ARCHITECTURE WAITING FOR THE APOCALYPSE

  To the question of what architecture is, each architect will give his own answer. However, not only the personality of the author, but also the atmosphere of time forms the creative direction of architecture. We are on the verge of a millennium. It's time to stop, look back and think. 2000 years have passed since the birth of Christ. For the first time in 100 years, the biblical theme has become one of the main topics of the day. In the movie remakes from the Bible are made. Around monsters, explosions and cataclysms. Symposiums on environmental disasters are gathering; with extraordinary pomp, the CAPSULES are buried, bearing the evidence of the achievements of civilization. Contemporary international culture celebrates the end of the century, celebrates, as it was for the last time. An apocalyptic mood hovers in the air, which portends an exciting spectacle - the end of the world. But only a hundred years have passed since the inception of the NEW ART. Then the first Russian revolutionaries began to build a CITY of HAPPINESS. These were romantic heroes who thought of freedom and prosperity for future generations. All ideology, all forms of CONTEMPORARY ART appeared precisely then and consisted in the “deification” of the human mind, in the implementation of the revolution of the spirit, in the dematerialization of space, in avoiding the reality of everyday life. Everything was thought out and beautifully painted. Achieving the goal justified all means. The experience began with the systematic destruction of cultural heritage and the eradication of religion. It ended in blood and ruins. Modern international culture is extremely diverse, but its ideology has remained the same and has not changed fundamentally. Direct aggression against religion and culture gave way to indifference, concern about future generations has sunk into oblivion, everyone lives today. The formula for success is determined by its entertainment. Therefore, a person is subjected to scientific research like “Pavlov’s dog” - the degree and form of exposure is designed for his animal reactions: excitement, fear, fear, sex drive, surprise. It is necessary to surprise each time with something new, supernatural, passing off the long-forgotten old as new, hypertrophing old ideas, distorting their meaning. This creates a product of contemporary art. “New”, “new” and again “new and young” - this is the slogan of the modern world. Fear and horror are caused by the wall of an old house or the face of an elderly person. Everything should sparkle, glow with the rainbow colors of youth. The unforgettable feeling of euphoria that we experience in adolescence. At the architectural school, it seemed to me that the whole world can be dazzled with their own hands, that an architect is a demigod, a director of space and human souls, that everything can be fixed and changed for the better. But this feeling disappears only with age. However, the creative creed of the modern architect is again associated with the breaking of the stereotype of thinking, which began to break down at the beginning of the century. As a result, today the proportions in the ratio of beauty and ugliness, good and evil, lies and truth, reality and fantasy are violated. Society is moving further away from reality. No one doubts that new information technologies are a panacea for understanding and uniting peoples, that genetic engineering promises immortality to man. In the information world - an abundance of words and numbers, in the virtuality of cinema feelings, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish truth from lies, find the original. The crisis of modern culture lies in its superficial attitude to art, in the creative impotence of endless remakes, collages and copies of the masterpieces of the past. Genuine works of art and architecture, as well as reality itself, are valuable in that the soul of their creator lives in them, with which it is impossible to make a copy. The crisis of culture also consists in moving away from reality into an imaginary space where an eternal holiday reigns and it seems that there is no decay and death. But the paradox is that virtual design, taking the place of architecture, creates only sensual forms, fleeting and perishable. Architecture is an eternal, unchanging concept. In ancient classics, architecture was associated with the concept of proportion. However, this concerned not only the ratio of architectural elements. What was meant was a universal law: the perfect combination of the masses, the harmony of man and nature, reality and fantasy, God and man, where God is the creator and man is His creation. There is a mention of eternal architecture in the Gospel: “I will destroy this temple made by hands, and in three days I will build another, not made by hands”, Jesus Christ said. The miraculous temple of the Christian church was built. It carries eternal truths and commandments that fully apply to both man and architecture. In the law of creation, birth and decay are its constituent parts, both of which are divine and beautiful. In an imaginary world, it is always good, but reality is given to us from God, and therefore, no matter how terrible it may be, it is beautiful. Reality is God. It is said: "it is not the minds that need to be opened, but the hearts to be opened." History itself proves that architecture created “from the mind” contains self-destructive power from the very beginning. So, many constructivist buildings now look like miserable sheds, and the Stalinist empire looks like a funny monument to totalitarianism. Khrushchev’s five-story buildings themselves fell apart. New names and new ideas succeed each other, and “brilliant projects” become obsolete during their implementation. Construction and destruction have become synonymous. History and environment are being destroyed, what has seemed to be built for centuries by our ancestors is disappearing, and our children will break what is built by us. Apparently, in anticipation of this, many revolutionary ideas come down to the idea that architecture is not needed at all. For a person, a comfortable drawer with spectacles, a virtual information space in which the whole world is open, is enough. But this world is not given from God. And this is the reality of self-destruction and death. Todays monasteries, as well as architectural monuments, have a special place in modern life - they are shown to tourists as attractions, as part of the history and identity of the people. At the same time, the ancient experience of monasticism teaches that wisdom consists in repetition. From generation to generation novices are brought up, all the same rituals and holidays are preserved, the same prayers are read. The repetition preserves the memory and continuity of generations. What was and is, time is and is not, it is instantaneous and infinite. Everything is repeated and there is a place for creativity, which consists not in revolutionary development but in the knowledge of reality in all the richness of the diversity of forms. The modern architect has a great responsibility. He must know how to save wildlife in its original form, how to preserve the originals of culture and art, so that they serve as an example for future generations. And create your own works in accordance with the eternal commandments of architecture. This is the ethic of an architect living in an era of anticipation of the apocalypse.

Ilya Utkin

"Time Capsule", Times Publishing Competition, 1999