The Architectural School of the 1990s was a professional community of Nizhny Novgorod architects that took shape in the city in the first half of the 1990s and left a notable mark on the appearance of the historic center. The school is associated above all with the name of Alexander Kharitonov, who held the post of Chief Architect of Nizhny Novgorod from 1993 to 1998.[1] The buildings of this period were called among the best in Russia; many of them remain calling cards of Nizhny Novgorod to this day.[3]

Background and principles

The phenomenon of the school arose when the construction boom of the 1990s moved into the city's historic center. Architects faced a choice: standardized construction or a search for a new language compatible with the old built environment. The so-called environmental (contextual) approach won out: every new building was to carry on a dialogue with its historic surroundings rather than contradict them.[3] On Kharitonov's initiative, standardized construction was banned in the historic part of Nizhny Novgorod.[3]

Young architects — many of them graduates of the Nizhny Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering) — opened their own studios en masse. Late-Soviet modernism gave way to postmodernist architecture: bright, ironic, combining different styles. The authors worked with neo-traditionalism and quotations from the local architectural tradition, played with volumes, textures and details, creating plastic facades that visually lightened massive buildings and made contemporary structures "legible" within the historic context.[3] The declared goal was to respect the past without becoming its copy.[1]

The professional milieu was sustained by an active public life: architectural festivals, academic conferences, and guided tours of buildings under construction led by their own authors. Nizhny Novgorod quickly earned a reputation as one of the most interesting architectural centers in Russia.[3]

Key buildings

Garantiya Bank (Malaya Pokrovskaya Street) — a building designed by Alexander Kharitonov and Evgeny Nikolaevich Pestov in the mid-1990s in the Art Nouveau style. Ceramic panels, golden peacocks, tiles and wrought-iron details recall Nizhny Novgorod banks of the early 20th century; locals nicknamed the building "the little chest with a lock." Together with the tax inspectorate building (a former commercial bank) on Bolshaya Pecherskaya Street, the Garantiya Bank was awarded the State Prize of Russia for creating a distinctive regional style.[3]

The Loudspeaker Tower (Frunze, 7) — a residential building built to a design by Kharitonov and Pestov in 1994–1995. The corner tower, pushed forward, and four merged volumes recall the silhouette of a loudspeaker; the authors drew inspiration from industrial aesthetics and the traditions of Russian Art Nouveau.[1]

Reliquary House (Gruzinskaya, 26) — a 1996 building designed by Andrei Rubtsov, Valery Nikishin and Maria Sedova. The building took the place of an old wing dating from the mid-19th century that had belonged to lieutenant's wife Varvara Sokolova. In its outlines the authors deliberately blended motifs of Le Corbusier and Melnikov, color schemes reminiscent of Matisse and Mondrian, and devices of European postmodernism; the designers themselves called the house a "reliquary" — a repository of the ideas and forms of the world avant-garde.[1]

Komediya Theater (Gruzinskaya) — a reconstruction of a former merchants' club in a postmodernist idiom: a cut-off corner of the facade, a three-story column, marble, and play with classical elements.[1]

Hotel Oktyabrskaya (Upper Volga Embankment) is cited as a model of the environmental approach: its appearance does not dominate the panorama but harmoniously complements the historic center.[3]

Significance and legacy

The State Prize of Russia, awarded for two of the school's buildings, confirmed nationwide recognition of the Nizhny Novgorod experience. The principles of the environmental approach worked out in the 1990s influenced the city's subsequent urban planning policy: a practice took hold of evaluating every new building in the historic center not only by its functionality but also by how it relates to its surroundings.[3] The buildings of that era remain a subject of debate, yet it was largely they that shaped the modern appearance of the Upper Part.[1]

Sources

  1. NewsNN (archive)
  2. nngasu.ru — What is the Nizhny Novgorod architectural school of the 90s? — Nizhny Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (NNGASU)
  3. GiperNN — City tour with experts "The Art of Building": exploring new residential complexes in Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
  4. intelros.ru — MySQL Fatal Error (archive)
  5. zakonyprolidi.cz — 92/1990 Sb. Zákon České národní rady, kterým se mění zákon České národní rady č. 39/1969 Sb., o nabývání a pozbý... (archive)