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From Moscow to Khabarovsk

This year, the works submitted by the students of the Genplan Institute of Moscow included a proposal for revitalizing Moscow’s “Pravda” complex with its structures designed by Ilia Golosov, landscaping an East Siberian town, located a 12-hour drive away from the nearest big city, and three versions of turning a derelict “pioneer camp” into an educational hub, similar to “Sirius”. Two sites out of three have an interested client, so chances are that the students’ works will be ultimately implemented.

Julia Tarabarina

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

12 October 2023
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The projects submitted by the students of the Genplan Institute of Moscow keep getting better by the year – both from the standpoint of their presentation and in terms of their actual results. While in 2021 the student projects were discussed in a small hall on the Triumfalnaya Square, this year the presentation took place in the Situation Center of the Government of Moscow – it was a grand event conducted on a big stage with a big screen.

We consider these summer “practices” or “internships” to be an important and very interesting part of the Institute’s activities. Student work, as you know, unlike other types of architectural practice, implies greater freedom and courage, as well as relaxation of all participants – accordingly, the practices help us to look at seemingly familiar tasks from a new angle, and to recharge our batteries in many respects. This year I curated one of the workshops for the first time, so I followed both the work and the presentations with great interest.

And I have to say that – although I certainly see some mistakes, weaknesses, inaccuracies, etc. – I think it is much more important that the level of work is increasing, sometimes it is amazing how students manage to do such thorough research in a short period of 1.5-2 months. Of course, we use internships to recruit future employees – some internship participants, as was done in previous years, will receive invitations for additional internships or jobs.


Participants, tutors and jury. Practice of the Institute of General Plan / 2023
Copyright: Photograph © Vladimir Kudryavtsev / provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow


Practice of Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023. Chegdomyn project team
Copyright: Photograph © Vladimir Kudryavtsev / provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow


Video report on the presentation of students’ works.



The first two projects were done by big teams, and they are characterized by a high degree of detailing of town planning solutions.

The project developed for the Pravda complex was awarded the grand prize by the judging panel.

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    Grigory Mustafin, Chief Architect of the Institute of Genplan. Practice of the Institute of Genplan / 2023
    Copyright: Photograph © Vladimir Kudryavtsev / provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow
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    Sergey Glubokin, Deputy Head of the Architectural Council of Moscow. Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023. Defense
    Copyright: Photograph © Vladimir Kudryavtsev / provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow
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    Maxim Perov, Advisor to the Director of the Genplan Institute of Moscow. Practice of the Institute of Genplan / 2023
    Copyright: Photograph © Vladimir Kudryavtsev / provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow
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    Internship of the Institute / 2023
    Copyright: Photograph © Vladimir Kudryavtsev / provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow
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    Tatiana Guk, Director of the Genplan Institute of Moscow. Internship of the Institute / 2023
    Copyright: Photograph © Vladimir Kudrzavtsev / provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow


Grand Prize
New Pravda: a media cluster for bloggers
Curators: Tatiana Guk, Director of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Dmitry Nekrasov, Advisor to the Director of the Genplan Institute of Moscow.
Participants: Anastasia Dzhumiga, Kristina Yakovleva, Anastasia Smirnova, Emil Halliullin, Arina Andreeva, Nikolay Samofalov, Arina Demyanova, Marina Chursanova


Team of the PRAVDA project. Practice of Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023.
Copyright: Photograph © Vladimir Kudryavtsev / provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow


Concept of the local urban space PRAVDA
Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023

 
The Pravda newspaper factory, built according to the project of Ilya Golosov, which opened in 1934, and in 1988 received the status of a cultural heritage site (this status, by the way, as a consequence, implies only restoration of the buildings), is now in a state of semi-abandonment and inefficient rent. The Yamskoye Pole district is not used very efficiently by Moscow in general, as the project team calculated: there are 12 times fewer organizations here than in other districts within the Third Transport Ring. Pravda used to be the largest publishing house in the world, which, of course, was due to the Soviet passion for building big things, but still, the fact that back in the day it produced about 11 million copies of printed matter a year is as impressive as an Egyptian pyramid.

In 2006, the buildings of the complex burned down, and the issue of its revitalization was subsequently approached more than once, but no project was ever implemented. In the summer of 2022, DOM.rf put it up for sale; there is a great chance, as was heard at the event, that the territory will soon be covered by the “comprehensive development of cities and districts” program.

