A long corridor with black and white doors on the left, dark columns, brass ceiling lights, and windows with radiators on the right.

NB! · Architecture · Moscow · Mores

Two Entrance Doors in Every Apartment of the Narkomfin Building and Children's Games

Every flat in the Narkomfin Building has two front doors: one black, one white. One door gives onto the lower level, the other leads upstairs. The children, it must be said, make cheerful use of this original architectural solution, playing tag without, strictly speaking, ever leaving their own home, yet

Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage

Activists from the Kostroma Region are raising funds for conservation and emergency stabilisation work in the Resurrection Church of the Neronovo estate, with its original 18th and 19th-century interiors

Activists from the Kostroma Region are raising funds for conservation and emergency stabilisation work in the Resurrection Church of the Neronovo estate, with its original 18th and 19th-century interiors. I should note at once that the Neronovo estate is privately owned, which, however, does not diminish its cultural significance

Wooden carved frieze with large fruit and leaves on a darkened board, mounted on a museum gallery wall.

NB! · Architecture · Art · Observations

Carved Frieze of the Early 17th Century with Life-Size Fruit

An early seventeenth-century carved frieze with life-size fruit. Russian architecture, what's not to love? ❤️

Architecture · Faith · The East · Heritage

26 September 1687: during the Venetian siege of the Athenian Acropolis, the Parthenon, where the Turks had set up a powder magazine and a refuge, was blown up

On 26 September 1687, during the Venetian siege of the Athenian Acropolis, the Parthenon was blown up, the Turks having made it a powder magazine and a place of refuge. The Parthenon, which had by then served as a mosque for more than two hundred years, was bombarded without mercy:

Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Heritage · Society · Reportage

In my view, the trouble with events of this kind, where people try to stand up to commercial giants backed by the authorities at every turn, lies not even in the futility of such undertakings in our country, but in the fact that the camp of the defenders…

In my view, the trouble with events of this kind, where people try to stand up to commercial giants backed by the authorities at every turn, lies not even in the futility of such undertakings in our country, but in the fact that the camp of defenders of the righteous

Display board with a photo of a dilapidated building at 7-9 Khokhlovsky Lane and a render of its facades after restoration.

NB! · Architecture · Moscow · Society · Humour

Muscovites doubt the restoration render for a Khokhlovsky Lane building over discrepancies in business centre volumes

Developers: but we shall make it all beautiful, here is the render. Muscovites: but we cannot take your word for it, for in the planning documentation the volumes of your business centre differ from those you have announced by more than a factor of two.

Architecture · Moscow · Heritage · Society

Developer plans business centre in Kolpachny Lane and demolition of existing buildings

However softly the developers with a stake in a billion-rouble project may lay the bedding, the bed turns out rather hard. Will you feel better if, instead of an elite residential block, a new Patriarch's Ponds or the Pit so idly invoked by the head of the

Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Heritage · Society

It turns out that, besides building yet another office Palmyra of loot and woe in the protected zone on Ivanovskaya Hill, they also plan to remove all the fences and make the territory barrier-free (really?), to protect the century-old poplars from the Zh

It turns out that, besides building yet another office Palmyra of loot and woe in the protected zone on Ivanovskaya Hill, they also plan to remove all the fences and make the territory barrier-free (really?), to protect the century-old poplars from the Zhilishchnik state budgetary institution, even to

Architecture · