This year has brought many changes in different parts of the world: here it has caused a stir on the land, and there it has calmed it down; here a luminary has set, there another one has begun to shine; here the world has learnt a new mystery of being, and there dwellings and generations have crumbled into ash.I. Goncharov. OblomovIf we continue the classic’s tirade, it should be noted that one of the changes has embraced not just separate parts, but the entire world. And that, of course, is the pandemic, with its insistent attempts to limit our freedoms, to force communication...
The news highlights such events as the UIA World Congress and the International Contextual Architecture Awards in memory of Architect Turgut Cansever.
The article presents an illustrated research album-catalogue “Baikal on postcards. 1898-1917. Historical and bibliographical album-catalogue” which received the Governor’s Prize 2021. The sites included in the catalog are briefly characterized. The innovative character and importance of the project is emphasized. The book review was published in Project Baikal journal (Medvedev, 2020).
The main features of the complex that unites cultural, tourist and religious traditions of the village Anga are described. The new and previously built structures are characterized as a unified system distinguished by the territorial integrity and the landscape zoning. The authors emphasize the importance of the project as a seamless addition to the cultural and historical axis of tourist routes with a starting point from the town of Kachug.
Mark Meerovich's activities as a defender of Irkutsk’s wooden architectural heritage have made an invaluable contribution to the preservation of the city's historical appearance. The article describes the history, criteria and content of the Mark Meerovich Award. In 2021 the prize was first awarded to the architectural historian I. Kalinina for her research works on cultural heritage sites. Her publications are an example of thorough professional work.
On January 25, 2022 the discussion was focused on the issues related to the changes in Russian life during the first decades of the 21st century: pandemic and its consequences, the fate of cultural heritage, the place of architecture in the dynamics of social processes; the development of the Far North; the need for Oriental studies and education oriented to the East. Urban planners, architects, culturologists, and competent representatives of the government and higher education took part in the discussion.
The article is devoted to the cultural heritage sites of memorial importance, which are included in the complex of the Cultural and Educational Center named after St. Innokenty Veniaminov opened in 2017 in his homeland, the Verkholensk village of Anga: the hut where he spent his childhood, and the foundations of the lost Church of the Prophet Elijah, in which he helped his uncle deacon in his divine service.
The current period in the development of architectural theory and practice simultaneously demonstrates signs of dynamics and statics. An analysis of reflection of such phenomena as the COVID-19 pandemic and global climate change allows us to conclude that the current mass picture of the world is bifurcated and internally contradictory. A high background level of anxiety suppresses creative tendencies and creates the effect of “stagnation in the era of change”.
The author’s two articles are united by the theme of the fate of modern architecture in the context of social changes. The first one analyses the dynamics of history, the change in the rhythm of interpretation of its course, and the mal-synchronization of changes in the world and people. The pace of renewal is organically connected with the pace of habituation. Accordingly, the arguments for or against the preservation or change can also radically change. The de-synchronization of historical changes is a problem which can be solved by architecture and urban planning.
Stability that has been embodied by architecture for centuries now faces the challenges of total dynamism. The tendencies of artification of the world, including those in the previously unthinkable fields, have gained momentum. The author believes that today, architecture is facing the demand to make a new historical choice: to restore itself as a bearer of enduring values of habitat or to dissolve together with the whole civilization in the accelerating stream of uncontrollable changes. This is the main subject of this article.
In the context of post-epidemic revision of work-home-center relationships and the growth of online communication there is no need to assert the exceptional importance of multistory residential complexes located in the closest accessibility to functional subsystems of the metropolis. The return to medium-rise housing within compact localities integrated into the natural or historical environment is becoming a kind of reincarnation of the philosophy and language of organic architecture. The expansion of this trend will be accompanied by an increased demand for the activities of the...
The current state and topical issues of building the energy infrastructure of the Russian Arctic and its protection under the influence of an extreme climate are considered. Infrastructure projects implemented in the Arctic regions of Russia within the framework of the “energy transition” concept are analyzed. The importance of considering climatic and environmental factors, the recreational nature of the place and the need to search for new solutions in countering modern climatic challenges are emphasized. The authors also discuss the possibilities of implementing new approaches in the...