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    Concept of the local urban space PRAVDA
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    Concept of the local urban space PRAVDA
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023


The team members analyzed the lists of organizations “inhabiting” Yamskoye Pole now and concluded that among them there is a very high percentage of media entities: editorial offices, publishing houses, and the like – they qualified it as a fading trace of the influence of the Soviet publishing complex, and even characterized the Pravda district as a “protocluster”.
 
The authors of the project suggested turning the complex into a media cluster specializing in bloggers as the most productive and promising area of the media sphere of our time: their rates are lower, their audience is larger, and they grow faster. According to research data, there are 1.4 million bloggers in the country now, 60% of them based in Moscow, so cafes, co-working spaces, recording studios, creative offices and exhibition spaces could appear here for them.

Concept of the local urban space PRAVDA
Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023


“Camp Fest” campus.
Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023


Concept of the local urban space PRAVDA
Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023


According to the project, the main traffic load should be channeled from Pravda Street to Yamskogo Polya Street; a pedestrian bridge should be built over the Butyrsky Val and over the railroad (it seems that it is in the city’s plans and is even under construction now). The industrial areas of the Dux Rocket Plant and the Rumyantsev Machine Building Plant should be turned into parks that will be in demand both by creative media bloggers and by the residents of the neighboring houses and offices being built in the Yamskoye Pole area according to the designs of CLP, Dyar, Evgeny Gerasimov and others.

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    Concept of the local urban space PRAVDA
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    Concept of the local urban space PRAVDA
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    Concept of the local urban space PRAVDA
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    Concept of the local urban space PRAVDA
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023


According to the team’s calculations, the project has a chance to pay off in 3 years, its implementation could be started in 2023, completed in 2030, and in 2034 the 100th anniversary of the complex could be celebrated in the new media cluster.

Practice participants

Chegdomyn, Tsentralnaya Street
Concept for the development of Tsentralnaya Street in the town of Chegdomyn

 
Curators: Tatiana Terekhova, Head of Urban Development Workshop, Arseniy Igoshev, Junior Specialist of APM No.2.
Participants: Daria Igoshina, Georgy Haiduk, Inna Sergeeva, Angelina Indereva, Sofia Makarova, Alexandra Petrova, Timofey Maiko, Anastasia Murzaeva


The team of Chegdomyn project. Practice of Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023.
Copyright: Photograph © Vladimir Kudryavtsev / provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow


Chegdomyn, the Central Street
Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023


Yet another detailed project with a large team from different time zones was developed at the request by Alexey Krupevsky, the first deputy head of the Verkhnebureinsky district; it is one of the useful echoes of the competition that the Genplan Institute of Moscow was engaged in 2022-2023 – and in many ways it represents a different pole as compared to the territory of the capital’s monument of architecture, i.e. the Pravda complex.

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    Chegdomyn, the Central Street
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    Chegdomyn, the Central Street
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023


The town of Chegdomyn specializes in coal mining and processing, its population is 11,000 people, and it is located between Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk; it takes 12 to 18 hours to get to the nearest city by car, 17 hours by train, airfields are only open in winter, so going somewhere for fun is not an trivial task here. However, in this city they shoot a serial named “The Gold of Umalta”. One of the main advantages of the city, noted by the authors of the project, is that although it is located on a plain, it is surrounded by beautiful landscapes of forest-covered mountains.

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    Chegdomyn, the Central Street
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    Chegdomyn, the Central Street
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    Chegdomyn, the Central Street
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    Chegdomyn, the Central Street
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    Chegdomyn, the Central Street
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023


The subject of the design is the improvement of Tsentralnaya (Central) Street, the linear center of the town, where most of its public infrastructure is concentrated, including its social sector, although it has few residents and, therefore, the functions will be located far from pedestrian accessibility.

Chegdomyn project team. Practice of the Institute of General Plan / 2023.
Copyright: Photograph © Vladimir Kudryavtsev / provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow


However, the project is not so much about a master plan, as it is about landscaping, and the architects proposed to rethink 8 public spaces of various kinds, “strung” on the axis of the street: squares in front of the cinema and registry office, a playground and a sightseeing platform, a public garden, a boulevard and even parking garages. They propose to narrow the main – Central – street from 5 meters to 3.5 meters, and to use the resulting space for snow storage (there is a lot of snow there), as well as to make a storm drainage system, which does not exist yet – after its appearance, the tarmac coverage will be preserved longer than now.

