Moscow: recreation and entertainment for all ages.
This is not the first time that the courtyards of residential buildings in the capital have been renovated: since 2012, most of them have been renovated twice, and some three times. According to capital standards, this should be done once every 7-8 years, but depending on the wear and tear of the equipment, it may occur more frequently. This year it is planned to improve another 1.7 thousand patio spaces. So far, this work has only just begun, so to understand what is changing in Moscow yards, RG correspondents examined those that were ordered in previous years.
It turned out that until last year the house at 6 Lyusinovskaya Street did not have a garden at all. “We went directly from the entrance to the driveway and the fence of the kindergarten,” says Moscow resident Maria Shulman. “There wasn’t even a place to walk with the child.” Therefore, the Central District prefecture decided to create a playground for the residents of this house as part of the reconstruction of the territory near the Dobryninskaya metro station, giving it a third of the park’s territory. “When the first swings were installed, the entire yard lined up to take the children,” María recalls. “Now we have a complete playground with a play complex, in which there is enough space for everyone, even children. employees from nearby offices.” From afar you can see the four-story city tower with metal tubes and slides that shine in the sun. The playground has a rubber coating, two trampolines on the ground and an arch with six different swings. On a weekday afternoon we counted at least two dozen children there. We asked the young dad: isn’t it boring sitting here with a stroller? “When my son falls asleep, in a couple of minutes I will arrive at another place with sports equipment,” Alexander Tverdokhlebov shared about his immediate plans.
On Fadeev Street in the Tverskoy district there is a common courtyard for five houses. It was updated last year. Now it includes a green corner for quiet rest for older people, a street basketball court, a dozen exercise equipment that teenagers and students love to use and, of course, a playground for the little ones. Two friends of about ten years old, swinging on an unusual moon-shaped swing, said: “We are on vacation, we always spend the first month of summer in the garden, then we go to the dacha. I don’t want to leave the patio until nightfall. What I like the most is the pipeline: the passage from one slide to another. You can go up there and it is not hot at any time.
The patios in the northeast of the capital have also been transformed, in the Yauza Park area under construction. Near the house on Chelyuskinskaya Street, 14, we saw a whole mini-park with different recreational and sports equipment for all ages. To prevent some athletes from disturbing others, the exercise equipment was separated by bushes. “Now play complexes in the form of spacious cages with several safe swings and nets inside are in fashion among children,” Robert Leonov, head of the Losinoostrovsky district administration, told RG when it was drawn up the renewal plan for this year. , residents of several courtyards asked at once to equip such a complex. So I went in.”
The municipal services complex added that, in addition to creating light accents in the courtyards in the form of children’s and sports fields, during the renovation of the courtyard area the lighting should be changed and additional benches and swings installed. We will soon find out what will come of this this year. At the end of summer, children will be the first to try the changes.
Ufa: historic buildings and street art on Art Square
Art Square is perhaps the most famous courtyard in Ufa, which seven years ago was landscaped and turned into a creative space for relaxing and walking.
This neighborhood can be accessed from four sides: Lenin, Chernyshevsky, Kommunisticheskaya and Mustai Karim streets. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that historical buildings of the mid-19th and early 20th centuries have been preserved here, which are objects of cultural heritage. And at the same time many modern and interesting places for games, creativity and street artists have appeared. During the warm season, concerts and various shows are constantly organized on Art Square, and in winter there is an ice skating rink.
It is interesting that in this historical center of the Bashkir capital there was once a tea packaging plant “Vogau and Co”, the first cinema in the province and a shoe factory. Architect Pavel Ponomarev, who worked on the project, was faced with the task of preserving history and adding something modern and creative.
“And he succeeded,” say project investors Rustem Abdulmanov and his partner Rim Bikmaev. – Art-Kvadrat is now difficult to describe in words. You need to feel its energy as you walk through the alleys and event halls. But, in short, Art Square is an urban center, in the space of which entertainment, educational, creative and social events of various formats are held: theatrical performances, poetic and musical evenings, conferences, sports competitions, municipal and federal events.
The Art Square is always full of people, here you can ride on a swing, play basketball, sit in the shade of trees or just walk, contemplating interesting art objects and buildings. Under the roofs of the recovered historic buildings there are now cozy restaurants, craft workshops, children’s studios, theaters and authentic exhibition halls.
– We often come here with children: they draw, watch shows and ride the swings. My daughter especially likes to look at the bicycles located at one of the entrances to the courtyard. Each place is decorated in her own way and creatively,” says Albina Karimova, a resident of Ufa.
By the way, the wall with bicycles borders the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus and once there was barbed wire, but after negotiations the police moved it to its side.
One of the buildings on Art Square is the property of merchant Abdullatif Khakimov with a dome built in the 19th century. The man traded food, textiles and furs in Ufa. He actively helped in the development of the city, for example, in front of his house there is a mosque with minarets, built with Khakimov’s money. In memory of him, Pavel Ponomarev painted a small mural on the wall of the house depicting the merchant himself.
On the façade of the Wogau factory there are mosaic panels that tell about the life of the family that developed the Urals in the 19th century. The Wogau dynasty, immigrants from Germany, were in the 1910s among the richest Russian businessmen.
