But after all, investments are actually also natural, fun, exciting and exciting, like, for example, growing flowers or even children, like the very development of life! It's very exciting to invest, watch how the investment grows, and get a return! Fascinating, if it does not reduce investments exclusively to boring empty numbers and arithmetic equations!
Olga Chernova, chief project architect of the archimatika company
"We have no money for your architecture. The project is unprofitable for us if we do not return the investment after 6 years. After all, we will get the same profitability, just put the money in the bank." It seems that everything is logical. But there is one "but". In the bank, after six years you will receive the same income, however, somewhat inflated by inflation. And if you invest in construction, you will get an architectural object that will work in 6, 10, 20, and 50 years!
But if your investment in the architecture of this building is insufficient, it will become morally obsolete in 10 years. And this means that your business will become cheaper, lose its appeal, and in order to restart it, you will have to invest in the architecture again - redo and rebuild!
Investing is also natural, fun, exciting and exciting, like growing flowers
What is better:
- to invest less and return the investment after 6 years, but then have the need to invest more so as not to lose profitability;
- invest more, they will return the investment in 9 years, but in 10 and 25 years they will not need new investments in architecture?
Investments in architecture create long-term projects. After all, architecture can live as long as civilization exists, and will only gain quality and value, change its functions, continue to attract attention and bring income. Like the Acropolis, the Coliseum and the Egyptian pyramids.
Of course, I do not propose to plan the life cycle of investments for thousands of years for each project. But limiting the horizon to 6 years is definitely not enough!
Want to do quick projects? Just don't mess with architecture! Set up an inflatable pavilion, take a fast-erecting and fast-dismantling building, finally, rent a room in a business incubator. But take your time, please, cast your raw ideas into concrete! Architecture is long, expensive and lasting! And if they speed up and make it cheaper, the Khrushchevs will come out!
Photo: Ivan Friz / Unsplash
In fact, every business as an institution for the organization of human activity must grow to the level where it needs and is ready to connect with architecture. Take for example the most expensive business in the world today — the Apple corporation. Question: in what year of existence of the large company was the headquarters designed by Norman Foster built in Cupertino?
On the 41st! 6 years after the death of Jobs himself! And after that you continue to think that you will go this way faster than Steve's team? Cut at the turn? Do not flatter yourself!
Why has Kyiv not created a new worthy architectural environment in 30 years of independence, with the exception of a few individual projects? In Soviet times, despite the excess of typical design, the shortage of normal materials and the surplus of construction hacks, the organization of the city administration grew to the level of architecture, and that is why we now look at photos of that Kyiv with thoughtful nostalgia.
Photo: Mykola Makhlai / Unsplash
But for the construction of capitalism, the more or less well-established socialist system of city organization, alas, was not suitable. And for 30 years now, our Kyiv municipal government has been in the way...
If you look at the cracking pavement of the Maidan and the strange forms of anti-aircraft lighting of the underground shopping center, the question arises: is it worth replacing what was there with a new one, if in twenty years this new one will inevitably turn out to be infinitely outdated and we have to start thinking about what to do with it again? all to do? Maybe the invested funds should be directed to something worthy that would not lose its quality and meaning in 20 or even 50 years? After all, for example, the architecture of Soviet buildings on Maidan and Khreshchatyk remains valuable, despite more than half a century of history and even a change in socio-economic formation.
Architecture is long, expensive and lasting! And if they speed up and make it cheaper, the Khrushchevs will come out!
The basis of successful investments in architecture, both at the level of private business and at the municipal level, is a sober and realistic assessment of one's resources and capabilities, including professional ones: if we are not ready, we do not yet know how exactly it is necessary, we do not have enough funds - it's better to do nothing! Preserve what you have, do minimal repairs and continue to accumulate funds and experience.
The systematic refutation of this seemingly obvious rule created, on the one hand, general disappointment and distrust of everything that is being built in the city (and in general, everything that is being built), and on the other hand, an extremely harmful habit of expecting that everything should be cheap. After all, "Cheap is good! Expensive is bad! This is corruption or waste of funds!"
But in investments in architecture, everything is the opposite! Cheap is first of all stupid! This means that the city could not set the task in such a way that there would be enough money for a cool, expensive solution. For some reason, I am now forced to take on an insufficiently financed, therefore, risky solution, which will only solve the problem for a short time, and then create a new, and even more complicated one!
Expenditures of the city budget carried out through tenders with a determining criterion in the form of price are obviously stupid expenses, half of which generate risks caused by insufficient funding, which means that they create problems, and the other half is spent on solving previous shortcomings. Yes, this way is the most economical and cheap, but it is still temporary and causes problems in the future!
Photo: Maksym Mymchyk / Unsplash
This is not an investment! This is senseless extravagance! The same thing happens when the city undertakes to help deceived investors of residential "pyramids". First, why do investors need to be saved? Is someone saving the investors of the burned-out international corporation? An investor who invested an amount similar to the cost of an apartment in the construction and launch of a bankrupt store will also come to the city hall to be saved and refinanced? An investor is a risk bearer! And the one who shouts: "I was deceived, I was sold a defective unfinished product, compensate me" is not an investor, but an unlucky buyer who chased after a bargain and did not assess the risks.
What funds does the city spend on the woes of "Arkady" buyers? "Ukrbuda"? Our municipality liked it so much that it pays to solve problems that arose due to the desire to save money, that it decided to expand the program and pay extra for unlucky buyers chasing cheap apartments!
The basis of successful investments in architecture is a sober and real assessment of one's resources, opportunities and risks
Key criteria for assessing the quality of urban investments in the urban environment and infrastructure:
- what benefit will the city receive;
- how long will the city receive this benefit;
- for what period it is possible not to return to the topic, not to repair, not to redo, not to redesign and not to rebuild.
The first two questions mostly relate to the project stage, and the third to implementation. An indispensable condition of the tender is the warranty period, during which all repairs will be carried out at the expense of the contractor. The architect in this case is also a contractor, and the object designed by him must not only not fall down in 30 years, but also be useful to the city in an unchanged form. And among those who guarantee the results of their construction for 10, 20, and 30 years, of course, you should choose the one who is ready to build the object and maintain it in the proper form with the lowest costs. But under such conditions of the tender, dumping is equivalent to business suicide, and the kickback included in the price is philanthropic charity, because the contractor, who is responsible for everything himself, does not give kickbacks to anyone! Refunds are given for partial transfer (or discharge) of responsibility.
Photo: Vitaly Mazur / Unsplash
As if from a mosaic, the investment attractiveness of the city is made up of individual results of private and municipal projects. Why do investors line up in one city, and in another you can't drive them away even with tax benefits? What attracts an investor? Of course, there are many factors, but real examples of successful investments in this place, in the city itself, work the most!
Investors, like all people, run to where someone has already done something well and achieved success. And the more successful investments in Kyiv architecture, both private and municipal, the more new investments will follow them!
