Владимир Павлов

Abstract

For many years the maximum permissible concentration of architectural events has been falling on October: “Zodchestvo” Festival in Moscow (11), the autumn Plenum of the Union of Architects in the middle of October (20) and the International Day of Architecture on the first Monday (26) attract conferences, exhibitions and competitions, presentations of books (18) and youth initiatives, awards and resolutions. In the course of time our calendar has added one more active period in late spring/early summer. At the end of May and in the beginning of June there are international festivals - Far-East Zodchestvo and East-Siberian Zodchestvo in Khabarovsk and Irkutsk, “ArchMoskva” and the biennale in Moscow, and sometimes (this year, for example) the annual session of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences, the spring Plenum of the Union of Architects and the Council of chief architects of towns and regions (22).

This year the autumn marathon started earlier than usually. September was filled with the Baikal Economic Forum (4) with the topic “New Town-Planning Philosophy” running through it, the meeting of builders in Irkutsk, and the meeting of the National Association of Planners in Moscow. In Voronezh there was a traditional competition of graduation projects, and for the first time in the history of Irkutsk higher architectural education the best projects of Irkutsk graduators did not participate in the competition (22). It sounds paradoxical, but it happened right after the Irkutsk State Technical University had received a status of the National Research University. At the end of the month the scandalous retirement of the Moscow mayor was accompanied by architectural and town-planning accusations.

The main topic of this issue has changed comparably to our plans. GREEN was supposed to follow YOUNGSTERS. But it will be in the issue number 27. The reason of such a shift arouses deep grief and at the same time pride in being related to the life of a bright, brilliantly talented and creative man.

In March 2010 the star of Vladimir Azarievich Pavlov faded away. But his light, like the light from a real star, will reach us for more and more decades, and PROJECT BAIKAL will return to the best period of Irkutsk and Russian architecture of the XXth century again and again…