Natalya Dushkina
METAMORPHOSIS OF ANTIQUITY IN MOSCOW SYROMYATNIKI
The duet of Ilya Utkin and Sergey Shestopalov appeared in the spring of 1995, combining two sides that complement each other. Utkin’s philosophical and poetic style of thinking, clearly manifested in his joint work with A. Brodsky, which brought them wide international fame and victories in numerous architectural competitions in the 80-90s, is combined with a realistic approach to the design of his new co-author Shestopalov. Behind him is twenty years of experience in domestic practice. Natalia Dushkina in her article presents Utkin-Shestopalov’s latest work, the project of a multifunctional complex in Syromyatniki, and, taking this opportunity, wishes the success of their joint activities.
Memories of suburban life, merchants and noble estates with greenery of parks descending to the banks of the Yauza River, chaos of storage and industrial buildings, patchwork adjoining the railroad tracks, the general spirit of the place - half-residential, semi-industrial - this is the series of associations that captures you as soon as turn off from the Sadovoye Ring, at the Kursk station, in the direction of Syromyatniki. The sensation of the discovery of a different Moscow, with its provincial-imperceptible, but characteristic, as the very sound of the word "Syryomyatniki", 'moscovity', almost leaving the city center, is even more emphasized by the barrier of railways to be overcome. Two black grotto-shaped tunnels pierce the space into this world, as it were, and already in it clamp together a triangular section. In the picturesque untidiness of the place, the geometric clarity of this rigidly fenced spot, completely surrounded by walls around the perimeter, stands out. Here, inside these walls formed by blind brick facades of warehouse buildings, it is also planned to carry out a project for the reconstruction of a fragment of a historical city, showing the possibilities of the architect's actions in a single isolated space.
This topic is not new, having a whole layer of recommendations and practical implementations around the world, to a certain extent developed in our country. However, the unusualness of this case is felt even at the stage of the project proposal and is due to three circumstances. Firstly, the Moscow situation as a whole, its historical specificity in solving modern architectural and urban planning problems. Secondly, an amazing place for the artistic, emotional and romantic perception (and banally ruined in the eyes of the average person) by the place, the genius loci, whose power forms the imaginative and spatial thinking of the architect. And, finally, the peculiarity of the author's reading of this “place”, its new “edition”, which incorporates the life and professional experience of the creators of the project.
After decades of overtly destructive reconstructions of the historical center, Moscow entered a period of seemingly favorable transformations. The freshness of the painted facades and the European quality of the texture, the reservation of cosmetic cleanliness on the streets are the first visual signs of a rejuvenated environment. Against this background, immediately demanded as an attribute of wealth, modern civilization and customers, and starving architects, the theme of the revival of the historical city began to sound.
They came to its comprehension decisively, using the experience and genetic memory of the past years, very far from a true understanding of continuity and evolutionary development. The concept of historicity turned into a rather vague idea of reconstruction and reduced to a frontal reproduction of the "old", devoid of the values of authenticity. Demolition and erection of falsified copies of historical buildings, their false stylistic imitations, now forming whole fragments of urban fabric, the flourishing of “facadeism”, which destroys the unity of the internal and external structure of structures, that is, all those methods that have long received a negative scientific assessment and protection system in the rich experience of European countries, quickly paved their way in our country.
As for the structures of modern architecture that appeared in Moscow in recent years and filled the voids in rarefied historical buildings, very few of them are inherent in harmonic unity with the surrounding space. With rare exceptions, there are still prevailing techniques of contrast, separation from the context.
At the early, “wild” stage of the rehabilitation of the historical environment, it is difficult to expect other results. So these results for domestic experience, abstracting from the knowledge of “how it should be,” should probably be considered comforting.
From this point of view, the “triangle” in Syromyatniki is an excellent model of the possible actions of the architect and the customer. An almost completely ruined space in which industrial architecture of the turn of the century is guessed through piles of rubbish, dips of windows and ceilings, bends of communications brought to the surface and dangling in the air, as if it itself offers a well-known reconstruction method - complete clearing and subsequent development of the site. To the customer’s honor, it will be said that the demolition option was rejected - both due to practical considerations related to the prospect of using the available space, and due to an internal, quite sentimental desire to preserve the atmosphere of this place, turning to search for his updated artistic image. This, obviously, explains the long dialogue between the head of the joint-stock company Master and architects, which is now at the stage of developing the third project proposal - a version of I. Utkin-S. Shestopalov, who presented an unusual view, by Moscow standards, of a look at the reconstructed space.
