
Recently, an exhibition of the great Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava finished its work at the State Hermitage Museum. And it was wonderful.
It’s good that the townspeople got the opportunity to see real, high-quality modern architecture. And then they say - modern architecture is shit. But this is only judging by bad architecture. In the Hermitage, we were shown architecture that we will never see in our country.
Why, you ask?
What can you expect from a country where a government highway collapses due to rain, where there are not enough kindergartens, where ceilings fall directly on the heads of residents, where architectural monuments are eventually demolished for no reason? There's no time for fat here. Where can one think about beauty if in order to get your own home, you need to sell your soul and guts? And sometimes the body too.
As you know, architecture is ordered either by business, capitalists, or by the state, the city budget. Officials, as you know, cut everything there and ask for it to be done cheaper. Businesses also save on everything in order to gain benefits during the operation of the facility. There are some attempts at elitism associated with the appearance, but at most this results in super expensive finishing materials. So now look around, what do you see?
Thank you, Comrade Piotrovsky, for enlightening us, but children can come to the exhibition and ask their parents, “Why don’t we build like this?” And really, why?