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Main Administration for Service to the Diplomatic Corps (GlavUpDK) under the MFA of Russia is holding the 2nd All-Russian Creative Competition “Architecture of Diplomacy” for young artists aged 18 to 35. The concept is “Architecture Is Frozen Music”. It was inspired by big events celebrated in 2023: the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sergei Rachmaninoff and the Year of Music declared by the Decree of the President of Russia V. Putin in response to the initiative of the Ministry of Culture of Russia.
Cultural heritage is increasingly becoming a matter of discussion among representatives of all levels of government and specialists in different areas of science and practice. Numerous exhibitions, competitions, and festivals, where historians, art historians, cultural experts, architects and artists develop a general strategy to preserve and take care of the country’s national heritage, play a major role in this process.
Nikolay Shumakov, Honored Architect of Russia, President of the Russian Union of Architects, Member of the Presidential Council for Culture and Art, spoke about how the past and the present coexist, why historical buildings need to be adapted to the current needs of city residents, and what the role of the architectural community is.
– Nikolai Ivanovich, we are grateful that for the second year in a row you are taking part in the jury of the Architecture of Diplomacy competition for young artists. Do you believe that the historical past and the modern vision of space by young architects and artists can coexist?
– Anything can happen: sometimes they get along well, and sometimes there is nothing to get along with... It is no secret that every year we lose dozens of our architectural pieces due to, to put it mildly, negligence and lack of attention on the part of government agencies, for whom historical sites, along with their art value, is a significant financial expense. Realizing this problem and trying to highlight it, the Union of Architects founded the Architectural Heritage International Festival in 2018 and has been holding the event annually for the sixth year in a row. It is worth noting that from the very beginning, we are constantly supported by the Ministry of Culture of Russia, the Moscow Government, the Moscow City Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning and local authorities in the regions where the festivals are held. Every year represents a new city, new participants and common current problems of heritage conservation. At the Architectural Heritage Festival held this year in Samara, we signed an agreement with the mayor of Tyumen to hold the next festival in the city in 2024. It is natural, because Tyumen is the oldest settlement in the Siberian region, where wooden architecture dating from the 18th–19th centuries could have been preserved. Founded in 1586, it was in fact the first Russian city in Siberia. But in this case, the key verb is the sad “could have been”... Currently in Tyumen and in many other Russian cities, there are sites that are dilapidated, the regional budget cannot properly and to the required extent restore historical buildings and complexes. This is our common problem, including capitals. Well, answering your question about how the past and the present coexist, I can say that in some cases it is no longer relevant: the restoration and reconstruction tools have greatly lost to a bulldozer, which is a powerful argument against this or that heritage site.
But it is also a matter of resources. Moscow, for example, has more opportunities to preserve historical sites compared to other cities. GlavUpDK is supervising a high-class collection: Lev Kekushev, Fyodor Schechtel... The vast majority of them are cultural heritage sites of federal significance. That is why it is much easier to “get along” in the capital. If a city has no money for restoration, it is not even possible to rent out a historical building for 1 ruble providing further appropriate and not the cheapest maintenance – it is quite a different story.
– What is your assessment of the preservation of the capital’s historical sites?
– Moscow is one of the cities that are trying to preserve their heritage sites. There is certainly room for improvement, but we can at least be optimistic that not everything will soon be destroyed and broken. We hope for the best. But then again: the maintenance of a heritage site and the status of its owner matter. If the site belongs to a private person, a positive outcome is not guaranteed, but it is a different story when it belongs to the city or federal authorities. This requires the will of the authorities and primarily a strong and clear legislative framework to choose a strategy and tactics in each specific case when working with a cultural heritage site. Of course, civil initiative is very important as demonstrated by the competition organized by a division of the MFA. We are ready to cooperate and invite your department to support the annual Architectural Heritage international competition.
– Architecture and urban spaces are widely believed to influence personal development. Do you agree with this?
– Architects, for the most part, are naive people and firmly believe that space and architecture influence a personality. If you were born in a five-story building, you end up with one “subspecies” of a person, but if you were born in a high-rise building, that is a completely different story. But over the years, you realize that it is not about buildings or even about schools or universities where you study. Influenced by parents’ experience and environment, a personality is shaped by the family. In this context, the responsibility of architects is enormous. Just like the responsibility of builders, designers, developers... And even those who exploit these spaces after us. This is somewhat our common cumulative civic responsibility to the people for whom cities are being built, to our own future, to ourselves, actually.
– What is you assessment of the current domestic architecture?