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    Chegdomyn, the Central Street
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    Chegdomyn, the Central Street
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    Chegdomyn, the Central Street
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    Chegdomyn, the Central Street
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023


The team not only worked at the request of the village administration, but was in constant contact with it, collecting information and its additional wishes, so that the “presence effect”at the presentation of the project definitely appeared, especially since the young architect organized part of the story about the project in the format of a tour of the city, or rather, a tour of the spaces that they proposed to create in it. However, if the study and schemes should be recognized as detailed and thorough, I would suggest the young architects work more on the architecture of the proposed objects – so far only the “onion” gazebos in the square near the chapel seem truly interesting from a purely architectural standpoint.

Chegdomyn, the Central Street
Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023


A “new-generation” young pioneer camp

The next three works were made under the guidance of curator Irina Lobanova, and according to a slightly different principle: instead of gathering a large team of participants around one story, they were divided into three groups and each group proposed its own solution for the same territory – the former pioneer camp “Gornoe Echo” in the Alikonovsky Gorge of the Stavropol Territory, near Kislovodsk.

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    Irina Lobanova, Head of the Operational Workshop of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, supervisor of practice projects for the Aligonovo Gorge
    Copyright: Photograph © Vladimir Kudryavtsev / provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow
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    Irina Lobanova, Head of the Operational Workshop of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, supervisor of practice projects for the Aligonovo Gorge
    Copyright: Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru

 
The territory is part of the tourist route “The Path of Narzan”, a tourist trail runs along it. The camp straddles the two banks of the Akonovka River, the height difference on the planning site itself is 5 meters, and on the sides – up to 40 meters.

The task was to propose the concept of an educational hub for gifted schoolchildren, similar to Sirius. The camp is designed for 24 days of stay for schoolchildren of 7-11 grades.

Festival and party type: FEST

Participants: Rufina Galikieva, Alina Shultz, Sofia Ryabinina, Daria Karpunina
 
“Camp Fest” campus.
Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023


My favorite (the wildest), project of the three: according to the architects’ self-title, “a place of legalized vandalism, a center of education in modern art, sports and science”. The project essentially consists of “fashionable” funny collages, the emphasis being not so much on architecture and planning as on the program and the idea of “triggering” creativity through a special festival atmosphere. The reality of this idea is immediately questionable, but the very possibility of this kind of fantasy is somehow inspiring in itself.

Spatial type: MOST (“THE BRIDGE”)

Participants: Maria Chernikova, Kira Chamurlieva

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    “Camp Fest” campus.
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    “Camp Fest” campus.
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    The “Camp FEST” campus
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    The “Camp FEST” campus
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    The “Camp FEST” campus
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    The “Camp FEST” campus
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    The “Camp FEST” campus
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    “Camp Fest” campus.
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    Concept of the local urban space PRAVDA
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    “Camp Fest” campus. Practice of the Institute of Genplan / 2023
    Copyright: Photograph: provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow
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    “Camp Fest” campus. Practice of the Institute of Genplan / 2023
    Copyright: Photograph: provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow
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    “Camp Fest” campus. Practice of the Institute of Genplan / 2023
    Copyright: Photograph: provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow

 
The project is no less daring, but more in architectural and spatial terms: the young architects proposed to divide the two banks of the gorge into children and adults areas, and to connect them by a “bridge”, this bridge being the school building itself.

An “Inhabited Bridge” is a thing known to be a favorite of many and therefore almost a sure-fire thing as a subject for the project. The architects proposed three variants of the building, consistently working off the agenda of metaphysical classics, neo- and simple modernism. One bridge turned out to be in the form of a Roman aqueduct, which, however, for some reason was called “romantic Gothic”; another with unmotivated non-linear curves in the form of mountains; and the third was straight.
 
The building is three stories high; in the middle part, classrooms are located above the river; on the sides, where the bridge rests on the ground, communication centers and large halls are grouped together: dining room, stage, library.

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    "There is a contact!" team. Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
    Copyright: Photograph © Vladimir Kudryavtsev / provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow
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    The Bridge ptoject / "There is a contact!"
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023


This is all great and fine, and the solution looks enticingly simple, but I am still haunted by the question: how are the children going to get by on their bank without the adults? Of course, you can install surveillance cameras, but that sort of kills the very idea…

Consecutive type: trail

Participants: Daria Karpunina, Sofia Ryabinina, Alina Shultz, Rufina Galikieva

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    The Bridge ptoject / "There is a contact!"
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    The Bridge project / "The is a contact!"
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    The Bridge ptoject / "There is a contact!"
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    The Bridge ptoject / "There is a contact!"
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    The Bridge ptoject / "There is a contact!"
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    The Bridge project / "The is a contact!"
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    The Bridge project / "The is a contact!"
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023

 
The authors were inspired by the idea of a pilgrimage trail – primarily Santiago de Compostela – and the effect it can have on personal growth, including for non-religious people, and treated their version of an educational hub as a trail.

