Evgeny Gerasimov explains – Dostoevsky would drag out into the light the darkest secrets of the human soul, which are usually hidden deep down inside, and because of that we bring the “water well” yard to the foreground” – the architect stresses. The windows of the two buildings – the old tenement and the new museum – are looking at each other over a narrow space of the atrium yard, giving the visitor a cramped feeling. There is a boardwalk between the buildings as the symbol of a transition, a “teleport”, a bridge between the old and the new or even the symbolic mirror between the museum house and its new reflection.



“The true memorial part of the museum will stay in the old building – the architect shares – And the new wing is meant to attract the readers of the new generations. There is Dostoevsky as a realist, and there is Dostoevsky as an innovator; his creative writing sort of was refracted through the prism of time. And we treat this boardwalk as a transition from one epoch to another, a metaphorical teleport, the atrium being the portal for leaping through space and time”.





The façades are something that the architects prefer not to speak about – they say that they are not quite finished yet – but it is already clear that the laconic and modern solution become a point of honor for Evgeny Gerasimov. It must be said that this story with the project of Dostoevsky Museum is not the only example in the latest history of the Russian architecture when the public votes for the recreation of a lost building, while the architect votes for the up-to-date solution. Given the knowledge of Saint Petersburg conservatism, one could suppose that the concept is in for a lot of difficulties – but then again, any idea needs to be grounded and honed to perfection. What if when the project is ready its exquisiteness will win over its opponents and it will get Saint Petersburg closer to the view of the European capitals on the development of the city’s historical context, and will make possible a peaceful coexistence of the new and the old that only enriches the environment?

Currently, the foundation is settling the legal issues connected with the land plot. Next on the agenda are the project stage and its discussion in the Town Planning council and the Cultural Heritage Preservation Council. The construction is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2019.
Concept of developing the Dostoyevsky Literary Memorial Museum. View of the museum from the Marata Street © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
Entrance to the Dostoyevsky Literary Memorial Museum. Photograph by Alena Kuznetsova
The current break in the stead of House #7 in the Kuznechny Alley / Photo courtesy Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
The current yard of House #7 in the Kuznechny Alley. The tree on the right will be preserved / Photo courtesy Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
The construction site of the new wing is marked in red. Concept of developing the Dostoyevsky Literary Memorial Museum. View of the museum from the Marata Street © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
zooming
National art gallery in Yoshkar Ola. Photo: Alkort via Wikimedia Commons. Lisense CC BY 3.0
zooming
The Museum for Architectural Drawing © Patricia Parinejad
The Art Museum in Nantes, France © Hufton+Crow
zooming
Kunstgalerie Hinter dem Giesshaus © Ute Zscharnt for David Chipperfield Architects
Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore © GreenhilLi
Concept of developing the Dostoyevsky Literary Memorial Museum © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
Concept of developing the Dostoyevsky Literary Memorial Museum © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
Concept of developing the Dostoyevsky Literary Memorial Museum. Atrium © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners


26 April 2018

Written by:

