Entering peace through the hustle and bustle
Oleg Drozdov
Drozdov & Partners
Oleg Drozdov, Drozdov & Partners
On the one hand, we had the opportunity to see how trees grow. On the other hand, thanks to Zoom and other abominations, the commotion continues and there is absolutely not enough time. Despite the fact that we are localized, we live in a global world, and the measure of success in it is also global - only through hustle and bustle this success is achieved. Achieving peace is through hustle and bustle.
My academic work constantly confronted me with biographies of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. If we evaluate the total number of projects implemented by each of these pillars and apostles of the XNUMXth century, it turns out that our office is able to implement everything in three years. For example, Le Corbusier in his youth, as a student, built a house for a rich family and used this money to travel for a year in Asia and the Middle East. There was also enough money to move to Paris. That is, the fee for one and a half years of work turned out to be enough for one and a half years of active life, travel and a lot of discoveries.
Recent events are awakening the demand for depth and stability
What now? An interesting paradox: everything that we do quickly, quickly thanks to new tools, others consume just as quickly, quickly. And that standard understanding of content and quality is no longer needed by either of them. There seem to be no buyers for a product that claims a place in eternity. There are single lovers, a non-target group.
Bustle has not disappeared from the agenda. I am very disappointed with the crisis. We have not yet achieved that meditative aesthetics of timelessness, emptiness, in which everything superfluous would fall away due to uselessness. The stereotype of good architecture that has developed - spaces in which there is no place for extraneous things, because they are intended for people who lead a quasi-Buddhist or Protestant lifestyle - is still not in demand. This aesthetic — which, by the way, almost no one orders — is meanwhile an important reference point. It appeared as a reaction to the commotion, as something impossible, unattainable.
Transforming. Film. Photo author: Sofia Bondar
What we have achieved is relative localization and understanding of our immediate environment, including the spatial one. This is the moment when critical thinking about one's location, the country, is awakened. After all, those "matryoshka dolls" in which we are packed have remained airtight until now. I think that this process will lead to a rethinking of local architecture in the future. And it is very interesting to observe this, because the user lever is getting shorter, the accents are being moved closer: many people have been somewhere in Italy more often than in their own country.
When it comes to great architecture, recent developments are awakening the demand for depth and sustainability. This is a kind of message addressed to the past and the future at the same time. And it seems to me that the departure of quality from quantity is good for great architecture.
Creativity does not obey violence
Oleksandr Popov
Archimatika
Oleksandr Popov, archimatika
You can perceive quarantine as a well-deserved reward and pause, as an opportunity to stop and think about something important and good. But then a call breaks into your game with the child, a message — and that's it, you've already gone to a parallel world. I am critical of lockdown and quarantine. I am against violent, forced discipline and everything connected with it. This contradicts the very principle of creativity. It seems to me that quality slowdown cannot be turned on by force.
The hustle and bustle won't stop until we turn off the center of the hustle and bustle somewhere in our heads. And without this, it is impossible to plunge into that philosophical, wise state that provides the possibility of minimal, but precise and effective action. Wisdom allows you not to make senseless moves that generate new and new actions. Did the lockdown make it possible to reach this state? In my opinion, no. I had some epiphanies when I told myself that I had passed the project and now I could take a break for a couple of days, plunge into a meditative state. But he stayed at home for only one day and then ran again. In a mask.
Whether a large architecture is fast or slow depends on the user
I opened my personal space and have been opening it for years. And rethinking. Both the children and the wife - we are in this process all the time. When we were in New York, we decided to use the concept of slow living to design a new building. Manhattan is in such a hurry that it is simply impossible to stop. And it seemed to us from the side that people in this race are starting to make mistakes. And our architecture offers to take a breath and pause.
I have always attached great importance to details - they carry important information. But it takes time to read it. My colleagues and I are finishing the project in Lviv. I was a critic of the concept as I felt it lacked detail. When architecture has to be read in seconds, for example, an overpass that a train passes by, then a minimum of details is a justified solution. But if architecture that is not saturated with information appears where a person has more time to understand the images, it is infuriating.
