PROJECT RUSSIA ¹56 - Perm

In the entire lifetime of our magazine there have only been two issues devoted to single cities. They were Nizhny Novgorod (1997) and St Petersburg (2003). Could any one have imagined, even not so long ago, that our third such issue would be on Perm? It is, of course, true that buildings in the city on the banks of the River Kama have been designed by architects who are, by Russian standards, more or less well-known – among them Mendel Futlik, Sergey Shamarin, and Igor Lugovoy. And the latter have, of course, been joined by figures from Moscow – including ABD architects, Art-Blya, Alexander Asadov, and Alexander Vysokovsky. And then, of course, there have also been foreign architects getting a look in; Valode & Pistre (France), for instance, were asked to design a large residential street block for Renova. So, all in all, the situation in Perm was exactly the same as in all other regional centres in Russia with some money to spend. There was nothing at all here, it seemed, that required a special issue of Project Russia.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹55 - housing

Construction of ‘affordable and comfortable housing’ is a theme that’s on everyone’s lips. But the only result so far has been hot air. The government’s hopes that ‘the invisible hand of the market’ would take effect have come to nothing, and no other mechanisms for bolstering construction of housing have been invented. But their invention is very necessary. Developments in Russia prior to the crisis furnish clear proof that the market can drive quantitative, but not qualitative growth. The surge in Russia’s economy produced no more than a handful of new residential buildings with an appearance capable of fitting into the global architectural context – as one can easily confirm by looking through a selection of international publications. Note that what we’re talking about here is visual appearance. With regard to every other aspect there is nothing to say: these buildings contain no solutions of any interest from the point of view of layout, technology, or concept.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹54 - landscape

(Western) Postmodern culture celebrates diversity, so does landscape by definition. This explains the extreme popularity of the term in the past decade. According to prominent American landscape architect James Corner, the all-encompassing attention to landscape discipline and the broadening of its agenda are due more specifically to the “rise of environmentalism and global ecological awareness”, “the growth of tourism and the associated needs of regions to retain a sense of unique identity”, and “the impact of massive urban growth on urban areas”.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹53 - under 33

This issue of Project Russia is dedicated to young architects – to the most promising of their generation. To a large extent, this is a tribute to the charm of an exhibition of work by finalists in the Avant-garde Prize organized by Bart Goldhoorn, a curator who is also Editorial Director of our magazine, and the Russky Avant-garde Foundation at this year’s Arch Moskva. An architectural consciousness which has been trained to put everything into distinct categories and which has a sense of proportion is readily enchanted by various selections, classifications, ratings, and so on. This is the reason for the persistent juggling – possibly entirely apt – with words such as ‘style’ that denote a concept which in connection with contemporary art is never used at all…

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹52 - blocks

Anyone who has studied at MARCHI will remember  the ‘red dog’. This creature is said to owe its existence to Nikolai Nikolaevich Ullas, the institute’s most senior teacher. The point of the exercise is for students to draw something strange, of no great size but very noticeable, on their project sheet in the hope of distracting the judging committee from discussing the true merits of one’s design. Stealing the judges’ attention, the ‘red dog’ allows serious mistakes, absurdities, and inconsistencies to escape unnoticed.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹51 - simplicity

It is tempting to link this issue’s theme of simplicity with the current crisis. But there are various ways of doing this; the emphasis may be placed on either practice or theory. In the first case, it will have to be said that the present situation forces us to simplify. This is no time for superfluity; the emphasis is on economy – on a more careful expenditure of resources, including of resources relating to expression and composition. But even in these conditions it is possible to create highquality buildings, as is shown by examples from the past…

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹50 - media

Each art form uses specific mediums to express itself and to communicate to its audience. In the visual arts the relationship between artist and medium is quite simple: the medium is both mediator and the art object itself. Painters use paint and canvas; photographers, film; sculptors, material. In other art forms the relationship is more complex. This is the case with theatre and film, with the applied arts, but especially with architecture. Obviously, the primary medium through which architects express themselves is buildings. However, architects are as far from their medium as painters are close to their painting. Architects do not themselves build; this work is executed by others.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹49 - business

In the grounds of the resort of Pirogovo, not far from Moscow, architect Nikolay Lyzlov is building a stables from enormous logs. This is not an izba [a Russian peasant hut made from crudely cut logs], but a gigantic peripter, a Neoclassical temple-like structure. The historical allusions are absolutely transparent. The building refers to equestrian manèges and training rings built in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries. But whereas the stylistic preferences of Quarenghi, Rossi, or Betancourt, for all the individuality of these master architects, nevertheless fitted in with what were the prevailing styles of their days, Lyzlov’s aesthetic is the result of a focused personal choice. In the city Nikolay Lyzlov is consistent in his adherence to the language of Neomodernism, but at Pirogovo he is creating architecture that is Classical and retrospective.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹48 - ex nihilo

