Russian silhouette

(Application to the Russian Architectural Strategy)

Introduction

Looking through old photos of Russian cities, it is difficult to hide the admiration of their beautiful silhouette. Silhouette - an imaginary line between objects located on the land, and atmosphere - looks so attractive that inadvertently raises the following questions:

1. What caused such an appeal?
2. Why silhouettes of our time often lose silhouettes of the past?
3. Are there similar patterns until today, more or less unaltered?
4. What is to be done?

Let's try in this small study to find the answers.

First panorama

As a first example, let's see the panorama of Arkhangelsk. All visible elements in the image correspond to the period before 1917. They can be divided into three categories:

1. Elements of landscape (trees, water, relief, etc.)
2. Ordinary buildings (residential, small public, industrial buildings, etc.)
3. Vertical dominants (pipe plants, fire towers, and of course churches).

Focusing on the original image, determine the location of elements of each of these categories:

Working together, these components organize the outline that we talking about. The following diagram shows the distribution of roles in the silhouette of the city:

The attraction created by the harmony of all three components. The first two components - ordinary buildings and landscape elements - do not cancel each other out; in particular, the height of buildings little different from the height of the trees. The number and order, and the other is balanced - the plants do not close completely the city, and the city left a place for organics. In building the profile of the two involved, both interesting and visible.

The third element - vertical dominants. They tend to be above the rest, their architecture is more elaborate than that of an ordinary building. They are visible from all points in the vicinity of the city, as a spatial reference. If you do not take into consideration the cynical view of things, the churches (usually the tallest buildings) in its meaning are the bearers of the higher, heavenly, the desire for the unknown, what is beyond the boundaries of scientific knowledge. In symbolizes the best there is in every human being. It forms an individual churches Russian human landscape add something intangible and necessary.

Now we try to simplify the resulting diagram:

Simplified outline of the old Archangelsk resembles modernity. That's what a standard Russian city. But there is a fundamental difference. The fact that our contemporary vertical dominants dominate temporarily - until the surrounding buildings do not escalate and turn the landscape in the alternation of stone walls. In addition, the difference of aesthetic level of high-rise landmarks of the past and present are striking.

Modern high-rise buildings are usually ugly, their height is dictated by the desire to solve the financial problems facing developers. In contrast to the temples of the past, they do not symbolize anything but greed and dehumanization.

The contour of the old town was also relatively constant - new churches were built, but the situation did not change, only complementing it and completely fitting to the original concept. Ordinary buildings also remained small and mid-do not overlap the trees and temples, extending to the side, rather than up.

A further simplification of the silhouette of Arkhangelsk alternation scheme members can be expressed as follows:

It is difficult to establish a mathematical pattern. But the chart clearly shows the described system consisting of several components and their turn.

Next we will look at examples of old Russian cities, where effectively interact with all three elements of the system: the elements of the landscape, ordinary buildings and vertical dominants.

Vyatka

Yekaterinburg

Tver

Torzhok

Ostashkov

Solykamsk

Toropetz

Saratov

Actual situation and development vector

We reviewed the panorama of cities of the past, it is nice and having the right to exist. But is there something like that today?

Yes, there are such examples. This settlement, which development or process reverse to development during the XX - early XXI centuries was insignificant for one reason or another (group Ia in the scheme 25). Here you can select, for example, Suzdal, Gorodets,
Ples, Kologriv, Chuhloma, Toropets, etc. New building in them a little, and it is mostly low-rise; population during the period increased slightly. Failure (intentionally or unintentionally) as the general background is not very much. The only negative factor for the formation of a silhouette in places is just too lush vegetation that covers most of the ordinary buildings, and even vertical dominants.

In order to achieve the ideal state (group IIa) for the settlements of this type, you can use the following recommendations:

1. Limit vegetation, to expose the buildings and revitalization of the landscape (trees and nettle - is good, but everything should be in moderation)

2. Preservation silhouette - a ban on building above a certain level. At the same time expanding the boundaries of the village allowed.

Settlements next group Ib after the storming of the Winter Palace have evolved quite rapidly, and its "Russian Silhouette" lost. Examples: Moscow, Tula, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Tver, etc. They are characterized by the following features:

1. Chaotic high-rise buildings, accompanied by the demolition of the old fund.

2. Excessive vegetation - also a bad influence on the perception of the environment, hiding what should be seen.

It recommended the following measures:

1. Conservation, restoration of the historic center, recreating what is not exist anymore, and the demolition of all new.

2. Adjusting the amount of green space.

3. Adjusting the height of buildings in the new areas. Here it is necessary to clarify that the author allowed various forms of organization of architectural volumes. Basically, high-rise buildings may well be in demand, but with the condition that they will not be "false teeth" for medium- and low-rise neighborhoods. Therefore, to meet both economic and aesthetic needs of the decision will
not be a complete ban on the construction of buildings of this kind, and smooth high-rise with increasing distance from the center. In addition, the multi-storey volume concealing Russian silhouette, can be separated from the valuable part of the village landscape buffer (for example, trees or pronounced relief) (group IIb). You can also have a multi-storey building at a considerable distance from the historic center (group IIb). At a significant distance these buildings can not play any significant role in the silhouette.

Conclusion

Thus, the system by which formed the profile of most Russian cities to the early to mid-twentieth century is quite simple. Only three components, the proper use of which leads to the return of the beautiful silhouette: landshaft elements, ordinary buildings and vertical dominants. Each component stresses and complements the other, creating harmony. The implementation of the proposed solutions is to help effectively solve two important problems of modern Russia - the lack of visual beauty and lack of originality.