Authors

Kiyaikina Marina Yu., Kudryavtsev Vitaly V.
A MEGACITY OF THE FUTURE: THE RENAISSANCE OF TRADITIONS OF ARCHITECTURAL DECOR IN THE 21st CENTURY

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №2 (34) June, 2011

Continuity between architectural traditions is not the restoration of what is gone but is a live process using, among other things, established colour solutions and elements of architectural decor, and territorial and national self-identification, which is especially relevant to the rapidly changing world of the 21st century. The architectural decor of Saratov demonstrates stable continuity of development, which is its characteristic feature.

Firstly, Saratov’s specific town-planning feature is associated with the extensive character of its development, which has led to a stylistic zoning phenomenon, whereby buildings of a specific style are concentrated in a certain area: classicism on the Museum Square, Moskovskaya Street, Valovaya Street, and Chernyshevsky Street; pseudo-Gothic has established itself firmly in Nemetskaya Steet (the Conservatory, Astoria Hotel); classicism-based eclecticism in Moskvoskaya Street and buildings in 16 Sobornaya Street, 53 Sovetskaya Street, 120 Michurin Street; eclecticism on the basis of pseudo-Russian style behind the Glebuchev Ovrag (Pozdeeva Hospital); Saratov modernism has occupied a compact area in the block adjoining Volskoy Street (from Kutyakova Street to Sovetskaya Street).

Secondly, there are well-established elements in the architectural decor of Saratov which are present in all styles: termination in the form of two symmetric volutes apart, with a decorative figure and characteristic red-brick colour gamut from “Naryshkin’s Baroque”, which was then revived in the eclecticism and the modernism; classicism enriched the architectural decor of the city with its Greek orders and yellow-white colour gamut; modernism revived the traditions of the medieval 5th century in the form colour gamut and ornaments with decorative colour accents.

Thirdly, fine plasticity and floral motifs in the architectural decor. These features may and ought to be used in Saratov’s contemporary architectural development.