It was not so long ago that Russian architectural critics salivated over photographs of private houses and apartments. That age is now past, and there are few people today whom you could surprise with an urban building on its own. The demand for novelty and diversity in this field has also, it seems, been satisfied. Interest has switched to large projects – master plans for towns and the creation of new settlements from scratch. As Alexander Zmeul atAfisha the age of architectural blockbusters is upon us. The projects for towns and new districts presented in this issue ofPR are, of course, blockbusters. The sites to be developed are measured in thousands of hectares and the floor areas of buildings to be erected run into millions of square metres.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹46 - business

Ever since Russia became a market economy, almost any activity in this country involvingthe making of decisions has taken a business-like quality. Business is what in one form or another is practiced by Russia's civil servants, policemen, teachers... Pragmatism has penetrated into all walks of life and the cities themselves have become gigantic business centres. Plainly, the main function of any business space is to facilitate efficient conduct of affairs. It's likewise plain that such efficiency is impossible without good planning. However, for some reason in Russia the logic used in design of individual offices is not applicable to cities. Here all power is held by property developers, and the latter's role is played not just by business people, but by the authorities as well.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹45 - small stuff

In their article 'Notes around the Doppler Effect and Other Moods of Modernism' the American theoreticians Robert Somol and Sarah Whiting put forward an approach they call 'cool' (see Pi13). Borrowing terminology used by Marshall McLuhan, they set this approach against a 'hot' version of architecture. The 'cool' approach does not insist on clarity, universality, ornormativeness of statement. Its language is not only not importunate, but is also aimed at getting users and viewers to participate. An example of such an approach in the field of communication for McLuhan was television, as opposed to cinema. There were, of course, no digital media at the time, but the latter are an even better illustration of the essence of'cool' media.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹44 - bigness

It would be no exaggeration to say that one of the main problems in contemporary architecture is designing large forms oron a large scale. Overthe centuries architects have dealt with this problem with great success, but in recent decades their solutions have become less convincing. Certain 'Pagininis' have already attained that special virtuosity which discredits all potential accumulated in this field, as is evidenced by the gallery of trash that precedes the present article. And yet everything large-scale is in high demand: development projects are continually growing in size.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹43 - context

This issue of PR has a simple aim: to show examples of the 'implantation' of new architecture in already existing urban tissue and to discuss the mechanisms by which old and new interact. But the title for this issue is... not exactly enticing. The word 'context' now has a distinctly ragged feel after over-use in intellec­tual battles during the 1980s and even earlier; it gives off a strong reek of naphthalene. Is it really the case that nothing has changed since those days? At the end of last year Russia celebrated the pass­ing of 100 years since the birth of Leonid Brezhnev. In their comments on this event many ventured the same observation, that we are today essentially liv­ing in an age of Neo-Brezhnevism.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹42 - luxury

An acquaintance of ours found an idol to worship while serving as a member of the jury for the Salon magazine awards. The object of his admiration was Vsevolod Sosenkin, a graduate from the Stroganov Art School in Moscow, whose luxurious apartment made an unforgettable impression on the imagination of our friend, even though the latter is an architect who has been around a bit and seen it all. This is hardly surprising. When it comes to density of decor per square metre, Sosenkin is streaks ahead of the rest of the field. If he designs a ceiling, it has a fresco, mirrors, caissons, and plaster mouldings. If he creates a floor, it's made of marble - and usually has a mosaic too. If he conceives a portal, it has panels, cannelures, and carvings.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹41 - alexander brodsky

Monographs on the subject of architects who are still in good health are commonly regarded as the equivalent of monuments to people who are still alive - they supposedly put their subjects on a divine pedestal and stamp their buildings and designs with the mark of 'eternity'. Brodsky's Oblako ('Cloud') Bar and Ice Pavilion no longer exist, and yet you'll find them in the journal you're now holding, and this gives them a kind of 'immortal' glory. ...