Seraphima Lvovskaya
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov
Headlines now
Julius Borisov: “The “Island” housing complex is a unique project – we took it on with...
One of the largest housing projects of today’s Moscow – the “Ostrov” (“Island”) housing complex built by Donstroy – is now being actively built in the Mnevniky Floodplain. They are planning to build about 1.5M square meters of housing on an area of almost 40 hectares. We are beginning to examine this project– first of all, we are talking to Julius Borisov, the head of the architectural company UNK, which works with most of the residential blocks in this grand-scale project, as well as with the landscaping part; the company even proposed a single design code for the entire territory.
A Balanced Solution
The residential complex “Balance” on Moscow’s Ryazansky Prospekt is one of the large-scale, and relatively economical (again, by Moscow standards) housing projects. Its first phase has already been built and landscaped; the work on the others is in progress. Nevertheless, it has an integral internal logic, which is based on the balance of functions, height, and even image and space composition. The proposed solutions are recognizable and laconic, so that each of them was reduced by the authors to a graphic “logo”. To see everything, you have to flip through the pages and look through to the end.
Horror Vacui
In the city of Omsk, ASADOV architects took on a very challenging task: they are developing a concept of a public and residential complex, which involves reconstructing the city’s first thermal power station standing right next to Omsk’s first fortress. This territory has already seen a lot of projects designed for it, and the residential function of this land site has been the subject of heated debate. In this article, we are examining the project in question, aimed at developing a mid-scale city fabric suited for the historical center. We also examine the above-mentioned debate. Seriously, will this project save this place or will it bring it to ruin?
A Multi-Faced Grotto
This building, seemingly small, unremarkable, semi-ruined, and not even very ancient – the Grotto in the Bauman Garden – was restored by the “People’s Architect” architectural company with all the care applicable to a heritage monument. They preserved the romantic appeal of the ruins, added multimedia content, and explored the cascading fountain, which, as it turned out, was completely preserved. Brace yourself for a long story!
First among Equals
The building of a kindergarten in the town of Beloyarsky is more than just another example of a modern educational space. Its design began a long time ago; it is located in Russia’s Far North; it is also a state-owned facility that is subject to regulations, and had to cut costs during construction (as usual). However, the design is contemporary, the layout is modern, and the building feels very fresh. The project is planned to be replicated.
Gustave Falconnier
In the “ruin” wing of Moscow’s Museum of Architecture, an exhibition of “glass bricks” by Gustave Falconnier is open. These “bricks” are essentially the predecessors of glass blocks, but more complex and beautiful. The exhibition shows genuine “bricks”, buildings composed of them, the history of the destruction of Falconnier windows in the building of the State Archives, and it also became one of the reasons to revive this unique production technology.
​Streamline for City Canyons
Stepan Liphart has designed two houses for two small land sites situated in the area surrounding the Varshavsky Railway Station, which is being intensively developed now. The sites are situated close but not next to each other, and they are different, yet similar: the theme is the same but it is interpreted in different ways. In this issue, we are examining and comparing both projects.
​The Eastern Frontier
“The Eastern Arc” is one of the main land resources of Kazan’s development, concentrated in the hands of a single owner. The Genplan Institute of Moscow has developed a concept for the integrated development of this territory based on an analytical transport model that will create a comfortable living environment, new centers of attraction, and new workplaces as well.
A School of Our Time
On the eve of the presentation of the new book by ATRIUM, dedicated to the design of schools and other educational facilities, based on the architects’ considerable experience, as well as expert judgments, we are examining the Quantum STEM school building, constructed according to their project in Astana. Furthermore, this building is planned to be the first one to start a new chain. The architects designed it in full accordance with modern standards but sometimes they did break away from them – only to confirm the general development rules. For example, there are two amphitheaters in the atrium, and there is an artificial hill in the yard that is meant to make the flat terrain of the Kazakhstan steppe more eventful.
The Fluffy Space
Designing the passenger terminal of the Orenburg airport, ASADOV architects continue to explore the space theme that they first introduced in Saratov and Kemerovo airports. At the same time, the architects again combine the global and the local, reflecting topics inspired by the local conceptual context. In this case, the building is “covered” by an Orenburg downy shawl – an analogy that is recognizable enough, yet not literal; some will see the reference and some won’t.
The White Fitness Center
The white health and fitness center, designed by Futura Architects at the entrance to St. Petersburg’s New Piter residential complex, provides the developing area not only with functional but also with sculptural diversity, livening up the rows of the brick city blocks with the whiteness of its seamless facades, cantilevered structures, and dynamic inclined lines.
The New Dawn
In their project of a technology park to be built on the grounds of “Integrated Home-Building Factory 500” in Tyumen Oblast – the biggest in Russia – the HADAA architects preserve not just the industrial function of the giant hangar built in the late 1980s and 90% of its structures, but also respond to its imagery. They also propose a “gradient” approach to developing the available areas: from open public ones to staff-only professional spaces. The goal of this approach is to turn the technology park into the driver for developing the business function between the industrial zones and the future residential area in accordance with the Integrated Land Development program.
​Tame Hills for New Residents
T+T Architects have reported that they have completed the landscaping project for the yard of the first stage of Alexandrovsky Garden housing complex in Ekaterinburg – the landscape complements the contextual architecture, tailored for the buyers’ preferences and downtown standards, with bold neo modernist master strokes and lush and diverse vegetation.
The Crystal of the City Block
