Russian Architecture Research Articles

The “Splendor of the Caliph’s Dwellings” in Saint Petersburg. Aleksandr Briullov as a Pioneer of Neo-Moorish Style in Russia

From the 1830s onward, Russian architects frequently used decorations of the Nasrid Alhambra palaces as models for neo-Moorish designs. Especially in the former capital Saint Petersburg, there used to be, and still are, a large number of neo-Moorish interiors. The objective of this article is to trace back the beginnings of the so-called Moorish Revival within Russia’s architecture. So far, only little attention has been paid to the fact that particularly one architect was crucial for establishing the new style in Russia—Aleksandr Briullov, upon whose pioneering role the article will shed light by discussing two of his early works.

PRINCIPLES OF FORMATION OF A MULTIFUNCTIONAL CENTERS FOR TRAINING EXTREME SPORTS IN KURSK

The purpose of this paper is to identify the basic principles of formation of a multifunctional complex for extreme sports. It includes a comparative analysis of extreme sports facilities in Kursk as well as a number of previously studied similar projects and existing buildings by Russian and foreign architects. The authors of the paper propose a sports complex that fits into the existing architecture of the city. New technologies have been introduces to implement the design of such complex objects as a wind tunnel, a deep-water diving pool, a large-span indoor skate hall with seats for spectators and overhead light. All these elements have been taken from the projects of well-known architectural firms, such as eXtreme Architects, White Studio, Moko Architects, as well as other foreign projects of Danish and Norwegian architects. The authors also considered some ideas on the reconstruction of industrial facilities, such as a fan depot or a silo tower, which were converted into multifunctional sports complexes. The social, economic and environmental aspects of designing such an object have been taken into consideration. The authors give the regulatory framework including the fire safety requirements, requirements on building maintenance by limited mobility populations (MH), the impact on the environment. Moreover, the authors mention building regulations, which establish requirements to the equipment, inventory and the space of the whole complex. The article examines the importance of building a multifunctional complex for practicing extreme sports, and also confirms the relevance of such sports in Kursk.

Achievements and challenges of contemporary energy-efficient architecture in Russia

The growth in demand for the clean habitation environment and the need for the sustainable energy technologies lead to the development of eco-friendly architecture in the world. Eco-friendly design is beginning to play an important role in the design and construction of civil buildings. The article focuses on topical issues of energy-efficient architecture and environmental design in Russia. Statistics show that the energy-efficient construction sector in Russia is developing at a relatively slow rate, and “green architecture” buildings are not wide spread, eco-friendly architecture in Russia is only on the initial stage of the growth. However, the demand for ecological buildings has a positive trend. The article indicates the main reasons impeding the growth of “green architecture” in Russia: state policy and legislation; consumer attitude; or those linked to specific environmental economic prerequisites. The lack of eco-friendly education among the population and, accordingly, the lack of knowledge of Green architecture benefits are also perceived as a problem by the authors. The authors make recommendations to stimulate the development of “green” architecture in Russia and improve the positions of the country on this issue in the global ranking.

Economic dimension of engineering and construction in Russian orthodox temple architecture

Economic dimension of engineering and construction in Russian orthodox temple architecture (reliable determination of church construction estimate cost and it’s optimization) is in the best interest of engineering companies, the Russian Orthodox Church, state authorities and potential investors as basis for assessment of investment, cost control, cost saving in temple complex construction. The article gives methodological aspects of cost estimate determination in temple architecture, synthesizes cost expenditures for temple construction, proposes and analyses cost-saving solutions.

Зодчество Чернигова конца XI — первой трети XII века в контексте средневизантийской строительной практики

The Dormition cathedral, St. Boris and Gleb church, the Prophet Elijah church, the northwest chapel attached to the Savior Cathedral and the civil building (presumably the Prince’s palace) share the features unprecedented in Chernigov and Old Russian architecture. The new masonry technique and Romanesque elements were introduced by the new master-builders: either from the Byzantine Empire, or from the North of Italy. The point of view attributing the Chernigov churches only to the West European builders appears to be controversial. Rather than Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, the Byzantine building practice could be the source of the following Chernigov innovations: the masonry technique without the concealed courses of brick, groin vaults, engaged columns, stained glass, ornaments of the mosaic floor decorations, painted plaster on the facades, chapels in the narthex and the upper gallery. The atrophied Greek-cross church type of the Elijah church and the attached churches in Chernigov architecture strengthen the links with the Byzantine tradition. The complex of Byzantine construction technique and decoration indicates connection of the builders that worked in Chernigov with the Byzantine capital architecture or with some region where Constantinople left quite a strong impact. The only undisputable Romanesque feature is the Lombard band, but its application to the cross-in-square church with narthex strikes as irregular in comparison with accuracy of the West European practice. This unique combination of Byzantine and Romanesque features requires further study of the building process and the donor activity in Chernigov in the late 11th — first third of the12th century.

