TATLIN NEWS #40

of standard and experimental design), architectural workshop No. 2 Chief architect of the project: B. Gulyaev Chief engineer of the project: A. Nazarov The notion of «Soviet Modernism»oftheseventiesisoften mentioned in conversation, when someone wants to bring forward the idea of the Soviet Union trying to approach the Western living standards. Architecture is one of main weapons that authorities used in their efforts to «humanize» society, but is architecture itself humane enough? The effort of contemporary architects to design functional space, after they had been ignoring this very important aspect for so long, offered them a chance to make use of achievements they inherited from Soviet modernists. This has formed an individual brunch in the Soviet architecture of the seventies, which was differentiated by its functionality and expressive forms. The Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren in the town of Nizhny Tagil is an example of how architecture developed in the direction of Modernism; the outer and inner appearance of the building has been formed according to the unchangeable principles of Constructivism and Functionalism school. The building located on the bank of a lake has concisely fit into the surrounding landscape. Its composition, which develops mainly horizontally, and the natural materials used to finish the facades, such as concrete, crashed stone and wood, are in harmony with the waterside line. The image of the Palace of Pioneers is calculated to be observed from the embankment; the embankment was planned to be developed further, but due to some commonplace reasons characteristic of the beginning of Perestroyka this has not happened.

The facades facing the bank are united into the composition formed by the impressive and possibly even aggressive portal consisting of mighty columns; the portal brings forward the main entrance, which does not operate at the moment, and one can enter the building only at its opposite side. Quite a complex spatial composition is formed by the two volumes of equal height, located one above the other, and the minor volumes are involved into the interaction of the two main ones. The form of the upper volume reminds of that of a parallelepiped and joins the third and the four floors together; the lower level is more complex and is formed by active vertical visual divisions of entrance groups. The mighty columns cut through the smooth shape of the parallelepiped and appear over the roofing in the form of pillars for open terraces. Smaller shapes are used for evacuation stairs and entrances and also form angular and less important accents of the composition. The stretched parallelepiped volume going below the surface and hosting a training shooting gallery reveals close interaction of the building with the surrounding landscape. The outer composition uncovers the constructive system and vertical communications as well as contents of inner spaces; for example, the entrance hall and the foyer are distinguished with full glazing of the facade. The interior is a common atrium space to hold celebrations, which is divided into two unequal parts by the system of ramps; ramps serve as the grand staircase and as the centre of the whole composition. Simple and precise geometrical forms of ramps fencings turn into floor fencings and create an expressive pattern, which animates the space with active horizontal lines. This is not the only example of ramps being used in this building; one can also take ramps to go up to the foyer from the cloakroom in the basement floor. Precise and clear composition of the layout arranges a system of vertical and horizontal lines

Mozart-like porcelain bust for the unimplemented cover design for Talking Heads’ Once in a Lifetime album. Then it emerged as a symbolic system for the contemporary arts exhibition, which had to become a part of the Olympics in the Athens, but also has not taken place. And eventually he managed to get rid of this obsession only after he applied it to the scale of whole Scotland. When he let his alter ego out into the concrete jungle. Like urban guerrillas wearing black Zorro masks here and there, these caricatures of humans doubt the universal rightness. Obviously, these walking-lying-creeping billboards call for bemused Scotsmen to free themselves from stereotypes and prejudice. Severalwaystoreadthemessage emerge from such dialectics of the part and the whole. The primate and spatial deconstruction of this sentence highlights and fills each of its parts with meaning: for example, in Dundee the equation «macaque + EVERYBODY» gives a binominal expression (are) monkeys», or in Edinburgh a figure of an ape lying on the grass with dignity suggests that «monkeys think, too». A belly-crawling beast in Aberdeen insists on having some rights. And the monkey in Stirling, who is a possible troup leader, claims: «we exist». Even if he himself is a figment of radical imagination. A dubious sentence, memorized and pronounced syllable by syllable by whole Scotland, will maybe make people more tolerant towards «white crows» with a black mark. AlwAys opeN «everyone object: palace of pioneers and schoolchildren Design: 1975-1078 Construction completed: 1988 Designer: state Committee on Civil engineering and Architecture at Gosstroy of the UssR, CNIIep (the central scientific research institute

In the middle of May this year a troup of giant primates invaded Scotland. They were not too many, but enough to fill the sixmain cities in the country. Comfortably settled in centres of Dundee, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness and Stirling, white grumpy 10- meter tall inflatable animals each held a word. If one visits all cities and puts the words together, they will spell out a meaning phrase: «Everybody Always Thinks They Are Right». This was a statement once written down to his diary by one of the most creative contemporary designers Stefan Sagmeister. And after having received an invitation to participate in the first Six Cities Design Festival initiated by Scottish government, he cited it out on the scale of the whole region. This subjective gesture of a very independent author living in New York City became a pitchfork of ambitious state strategy, which puts stake on development of creative sector of economy, one of the largest economy sectors in the United Kingdom. By addressing to renowned professionals the organizers aimed at advancing the image of Scotland as a country of advanced design and draw the attention of the wide audience to artistic values at the same time. In particular, Sagmeister had to attract attention of mass media to the event and ensure that design subjects are easily perceived by the audience. And he has succeeded in that. In recent years the designer has been implementing his artistic project, a series of maxims entitled «Things IHave Learned inMy LifeSo Far», all over the world. Sometimes it is done in the form of super- graphics on facades of buildings, sometimes it is large words made of planks nailed together and burning in a park, sometimes it is letters intertwisted into a green hedge, or sentences made out of a dozen thousand hangers. In practice Sagmeister writes entries to his diary right on the urbanised surface of the global world. And for several years he has been haunted by the image of a grumpy white monkey. It was first offered as a

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