The typology and plastique of large housing complexes move with the times, and you can sometimes find new subtleties in the scope of seemingly familiar solutions. The Sky Garden complex combines two well-known themes, forming a giant residential area consisting of tall slender towers, placed at the perimeter of a large yard, in which a crossroads of two pedestrian promenades is “dissolved”.
Sunshine, Air, and Water
The construction of the “Solnechny” (“Sunny”) summer camp, designed by ARENA project institute, has been completed, the largest summer camp within the legendary Artek seaside resort for children. It was conceived still in Soviet time, but it was not implemented. The modern version surprises you with sophisticated engineering solutions that are combined with a clear-cut structure: together, they generate Asher-esque spaces.
​Art Deco at the Edge of Space
The competition project by Stepan Liphart – a high-end residential complex executed in a reserved classicist style in close proximity to the Kaluga Space Museum – responds equally well to the context and to the client’s brief. It is moderately respectable, moderately mobile and transparent, and it even digs a little into the ground to comply with strict height restrictions, without losing proportions and scale.
​A Hill behind the Wall
The master plan of a new residential area in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, developed by the Genplan Institute of Moscow with the participation of Kengo Kuma & Associates, is based on the complexities and advantages of the relief of the foothills: the houses are arranged in cascades, and multi-level improvement penetrates all the blocks, continuing in forest trails.
Going, Going, Gone!
The housing complex “Composers’ Residences” has been built in accordance with the project by Sergey Skuratov, who won the international competition back in 2011. It all began from the image search and “cutting off all spare”, and then implementing the recognizable Skuratov architecture. It all ended, however, in tearing down the buildings of the Schlichterman factory, whose conservation was stipulated by all the appropriate agencies prior to approving Skuratov’s project. This story seems to be educational and important for understanding the history of all the eleven years, during which the complex was designed and built.
The Life of Iron
The building of the Vyksa Metallurgy Museum, designed by Nikita Yavein and Sergey Padalko, provides for the natural aging of metal – it is planned that the iron will gradually rust – at the same time utilizing the advanced type of construction, based on metal’s ability to stretch. The building will be constructed from pipes and rolled steel supplied by OMK company, as well as from recycled bricks.
​And the Brook is Flowing
ASADOV Architects have designed a master plan for developing a residential area at the outskirts of Kaliningrad: a regular grid of housing blocks is enriched by large-scale public facilities, the main “artery” of the new area being the fortification channel that regains its original function.
Off We Go!
The new terminal of the Tomsk airport is being designed by ASADOV bureau. The architects keep on developing its identity, building the imagery upon the inventions of Nikolai Kamov, whose name the airport bears. The result is laconic, light, and, as always, levitating.
Maximum Flexibility
The Multispace Dinamo, which recently opened within the Arena business center, is an example of a project that is entirely based upon cutting-edge approaches and technologies. It is managed via a mobile application, special software was created for it, and the spaces are not just multifunctional but carefully mixed up, like some kind of jigsaw puzzle that allows the office workers to mix their working routine for better efficiency.
A Factory’s Path
Last week, the new center for constructivist studies “Zotov” hosted its first exhibition named “1922. Constructivism. The Inception”. The idea of creating this center belongs to Sergey Tchoban, while the project of the nearest houses and adjusting the building of the bread factory for the new museum function was done by the architect in collaboration with his colleagues from SPEECH. We decided that such a complex project should be examined in its entirety – and this is how we came up with this long-read about constructivism on Presnya, conservation, innovation, multilayered approach, and hope.
The Savelovsky Axis
The business center, situated right in the middle of a large city junction next to the Savelovsky Railway Station takes on the role of a spatial axis, upon which the entire place hinges: it spins like a spiral, alternating perfect glass of the tiers and deep recessions of inter-tier floors that conceal little windows invented by the architects. It is sculptural, and it claims the role of a new city landmark, in spite of its relatively small height of nine floors.
Parametric Waves
In the housing complex Sydney City, which FSK Group is building in the area of Shelepikhinskaya Embankment, Genpro designed the central city block, combining parametric facades and modular technology within its architecture.
The Multitone
The new interior of the Action Development headquarters can be regarded as an attempt to design the perfect “home” for the company – not just comfortable but broadcasting the values of modern development. It responds to the context, yet it is built on contrast, it is fresh but cozy, it is dynamic, yet it invites you to relax – everything of this coexists here quite harmoniously, probably because the architects found an appropriate place for each of the themes.
Refinement No Longer Relevant
A few days ago journalists were shown the building of Bread Factory #5, renovated upon the project by Sergey Tchoban. In this issue, we are publishing Grigory Revzin’s thoughts about this project.
The Comb of Strelna
In this issue, we are taking a close look at the project that won the “Crystal Daedalus” award – the “Veren Village” housing complex in Strelna, designed by Ostozhenka. Its low-rise format became a trigger for typological and morphological experiments – seemingly, we are seeing recognizable trends, yet at the same time there are a multitude of subtleties that are a pleasure to go into. Having studied this project in detail, we think that the award is well-deserved.
A Tectonic Shift
For several years now, Futura Architects have been working with the “New Peter” residential area in the south of St. Petersburg. In this article, we are covering their most recent project – a house, in which the architects’ architectural ideas peacefully coexist with the limitations of comfort-class housing, producing a “multilayered” effect that looks very attractive for this typology.
Three “Green” Stories
In this issue, we are examining three environmental urban projects showcased by the Genplan Institute of Moscow at the Zodchestvo festival. The scale of the projects is really diverse: from gathering information and suggestions from the residents on a city scale to growing meadow grass between houses to paintings, which, as it turned out, possess power to cure trees, healing their wounded bark. + a list of kinds of plants natural for Moscow to help the developer.