UNFOLD TO THE NEXT
“Whatever our task, whatever large or small [...] In every case opposites must be reconciled […] Almost every assignment involves dozens, often hundreds, sometimes thousands of conflicting elements that can be forced into functional harmony only by an act of will. This harmony cannot be achieved by any other means than art. The final value of individual [...] elements can only be assessed afterwards. A harmonious result cannot be achieved with mathematics, statistics or probability calculus”
Alvaro Alto, 1955.
ONLY ADAPTIVE REUSE, COEXISTENCE BETWEEN CHANGE AND STATUS AND ADEQUATE UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR OWN POSITION IN RELATION TO HISTORY CAN LEAD TO PROPER EVOLVEMENT.
Russian Pavilion represents national values and identity internationally, embodies important political and cultural demands of the time by incarnating an image of a modern Russia and presents recent state achievements while hosting public expositions for more than a century. After being created as a contemporary box of treasures with infused traditions of the past and ancient Russian culture in 1914, the building has gone through plenty of changes since then: closure of the windows and doors, facade historical decorations removal, intervention to the basement, countless engineering damages and repairs as well as facade remodeling. Along with physical transformations of the Pavilion, the state agenda in Russia has lived through a number of crucial turns. The Pavilion was always catching up on political and ideological shifts rather than shaping a solid vision for the years ahead. The space and the idea of a national pavilion has never been comprehensively rethought and never gained a program of development.
As a result of methodless accidental interventions, today the pavilion experiences downfall both as an architectural object and as an institution. We take the Pavilion’s decaying state as a potential for positive development. As a living organism, it has its natural aging process, which should not be hidden or covered. Now it is time to look at the pavilion with respect to its great past and with optimism to the longer future, which is going to start together with restoration and restructuring process in 2020.
BUILDING
We want the Pavilion to change naturally towards a more transparent, open structure. The proposed architectural concept peruses the idea of a natural transformation from a conservative and framed space into a flexible and open environment. As it is impossible to explore the history and significance of all the steps that were made along only through one standpoint, it is crucial to show all the layers of building’s life for future generations revealing all previous conservation efforts that were made throughout the years for proper delicate consideration of future erosion in parallel with adaptation to future needs. We propose to create a new internal carcass which will be holding the pavilion and keeping its most vulnerable parts. This supporting frames will start from basic scaffolding evolving to more and more load bearing structures along with the natural building deterioration. As soon as there is a risk of a decay of any former basic structure element, this carcass will allow to tear it down and replace with a new more breathable or transparent item, turning the space towards outside rather than inside in its natural life cycle. Step by step and year by year the pavilion will become more and more open, flexible and adaptive to the surrounding environment and eventually will become a part of unpredictable future context readjusting accordingly.
INTERIOR
Along with building evolution and transformation the inner space has to be modified as well. For now, the exhibition spaces and floors are separated with almost no circulation between them, with confined areas, narrow openings, no connection to outer space and not enough natural light. We propose to adapt the interior also step by step in different stages. During architectural Biennale - to expand the opening between spaces, to demolish partly the wall of the second, lower entrance replacing it with more transparent material and to create a hole in the slab of the main space to show future connection between levels for visitors. After Biennale, we will open all the windows and doors that were initially planned by Schusev concept, give straight access to the terrace from the main stairs and to the lagoon through small space with creating additional wooden platform, partially demolish wall between spaces and dismantle the slab in the main room creating transparent breathable space with open connections to the outside. (For more detailed information on interior ideas, please see PROGRAM. For visual representation please see LIST 2)
WORKSHOPS & EXHIBITIONS
Our aim is to collect voices and shape a “public library” of insights within Pavilion looking at the topics through discussion of essential questions. So, for that during all the steps of building preservation and evolvement we suggest to launch a year round program with a variety of workshops and panels, roundtables, events and exhibitions, as well as analysis and critical approaches to almost every aspect of global problems relevant today and ideas of how we wish it to be. All workshops and short educational platforms should be divided into two main programs: High and Low. High program will be taking part during Biennale exhibitions (both Art and Architectural) and should be connected to the national specifics and issues representing Russian identity and mentality. In High period, main accent will be on visual aspect (in any of its forms) and it will be held within the Venice Biennale events.
For the first event on architectural Biennale 2020 we propose not a prepared exhibition, but a space for social experiments to make some kind of a pause between previous approach of national representation to further concept of ideological transparency. First social experiment will be on understanding of interdisciplinary collaboration called “Can we hear each other?”