On one of the walls there is “Hands of Creativity” street art, Art Square’s trademark, showing that creative people have come together here. Also in the Plaza del Arte there is a drawing of a child with a kurai and “Sailor” street art. And here you can see the sculpture “Kiss”: these are the footprints of two lovers. According to legend, the sculpture is dedicated to a couple who worked in a tea packaging factory and lived nearby.
St. Petersburg: museums with courtyards, gardens and mosaic panels
“Rarely where there can be so many gloomy, harsh and strange influences on the human soul as in St. Petersburg… Have you noticed that in St. Petersburg all the streets are gloomy? This is the most abstract and deliberate city in the world? world…”, wrote Dostoevsky about the city on the Neva. Since then, when describing the northern capital, it is customary to use only a monochrome palette, but many residents will not agree with this. The city changes and opens to viewers from different sides, reflecting the inner moods of its students. Start with the patios and see for yourself.
The courtyards of St. Petersburg are real museums! You never know what you will find in them. From Liteiny Prospekt we enter the courtyard of the Fountain House, the museum-apartment of Anna Akhmatova, which houses the Sheremetyevsky Garden with many poetic monuments that have the status of museum exhibits.
And opposite, on the other side of Liteiny Avenue, behind the huge gates, is the St. Germain Garden, where in the late 70s the creative elite of the city gathered, visitors to the legendary Saigon cafe. They say that the garden reminds us of the performances of Fyodor Chaliapin and Anna Akhmatova. In the middle of the garden there is a fountain: a girl with a jug in her hands, a copy of the one she once stood here.
Another address is the courtyard of the art center at Pushkinskaya, 10. There is a Beatles wall hidden in it, which repeats the design of the Abbey Road album, and through the arch you can get to the Beatles museum and temple.
No less striking will be Vladimir Lubenko’s mosaic courtyard on Tchaikovsky Street. The author of a grandiose art object consisting of 100 mosaic panels, sculptures and bas-reliefs on an area of 600 square meters, an honored artist of Russia, donated his creation to the city.
You cannot ignore the courtyard of the Youth Theater in Fontanka – Izmailovsky Garden with the famous “Angel of St. Petersburg” by the artist Roman Shustrov.
Or the glass (mirror) courtyard on Pochtamtskaya, popular with young photographers, where the Gazprom office is located.
However, all these directions are an insignificant part of what can be seen in “the most abstract and deliberate city in the world.”
Novosibirsk: in Akademgorodok they meet at the tennis table
Novosibirsk Academy City is one of the most ecological and green places in the entire metropolis. Therefore, it is not surprising that local residents like to spend time outdoors. One of the street sports available is table tennis. The rackets and balls are inexpensive and the RG correspondent counted up to 15 tennis tables in Academia City. These tables were financed by the residents themselves or sponsors.
One of the oldest tennis tables is installed in the courtyard of one of the houses on Polevaya Street. It appeared about 20 years ago. Over time, the wooden tabletop became unusable and not long ago the old table was replaced with a new one. Both adults and children come to play here. A light rain doesn’t discourage anyone. The local residents trust that young people who see adults playing tennis with passion will be inspired and begin to take an interest in the sport.
Nizhny Novgorod: a courtyard without entrances and an art gallery on Rozhdestvenskaya Street
In Nizhny Novgorod, courtyards with sports inclinations, chess and tennis tables are no longer rare. In recent years, neighborhood spaces have been provided with necessary, but very similar, areas for street activity. The cultural component is another matter: it turned out to be easier to find unusual courtyards with architectural and artistic nuances. These are just three objects in the center of the cultural capital of the year.
One of the places is an unusual apartment building on Kozhevennaya Street. This courtyard is called Georgian or Odessa, whichever is closer to you. There are no entries here. Residents climb stairs and balconies to their apartments. In fact, you can feel a kind of southern flavor. The building is not considered a protected historical complex, although it was built in the mid-19th century. They say Maxim Gorky was here. However, it is difficult to argue with this, since the writer also lived in the center of Nizhny Novgorod and was not just passing through, but opened a tea house for vagabonds nearby.
We go along Rozhdestvenskaya Street to number 24, the building of the former “Blinovsky Passage”, which was built by Nizhny Novgorod merchants, the Blinov brothers, in the 70s of the last century. Tour guide and art critic Anton Martsev calls a large apartment building on the banks of the Volga “an example of capitalism.” And Gorky was definitely here, in the restaurant, which was located right there. Another notable figure is the artist Konstantin Makovsky, who wrote the famous “Minin’s Appeal.” Now tourists come to see the building not only from the outside, but also from the inside. Because its patio is also an art gallery. In 2009, the Center for Contemporary Art organized an action and asked Nizhny Novgorod artists to open “windows to the world.” That’s what the authors did: paintings appeared in the windows that still today look down on the guests of their patio.
Another unusual object sends greetings to the residents of St. Petersburg. The only courtyard with a well at Rozhdestvenskaya 8. This is a two-yard structure, adds Anton Martsev: when you enter one courtyard, you find yourself in another, the same well. Something rare in Nizhny Novgorod: the houses here are higher than those built then (merchants invested in property, not apartments). Martsev is sure that such a piece of St. Petersburg confirms the idea that different cities and different styles and trends accumulate in Nizhny: here is the Kremlin, the Arrow, the chambers, the churches, modernism and constructivism. Everything is close and even more interesting.