Rationalism and Decorativeness in a Search for Social Foundation of Soviet Avant-Garde Architecture

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Lost Heritage: the Destroyed Temples of Orenburg in the Second Half of the 18th Century

The article outlines the results of scientific research, which is the result of the author’s research project on studying the architectural heritage of the city of Orenburg from the mid-18th century to the beginning of the 19th century. The city-fortress, founded in 1743, was designed on the basis of the new principles of urban planning and architecture laid by Emperor Peter I, which causes a keen interest. To date, several architectural monuments of the city of the period, related to the style of the Petrine Baroque, are lost. Since this style is represented by a few architectural structures, their study is of particular interest in the context of the history of Russian architecture. The architectural appearance of the first major temples of the city - the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Vvedensky Cathedral - is captured by artists and photographers. The search and detailed study of these iconographic materials form part of the retrospective method of reconstructing the cathedrals and constructing its orthogonal projections. Such a method may be of interest for working with historical and architectural heritage in the face of a lack of information.

Rotundal temple in Russia: european roots and Russian traditions

The article presents the results of a comprehensive study of rotundal religious architecture, presented in the world and Russian architectural theory and practice. The appeal to this topic is due to the extreme rarity of the rotundal forms in the cult architecture with the high architectural and artistic merits of the rotundal temples, created during the centuries-old period from the 6th century B.C. to the 19th century A.D. The sequence of the development and inner interrelation of rotund-temples of different times and peoples is briefly described. The historical analogies of rotundal form development in the world and the Russian architecture are conducted. The ideological, aesthetic and socio-economic origins of the emergence and active use of rotundal forms in the Orthodox church architecture of Russia from the middle of the 18th to the first third of the 19th centuries are analyzed. Attention is drawn to the volume-planning and compositional solutions of Russian rotund temples that distinguish them from the rotundal churches of other countries. The symbolic significance of rotundal forms in the cult architecture in its historical development is considered. It is pointed out that the rotundal form corresponds to the sacred significance of the architecture of Russian Orthodox churches.

Pre-Revolutionary Russian Photography at the New York Public Library: An Introduction

ABSTRACTThis article is an introduction to the New York Public Library’s pre-revolutionary Russian and Eastern European photographic albums. It also provides a checklist of these albums. The checklist is an especially rich source for Russian architecture, art, and science and provides documentation for a variety of places in the center and provinces of the Russian Empire. Some of the most significant albums are those once owned by the Romanovs and by George Kennan the elder, America’s first Russian expert.

Colleagues are rivals: architecture and design in Russia

Architecture and design are fed from sources belonging to two different cultures. One can be conditionally called "artistic", the other is just as conditionally "engineering". The Roman-speaking, Latin world sees architecture and design as a phenomenon of artistic culture. Anglo-Saxon, Protestant world is inclined to attribute architecture and design to the field of engineering, practical and rational. Fundamental, essential differences do not arise between architecture and design, but between the cultures in which they are formed. In the Anglo- Saxon world there are a number of different designs, i.e. project practices, among which as an equal among equals architectural design. To the Latin world, our environment appears holistic and undivided, and its creator is an architect, a universal professional, capable of creating everything from the city to the door handle. A direct consequence of the implementation of these models is the difference in the appearance of Paris and New York. These models do not exist in isolation, they actively compete and influence each other. Traces of this competition are clearly discernible both in the nature of today's Moscow and in the professional consciousness of russian architects.

The Russian Orthodox Church in Copenhagen: A View from the Architect’s Homeland

St. Alexander Nevsky Orthodox сhurch in Copenhagen (1881–1883) is associated with the name of Princess Dagmar of Denmark, who became the empress of the huge Russian Empire under the name of Maria Feodorovna. The church, which was designed by academician D. I. Grimm, is unique not only for the Danish capital, but also unusual for Russian ecclesiastical architecture of the second half of the nineteenth century, since this type of the Basilica structure during that period is represented by very few samples. Orthodox origin of the church is mainly evident in the distinctive domes and some other architectural details associated with Russian architecture. It is shown in this article for the first time ever, that the design of St. Alexander Nevsky church in Copenhagen is based on and inspired by D. Grimm’s earlier project – namely, the church in the village of Starozhilovo (1867). However, the choice of materials and decoration techniques demonstrate, that the architect definitely took into account the immediate environment – namely, the buildings of the Eastern Supreme Court (Østre Landsret), St. Ansgar Catholic church and particularly the Moltke mansion, whose exterior features are also analyzed in the article.The author suggests a hypothesis to explain the unusual choice of the architectural model and location for the church.