We suppose that it is possible to raise a discussion on future teamwork of different specialists only after understanding the nature and the meaning of collaboration itself. Therefore, we offer an experiment with constant changing and transforming installation by creating an architectural environment, which will have to adapt to various external ideas, and where each participant will be involved in constructing a form or structure, taking into account surrounding space, received context and further development. That way while transforming the Pavilion to more open collaborative space we could experience in real time and analyse all possible pros and cons of an open dialog between people and get a necessary idea of how to
collaborate in the future and which tactic to choose for dealing with unpredictable possible results involving many disciplines working together in ever changing environment.
Low program will be held between Biennale events and will concentrate on more interdisciplinary and international problems with accent on intellectual and informative parts including careful analysis of informational discourse and consequences for the construction of new types and approaches and entire practise of architecture itself - reformulations of conventions of sustainability, preservation, globalization and other concerns. Workshops, short educational programs and lectures will be organized based on Theses and Questions listed in the Program with open exhibitions for everyone. So, to transform the Pavilion into more educational space in Low season it is necessary to open the building towards the lagoon for free entrance for the public and use it not as a part of Giardini, but as a separate educational platform. For that it is necessary to have a proper consultation with Biennale team or others, as it might be more of a political question.
COLLABORATIONS
− Arzamas academy https://arzamas.academy
− Sygma https://syg.ma
− The Bureau of Humanities http://humbureau.com
− Postnauka https://postnauka.ru
− Luminary center http://luminarycenter.ru
− Students from architectural institutes all over Russia
− Open University https://openuni.io/?lang=EN
− RE-School https://www.facebook.com/REShkola
− ArchDaily and Strelka award https://www.archdaily.com/918563/archdaily-and-strelka-award
BUILDING RECONSTRUCTION
Research on the original author’s concept and his ideas on what the building was representing including inner circulation and relationship with outer space. (Historical, functional, technical and formal) Life of building should be shown in straight chronological line with elements displaying its linear history and original identity.
Examine all the changes and reconstruction efforts that were made within more than 100 years and which of them are irretrievable.
Analyse current condition of the building with local restoration and conservation specialists and prioritize future steps according to the destruction level. Plan a conservation process for the main decorative facade elements including terrace balusters.
Cover the building with iridescent cellophane during the time of Biennale to represent future changes.
Expand the lover entrance and make it more transparent by installing multiwall polycarbonate and create a hole in a slab in main volume to show future connection between levels for visitors.
Building the inner supporting frames and demolishing the wall between volumes and the slab in main volume creating more open and transformative space after Biennale.
Reconstruct the existing terrace with additional reinforcement, open the entrances to the terrace and create an additional lower wooden level towards the lagoon to expand the public space to the water and making rear facade more alive and a part of the general outside space of Giardini. In Low season, which is described below, rear facade will become a main one between Biennale events.
Open almost all builded-in windows and doors that were in initial Schusev’s concept and unfold all previous layers of stucco from previous reconstruction and redecoration attempts to show the whole cycle of building’s life.
Waterproof roofs, windows, doors, joints and walls.
Renew pipes and main MEP elements with more green and energy efficient ones including heating, sewage and drain systems. Create a drain water reuse system for both outside and inside use. Create a backyard garden.
Prepare a proper program and building survey for predicting possible future steps of decay and react accordingly by renewing elements on more efficient, placing trusses for the roof and loadbearing structures and replacing parts with transparent elements. In program aim to fulfill at least ⅔ of sustainable building goals of UN.
INTERIOR
Problems of existing space:
Lack of communication between floors.
Too narrow openings when moving from one hall to another.
The closure of the total volume.
Confined space.
Not enough natural light.
The work of the pavilion during the exhibition:
It is necessary to use the terrace.
The construction of the frame in the form of a maze / composition of trusses / scaffolding. Lightweight wood / steel structures.
A sense of temporary / a sense of change.
Collaboration with the audience - setting a precedent - involving visitors in the process of restructuring. How to engage with the viewer? Guide him creating a path. The beginning of the path - climbing up the stairs, the end - access to the terrace.
Breathing permeable walls.
We preserve the building (external walls) and fill it (layer by layer) with new life from inside.
We remember the building, but it is no longer with us.
A new kind of interaction with the pavilion.
Expanding the capabilities of existing architecture.
A new sense of space.
Three conditions of the pavilion:
During the high season (May to November).
Directly during the closing of the pavilion for reconstruction.
New life and stages (during art biennale).
We want the pavilion to change naturally towards a more transparent and open structure.
