No more high-tech for Russian capital

Moscow’s Cultural Committee has recommended banning further modern-style construction in the city center.

The officials believe that there have been too many high-tech buildings erected around the city’s historic center in recent years.

In order to maintain the city’s heritage and architectural integrity, the committee is planning to come up with strict guidelines as to what can and cannot be built in central Moscow.

Namely, the committee strongly advises sticking to classicism, constructivism and modern. This has already been implemented in the new design schemes for Moscow kiosks.

One more reform concerns the city’s status: the committee has proposed making central Moscow itself a historic object.

This could help the authorities take the whole city center under their control, thus ensuring that everything done to these historic buildings is in accordance with city law.

Over the years, Muscovites have repeatedly voiced their concerns about historic and architecturally significant buildings in the capital being either torn down or completely abandoned.

According to the recent data published by the Cultural Heritage Committee, nearly 50 percent of the city’s historic objects do not have a registered owner. This means that no one is responsible for maintaining these buildings and ensuring that construction methods are sound.

“We tend to think that all the cultural objects belong to the state and that it is the state that should take care of them,” Nikolay Pereslegin, from the Cultural Legacy Committee, told RT. “In reality, the majority are privately-owned, but our legislation does not allow anything to be actually done to maintain them. Many buildings and monuments are either left unused and uncared for, or their owners find some gap in the law and renovate them as they like.”