A Moveable Feast, this is the definition Hemingway gave to Paris, a big city where he spent a happy period of his life.
A celebration city, a city and a celebration, celebration spaces have become the subject of the issue. And a winter city – for those cities which have got winter anyway. In Irkutsk, this topic seems to be seriously considered (p.75). In Moscow, the already traditional Journey to Christmas has lasted for the three winter months, although without natural attributes such as snow, frost and other unnecessary stuff. Meanwhile, climate change made the International...
The news section presents the UIA Declaration adopted during COP25, the United Nations climate conference meeting; announces the 2020 Kaira Looro Competition, the 2A City-Architecture Movie Awards, as well as this year's UNESCO-UIA World Capital of Architecture programme in Rio de Janeiro.
The review presents “Urban development of Ulan Bator”, a monograph by professor A. G. Bolshakov and lecturer and researcher N. Nyamdorzh, published by Irkutsk National Research Technical University (INRTU).
The concept of the celebration is considered in terms of emotional content. Various types of celebrations are compared; it is shown that the content of the celebration can be both emotions of "joy - pride", and feelings of sadness, anger, and so on. It is concluded that the emotional content of the celebration (in contrast to other events) consists in a high intensity of experiences. The article considers the principles linking the emotional content of the celebration with the characteristics of the architectural object and the properties of the space in which the celebration takes...
The discussion touched upon the problems of the city as the consequences and the causes of celebrations, the typology of celebrations, their rituals and relation to everyday life. The participants discussed the ideas and routes for city celebrations; creation of public spaces as their main organizational element; peculiarities of winter celebrations; vanishing neighborhood communities and their role in the organization of celebrations.
A city celebration has been an event welcomed by urban dwellers for a long time, but it also has a more fundamental mission rather than entertainment. We can suppose that this mission is related to the search of possible ways of development of the city and its culture. The article presents a possible approach to restoration of design meanings of a celebration and outlines a strategy for interpretation of the role of architecture in this process.
Celebrations as a space integrating traditions and peculiarities of contemporary culture and immerging authentic images and customs in today’s realities is an important part of the existence of a “space”, a territory and a city. The ability of unique and autochronous peculiarities of celebrations to be integrated with universal standards makes it possible to use celebrations as an image system promoting the territory and its identity.
Squares are as integral to the patterns of antique and medieval cities as holidays to the calendar. It was on the squares where rural dwellers met with urban ones during mass events and traditional agricultural holidays gradually turned into urban celebrations. Leo Salmin analyses interrelations between a European city and a celebration in their current state.
Any celebration has ritual features. But is any ritual festive enough to create its own space in the urban fabric? Elena Bagina studies various examples of New Year’s celebrations.
Is there room for ancient and...
The article considers relations and mutual influence of a celebration as a ritual and a city as a space where a celebration develops and transforms throughout many centuries. The article analyses the features of pre-urban genesis of celebrations in the context of the city, a medieval model of the urban celebration and a semantic hollowing-out of the celebration in the modern and contemporary times.
Governments fail when trying to create a celebration without deep historical roots and the society’s support. Traditional celebration rituals transform the city for these few “leisure days”, while squares, streets and buildings do not change. Official celebrations depend on the ideology: if one ideology replaces another, cities are reconstructed, old temples and monuments are demolished and new ones appear to organize new celebration rituals. The ritual space acquires new spatial qualities and symbols, which are supposed to live long.
The article considers the animal style as a historico-cultural and art phenomenon and analyzes the representation of its stylized images in the urban environment of Perm, taking into consideration how semantics of such images reflects the historical and cultural heritage of the Perm land. The author highlights the possibilities to implement the artistic potential of the animal style in festive celebrations and leisure activities of the city. As a methodological basis, the conceptual ideas about the creative city of the British researcher Charles Landry, as well as the postulates of the...
The project for the regeneration of historical quarter 130 in Irkutsk has attracted the attention of specialists and the general public for many years. The article discusses the ideology of the project from the point of view of creating urban spaces intended for mass holidays. Various aspects of the city celebrations were considered and provided for in the design of the quarter. Not everything was implemented.
Organization of celebrations in the urban space can be considered as one of the methods of preservation and strengthening of urban identity used by residents to prevent destruction of the valuable historico-architectural environment. The case study of Äußere Neustadt is used to consider organization of a celebration in an urban neighborhood initiated by local people, which made it possible not only to prevent demolition of valuable historic buildings, but also to preserve a genuine historico-architectural environment.
When great and mighty winter stirsAnd, like a chieftain wrapped in furs,Upon us sends its shaggy soldiersOf biting frost and stinging snowIt’s met with fire’s crackling smolder,And wintry warmth of feasts aglow.A. S. Pushkin, A Feast in Time of Plague.
Translated by M. E. Yankelevich
Traditionally, WINTER seems dangerous and hostile to people who live at high latitudes. Indeed, snow, frost and little daylight seem to be a heavy obstacle for a beautiful and easy life. Not for nothing do three-fourth of the humankind live in the tropics. However,...
The article considers the potential of the territories located in a cold climate zone. The author outlines the issues that can become a “growing point” for such territories, as well as the direction of theoretical studies for implementation of practical measures. The investment attractiveness of “winter” cities and Irkutsk in particular is highlighted.
The author considers the problems of a winter city, touching upon the aspects of engineering and transport infrastructure and bringing up the issues of formation and maintenance of closed public spaces.
The article considers the field observations and design in the polar latitudes of Krasnoyarsk Krai. It analyses the contemporary problems of living conditions in the Extreme North, the influence of the comfortable environment on the settlement stability and the prevention of migration out of northern territories, as well as attracting and retaining of young specialists and young people in general in the North. The authors provide the examples of design solutions for creation of contemporary living conditions, the results of the sociological analysis and participatory design that involved...