This project features the most elaborate study of the surrounding urban situation, from transportation to the nearby monuments.

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    The El Camino team. Practice of the Institute of Genplan / 2023
    Copyright: Photograph © Vladimir Kudryavtsev / provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow
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    El Camino
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023

 
On the downside, however, the idea of the “trail” itself seems underdeveloped: the students, according to the proposed concept, will hike only at the end of their stay. But the very desire to immerse the hub in the peculiarities of the place, using an existing tourist route, deserves some credit, as does the beautiful collage graphics, which, however, is now becoming pretty commonplace.

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    El Camino
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    El Camino
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    El Camino
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    El Camino
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    El Camino
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    El Camino
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023


***

So, if we look at the projects, we can see the reality of the sites and tasks: both the improvement of the Central Street in Chegdomyn and the former pioneer camp “Gornoe Echo” already have an interested client, so the ideas, although pretty raw in some places, but fresh and bold, will probably not go to waste, but at least will be added to the collection of local studies. During the discussion of the projects, it was even mentioned that Central Street could well be included in the Small Towns competition – and why not? It will be interesting to follow the subsequent development of each site: whether the ideas will be useful or not.

All the participants were quite deservedly praised – after all, for many of them it was their first works of varying degrees of urbanism. On the other hand, it would be interesting not only to praise, but also to hear a professional critical analysis of the works from the position of an urban planner. Presentations of projects are becoming more and more beautiful and lengthy and convincing – all the more curious to find out what failed in each of them, and what, for example, is unrealizable. Maybe the next step in the development of practices will be such a parsing? Not brutal, just objective.

On August 28, the projects were evaluated by the jury:
Sergey Glubokin, MCA;
Anna Ivanova, Genplan Institute of Moscow;
Maxim Perov, Genplan Institute of Moscow;
Grigory Mustafin, Genplan Institute of Moscow;
Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
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    El Camino
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023
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    El Camino
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    El Camino
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    El Camino
    Copyright: Practice of the Genplan Institute of Moscow / 2023


12 October 2023

Julia Tarabarina

Written by:

Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov
Headlines now
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.
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.
Reconciliation
The restoration of the Salt Warehouse for the Zvenigorod Museum, on the one hand, was quite accurately implemented according to the design of the People’s Architect, and, on the other hand, it was not without some extra research and adjustments, which, in this case, was quite beneficial for the project. The architects discovered the original paint color, details of the facades, and studied the history of rebuilds of this building. As a result, the imposing character of the empire building, the oldest one in the city, and the differences of later additions were accurately revealed. Most importantly, however, the city got a new cultural and public space, which is already “working” in full swing.
From Moscow to Khabarovsk
This year, the works submitted by the students of the Genplan Institute of Moscow included a proposal for revitalizing Moscow’s “Pravda” complex with its structures designed by Ilia Golosov, landscaping an East Siberian town, located a 12-hour drive away from the nearest big city, and three versions of turning a derelict “pioneer camp” into an educational hub, similar to “Sirius”. Two sites out of three have an interested client, so chances are that the students’ works will be ultimately implemented.
Harmonization of Intentions
We met and talked with the chief architect of Genplan Institute of Moscow Grigory Mustafin and the chief architect of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Maxim Efanov – about how the master plan of the city is formed. The key to success: gathering data, digital simulation, working with the city people, thinking infrastructure, and presentation.
​Cité for Naro-Fominsk
The new neighborhood on an island in the center of Naro-Fominsk continues the ideas of developing the territory of the silk-weaving factory, around which the city actually formed. The authors skillfully mix different formats of mid-rise development and make the most of the island location, offering a variety of formats of interaction with water, available to all citizens. No wonder that the project is considered exemplary and worthy of duplication in the region. It is also an example of rare synergy between the client and the architects.
A Tower and a Manor House
The concept of a high-density residential district replacing a set of outdated privately owned houses in Yekaterinburg preserves the street grid and, in some cases, even the scale of construction. OSA Architects combine towers with townhouses and other types of housing, orienting the silhouette composition towards a pedestrian boulevard. Through non-linear routes and spatial diversity, the residents will see their neighborhood in a new way every day.
​The Warm Stone
The housing complex in Zelenogorsk is interpreted by Mayak architects as a scatter of stones. The unconventional outline of houses with a pentagon plan not only helped to form the image part of the project, but also facilitated the architects’ work with the density of construction and insolation of the apartments.
For All Times
The modular technology combined with the building material of glued wood allows the architectural company Rhizome to create quick-mount hotels (no less!) that are highly rated by the architectural community: last week, the new hotel “Vremena Goda. Igora” scored three awards. Below, we are examining the project in detail.
The Other Way Around
Few awards instead of many, the award ceremony conducted on the first day instead of last, projections instead of sketch boards, trees inside and art objects outside – the renewal of the Architecton festival seemingly took the sure-fire path of turning all the professional traditions upside down – or at least those that happened to be within the scope of the organizers’ attention. There’s certainly a lot to pick on, but the exhibition does feel fresh and improvisational. It looks that pretty soon these guys will set trends for Moscow as well. We shared with you about some elements of the festival in our Telegram channel, and now we are examining the whole thing.
ArchiWOOD-14: Building Bridges
This season, the festival’s jury decided not to award a grand prize: judging by the fact that the shortlist included several projects that had not reached the award in previous years, and the “best house” was pronounced to be an undoubtedly beautiful but mass-produced model, the “harvest” of wooden buildings in 2023 was not too abundant. However, there were many unusual typologies among the finalists, and restoration and revitalization projects received their share of recognition. Let’s take a look at all the finalists.
The Chinese Symphony
The construction of the Chinese center “Huaming Park” has been a long story that came to fruition relatively recently. The building is adjacent to a traditional Chinese garden, but it is very modern, laconic and technological, and the simple-in-form, yet spectacular, white lamellae promise to someday be incorporated as a media facade. This complex is also truly multifunctional: it contains different types of living spaces, offices, a large fitness center, conference halls and restaurants – all wrapped in one volume. You can comfortably hold international forums in it, having everything you may possibly need at your fingertips, and going outside only to take a walk. In this article, we are examining this complex in detail.
Ensemble of Individualities
Construction of the first phase of the INDY Towers multifunctional complex on Kuusinen Street, designed by Ostozhenka, has started. The project opens new angles of similarity between the column and the skyscraper, and we examine the nuances and parallels.
Black and Red
Kazakov Grand Loft received its name for a reason: responding to the client’s brief and proceeding from the historical industrial architecture of its immediate surroundings, Valery Kanyashin and Ostozhenka architects proposed a new version of a modern house designed in the fashionable “loft” style. What makes this building different is the fact that the bricks here are dark gray, and the facades of the romantic “fortress” towers blossom with magnificent glazing of the windows in the upper part. The main highlight of the complex, however, is the multiple open air terraces situated on different levels.
Icy Hospitality
Mezonproject has won the national architectural and town planning competition for designing a hotel and a water recreation center in the city of Irkutsk. The architects chose hummocks of Baikal ice as a visual image.
The Mastery of Counterpoint