#film. Film. Photo author: Sofia Bondar
Whether a large architecture should be fast or slow depends on the user. He needs a choice. When he wants to move fast but is forced to slow down, that is violence. If a person wants to stop, study the details, and they hurry him, they say, hurry up, come in, come out, work - this is evil. Therefore, architecture should give choice, be different.
The very fact that we suddenly found ourselves under house arrest sets before us the goal of deciding how to fight epidemics in such a way as to limit freedom to a minimum, and not to use the principles of quarantine of the XNUMXth century. How to make our cities safe, how to use the possibilities of Big Data in order to warn a person about dangerous contacts, but not to lock him at home.
Live in the moment
Kateryna Vasilieva
"Vasilyeva & K"
Kateryna Vasylieva, "Vasylieva & K"
Accelerate or slow down? First of all, I would like to say about a very important property that appeared, as I would like to believe, in many people. Being aware of myself and my desires allowed me to stop. And to look deep into the subconscious, which usually hides, while consciousness prompts us to run, improve, learn, achieve. And it became clear that at the moment when I am, life moves at a harmonious speed.
Precisely with the one in which I can realize and live it. If a person understands what and for what he is doing, then the speed of movement of life will agree with his receiving device, wherever it is located - in the soul, in the brain, in the heart. Is it possible to create an atmosphere in cities that can speed up or slow down life? I think this will be a question for anyone ordering future facilities: keep the beat or change it to fit the needs? And also the questions that will be asked by designers, wanting to fulfill the order consciously.
Today's self-awareness will allow creating personalized spaces
All fashionable stylistics in architecture and interiors, focused on external evaluation and the principle "I have better and richer than yours" are becoming a thing of the past. It is today's self-awareness that will allow creating personalized spaces. Will there be souvenirs or not? Will there be storage systems, walk-in closets, or do we want to store nothing? Relative isolation allows each of us to answer these questions. Interiors will become what you are, not what you want to appear to be. At the same time, time and speed will be harmonious: if I run, time also runs. If I stop, everything freezes.
#film. Film. Photo author: Sofia Bondar
When I am in myself, in the present moment, I have the opportunity and the desire to look. For example, it is impossible not to stop at Calatrava's creations. One day, a group of architects stopped and was late for a plane. Great architecture forces you to slow down. But its greatness fills us with meaning as well.
To your own rhythms
Oleg Volosovskyi
Loft Buro
Oleg Volosovsky, Loft Buro
Our life is divided into periods like a colored wheel. Young colors are bleached, mature colors are bright, when we shine, we become noticeable. Then a state of deep complex colors appears. In his own time, everyone plans work in his own way. And when we talk about housing, the choice of colors, particularly in the interiors, depends very much on the age category. Everyone will find something for themselves in the color palette. And it is wrong to force a person to live in an environment that does not correspond to his age.
I'm in favor of a multifunctional space. It is important to me - at work, in the city, in housing, in the country, in the world. I am so curious. I live like this. For me, housing is not a place to sleep. For me it's a show, fun. Favorite wine. The same applies to work. And often I can't understand where I live: at work or at home?
Like color and function, the speed of life is also chosen by everyone
Like the color and the function, the speed of life is also chosen by everyone. There is the famous Mille Miglia car race. Until you reach the finish line, you don't understand whether you are the first or the last. But you yourself choose at what speed to pass a specific segment. Today I slowed down to change the rubber, and tomorrow I'm like a jerk!.. I'll say about myself: I just can't stop. I know what meditation is, but I can't stand more than 7 minutes. Action is adrenaline, the drug I live on.
We've been promoting personalization all our lives. But it is possible on a large scale, when at the state level we will stop dictating the proportions in which we should live.
If the space is limited by a ceiling height of 2,7 m and a standardized floor area, what kind of personalization can there be? When you have a volume, you can create your own structure here. Of course, everything starts with architecture — and only then does design appear. For example, the HayLoft space, which we turned into living space, was originally intended for a store. I am a supporter of giving such spaces a second, third life, because here we found a volume, a height of 6 m, which cannot be found in typical residential buildings.