Russian architecture has unique winter images. Baroque, Classicism and Modern reveal themselves most fully in the winter context. Constructivism and other “isms” of the 1920s are indifferent to the snow veil. In winter, the misery of prefablicated five-storey apartment blocks and new “towers” becomes more obvious.
Bee Breeders is introducing its first country-based architecture competition series, with the sites located in northern Iceland. In the debut competition of this series, the organizers sought design proposals for a new visitor center to be located within the Black Lava Fields of Iceland. In the second competition, which was run in partnership with Vogafj s Farm Resort, they sought ideas for a new Thermal Springs Guest House. The winning entries were selected for their respect of the sites, maintaining the landscapes’ harmony and taking advantage of the sites’ surroundings.
Siberian cities with cold climates, short daylight hours and specific features of local traditional culture, such as Novosibirsk, need improvement of light and color navigation at night time. It is best to use light projection to improve pedestrian orientation. The projection of orienting symbols on horizontal and vertical surfaces will allow not only to indicate the way, but also to create a positive mood even on a short winter day. Given the existing interest in designing a smart city, managing the color navigation system from a personal gadget is also a novelty in the study.
There is a type of buildings closely related to celebrations. First of all, it includes theatre buildings. Alexander Anisimov’s article considers the evolution of the structure and the decoration of theatre buildings in the modern and contemporary times. Revolutions in the theatrical art resonate with wonderful breakthroughs in the architectural thought. New streams are boosted at the intersection of the European architectural thought and Chinese innovative trends.
Petr Kapustin’s essay is devoted to the symbolism and meanings of a tower. A tower is considered as a linking...
The article considers the reasons of the change in the form-making principles in architecture of entertainment facilities of the late 20th – early 21st centuries: the change in social conditions, development of stage technologies; improvement of engineering equipment of buildings; the shift in evaluation criteria of architectural composition of public buildings and the role of psychology in their perception. The buildings of the recent decades are considered in relation to stage-by-stage changes in the concepts of theatre design of earlier periods. The examples of architecture of...
The essay is devoted to the tower phenomenon. It is one of the most popular, but also the most mysterious types of buildings and structures. Towers are well-known throughout all nations and all epochs… But are they really known? Maybe towers just permit us to use them? What do we owe to them and why do we love them so much? These and other questions are discussed in the essay.
The article deals with modern design and architectural solutions for the cable-stayed roof system of the multifunctional sports complex "Volgograd Arena" built in Volgograd for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. On the basis of the design experience, the author of the article considers the stages of preparation and installation of a unique cable-stayed roof system designed according to an individual project. The advantages and disadvantages of the cable-stayed roof system are also considered.
Architecture of one of the small historic cities of Transbaikalia, Kyakhta is considered. The author analyzes the nature of the Kyakhta buildings, historical and architectural monuments, notes the uniqueness and unusualness of this border settlement in the south of Buryatia. The tea route from China to Europe became the basis for the construction of the corresponding buildings and complexes here. Rich in historical events and cultural monuments, Kyakhta is of constant interest among local and foreign researchers.
The abundance and relative cheapness of the material provided ample possibilities for adaptation and experimentation with stylistics by volume-spatial forms of wooden buildings in Siberia and the Far East. At the same time, wooden architecture was at high risk of degradation and destruction. The article based on field research in various regions and detailed graphic reconstruction of several objects allows to form a more complete estimate of the development and preservation of wooden architecture in the Pacific Russia.
The article analyses the processes that occurred in the Soviet period and features their stages. The first stage is considered as a prototype of all the succeeding stages, as an extremist ground for proletarian ideology of restructuring the world. The second stage is replacement of revolution with “cultural counterrevolution”. Since the 1950-60s architecture has been subject to the building complex; an architect has evolved into a design officer. During stagnation the attempts to renew and reform the system ceased to be made. However, its spatial component formed by the state building...
The mystery of Art Deco is in its universality. Art Deco is everywhere, including our time. It is like a symptom of a virus disease, a pandemic. But this symptom is disregarded. Its demonstration is reduced to local “strains’, the range of which is limited by national, chronological or formally stylistic borders. The article tries to consider the Art Deco phenomenon more widely and to reveal its real position in the evolution of modernism.
The environmental approach of the 1960-70s gave rise to the question of how the style and the environment correlate and widened the symbolic structure and the context of the city. As a result, the notions of style and ensemble ceased to be dominating. Architecture and town planning turned into making an urban environment design. New approaches emerged in traditional architecture: a design approach, where the city adapts to the consumer standards of the mass urban community, and the idea of architecture as the realization of postmodern thought, which encapsulates the entire current...
The article reveals issues of development and implementation of passive house technologies in Russia, including sociological, energetical, economical, legislative and urban planning problems, as well as the main obstructing factors. The authors conduct research on the level of alternative energy development in the world and Russia in particular. On this basis, the main directions are formulated for solving problems concerning renewable energy and related new technologies, and, in particular, the concept of autonomic energy efficient house.
The article considers the issues of contemporary architecture, which have systemic characteristics that affect the architecture as a whole and its determining prospects. The most interesting are the problems of modern architecture related to sustainable development, including such issues as life-cycle planning, the development of architectural science, ensuring comfort, environmental compatibility, and energy efficiency. The search for ways to solve them will clarify the possibilities of the current and future development of architecture, as well as effective methods of applying creative...
The article analyses specific aspects of contemporary mass housing and the means of its adaptation to mobility needs of the residents. It underlines the interrelation between volumetric and spatial characteristics of buildings and functional peculiarities of the urban environment. The form-making principles for transformable dwelling units are described. The residential blocks are designed according to the current housing requirements.