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Russian Gloom

 Project date: 2022

Type: Academic | Thesis

Tutor: Egor Orlov

Author: Irina Kichanova

Institute: Peoples' Friendship University of Russia

Course: 3

Theme: revitalisation

Diploma:

  • Diploma of the 3rd degree. IV International Architectural Open Creative Competition ArchConcept, 2024

Russian gloom is cold and concrete, austere and native. Russian gloom is the cultural code of several generations of rugged people at once. Slender rows, straight lines, sharply drawn and aligned. Frowning faces, heavy bags, the smell of cherry blossoms. The bustling yard, the neighbor Dadya Petya on the old Volga. Boys with a ball, clotheslines. Tyre swan, window with sprouts. Notice board, dark porch. Old panel house, familiar to everyone. A dreary sleeping neighborhood. And through the neighborhood, something sharp, new, yet yours. The fence, as the backbone of all that is immutable, old, Soviet, deaf. And something new is sticking to it. Red. Movement and life-giving. The shelf, the bench, the ramp, the screen. A table, a birdhouse, a bird feeder, a bar. This new thing is called Krasa. Krasa and Zabor together are the union of two parts of the Russian soul. Monotony is broken, drabness is torn. A pavilion moves blood through the veins of the sleeping quarters. What was rejected becomes necessary. What humbly awaited its demise meets new life.