Russian city. Is it necessary to clean the St. Petersburg pre-revolutionary buildings?
Country and world
August 18, 2022
In the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, at the strategic session “What is a Russian city?”, Organized jointly with the Institute of Heritage and Modern Society of the Russian State Humanitarian University, the problems of construction and new architecture are discussed. Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg, discussions continue about whether it is necessary to build everything that was built before 1917. As the architect Maxim ATAYANTS told correspondent Dmitry IVANOV, the most direct connection.
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— Tell us, Maxim Borisovich, who spoke about what in Moscow?
– About forty people gathered – the development of design institutes, associations of architects, government officials responsible for urban development. The conversation was about the fact that quarters consisting of 25-storey buildings are not comfortable for life. It is necessary to abandon the primary pragmatic approach – the availability of square meters – and wear it in the architectural and artistic dimension.
— Ideas that consistently returned to the idea of Soviet architecture at the turn of the 1940s – 1950s?
– Stylistically, this is not at all necessary, but urban planning experience may well be in demand
— But modern development will not incur additional costs, if it is possible not to do this according to the law?
– Why are you like this? The entrepreneur works within legal restrictions. But before changing the law, society must clearly formulate a request for an artistic dimension. In my opinion, the new protests of citizens against the demolition of ordinary buildings are based on their belief that the architecture that will take the place of the old one will be much more significant and most belonging to hysteria. That is why the so-called “problem of 1917” is called.
— Shall we preserve everything that built the pre-revolutionary period?
– Allowing you to wear everything that was built later. And the struggle begins for all the ruins, which do not exclude either artistic value or value.
— How to solve the “problem of 1917”?
The recipe is easy to formulate, but very difficult to put into practice. It is necessary to consider the historical quarters of St. Petersburg in order to identify and identify value compositions, to identify their important elements. And then keep a list of all the price, which should be unshakable. Then determine the levels of possible inserts and seals. By the way, the same principle applies to memorial houses. There should be no abbreviated lists of objects of protection. Once created, it must be eternal. The loophole for entrepreneurial dexterity will disappear – the boundaries of the subject of protection will be determined by the developer’s appetite.
The material was published in the newspaper “Saint Petersburg Vedomosti” No. 152 (7236) dated August 18, 2022 under the heading “The subject of protection is eternal.”
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