Authors

Khoustek Valeria V., Blinova Yelena K.
Boiserie in St. Petersburg interiors: 18th to early 20th century

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №2 (86) June, 2024

The article explores boiserie as a method of decorating interiors with a system of wooden elements. Complexities in the descriptions of interiors made “in wood” by art historians are largely due to the contradictions that arise in the process of borrowing terminology from carpentry and to the lack of a generalized specialized research work on wooden interior decoration. The purpose of the article is to clarify the terminology for describing interiors “in wood”. Much attention is paid to the peculiarities of the interaction of boiserie elements between each other and with architecture. The study involved a review of dictionaries, art history literature, and publications on carpentry and cabinetmaking. Analogies are drawn between terms and real objects; a table of terminological equivalents is compiled in four languages. The thesaurus approach and the method of comparative analysis of textual and illustrative sources helped to supplement the contents of the terms “lambris” and “boiserie”. As a result, a generalized typology of boiserie is proposed, with the characteristics of the panels assigned to it. In conclusion, the use of boiserie as an artistic technique for interior design contributes to the formation of a special architectural image of space.

Blinova Yelena K., Sadovnikova Natalia V.
Decentralized composition of russian natural gardens

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №4 (84) December, 2023

Our intention in writing this work was to identify methods that were used in Russian landscaped garden design on the example of St. Petersburg estates and the Bogoroditsky palace and park ensemble created by A.T. Bolotov, and to reveal differences between Russian and English landscaped parks. The study suggests that the Russian park was very different from the English one. Whereas the English park would be created as a visual sequence (a system of park pictures) in which different panoramas were constructed from different perspectives, Russian park designers sought to create the space of the park as a pathway between individual scenes. English parks were living pictures, and Russian natural gardens were 3D spaces. As a conclusion, Russian parks had a decentralized composition and were structured as a system of scenes (glades with architectural or natural objects) and «dark alleys» (transit spaces) connecting them, and the immersive environment of the Russian garden implied the depth of the space.

Blinova Yelena K., Bakushkina Elena S.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE LATE 20th CENTURY MUSEUM BUILDINGS ABROAD. A TYPOLOGICAL CASE STUDY

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №4 (48) December, 2014

The article reviews the 20th century museum buildings and considers the typology of museum buildings developed on the basis of classification by architectural style, method and direction. The notion of contemporary museum is defined versus that of "non-contemporary" one.

Blinova Yelena K.
ALLEGORIC SYMBOLS OF VEGETATIVE MOTIFS IN THE ORDER COMPOSITIONS OF SAINT-PETERSBURG ARCHITECTURE

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

In the architecture of St. Petersburg/Leningrad, order compositions are full of floral motifs - ideograms conveying meaning through diverse conceptual metaphorical or metonymic associations.

The botanical diversity of plants, the clarity and visibility of their outlines ensures freedom of stylization, whilst the redundancy of intricate visual forms is constrained by the logic of the orders and the rigor of architectural details - modénatures, capitals, fusts.

The idiographic aspect of order architecture allows us to understand how the attributes, allegories, symbols, floral ornament and related allusions reflect the common cultural space of St. Petersburg - socio-historical, political, scientific, educational, military, confessional, personal.