The author describes and explains the phenomenon of visionariness and its significance for architecture and the creative work of professionals, as well as for social dynamics. The author emphasizes the historical inevitability of differentiation of those employed in design into architects and engineers, professionals with fundamentally different missions and an opposite approach to design. It is emphasized that visionariness exists both in architecture and engineering projects; it is directly related to social utopias, and correlates differently with the progressive and conservative...
N. S. Khrushchev's speech of 1954 took the professional architectural society by surprise. It was urgently necessary to absorb the abroad experience of the modern architecture, there were no teachers, no study texts. The Union of Architects appealed to assist the young architects, yesterday alumni. A year after the “historical” decree on architectural excesses appeared. More than half a century has passed but its harmful impact is felt even now.
The article presents the main problems of underground construction in the aspect of legal regulation and a possible scenario of their solution by amending the urban planning documentation. It also considers the concept of 3D cadastre and its application in different countries.
The planning structure of Krasnoyarsk was formed under the influence of various urban planning ideas and concepts. The current trends in the development of the city are analyzed based on the changed types of the economy and ideas about the urban environment. Open data bases make it possible to analyze the structure of the development, the distribution of employment objects, services, and the processes of their transformation. In the structure of Krasnoyarsk, the authors point out the sequence of the development of the urban landscape, morphotypes of the residential areas, fringe belts,...
The complexity of the digitalization phenomenon and its correlation with digitization processes, description of their role and significance in the artistic and design sphere, lack of study of consequences and potential risks require more detailed research of the problem to understand the specifics of the ongoing changes and the situation in general, making addressing the topic extremely relevant. The problem space is presented through the discourses of digitalization as a part of the life of the contemporary world, digitization of reality as an invariable component of digital...
The preferences and semiotic roots of digital nomads are considered, and the current state of globalization processes is characterized. Glocalization is viewed as a new paradigm of architecture that increases the dynamics of mobility and universality in the typological patterns of architecture of urban (global) environment. Objects of digital nomads like “third places”, “virtual fires”, WI-FI in infrastructure as elements of eco-digital cities will need tools similar to the controlled chaos.
Based on the comparative analysis of Living Labs already operating in Europe and Russia, a mechanism of the Living Lab in the Pervomaysky District of Irkutsk is being developed. The Living Lab will open in the spring of 2022. Its main goal is to initiate a dialogue between the residents, authorities, investors and experts and to organize a permanent cooperation mechanism for all stakeholders. The purpose of the Living Lab is to identify the possibility of revitalizing the pedestrian boulevard as a linking space between the Pervomaisky and Universitetsky districts on the basis of...
Big changes continue to invade the familiar way of life in the third year of the pandemic. Will this invasion cause changes in regulations, laws and approaches to urban development and housing design? By some indications, it may influence not only on norms and approaches, but also on the settlement system. How will the city respond to the trials caused by the virus? We present to our readers some hypotheses and assumptions of professionals, theoreticians and practitioners from Yekaterinburg, Moscow and Irkutsk.
For many centuries, the European city developed towards territorial concentration. The city accumulated human resources, multiplied the population, while becoming not only a single architectural, but also a single biological body. Today, the global viral pandemic is testing the city for the sustainability of the very idea of urbanization. Its challenges expose the problems of culture and traditions of social coexistence, subjectivity and self-consciousness of the urban community in the most dramatic way.
The coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than five million lives by early 2022. Changes have affected all people on the planet. New rules and laws have appeared, giving rise not only to discontent and social unrest, but also to new opportunities, which are mostly related to the digitalization of life, communication and “remote” work. The dialogue touches upon the necessity of changes in the life, housing typology and structure of the cities.
The ongoing global socio-economic, cultural and political changes give rise to an urgent need for a prudent modernization of traditional models of living environment design. The article is devoted to the problems of the future of post-industrial and post-pandemic residential architecture. The article analyzes the most significant social, economic, political, cultural, technological and other trends in the modern society, which directly affect the architectural design of the living environment. The author reveals the consolidated trends in residential architecture of the near future.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on many areas of life and has changed some important processes, including educational ones. The crisis has affected almost all groups of the population, including young people who are just starting out in life: graduating from school, getting enrolled and studying in higher education. The article considers students’ reflections on the transformation of life, their comprehension of the changes.
The color component of the urban environment is the most flexible and sensitive to changes. Of course, it is easier to repaint façades than to change the street pattern. Especially with the arsenal of tools offered by modern technologies.As lighting of streets and squares changes, facades also become variable, turning into gigantic screens before our eyes. Will we be able to keep the technological breakthrough within reasonable ethical and aesthetic limits? Experts from Sofia, Moscow and Smolensk are looking for answers to this question.