Features of development of Russian religious architecture at the turn of the 21st century (as for Russia and Mordovia)

Features of development of Russian religious architecture at the turn of the 21st century (as for Russia and Mordovia)

The Style of the Neo-Greek (Neo-Grec) in the Historical and Cultural Context of the Southern Region of Russia by the Example of the Cities of Rostov-on-Don and Yessentuki

In European architecture the Neo-Grec style, based on a revival of Greek principles and motifs, is an independent stage in rediscovering of classical antique heritage. It is one of the “new styles” of a historicist phase in architecture that claimed to find national identity in the architecture of independent Greece. In Russian architecture of the mid-19th – early 20th centuries this style is represented in a wide range of monuments that are mostly located in the South of Russia. However insufficient knowledge and research on the monuments of this style create difficulties for their maintenance and restoration. The purpose of the paper is to identify distinctive features of neo-grec in the region. The main task is to determine the reasons for a turn to neo-grec in the South of Russia, to identify and analyze neo-grec buildings in the cities of Rostov-on-Don and Yessentuki, to examine their composition and décor, to identify their ancient prototypes, to differentiate constant and variable elements in the architecture of the Neo-Grec.

Русский архитектор В. Г. Юрьев в Циндао

The author considers the art of a little-known Russian architect (including his own archival and field research) who worked more than 25 years in Qingdao and who created a huge number of projects and buildings. As a result of the survey of buildings in Qingdao, the author identified more than a dozen buildings designed by V.G. Yuryev, including those preserved up to the present time, such as his own house, the building of the oceanarium, the castle of the newspaper magnate M. Lembich, the Church of St. Paul and other works of the architect. Typological, compositional and stylistic features of the identified buildings are considered in the article.

Project Briefing in Russian Architectural Practice

Today both international and national documents, regulating architectural design, impute the responsibility of the architect for the development of project briefs ("technical assignments" or "design assignments"). To what extent the status quo in Russian design institutions is in line with this prescription? How closely are our architects associated with "architectural programming", as this activity is called abroad, and how they estimate this job? In order to answer these questions, the author undertook a pilot questionnaire survey of Russian architects. Its' results are discussed in this paper. Almost all respondents are shown to participate in the development of project briefs - either by adjusting the initial data of the client, or by compiling a program "from scratch". Often this work is not paid. In half of situations, the customer does not submit even draft versions of the task to the architect, and in the rest - the format of one or two pages of text dominates. Methodically, "architectural programming" is very poorly supported, and the guidance materials available on this topic - are the latest, to which architects resort. Every second respondent agrees that "programming" is a duty of the architect and relies upon his contacts with the client and the accumulated experience in the development of project briefs. This procedure is a complex "study" rather than a technical "compilation" as it is used to be considered

Construction strengthening in historical wooden cupolas restoration

There are many architectural monuments with wooden cupolas, included in cultural heritage of our country. Cupolas in Russian architecture appeared with the adoption of Christianity as an indispensable element of the Byzantine, and now Russian, church. In recent years, Central Scientific-Restoration Design Workshops of the Ministry of Culture have carried out natural research and restoration of wooden cupolas of more than thirty architectural monuments of the late XVIII - early XX centuries located in Moscow and central regions of Russia.Cupolas made of wooden elements present a spatial framework with a round or polygonal plan and a different pattern forming the shape of the profile. The paper gives a general description of the types of constructive solutions and their elements. Wood is the most vulnerable material of structures, with poor quality and unsatisfactory operating conditions, is prone to lesions in the form of house fungi and woodworm beetles, leading to the destruction of the material with a weakening of the working sections. Moreover, rotting and burning do lead to the destruction of the structure. Therefore, when restoring, it is necessary to carry out a complex of measures to restore the original form of the cupola and the original elements of the structures.As an example, four objects of cultural heritage are examined from the experience of Central Scientific-Restoration Design Workshops. This is the main house of the Ostankino manor in Moscow (1792-98, the architects A.Mironov and P.Argunov), the Petrovsky Travel Palace in Moscow (1775-96, the architect M.Kazakov), the building of the Guardian Council in Moscow (1823- 26th, architects D. Zhilyardi and A. Grigoriev, was rebuilt in 1846-49 by architect M. Bykovsky), the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the village of Snoved in the Nizhny Novgorod Region (1800, unknown).The characteristics are given for each of them: the original design of the cupola; its current state, based on engineering and chemical and technological research; adopted and implemented restoration measures aimed at restoring the shape and reinforcement of structures. In conclusion, on the basis of the generalizations made, methods for the restoration of wooden cupolas are formulated: prosthetics and strengthening of individual elements, the arrangement of duplicating and supporting elements, the complete reconstruction of the form with the preservation of the original design, the complete restoration of the form with a change in the original design.