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹40 - conversion

Large and high spaces, red brick walls, concrete floors, steel frame windows, roof lights, gigantic sliding doors, incomprehensible texts and signs sprayed on the Avails, traces of machinery, tubes, ducts... all this is the aesthetic of the abandoned industrial building. After fust appearing in New York in the 1960s, this aesthetic became the birthplace of the underground - anti-bourgeois, anti-establish­ment, marginal, critical, list as punk music showed you can make music without being able to play an instrument, so by occupying and living in these buildings it became clear that you don't in fact need a custom-designed apartment in order live comfort­ably. You can live anywhere.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹39 - body

The subject of body and architecture, the theme of this issue of Project Russia, has taken an unexpected twist recently with the collapse of the Basmanny Rynok in Moscow. Although the topic for this issue is treated as ’architecture for the body’, one could also interpret it as ‘the body of architecture’. In both interpretations, questions of health and beauty are central. When we talk of architecture for the body, architecture is meant to provide the conditions for people to be healthy, beautiful, slim, and fit. When we talk about the body of contemporary architecture – its construction, – we see that it is ruled by similar notions: here health and beauty equal economy, slimness, and transparency. In both cases, the opposite is heaviness: a heavy body is ugly and unhealthy; a heavy construction is ungraceful and uneconomical. Consequently, architects and structural engineers strive to attain the maximum effect with the minimum of means.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹38 - settlements

The American city is high in the middle, but descends quickly to the endless sprawl of suburbia. The Russian city gets higher the further you go from the historical city centre, following the development of prefabricated housing construction technology between 1960 and 1990. The ring road forms a border marking the Soviet city off from the surrounding agricultural landscape, which is scattered with settlements of dachas. Now, however, it is clear that this picture is starting to change. Due to the laws of ‘capitalist realism’, relatively low-rise five-storey housing blocks are being replaced by a new standard - the 25-storey housing block. This is only the beginning of a process by which Moscow's bowl-shaped urban landscape is being transformed: the bowl is now filling up. Within a decade or two, Moscow will be very similar to Asian cities such as Singapore or Bangkok - an endless field of high-rises divided by highways, parking garages, and shopping malls.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹37 - prospects

At the moment you read this text it will have been more than 10 years since the first issue of PROJECT RUSSIA was presented in the White Hall at the House of Architects in Moscow. Those who were present probably remember that the first issue arrived from the Slovenian printing house with its covers glued inside-out – in retrospect, only a foretaste of the difficulties we would encounter in the years that followed, including endless production delays, a fire in the editorial offices, and, of course, the ruble crisis of 1998. Notwithstanding these problems – many of which are probably common to any new periodical, – the journal has established itself as the main publication on Russian architecture and design for the professional reader.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹36 - museum +

When I was living in Moscow for a year in 1993, my stay coincided with an art project called 'Exchange', which brought together Russian and Dutch artists to work on art projects - first in Moscow, then in Amsterdam. I remember wondering about the large apartments of the Russian artists: they were much better then those of their Dutch counterparts, who were living in small apartments in squats or other run-down buildings in Amsterdam. It was then I realized that the picture painted in the West about how repressed were artists in the Soviet Union was at least one-sided. All too evidently, the social and economic status of artists was high enough to secure for them 'elite' housing conditions.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹35 - alternative

From the point of view of the sciences, architecture is often seen as a somewhat archaic and non-scientific discipline - more a craft then a serious field of knowledge. However, there are exceptions. Donald Schoen, a philosopher and professor at MIT University, has written an interesting study in which he introduces the design process as itself a model for scientific thinking (The design studio: an exploration of its traditions and potentials, RIBA Publications, London, 1985). He studies the processes going on in a design studio where students are educated to become architects, and describes the designing as a process of reflection-in-action: while designing, architects produce a flow of proposals that are reflected upon before being revised or even rejected. Essential for this process is the ability of the designer to 'temporarily suspend his disbelief' - that is, to be able to draw without being afraid that what he draws may be rejected or revised at a later stage of the process.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹34 - aliens

In view of the meaning of the Russian word proekt ('project') - which, unlike in English, is exclusively related to the process of designing, - the name of our journal suggests a publication featuring predominantly designs as opposed to buildings. Paradoxically, in the nine years of our existence we have primarily been showing realized buildings. This under-representation of the project as an autonomous form of architecture is largely due to lack of supply. The art of creating 'projects' that may be shown as self-sufficient works, responsible for the success of Russian Paper Architecture in the 1980s, virtually disappeared in the 1990s. The economic situation for architects has changed dramatically. In order to make a living, Russian architects now find that they have to work for real clients, and these care nothing for beautiful ideas, only for square meters of space and speedy results.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹33 - wood

Virtually every foreigner coming to Russia is enchanted by Russia's wooden architecture; not only by the tradional architecture of the North with its wooden churches and farm houses, but also by the wooden houses that can be found in the countryside and in provincial towns and cities alike. Most Russians tend to agree about traditional architecture, but concerning the second category, one hears a completely different opinon: wooden houses are considered to be of bad quality, a fire hazard, and lack toilets and baths. They are associated with poverty and only suitable for dacha life. The prevalent opinion is that in the city, it is better to get rid of them as soon as possible. And this is what's happening, although there are cities like Nizhni Novgorod or Vologda with a more careful approach.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹32 - Class A

