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Main architecture event kicks off in Venice
Published: 29 August, 2010, 21:20
Edited: 30 August, 2010, 20:54
Once again, top professionals of contemporary art and architecture have gathered to present the world with the latest ideas and forward-minded projects.
The Venice Architecture Biennale has, for the 12th year, opened on August 29th. Russian architects are there among others from 52 countries to one again attend the national school at the trademark art and culture event.
The Russian national project, entitled «Factry Russia», is based upon a concept of giving a second life to small towns in the country’s regions by reconstructing and redesigning abandoned factories and industrial buildings into culture sights. Curated by architect Sergei Choban, architecture critic Grigory Revzin, and Deputy Culture Minister Pavel Horoshilov, the project develops this idea using as an example Vyshny Volochok – a small industrial town found half way from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
 PEOPLE MEET IN ARCHITECTURE Project by Cibic & Partners, Italy |
Five major architectural bureaus, including Vladimir Plotkin’s “Reserve” and “Sergei Skuratov Architects” from Moscow, along with “Evgeniy Gerasimov & partners” and Nikita Yavein’s “Studio 44” from St. Petersburg, offer their concept of rearranging the buildings of the town’s plant “Krasny Mai”. Architect Sergei Choban from the “SPEECH Choban/Kuznetsov” bureau suggests turning its factories into a Folklore Museum and a museum of water communication lines. That, according to the project's authors, will attract tourists passing by the town on their way from the capital to St. Petersbug and help improve the town's economy.
This year's main project titled "People meet in architecture" was initiated by Pritzker Prize laureate Kazuyo Sejima of Japan. An international team of 48 architects, chosen by the curator, create a project on a given theme. Among its participants are the Director of International Projects at London’s Serpentine Gallery, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Wim Wenders, director, and architect Rem Koolhaas.
As the Architecture Biennale is included into the Venice Biennale its winners will also receive Golden and Silver lions.
Winners were announced one day before the opening of the displays. The Golden lion for the Best National Participation went to the Kingdom of Bahrain. The prize for the Best Project of the main exhibition curated by a Japanese architect, was won by “junya.ishigami+associates”, a firm from the same country. The team of a Belgian-Dutch firm “OFFICE Kerst” was named most promising architects.
The exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale will continue through November 21. The event, a meeting of the most picky and progressive masters in an international dialogue, is also a great opportunity to study and gain precious professional and cultural experiences. Why not consider it a reason to visit the beautiful pearl of Italy?
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We absolutely cannot get enough quality architecture in our secondary towns. We all know that whilst we have some beautiful cities and towns, we generally have a built environment deficit in Russia. There are some nice projects happening, and the budget does need to be managed to avoid the economic disaster of the west, where life improvements came on the state credit card, until they couldn't pay anymore. However, for prosperity to be felt and touched in Russia in every day life, necessitates a beautiful built environment. Architects are the essential ingredient in the creation of such an environment in Russia, to build a built echosystem that provides for comfortable sustainable living in harmony with our wider bueatiful nature. People have waited many years for their living accomodation and everyday streets to be transformed, this has hapepned to large exent in the big cities, but is far far further behind in the secodary cities and towns. We neeed to deliver more quickly on big improvements in the everyday architecture of Russia based on sound financial management. Otherwise people will become tired, that they cannot see and touch the wealth that is here, for themselves. Re-building if done properly can add to the growth in the economy, indeed Russia almost has a 'post war' type opportunity to build a fantastic built environment. So lets do architecture and beauty, underpinned by financial and environmental sustainability, and lets do it faster than we are, with communication of vission, timing and the problems and limitations to our citizens, so they get reasonable postive expectations, which are backed up by delivery. We have navigated the crisis since 1990s by sound evasive manouvers, we have developed vission and ideas, now it is necessary to make sure those ideas include architecture, beauty and sustainability and deploy them to our people. We must deliver on prosperity, both in the pocket and in the eye. Things must be seen to be done!