The problem of the color environment of the city, its formation and impact on citizens attracts close attention of architects and urban planners. Number of attempts were made to create a workable theory of urban coloring. The article proposes an ontological approach that links the characteristics of the color environment of the city with the general philosophy of the urban environment, the system of priorities and values of the citizens and the ethical and aesthetic paradigm prevailing in the urban society.
The most important feature of modern studies of urban coloristics is a special vector of viewing: not “from above”, but “from within”, “from a close distance”, from the perspective of a citizen. This principle completely changes the usual research practice and requires special tools that can capture how citizens actually see urban colors, how they feel, how they remember and use peculiarities of the color environment.
Modern human is wrapped up in the virtual world of digital technologies. The lifestyle is changing and the requirements for the existing urban development are changing too. The architect has to look for new ways to create the appearance of modern architecture to attract attention to the surrounding reality. Innovative materials and digital technologies are actively used in architecture nowadays. Modern facade technologies are used for creating media architecture. By means of modern facade technologies new horizons in architecture are opening up, but the architect lacks sufficient...
Renovation of the environmental education camp in Listvyanka settlement opens up prospects for the development of children’s, family inclusive recreation and can have a positive effect on the region’s economy as a whole. Creating a comfortable modern environment for children is based on studying the territory, structuring and developing the existing functional zones. There is an emphasis on renewing the image of the entire complex of buildings.
A special historical and cultural potential of the Ingal Valley has been revealed as a resource for the development of tourism in the region. The author gives an assessment of the current state of the territory and identifies the key problems of its development: its long length; underdevelopment of tourist infrastructure in small settlements, lack of seasonal use of the area, destruction of archaeological and cultural heritage sites and others. It is proposed to create an open-air museum in the Ingal Valley by means of development of the infrastructure and organization of...
The article considers the presently known design materials of the master plan of the South Coast of the Crimea of 1936-1937. The given analysis allows us to clarify the dating, as well as to put forward a reasonable assumption about a much greater degree of I. I. Leonidov’s participation in the authors’ team led by M. Ya. Ginzburg than it used to be considered before. This makes it possible to attribute a number of fragments of the project of the South Coast of the Crimea as I. I. Leonidov's projects.
The article presents the biographical information about the creative work in Transbaikalia of the architect V. I. Kulikovsky and his wife, sculptor E. S. Kulikovskaya, co-authors of the famous Butins Palace in Nerchinsk, popularly called “Daurian Versailles”. The author analyzes stylistic, compositional and planning features of different types of buildings in the palace complex, as well as in Nerchinsk and at the Butins’ dacha in Nizhniy Stan. The author also describes the architect Lavrenty Ivanov’s works, who was the author of the Gostiny Dvor in Nerchinsk.
The traditional consideration of architectural history as a linear process, where one style successively replaces another, still dominates, but does not explain many phenomena. V.S. Goryunov substantiated a fundamentally different, non-linear model of the historical process in architecture on the basis of architecture of the 19th – early 20th centuries. V. S. Goryunov and M. P. Tubli proposed a stylistic polyphony of architecture with the introduction of the concepts of “Art Nouveau period” and “anti-eclectic movement”. In October 2021, a collection of articles by V. S. Goryunov entitled...
One of the most important aspects of Frank Lloyd Wright’s oeuvre did not receive sufficient analysis and evaluation. This concerns his place in the historical and architectural process of the late 19th – first half of the 20th century. This place is unique and incomparable with the importance of any other major architects of that time. The concept of “organic architecture” was the direct continuation and development of the ideas of the Art Nouveau period, although it also had a definite imprint of the avant-garde ideology. Frank Lloyd Wright’s path is an evolutionary path, and the height...
An ancient belief, dating back to Pliny and Aristotle, claims: if you look from the bottom of a deep well, you can see the stars during the day. Numerous empirical contradictions are worthless, since it is obviously not about the retinal effect. The ancient evidence of the well as an optical clairvoyance device hints at its place in the mythopoetics of inhabited space, and this role is not merely reduced to water delivery. The article attempts to “capture” in a topical but generalized discourse the mythopoetics of wells as they are known in the history of architecture and civilization.