#museo. Photo author: Sofia Bondar
As for new housing, I have nothing against smart apartments, but it is comfortable there at the age of 20-25, while you are alone and selfish in search of yourself. With age, you need more space, then even more, and if you do not stop, you will need thousands of square meters, which it is not clear how to use. At every age, a person should feel a minimally comfortable space for living. Here is 150 square meters for us. m is already the limit. At the same time, our HayLoft is multifunctional, it has everything up to a DJ console.
Have all these principles of mine changed during the lockdown? No.
Collect the fragments of time
Olena Logvynets
Loft Buro
Olena Logvynets, Loft Buro
During the lockdown, time became even more fragmented according to the subjective feeling. I would not declare any kind of stoppage and rethinking. Rather, a special emotional state has come when you don't understand what's next. The world is changing, the ground is partly moving from under the feet, because the very principles of conducting business and relationships are changing. And it is impossible to calculate what will happen next. Is it possible to slow down to a comfortable state in the face of such challenges? We once lived in an industrial age. Then there was an information session. Now it's digital. Each subsequent epoch is faster than the previous one. Obviously, the speed will only increase. And here everything depends on who and how will take advantage of this circumstance.
The greatest happiness and sorrow is to live your whole life in one space
Oleg Volosovsky and I created a time capsule for ourselves, our HayLoft — I don't know what kind of crack it is between the worlds, but you just get lost here. The greatest happiness — and the greatest grief — is to live your whole life in one space. Our home is a projection of ourselves. We expand it, change it, then start reducing it. Everything depends on culture, needs, and opportunities, including financial ones. We now live time so quickly, our quality of life is speed. We are trying to skip 3 years in 30 years. In this sense, Ukraine is unique - nothing like this happens abroad. After the quarantine, during the quarantine, nothing has changed there.
Everyone builds their own housing. Until recently, we had a distorted idea of architecture, of interiors, hence all these palaces and towers. And when we matured to high-quality, clean interiors, they somehow became the same. The first swallows are wonderful. The rest are already copies. And I felt how the house turns into a conveyor belt of instagrammable, emasculated interiors with the same furniture. Currently, the question of individuality, what makes any interior individual, is a hot topic.
#museo. Film. Photo author: Sofia Bondar
It seems to me that recently people have become more and more focused on their own perception of comfort, rather than trying to do better than their friends. I would like to see more individual, interesting decisions related to a specific person. Use all this knowledge, combine it with design experience and get a space of such high quality that it gives the opportunity to pass it on to children.
There is no such thing as infinite acceleration
Oleg Mykhaylenko
MIRS
Oleg Mykhaylenko, MIRS
We are used to living in a paradigm where the fastest wins, not the best. And this rhythm, given to us from the outside, leads to the fact that we accelerate to win, and wind up this speed. But to what limit can we accelerate? There is always a limit, like a car, for example. And at some next stage, an inevitable failure, collapse, stoppage. I think this quarantine made me think: is it possible to achieve perfect results, but at a slightly different pace?
Personally, my work has not decreased, it has become even more, but it has fundamentally changed. I learned that you can do what you love and achieve good results without turning on crazy acceleration. And everything around pushes us to this. Maybe some things cannot be realized by stopping or slowing down, but for everyone there are exceptions.
You can successfully do what you love without turning on crazy acceleration
Yes, today many designer things are made in Ukraine faster and better than foreign prototypes. In addition, due to the fact that Ukraine has a more "low" market and a lower consumer culture, we are often ahead of Europeans and Americans in business models.
Tbilisi. Film. Photo author: Sofia Bondar
900% of the brands and products that we present as part of "Project 90" were chosen by me personally. In principle, we do not work with the south of Europe, I prefer the aesthetics and design of the north. That is why items of such brands as Vitra, Fritz Hansen, Walter Knoll, Louis Poulsen appeared in "Project 900". And the very topic of slow living made me think that it was these people who, in my opinion, created their objects very slowly and consciously. Therefore, they have an almost inexhaustible reserve of durability and quality, they can be passed down as a legacy and continue to produce new copies - they will be in demand. Walter Knoll has models from 1907 that are still in production today. Timelessness is their strong point.