New perspectives for landscape architecture in Russia – Park Zaryadye in Moscow

New perspectives for landscape architecture in Russia – Park Zaryadye in Moscow

The Evocation of the Russian Empire Style in Serbian Architecture

This paper aims to highlight the acceptance of the Russian Empire style in the first half of the 20th century in Belgrade. The occurrence of the Empire style in Belgrade is unusual in relation to the time and spatial distance and the fact that the style was not present in Serbian cultural environment in the period of its flourishing during 19th century. The elements of the Empire style in public and private buildings are the evocation of the cultural memory of the Russian Empire, which was abolished at the time of the formation of capital of the Kingdom of SHS.This paper aims to highlight the acceptance of the Russian Empire style in the first half of the 20th century in Belgrade. The occurrence of the Empire style in Belgrade is unusual in relation to the time and spatial distance and the fact that the style was not present in Serbian cultural environment in the period of its flourishing during 19th century. The elements of the Empire style in public and private buildings are the evocation of the cultural memory of the Russian Empire, which was abolished at the time of the formation of capital of the Kingdom of SHS.This paper presents the research of the activities of Russian architects in Belgrade as a reflection of architectural, cultural, and political ties of St. Petersburg and the capital of the newly formed Kingdom of SHS/ Yugoslavia. The work traces the development of the architecture of Belgrade through the work of prominent emigrant builders, who arrived mainly from St. Petersburg, and who despite adaptation to already established stylistic currents in Belgrade, strongly emphasized their national diversity, evoking the imperial style of Alexander I that marked 19th-century buildings of Russian capital. The buildings erected in the Russian Empire style are rare for the Serbian environment. The significance of this architectural heritage is that it reflects an era and clearly stated Russian national identity, analogous to the representative buildings erected in St. Petersburg and Moscow in the 19th century. The evocation of the Russian Empire in Belgrade in the period 1920-1933 is also the last emanation of this style, which makes this phenomenon very important both for Russian and Serbian culture and also significant in the wider context of the world’s architectural heritage.

High-rise construction in historical cities through the example of Saint Petersburg

The article sets forth results of the landscape visual analysis of the interaction of high-rise construction facilities with the environment of historical urban spaces. A toxic connection of high-rise construction facilities with the established urban landscape was analyzed and recorded. One of the latest stages of the reconstruction of historical cities, which penetrated many European countries at the end of the 20th century, also started in the beginning of the 21st century in Russia, where the reconstruction of historical facilities and territories became one of the leading trends of architectural activity. Therefore, problems of the interaction between the old city and new high-rise construction nearby historical centers are extremely relevant for Russian architects. Specific features of Russian high-rise construction within visual borders of historical cities, developed at the turn of the 20th–21st centuries, repeat past urban-planning mistakes spread in Europe in the second half of the 20th century. High-rise construction in close proximity to historical centers of cities violates an established scale and destroys a historical city silhouette.

Problems of Logical-mathematical Modeling in the Course of Cribwork Quay Design: Innovative Methods of Civil Engineering

In the article, the author analyzes the innovative methods, employed by the Russian hydraulic engineer Nikolai Mikhailovich Gersevanov in the course of the stability analysisperformed in respect of cribwork quays. The author addresses one of the little known works, written by this Russian architect of industrial buildings. The work in question covers the application of logic algebra formulas to the substantiation of the stability of foundations of quays and port structures; it is entitled “The Application of Mathematical Logic to the Analysis of Structures”. N.M. Gersevanov employs his method of logical-mathematical substantiation of stability of cribwork quays as an example in the second part of his research. The author also analyzes the features of construction of crib piers, the forces that they are exposed to, and any possible reasons for the destruction of cribwork quays. In this article, the problem of design of cribwork quays is tied to the problem of construction performed in the context of natural (hydrologic and tectonic) calamities, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and landslides. City and port management amid natural calamities represents an innovative challenge to be met by contemporary architects. The analysis of conditional propositions, employed in the work, written by N.M. Gersevanov, has proven his paper's novelty. The author of this article believes that antecedent and consequent are connected by the symbol of relevant (or nomological) implicationin hispropositions.