WORKSHOPS AND EXHIBITIONS
The program is also aimed to demonstrate and collect ideas rather than to show products and achievements. We would like to add a platform for multidisciplinary discussion that didn’t exist in this pavilion before. There are a number of questions to be raised particularly in the cultural surrounding of Venice and we would like Russia to participate in international discussions with associated specialists from around the globe.
All workshops and educational platforms should be divided into two main programs: High and Low. High program is taking part within Biennale (both Art and Architectural) and should be connected to the national specifics and issues representing country. Low program is held between events and concentrates on more interdisciplinary and international problems.
HIGH SEASON — MAY–NOVEMBER 2020 / ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE
Exhibitions and workshops are held along with symbolic restoration processes throughout Biennale. As long as the repair moves from one room to another, the exhibition space moves too. We use scaffolding as the furniture for people working inside and for exposition stands.
We propose to create a proper timeline of events welcoming both stars and unknowns, inviting youth to participate and placing Russia into the world context. We consider this program should be cost-effective and bringing revenues. We would like to welcome a wider audience and invite enthusiastic and resourceful speakers from all over Russia with a lot of projects and ideas to share.
A long-lasting life of the Pavilion will be supported by ages of people willing to be involved in building the future of Russian Architecture. Some of these people are now very young. At this starting point, how do we approach this new life of the Pavilion and manage to find space for all who is willing and able to make a contribution?
Сollaborative events held during the Biennale time aim to collect a library of ideas and visions on the pavilion future program. Program might be based on some of the following ideas of workshops:
#1 OUTSPACE
Outspace is not demanding, but socially charged. Beauty of outside space is that you can look at culture or exhibition without tension or pressure. Space for exhibition should not be a limited spatial condition. Environment and context are a part of perception.
Extended out of the boundaries of the building, a cultural institution creates deeper connection with its audience and creates a territory of culture.
Questions to be discussed: What public institutions are able to give to the city beyond their direct statements? Does a city necessarily need an administrative approach to embrace empty fields and outshined territories? How bottom-up initiatives and public-private partnerships (so far a very rare case in Russia: 91 registered partnerships versus 1655 in China) might improve public space in Russian cities?
Potential collaborators: Perm Museum, Levada-Center, Michel Desvigne Paysagiste
Speakers: museum director Nailya Allakhverdieva, sociologist Alexey Levinson, political expert Kirill Rogov, landscape architect Michel Desvigne
#2 WHAT IS HERITAGE?
Ideas on preservation should take into account not only preliminary analysis of future development not only building usage itself but also the surrounding environment and general tendencies and society conditions.
Heritage is a part of modernisation. Heritage not only in architecture, but also in the environment and surrounding.
Preservation — sustain and stabilize the existing form with ongoing maintenance without extensive replacement — is the only way to move forward. Restoration - removing features from other periods in its history and reconstructing only the original form — means prioritize only one period in history over another and erasing parts of past which are subjectively seem less important without letting future generations to see and reconstruct the full path of what happened before them. Reconstruction — replicating and depicting non-surviving structures by new construction — is a degradation path model, deterioration of architectural weight and strength in general. Architectural conservationists cannot adapt to changes and are intimidated by past. Preservation is trying to save the context, introduce the meaning and give something additional to the contemporary. Preservation is trying to save the context, introduce the meaning and give something additional to the contemporary.
Questions to be discussed:
What exactly are we trying to save? Preserving the material environment is expensive and difficult, why are we doing this? The Russian pavilion was modern for its homeland only three years, then the USSR was already, and now it is Russian Federation. As if it is forever irrelevant, but we are used to it.
Natural and environmental heritage vs art and architectural. Will half of the world be a world heritage site in near future?
Potential collaborators: Re-School and École de Chaillot, Bureau of Humanity
Speakers: architect Narine Tyutcheva, researcher Pyotr Kotrelev, historian Denis Romodin, expert in preservation Nataliya Dushkina
#3 PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY
Presently in Russia, in the current speed of urban transformation, everything quickly becomes temporary. You just have to be able to have time to record it for those who come after us. Contemporary housing was built mostly during last decades and doesn’t imply any heritage so far, but what will our children and grandchildren think?
Questions to be discussed:
Is there a balance between transformation, status and radical changes? Does temporality, multiuse and placeless should be new trends? Should there be a separate areas, regions or clusters in the world (architectural zoo’s) of changeable, transformative and conservative, historical areas? Does urbanization and climate change make the idea of ‘timeless architectural icons’ senseless?
