The tallest, longest, widest

The architects received awards and discussed professional problems

The International Festival “Architecture 2006” was held in Manege, dedicated to the fifteenth anniversary of the “new Russia”. As stated in the preface to the exhibition catalogue, it revealed “the results of the development of architecture in new socio-economic conditions.” “Crystal Daedalus” - the main national award in the field of architecture - was awarded to the St. Petersburg team under the leadership of V. Blashkevich (architect S. Lalazorov, designer V. Vavilova, engineers T. Zotova and N. Tsvetkov) for the comprehensive reconstruction and restoration of the Russian State Academic Drama Theater named after A.S. Pushkin.

The St. Petersburg school of restoration is famous for its high professionalism. Attention to cultural heritage, the national scale of the monument, which is Alexandrinka, and the quality of work formed a trinity, which apparently explains the choice of the winners.

Other teams were also awarded for restoration: A. Bernstein and S. Buchneva, authors of the restoration of the Oryol almshouse in Podkolokolny Lane in Moscow, were awarded a Golden Diploma.

St. Petersburg architects have received awards more than once, presenting several memorable projects and buildings. In terms of the number of awards, they competed with a group of Omsk residents, as well as representatives of administrative structures. The latter were encouraged for the development of urban planning activity, which was clearly reflected in this year’s exhibition. Tablets with updated city general plans were in approximately equal proportions with stands reflecting zeal for the construction of comfortable and “affordable” housing.

Despite the fact that among the awardees there were Muscovites, their participation in the exposition was almost invisible, except for the stands of V. Ginzburg’s workshop. The review of the best projects and buildings for 2004-2006 took place in the absence of most of the best architectural firms. The Moscow bureaus that form the core of the “Arch-catalogue” at the “Arch-Moscow” festival ignored the exhibition. A feeling of constraint and nomenclature directives prevailed, and in the kaleidoscope of Russian architecture the pictures that emerged were not very diverse. Which clearly contradicted the opening saying of the exhibition: “Architecture is economy in everything except ideas and plans.”

The exposition was greeted by a banner stretched over the entrance. Goethe's words were interspersed with L. Kahn's definitions. Everything said that we were holding high the banner of culture, from whose history we were trying to take the best. The inspection of the huge, dense exhibition was accompanied by an acquaintance with Udmurt folk performances, deafening with the sounds of songs and dances. They traded small goods - scarves, shawls, jewelry. At the closing ceremony, Pushkin’s poem “The Prophet” was read. Symbolizing our cordiality, the proverb “What is in the oven, swords on the table” was very suitable for the event - a review of the achievements of the profession.

Adjacent to the peddlers offering bijoux was the stand of the Classic Project group of companies. He informed that “the tallest building will be built in Russia.” The height without the spire is 730 m, the total height is 951, this is the Thirty-three Bogatyry hotel complex. And the longest will also be built in Russia: 2050 meters long - this is the Geese-Swans hotel complex. It turned out that everyone would erect them in Anapa - based on construction experience in the Moscow region. As the head of the group of companies Andrei Karpov said, “the state will not let you down and will give a worthy response to the tallest skyscraper in Dubai.” There was no talk about Norman Foster planning to build a skyscraper in the Moscow City.

The British architect himself did not come to the festival, delegating his partner. Other representatives of the professional elite also gave master classes: St. Petersburg resident Sergei Choban, who lives and builds in Germany and Russia, the head of the famous St. Petersburg workshop Nikita Yavein...

The spirit of sovereign greatness of Russian architecture was somewhat dispelled at a press conference with the participation of leading architectural critics. The conversation was accompanied by a slide show introducing typical examples of our architecture over the past fifteen years. Most of them belonged to a clearly retrospective, eclectic trend, which many participants in the discussion sharply criticized. Speakers included A. Klimenko, A. Volchok, A. Gozak, A. Kaftanov and others. Russia was called a fringe of the world architectural process, “a province with imperial ambitions.”

The difference in the quality of design was revealed when getting acquainted with the stands of foreign participants - Vilnius, Tallinn, Serbian and Budapest architects. The reasons for our lag lie not only in the lack of a technological base. It is only a consequence of a long evolution, and not the result of impulsive import. There is a general deficit of visual culture, caused by the destruction of consciousness rooted in the way of life. “The sad thing is that we are starting all over again for the umpteenth time. And this is a bad symptom,” summed up A. Kaftanov.

The fifteenth anniversary of the “new Russia” is accompanied by the identification of a new architecture. Often it appears as a strange symbiosis of formal attributes of mutually exclusive styles. An attempt to reconcile and synthesize everything that was in Russian culture does not always justify itself. The call to engage in architecture that meets the needs of the time, naturally, reduces the degree of panegyric reviews about the state of Russian architecture.

Irina KOKKINAKI, Architectural Bulletin, - specially for Vremya Novostei