AIA Center NYC - 04 January 2010
Andrey Bokov is the current head of the Russian Federation of Architect, an organization comparable to the AIA. His talk was a bit dry, but could have been a condition of English as a secondary language. Much of the work is stereotypically brutal with a cold institutional feel; however many of the interior spaces demonstrated some compelling interactions with circulation and form.
A few interesting, but minimally addressed, points were that modern architecture in Russia differs from modern architecture internationally. Bokov cited cultural and climatic differences as the end results of the heavy form. I can only assume that culturally, he was referring to the fascist Soviet Union with its brutal forms conveying the state's formidable presence.
From the exterior some of his large glass atrium spaces had a very organic quality. From the interior, they came off as overly structured and overly complex--a likely result from the need to accommodate the severe snow loads. I wonder if this imposing look is preferred or if the current technology simply doesn't allow for smaller and fewer structural members.
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