We move in a spiral
Viktor Kudin
KUDIN architects
Viktor Kudin, KUDIN architects
I believe that all processes related to time in our Galaxy take place in a spiral. Like every person's life. At a certain point, we get as close as possible to the reference point again and again. I have repeatedly convinced myself of this. At a certain period of his life, he passed one or another milestone, and after many years he was close to it again - but already at a different age, in a different state.
In general, this is a good period - the external hustle and bustle suddenly disappeared
If we continue this analogy, the theory of the spiral, then we can try to guess where exactly, to which of the points of the historical spiral we are closest to. In my opinion, during the period of quarantine, we suddenly found ourselves somewhere at the mark of the second half of the XNUMXth century, during the Hetmanship. Such a slow, relatively calm, quiet, "frozen" time. Rather, this stop at the command from above deprived us of responsibility for what is happening. The peasants work for the master, but without fanaticism and not for a full week, and on weekends they rest with their families.
Everything in the surrounding world also happens quietly and slowly. We walk and drive slowly, talking quietly. I understand, this is subjective, everyone has their own feelings and life situations. But it seems to me that in general it is a good period - the external commotion has suddenly disappeared. It definitely disappeared from me - and it was a real thrill. They said you can't go anywhere, but you don't need to. And you sit, doing something really important to you.
The molten city. Photo author: Sofia Bondar
The spiral theory is not only about the connection with the past, but also about the connection with the future. Nothing happens that easily. Even revolutions that break out seemingly suddenly have prerequisites from the distant past. Therefore, everything that happens is conditioned by something. And so now: we define our future. And here I would focus on the details, if we already have not only a reason for this, but also an opportunity. In small things, in jewelry details, a person reveals his depth, perhaps more precisely than in large forms. For example, Larisa Boltrushevich, who was engaged in architecture for many years, and then suddenly became interested in ceramics. And when she shows her works on Facebook, I look at them enthusiastically.
It is time for mutual responsibility
Lyudmila Bilodid
Beloded Landscaping
Lyudmila Bilodid, Beloded Landscaping
The lockdown has failed to stop or significantly slow down landscape architects. There has been no less work on garden maintenance and landscape maintenance. I would even say that there are more of them now. All private customers stayed at home, no one could fly on vacation, and they, of course, wanted to use this time to improve their "green living rooms." And since there was free time, new creative ideas and new requests appeared.
There really was a slight pause in the design process. We used free time for self-education. In order to update information about the latest technologies, design techniques. Read analytics on current topics about sustainable landscapes, for example. To make such a large-scale upgrade.
Life itself reminded us that emptiness and space are important
The ban on walking in parks was perceived as morally difficult. Fortunately, it was short-lived. But enough so that everyone has time to feel the value of open spaces. When we discussed with our colleagues what might change in the future, we came to the conclusion that our public spaces themselves will change: they should become more spacious. Now the feeling of safety and comfort depends on the distance - we still want to be among people, but at a safe distance. And the city has to adapt — to give people the opportunity not to bump into each other. Therefore, the norms regarding the width of sidewalks and promenades should be revised.
How quickly will these changes be implemented in reality? Everything depends on the customers, municipal and private. Will they be able to quickly take into account the new requests of citizens, or are they ready to shift the focus and look at the situation with an eye on the future?
Unknown. Film. Photo author: Sofia Bondar
For the past several dozen years, we not only accelerated, but also collapsed the space around us, reduced everything that was not functional. They tried to place everything necessary for life on a few square meters, at arm's length. But as soon as we condensed as much as possible, life itself reminded us that emptiness, space, turns out to be so important. The need to expand our parks, streets, squares is only what lies on the surface. And we all became a little less superficial when we stopped rushing.
To the previous frantic pace of life and work, as I think, cities will not return for a long time, and maybe never. The rhythm will be different in any case. It is too early to say what exactly, because the restrictions have not been completely lifted. The pandemic will end. With or without masks, we will in any case return to the space where we can breathe easily. It is this factor that will play the main role.
