"The New York Times" о доме Мельникова в Москве
MOSCOW - The Russian avant-garde architect Konstantin Melnikov’s seminal cylindrical house in Moscow, which has inspired architects around the world for nearly a century, is gravely threatened by construction of a large multipurpose complex abutting its tiny backyard, Russian and international preservationists say.
The work has led to “numerous new cracks” to the building’s load-bearing and partition walls and signs of damage to its foundation, according to an appeal that Russian architecture and heritage experts addressed to President Vladimir V. Putin and other officials.
The house is on a side street just off of the central Arbat pedestrian mall, which is known as a busy tourist trap. Real estate continues to be at prime value in Russia even as the country’s oil boom has waned. The construction project is the latest to take place in the vicinity of what is regarded as one of Modernist architecture’s most famous works, completed in 1929 and used by Melnikov as a home and studio when the very act of building a private house in Soviet Russia was revolutionary.
The letter to Mr. Putin was posted this month on the Web site of Archnadzor, a Moscow-based preservation watchdog group that is battling developers across the Russian capital. It was accompanied by photographs of the damage, and warned that the “risk of losing a masterpiece of 20th-century world architecture” had “grown significantly” and was magnified by a failure to take measures to prevent the house’s collapse.
Читать далее
The work has led to “numerous new cracks” to the building’s load-bearing and partition walls and signs of damage to its foundation, according to an appeal that Russian architecture and heritage experts addressed to President Vladimir V. Putin and other officials.
The house is on a side street just off of the central Arbat pedestrian mall, which is known as a busy tourist trap. Real estate continues to be at prime value in Russia even as the country’s oil boom has waned. The construction project is the latest to take place in the vicinity of what is regarded as one of Modernist architecture’s most famous works, completed in 1929 and used by Melnikov as a home and studio when the very act of building a private house in Soviet Russia was revolutionary.
The letter to Mr. Putin was posted this month on the Web site of Archnadzor, a Moscow-based preservation watchdog group that is battling developers across the Russian capital. It was accompanied by photographs of the damage, and warned that the “risk of losing a masterpiece of 20th-century world architecture” had “grown significantly” and was magnified by a failure to take measures to prevent the house’s collapse.
Читать далее