Ideas for show

Architectural News Agency appeared in Russia

“Architecture is first and foremost an art. We believe that the art of architecture is worthy of the attention of the general public, just like the art of painting and music." The Architectural News Agency (AAN) began its work with such an almost categorical manifesto. It is architectural news that has recently been completely lost among construction news, investor news, and real estate market news. Well-known people took on the difficult mission of promoting architecture. AAN was invented by two people - Viktor Khrechko, the creator and head of Russia's main architectural portal Archi.ru, and critic Grigory Revzin. The production editor was Yulia Tarabarina, also representing the Archi.ru portal.

AAN operates as a full-fledged news agency. This is a feed of messages - building projects, various events, from conferences to exhibitions, and other architectural and near-architectural events. But still, the focus of the AAN is on architects and buildings, i.e. ideas and their creators. The heroes of the agency have already become Vladimir Plotkin (TPO “Reserve”), Dmitry Alexandrov (“Alexandrov and Partners”), Alexey Bavykin (“Workshop of the Architect Bavykin”), Boris Levyant (ABD architects), that is, the first rank of Russian architects. But many of their ideas, alas, will remain on paper (and on the agency’s tape), because the original plan will be transformed, and to such an extent that nothing will remain of it. The idea will go through approvals, collide with the developers’ desire to get more square meters, unexpectedly stumble upon communications that have arisen on the site and finally run into the interests of the city (less often without quotes, more often, alas, in quotes). And the seething and fascinating ideas of architects, as usual, will remain behind the scenes.

Alas, the complete disappearance of modern architecture from the Russian media space is a fait accompli. The only television program “Architectural Gallery”, which was made by the director of the Center for Contemporary Architecture Irina Korobyina, after long and painful movements on the network of the TV channel “Culture”, has already left its air for several years now.

In general, the mechanism for architecture news not getting into the media is simple. For example, there is a public council on the formation of the artistic and urban appearance of the city under the mayor of Moscow (in other words, a public urban planning council). This is the one where large architectural and urban planning projects are considered, more or less lively discussions take place, not only about the technical parameters, but also the artistic merits of a particular project. But in the end, only the statements of Yuri Luzhkov appear on the feeds of the “big” news agencies, who can condemn the project with the word “trigonometry” or elevate it with a definition like “sculpture”.

I'll tell you a terrible secret. Those journalists who attend these meetings are interested in general information; city architecture officials themselves are already tired of answering the same banal questions. They might be happy to say something different, but they are not asked. The architectural news agency is going to close this gap, presenting its own “architectural” view on this kind of discussion.

However, whatever one may say, architecture is a bifunctional art. On the one hand, it performs an artistic function, on the other hand, it has a completely applied function. Sometimes the architect’s bright imaginative idea completely overshadows the utilitarian purpose of the object ; as a result, spectacular projects of residential buildings appear, in which the cost of construction of one square meter exceeds 3 thousand dollars, or shopping centers with an incorrect layout, and therefore empty and virtually useless to anyone. Perhaps the news presented on the AAN feed will be discussed, not only in an artistic context, but also in an urban planning and development context. This is necessary, if only because developers can exist without architecture (as has been proven by giant shopping complexes - boxes devoid of any hint of architecture), but architecture cannot survive without customers.

Alexander ZMEUL, columnist for Moscow information radio "City FM"