In the sculpture of Classical Greece, counterpoint was first invented: the ability to position the human body as if it were about to take a step, imbuing it with a hint of the energy of future movement, and with hidden dynamics. For architecture, especially in the 20th century and now, this is also one of the main techniques, and the ATRIUM architects implement it diligently, consistently – and always slightly differently. The new residential complex “Richard” is a good example of such exploration, based on the understanding of contrasts in the urban environment, which was fused into the semblance of a living being.
Countryside Avant-Garde
The project of the museum of Aleksey Gastev, the ideologist of scientific organization of work, located in his hometown of Suzdal, is inscribed in multiple contexts: the contest of a small town, the context of avant-garde design, the context of “lean production”, and the context of the creative quest of Nikolai Lyzlov’s minimalist architecture – and it seems to us that this project even reveals a distant memory of the fact that Aleksey Gastev learned his craft in France.
On the Hills
In the project by Studio 44, the “distributed” IT campus of Nizhny Novgorod is based on well-balanced contracts. Sometimes it is hovering, sometimes undulating, sometimes towering over a rock. For every task, the architects found appropriate form and logic: the hotels are based on a square module, the academic buildings are based on a “flying” one, and so on. Modernist prototypes, specifically, Convent Sainte-Marie de La Tourette, stand next to references to the antique Forum and the tower of a medieval university – as well as next to contextual allusions that help inscribe the buildings of the future campus into the landscape of the city hills with their dominants, high slopes, breathtaking river views, the historical city center, and the Nizhny Novgorod University.
The Magic Carpet
The anniversary exhibition of Totan Kuzembaev’s drawings named “Event Horizons” shows both very old drawings made by the architect in the formative 1980’s, and now extracted from the Museum of Architecture, as well as quite a few pictures from the “Weightlessness” series that Totan Kuzembaev drew specifically for this exhibition in 2023. It seemed to us that the architect represented reality from the point of view of someone levitating in space, and sometimes even upside down, like a magic carpet with multiple layers.
​A Copper Step
Block 5, designed by ASADOV architects as part of the “Ostrov” (“Island”) housing complex, is at the same time grand-scale, conspicuous thanks to its central location – and contextual. It does not “outshout” the solutions used in the neighboring buildings, but rather gives a very balanced implementation of the design code: combining brick and metal in light and dark shades and large copper surfaces, orthogonal geometry on the outside and flexible lines in the courtyard.
The Light for the Island
For the first time around, we are examining a lighting project designed for a housing complex; but then again, the authors of the nighttime lighting of the Ostrov housing complex, UNK lighting, proudly admit that this project is not just the largest in their portfolio, but also the largest in this country. They describe their approach as a European one, its chief principles being smoothness of transitions, comfort to the eye, and the concentration of most of the light at the “bottom” level – meaning, it “works” first of all for pedestrians.
Spots of Light
A new housing complex in Tyumen designed by Aukett Swanke is a very eye-pleasing example of mid-rise construction: using simple means of architectural expression, such as stucco, pitched roofs, and height changes, the architects achieve a “human-friendly” environment, which becomes a significant addition to the nearby park and forest.
Ledges and Swirls
The housing complex “Novaya Zarya” (“New Dawn”) designed by ASADOV Architects will become one of the examples of integrated land development in Vladivostok. The residential area will be characterized by various typologies of its housing sections, and a multitude of functions – in addition to the social infrastructure, the complex will include pedestrian promenades, shopping malls, office buildings, and recreational facilities. The complex is “inscribed” in a relief with a whopping 40-meter height difference, and overlooks the Amur Bay.
Agglomeration on an Island
Recently, an approval came for the master plan of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk agglomeration, which was developed by a consortium headed by the Genplan Institute of Moscow. The document provides for the creation of 12 clusters, the totality of which will give the region a qualitative leap in development and make the island more self-sufficient, more accessible, and less dependent on the mainland. We are inviting you to examine the details.
Ivan Grekov: “A client that wants to make a building that is “about architecture” is...
In this article, we are talking to Ivan Grekov, the leader of the architectural company KAMEN (translates as “stone”), the author of many high-profile projects that have been built in Moscow in the recent years, about the history of his company, about different approaches to form making, about different meanings of volume and facade, and about “layers” in working with the environment – at the example of two projects by Osnova Group. These are the MIRAPOLIS complex on the Mira Avenue in Rostokino, whose construction began at the end of last year, and the multifunctional complex in the 2nd Silikatny Proezd on the Zvenigorodsky Highway; recently, it received all the required approvals.
Grasping and Formulating
The special project “Tezisy” (“Abstracts”), showcased at Arch Moscow exhibition in Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor, brought together eight young “rock stars of architecture”, the headliner being Vladislav Kirpichev, founder of the EDAS school. In this article, we share our impressions of the installations and the perspectives of the new generation of architects.
The White Tulip
Currently, there are two relevant projects for the Great Cathedral Mosque in Kazan, which was transferred to a land site in Admiralteiskaya Sloboda in February. One of them, designed by TsLP, was recently showcased at Arch Moscow. In this article, we are covering another project, which was proposed during the same period for the same land site. Its author is Aleksey Ginzburg, the winner of the 2022 competition, but now the project is completely different. Today, it is a sculptural “flower” dome symbolizing a white tulip.
ATRIUM’s Metaverse
The architectural company ATRIUM opened a gallery of its own in a metaverse. Inside, one can examine the company’s approach and main achievements, as well as get some emotional experience. The gallery is already hosting cyberspace business meetings and corporate events.
​From Darkness to Light
Responding to a lengthy list of limitations and a lengthy – by the standards of a small building – list of functions, Vladimir Plotkin turned the project of the Novodevichy Monastery into a light, yet dynamic statement of modern interpretation of historical context, or, perhaps, even interpretation of light and darkness.