Potential collaborators: PIK Group, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
Speakers: architect and businessman Sergey Gordeev, museum director Anton Belov
#4 ROOM FOR CULTURE
Progressive and cultural exchange is crucial for the future development of public intelligence and prosperity. Program distribution in city planning is needed: a strong division between historical (touristic), productive (digital) and residential (commercial). Encounter and movement are in the core of social growth and enlightenment.
The most effective instrument of information sharing — media businesses — are based on economic efficiency and high performance in the market field. Thought it is a tool to increase people’s solidarity and sympathy, develop common knowledge in the field of human sciences, economics, history, arts, and finally — in city planning and architecture.
Potential collaborators: Arzamas Academy, Polka, InLiberty
Speakers: Philipp Dzyadko, Oleg Koronniy, Anna Krasinskaya, Andrey Zorin, journalist Yury Saprykin
#5 CLIMATE & OIL
We live in a country of a high interest in fossils and production of oil based products. There is a whole culture of living in a paradigm of a mining country: starting from a distinctive architecture of industrial cities, mines and oil derricks to a mindset focused on the idea that everything we may need to physically support human life could be excavated from the underground.
In the future the resources will come to an end and the natural conditions will change. We can’t predict how dramatically climate changes are going to be and how long will it last until the oil is over, but we definitely should be conscious about a high possibility that our mining idea of life could be distracted.
Questions to be discussed: Is the oil one of the base values of the Russian identity? Do we treat fossil mines, oil derricks and other constructions related to mining as a form of national architecture? After the oil era is over, how will the Russian mentality adapt to a new way of production and consumption of resources? What potential do we need to develop now?
Potential collaborators: Postnauka, MARCH School, Royal University of Technology
Speakers: climatologist Alexander Kislov, geographer Nikolai Dronin, architect Eugene Asse, sustainable planning expert Petar Vranic
#6 CENTER TOWARDS PERIPHERY
Rural Russia development is viable and beneficial. We would like to open a dialog and knowledge exchange between Russian regions and promote initiatives of young leaders, developing cultural and business projects in their native cities.
Potential collaborators: Open University and the The Map of Russia project: https://openuni.io/course/17-karta-rossii/?lang=EN, TEXTIL project based in Yaroslavl, MARSH lab and Festival My Satka in Chelyabinsk oblast + Foundation of the Magnezit plant in Chelyabinsk
Potential speakers: historian Ilya Solomeshch, journalist Yuri Strekalovsky, artist and art theorist Dmitry Bulatov, architect Elena Gonsales, architect Sergey Kremnev and Yulia Krivtsova
LOW SEASON — DECEMBER 2020–APRIL 2021
#1 COLLABORATIVE CULTURE
Complexity could not be understood by one form of discipline. Necessity to respond by accumulating knowledge and reconstructing architectural ambitions and source of pride. Smart and systematic embracing.
Questions to be discussed:
Will clear separation of duties between disciplines help their future equal and fair collaboration? Different platforms have different tasks.
Will engagement in different worlds (interconnection between Europe and Asia) have positive effects on architecture? Transparent global boundaries - pros and cons.
Is Biennale division to countries and disciplines from 1895 an archaism in modern world?
#2 HUMAN SCALE
Architectural design becomes more and more exact and rational, more involved with engineering and digital techniques. However, the essence of architecture is humanistic and is a human endeavour, thus maybe we should not look in the same direction as technology, or not try to be “up to speed’ so much? There is a need to take a pause and remember that architecture is a part of art scene and operates via perception, emotions and empathy.
Questions to be discussed:
Definition of space in terms of boundaries: global, local, personal scale. How to define personal space in a rapidly changing world?
We are all different, how to design people’s experiences in communication with architecture?
#3 NATIONAL AND GLOBAL
Over the last 100 years’ architecture that used to be nationally specific has become universal and generic. Technical globalization destroys national integrity and identity. Digital is stronger than architectural. Two ways to respond - isolate (no action) or integrate (adaptation methods). Architectural, technical, social and political combination of thinking with constant control of balance between them is necessary.
Questions to be discussed:
Will global equality trend if transformed in architecture kill the main idea of art itself?
Is there any sense in national continuity and identity at such a speed of globalization and technological unification? Will engaging in different worlds (interconnection between Europe and Asia) have positive effects on architecture? Transparent global boundaries - pros and cons.
Relationship between land and nation?
Is it possible to solve unified global problems with different political and national identity?
TEAM:
Alexandra Koptelova | project manager, architect and curator
Taisya Osipova | curator, publisher and researcher
Alexandra Budaeva | leading architect and painter
Irina Shmeleva | urban and landscape architect
02.2020