MAPS and SAVE Europe’s Heritage invite you to an evening to celebrate the publication of MOSCOW HERITAGE AT CRISIS POINT, the second edition.
пресс-релиз:
The presentation will take place at Pushkin House (5A Bloomsbury Square, London, WC1A 2TA) on 29th September 2009 at 6.30pm.
The report contains a wealth of new material by Russian and international experts and over 300 well illustrated pages. It is fully revised, updated and expanded version of the 2007 report, that successfully focussed national and international attention on the crisis afflicting Moscow’s built heritage. Despite the successes of the first report, including the listing of three buildings, the destruction continues.
Buildings under threat in Moscow today include internationally famous landmarks such as the Bolshoi Theatre, Mayakovskaya metro station, works of the 1920s and 30s Avant-garde, as well as buildings that are an inseparable part of Moscow's identity such as the ‘Children's World’ department store and the Central House of Artists. The new edition of the report also includes an important new chapter dedicated to the threats currently facing the architectural heritage of St Petersburg.
The new edition of ‘Moscow Heritage at Crisis Point’ condemns the losses while illustrating the astonishing range of historic building in Moscow, from medieval churches to elegant post-war modernism, all of it threatened by the furious pace of redevelopment of the city.
The new report was possible thanks to generous public support and a posthumous grant from the late scholar of Russian architecture and co-founder of Do.Co.Mo.Mo., Catherine Cooke.
COPIES OF THE REPORT WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR SALE AT A SPECIAL PRICE OF Ј15.00 (AFTER THIS DATE IT WILL BE AVAILABLE ONLY FOR Ј20.00).
Quotations from the report:
“The scale of destruction is almost comparable to that of the 1930s to 1960s, the difference being that today what is under attack is those few structures that were lucky enough to survive Stalin and Khrushchev's purges.” Professor Nataliya Dushkina, Architecture and City Planning Historian
“I belong to a generation which views the contribution made by the Russian avant-garde towards the Soviet brave new world as the very origin of our modernity.” Maristella Casciato, Chair of Do.Co.Mo.Mo International
“Historic buildings making up the urban fabric are systematically being consigned to oblivion that is, buildings which […] in their totality create the unique cityscape without which St Petersburg as we know it ceases to exist.” Yelena Minchyonok, Co-ordinator of The Living City, St Petersburg
The Partners:
MAPS was set up in May 2004 by a group of international journalists and architects who work in close cooperation with preservationists, architects and historians within Russia and abroad to raise awareness about the present destruction of Moscow’s historic buildings. www.maps-moscow.com
SAVE Europe’s Heritage was founded in 1995 as the sister organization of SAVE Britain’s Heritage. The latter has existed for 30 years and is one of the most effective preservation groups in Britain. Founded by writer and journalist Marcus Binney, SAVE works through the press, writing reports on groups of threatened buildings or threatened areas. www.savebritainsheritage.org