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Shortlist Released for the "Russian Character" International Architecture Competition
United Kingdom Architecture News - Apr 03, 2014 - 18:45 2638 views
The council of experts for the Morton Group's "Russian Character" International Architecture Competition has selected the participants who will proceed to the second round. Out of 96 applicants, 15 architectural studios have been invited to take part in developing projects for a Russian Culture & Education Center. The shortlist includes architectural studios from Russia, Slovenia, Finland, Spain and Switzerland:
1. Totan Kuzembaev Architectural Studio (Russia)
2. OFIS (Slovenia)
3. ALA Architects (Finland)
4. Mossine and Partners (Russia)
5. ENOTA+Arhimetrics (Slovenia)
6. Sergey Skuratov Architects (Russia)
7. A-B Studio (Russia)
8. TAF Studio (Russia)
9. Arch Group (Russia)
10. MEL (Russia)
11. Pole-Design (Russia)
12. Selgascano+FRPO (Spain)
13. Alexey Kozyr Architectural Studio (Russia)
14-15. Kubota&Bachmann (Switzerland) – Megabudka (Russia)
Placement on the shortlist was determined based on ratings assigned by experts after studying the portfolios, cover letters and mood-boards submitted by the participants.
Totan Kyzembaev, whose studio was assigned first place by experts in the first round, explains his interest in the competition: “We are inspired by the idea of creating a Russian Culture & Education Center for the Butovo Park residential district. Such places haven’t been built in Moscow since the 1980s, although the city’s 1971 Master Plan suggested establishing community centers in new districts. This situation deprives the districts of individuality and deprives their residents of cultural activities. Now malls are the main attractions, which fosters a culture of consumption rather than one of art and creativity. Since this is the first facility of its kind in Russia’s recent history, we are very interested in being among the pioneers and participating in the creation of an innovative Russian Culture & Education Center.”
According to the OFIS studio in Slovenia: “Architecture should reclaim its social function, its function of educating citizens, which was lost at the beginning of last century. The socially responsible architect is currently a rare and valuable commodity and, in our view, the second part of the future Center’s name prevails. Interpretations of culture can be endless, but the idea of creating a space capable of uniting, fulfilling, enlightening and perhaps offering security and direction for people — that is something worth fighting for.”
ALA Architects from Finland describe their motivation to participate: “Developing a Culture & Education Center in a residential district will help establish the history, atmosphere and image of the territory; we are interested in being a part of this process.”
From the perspective of Anton Mossine and his team, a quality work of architecture, adapted to a specific context, can transmit national culture through the application of local and traditional materials, technologies, means of construction and composition. The designer interprets these elements within the framework of a modern architectural language. In a building aimed at promoting national — in this case Russian — culture, these principles should be strengthened and articulated. Such a building, as a whole and in its individual elements, should have a bright, readable image that metaphorically symbolizes Russian culture.”
The ENOTA studio sent the following commentary on participation: “We live in a time when the very concept of a ‘national architecture’ is placed in doubt, as the traditional approach to classifying architecture geographically vanishes in a globalizing world.” This will make it all the more interesting for participants to take on this challenging task.
As a reminder, participants in the "Russian Character" International Architecture Competition face the task of reflecting their impressions of modern Russian architecture in the Center's design, with special attention to the promotion and perpetuation of Russian cultural traditions.
The ideas proposed by competition participants will be on public display at the "Arch Moscow-2014" exhibition, which takes place from May 21 to 25 at the Central House of Artists. The winner will be announced no later than June 30 by a professional jury proposed and approved by the council of experts.
The Morton Group is organizing the competition, architect Ilya Mukosey is serving as curator, and the Rules of Communication Agency is responsible for coordination.
> via www.ruschar.ru