Translated material
Failed phenomena
Melnikov's house is again in a special risk zone
The long-suffering house of the Russian avant-garde genius Konstantin Melnikov, built by him on Krivoarbatsky Lane for his family in 1927-1930, again needs protection. Contrary to the capital's legislation prohibiting construction in the security zone of the center, the plot in the immediate vicinity of the house (within a radius of 30 meters) was given to Trust Oil CJSC last year for the construction of a multifunctional underground complex with a total area of 13,600 square meters. m. with a developed underground part. The construction of such a complex will be a fatal blow to Melnikov’s house, since deformations and collapses of soil masses are observed both under the building and around it.Senator Sergei Gordeev came to the defense of the architectural masterpiece, having bought half of the house with the aim of creating the Melnikov House museum in it. Last November, he initiated a survey of the structures, foundations and condition of the soil foundation of Melnikov’s house. The examination was carried out by the Department of Engineering Geology and Geoecology of the Moscow State University of Civil Engineering. Here is an excerpt from the commission’s conclusion made on the eve of 2007: “...Existing defects and damage to the building’s structures are caused by its long service life, lack of normal maintenance and timely repairs, design features of the building, reliance of part of the foundations on bulk soils, as well as general deformations soil masses in the area where the building is located, including those caused by the construction of buried structures in the vicinity of the building.
...To ensure the possibility of further normal operation of the building, it is necessary to carry out a major overhaul with the restoration and strengthening of structures damaged by defects.
...All work should be carried out according to a special project in accordance with the status of the building as an architectural monument.
...Due to the fact that the design solution of the building being inspected does not provide for its operation under the action of loads that may arise during emergency situations in an area of increased geological risk, any construction in the vicinity of the building being inspected, including construction on the territory adjacent to the site buildings from the street Arbat, a multifunctional shopping complex, which Trust Oil CJSC intends to implement, can provoke increased soil subsidence and sinkhole phenomena on the surface, which is an unfavorable and unacceptable factor for the life support of the house of the architect Melnikov. In addition, it should be noted that the planned construction of a multifunctional shopping complex with a developed underground part is being designed in a karst-dangerous area, where bedrock deposits of Carboniferous age are undergoing sharp subsidence. The development of underground space in such areas is unacceptable due to the possibility of the formation of underground landslides in the massif of overlying water-saturated sandy Quaternary deposits.”
After receiving the results of the study, Sergei Gordeev wrote a letter to the chairman of the Moscow Committee for Cultural Heritage, Valery Shevchuk, with a detailed explanation of the “failed phenomena” that were happening to the foundations of Melnikov’s house, and with a demand to stop the construction of the shopping center and to reconsider the purpose of the security area where the house stands. Senator Gordeev was supported by employees of the Museum of Architecture and residents of the Arbat district, who also contacted the Moscow Heritage Committee. Valery Shevchuk supported the ban on the construction of a shopping center. Today there is a question of discussing the problem of Melnikov’s house at the public council under Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. In fact, the ability to successfully prevent the threat of “failed phenomena” in relation to a great architectural masterpiece gives all of us, those who love Moscow and protect it from vandalism, a chance not to fail out of shame ourselves.