Around half a year ago, a map was published in the Kommersant daily's real estate supplement that showed the location and price per square meter of elite housing projects in central Moscow. The highest prices were in the Ostozhenka district, and two Project Meganom architecture studio projects were specifically mentioned. $10,000 per square meter - a price comparable to London's Chelsea or Paris XVI Arrondisement districts. Moscow's elite apartment projects are quite modest compared with their foreign counterparts. True, they are well designed - their architecture is actually more up-to-date than exclusive projects in the West. There are no spectacular views over squares, parks, or rivers; there are no well-kept restored historical areas with boutiques, bars and restaurants. As some foreigners I have shown around in the district noticed, the neighborhood looks quite run-down. For them it is difficult to understand why this would be place for elite apartments.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹31 - Night Life

Around the 12th of March five trucks leave Berlin on their way to Moscow carrying a payload worth over 50 million dollars. They are works of art to be exhibited at the Berlin-Moscow exhibition opening at the beginning of April. On Sunday March 14, in the early evening, they pass the Moscow Ring road on their way to their final location: the History Museum on Red Square. When they have almost reached their destination, the sky is lit up by a yellow glow. When they turn the last corner, they see an enormous fire eating away at one of Moscow's biggest historical buildings - the Manege, located opposite the History Museum. Panicking, they call their German office: 'We think we should turn back! Moscow is burning!' Architecture Must Burn is the title of a book by architecture critic Aaron Betsky.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹30 - New Capitals

Architecture of the USSR Some weeks ago, I got a call from Raoul Bunschoten, a Dutch architect/artist based in London and well known in the select international circle of architectural theory or, as it is called today, research. The reason for his call was also research. He had been asked by Stefano Boeri, another prominent architectural researcher, to travel to Russia in order to investigate the situation here. This was directly related to the fact that from January 2004 Boeri replaces Deyan Sudjic as the editor-in-chief of DOMUS. So I decided we could soon expect DOMUS to publish something about our architecture. It turned out, though, that our foreign colleagues were not interested in real buildings and not even in the results of big international competitions. The main purpose of Bunschoten’s visit to Russia was to find out about the architectural policies of our President.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹29 - Competitions Two

While flying to Amsterdam not long after visiting the exhibition with the Mariinsky Theater competition projects, I was reading the International Herald Tribune and to my great surprise I saw a half-page article on that same competition. I was impressed. I was even more impressed when the next day I opened up one of the major Dutch newspapers and came upon a two-page article on the same subject. What great PR for St Petersburg! By organizing this competition, St Petersburg has managed to present itself as a contemporary, open, democratic, hip, and modern city – not without the help of magician Valery Gergiev, of course. We can criticize the choice of the participants and the program, but the fact is that the competition has already generated so much free publicity for St Petersburg that the competition is already a success, even if none of the projects are realized. One of the phrases popping up in all the articles in the Western (and even in the Russian) press is that the Mariinsky Theater competition was the first international architectural competition organized in Russia since the famous Palace of the Soviets competition of 1931-1933.

PROJECT RUSSIA ¹22 - Houses of Prayer The renaissance of religious architecture

The fall of the Soviet Union has led to a revival of religion in Russia, and this is reflected in architecture. This publication forms a collection of new houses of prayer from all parts of Russia and for various religions. In Russian Orthodox churches we find the dilemma of Russian Orthodox art as a whole: strict regulations co-exist with the uncertainty of provincial masters copiing the model often known to them only by hearsay. The result of this contradicton is an artistically productive flexibility of architectural decisions offered within the limits of a vague set of regulations. In contemporary church-building the variety in interpretation turns out to be the main quality of the national architectural tradition. The Islamic renaissance currently experienced in Russia finds one of its most clear symbols is the construction of the largest mosque in the country in the Kazan kremlin, “replacing” the one destroyed by Ivan the Terrible in the XVI century. This “architectural revenge”, changing the ensemble which during the past 400 years became in itself a monument, was conducted in the name of “reconstructing the historical context” and was approved by UNESCO. Apart from showing the growing influence of Islam, it shows the limitations of an argumentation based on “preservation and recreation of historical heritage” in deciding on the development of the historical centres of Russian cities. The houses of prayer of contemporary Catholicism and Protestantism look a bit out of place in Russia. In contrast with the Russian-orthodox church, the rules for “Western” church buildings are quite refined and constantly updated. As a result, the new churches built recently in Russia seem to lack a “confessional identity”. Since Western churches haven’t been built in Russia for 70 years, their contemporary architecture fails to be associated with their predecessors: the Kirchen and Cathedrals of the turn of the century. PROJECT RUSSIA 22 also includes KABAROVSK Guide to Soviet architecture This little-known city in the Far East has some of the finest examples of Soviet architecture 104 pages 146 b/w illustrations 70 colour illustrations