– We have always had the greatest architecture, and I say it time and time again. Although we cannot erase the fact that once architecture impact and purpose were dashed by one phrase, one document, in which the art of architecture was called “excesses” that were not needed by the Soviet people. And that was it! The architecture was canceled overnight! It turned into a semblance of art, into its shadow, in the outlines of which new styles later began to appear with single buildings: Constructivism, Neoclassicism, Soviet Art Nouveau... The aesthetics of mass housing, which actually created the backdrop of life, disappeared. The space of the cities was filled with the notorious five-story buildings. But this did not make Russia any worse; by the mid-1980s, there was a return to good architecture. At the same time, we took the path of glasnost and perestroika, looked to the West and realized that architecture could be different. We gradually integrated our long-suffering architecture into the mainstream of the world, mainly Western, architecture and studied the East: Japan and China...
When making any assessment, we need to carefully look at what to compare... If compared to the Soviet architecture, the level has risen incredibly, but we only fairly reach foreign architecture level. But then again: there is one picture in Moscow, it is different in St. Petersburg, and in most regions the situation is specific. They rarely invest in good architecture. They erect new buildings as a last resort.
– What are the current and future urban space development trends?
I do not know, or rather, I do not yet feel that any special modern architecture trends have emerged. For example, some time ago, such big names as Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, Jean Nouvel and many others appeared... They created their own styles with each name being both a brand and a trend. For me, their work is a not entirely intelligible “architecture of focus”, the architecture of personal experiment, if I can put it like this, which has lasted for 10–15 years. Now many of these architects have been integrated in the existing context and are designing conventional, sensible architecture.
– Please name the buildings in our country that can be called the gems of domestic architecture.
– I will name three such buildings: Moscow Metro and Zhivopisny Bridge in Moscow and Vnukovo International Airport. The author is in front of you (he smiles).
– Which of the completed projects is of great worth to you?
– I am always ready to answer this question: hundreds of kilometers of metro tunnels that I “dug” throughout Moscow. This is my longest project and I can say, not without pride, that it is the longest one that can only exist in a portfolio of any architect. I think that metro tunnels are the most perfect and harmonious architectural form.
– Today, many historical buildings have been adapted for modern use. How do you feel about combining historical context with new functionality? Which modern practices do you consider the most successful?
– Life proves that any other approach is ineffective. If you do not change the functions of historical buildings, do not integrate them into the daily city rhythm, they will not survive even with millions of investments. For example, Samara has recently completed the restoration and adaptation of the wooden Mashtakov House. The Zavarka Gallery opened there. A stylized tea room on the first floor welcomes guests, and an exhibition space on the second floor is open. Functionality should meet the needs of a region, city, republic, country. There is no point in restoring something without giving a chance for a new life, and experience has shown that restoration for further adaptation is needed. I once said that providing historical sites with modern functions is like a safe-conduct, and I remain true to this statement.
– Today’s Moscow is a city woven from different periods: historical buildings dating from Tsarist era coexist with Soviet ones, avant-garde and modern architecture. What kind of capital would you like to see in 20–40–60 years?
– It is always hard to talk about the future. For example, some time ago no one could even imagine that a big construction boom would occur in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Fortunately, at that time, the head of the Moscow architectural department was a very skilled person, Alexander Kuzmin, who did not allow the madness that captured many cities to be rampant. Good architecture was completely demolished, and new one, spectacular and supposedly modern, was erected. But after these sites were commissioned, it often became clear that they looked just as terrible as they were originally intended. Why did such a boom occur? Both economic and political situation in the country changed. A new customer and functions appeared that had not existed in our architecture before. It is difficult to predict how the events of the current period will end: either we will stew in our own cauldron, or the whole world will take our example, including in architecture. I want to believe in the latter!
– What is your favorite area of Moscow?
There are two possible answers here: either the center or the area where you live. I was lucky to live on Khodynka Field, from time to time I changed my places of residence, but somehow everything happened in one part of the city: Peschanaya Square, Peschanaya Street, Karamyshevskaya Embankment. There is an amazing park nearby where I run with my dog. The park is high-class, local residents love it very much. Rex and I really like it.
– How can a person without specialized education, without being an architect, learn to feel and understand architecture?
– Well, sometimes even professionals do not understand it well (he smiles). Even I do not always immediately understand what is good and what is bad. Even though we take responsibility for making some assessments and analyzing architectural styles, we pretend that we understand it and teach others. But for a non-professional, this is certainly a very, very challenging task. All this does not mean that only architects can understand architecture. This is art, and craving for it is inherent in all people, you just need to carefully study everything that you see around, and then architecture itself will enter your soul and help you feel what is close, understandable, and cherished...