The basis of their general reasoning was those qualities of isolation and isolation of the quarter from the environment, which almost without changes preserved its structure for a century and a half. The semi-monastic, semi-serf alienation of the place with its theatrical blockages, stratifications of objects, a multitude of time layers gave rise to a persistent romantic mood, which I wanted to maintain and strengthen with architectural means. The romantic landscapes of Fyodor Alekseev with his high poetic order and imagery, born from the images of Moscow antiquities covered with decay, the ruins of ancient Rome and the magnificent architectural fantasies of Piranesi etchings, factory romanticism of the 19th century - these are the visual metaphors that gave impetus to the creative imagination of architects.
The idea of cultivating the ruins as carriers of the memory of the place, as the quintessence of historical and spiritual values that determine its unique aura, led the authors to the idea of creating a composition in which modern architecture would not play a dominant role. An ensemble is created in which, at first glance, it seems that nothing is changing, but by introducing several architectural volumes, the overall composition becomes completed. The artistic, mythologized, and not literal, design of the construction of “new ruins” here, turning back the clock, is aimed at identifying and preserving, first of all, the spirit of the reconstructed space. The myth of the Syryomatniks is created, which appears before us in tangible images.
The main building of the ensemble is the "Gusev House" - a newly revealed monument of architecture of the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries. hands of an unknown master. This highly distorted fragment of an abandoned merchant’s estate stands on a high relief, setting its overall simplified classic architecture to set the tone and style of the project. The reconstruction of the “Gusev House”, carried out on a scientific basis, suggests dramatically improving the artistic quality of the structure, turning it into a compositional center of the “triangle”. This is the most important element in the emotional plan, which should make the whole space sparkle with new colors, transforming it into a kind of frame for the "jewel". Its processing in the elegant Palladian style, sustained by the authors at all levels - from the figurative concept to the manner of graphic execution of the project - to a large extent predetermined the nature of the new inclusions.
All newly constructed volumes, and there are six of them, besides the “Gusev House” - “Gates”, “Wall-Aqueduct”, “House-tower”, “Round House”, “Stylobate”, “Pipe” - have properties that bring together them with the architecture of antiquity and classicism: simplicity of forms, poise, neutrality with respect to the environment and the ensembles in which they are included. Designing these structures, marked by traits of monumentality and durability, the authors tried to create the effect of their full harmonization with historical buildings, to achieve the feeling of their presence here for a long time.
It is important to emphasize that this was done by non-methods of historical stylization and not by “antique counterfeiting”. In essence, the work consistently lays down the opposition to those methods of rehabilitating the historical environment, which rest on a false-formal understanding of historicism. The authors of the project rely on the fundamental properties of a "living" architecture, which has the ability to regenerate space and image, and therefore - carries the quality of timelessness.
The modern structure of the ensemble and its functional side are the subject of a separate thorough discussion. Here, let us confine ourselves to the statement that the authors managed to create a truly “new” multifunctional complex that meets the requirements of modern urban civilization.
This is all the more surprising since the plot, figurative side of the project nevertheless makes up its most striking characteristic. It is precisely in the development of this theme and the possibility of its real embodiment that lies not only the path to the revival of one particular place - the Moscow Syromyatniki; there is a gradual internal rehabilitation of the profession of an architect, returning after many years of oppression to mastering his deep, pivotal ability to arrange life, and peacebuilding as a whole.
Ideas of this order, though not fully expressed in this project, should be perceived as an optimistic sign - not only by fellow workers, but also by customers. In this regard, the customer’s mission is extremely important because it requires a high level and culture of communication, an understanding of the complexity of the tasks assigned to him and the architect, personal responsibility for the historical fate of the place. The bright past of Syromyatnikov at the turn of the century, connected with the famous Khludov family, suggests the idea of the possible introduction of a modern philanthropist into this role. It is possible that someday the Khludovsky (now Syromyatnichesky) passage, leading to the main entrance to the designed ensemble, will gain a new name that will make up the glory of these places.
The semi-real image of a blessed oasis, almost ancient Elysium, reserved for the eternal life of the best, beloved by the gods, slipping into everyday life, now exists only in the imagination of architects. I wish that the distance to its actual embodiment in the Rawhide was not too long.
"Architectural Bulletin" magazine No. 4 (30) 1996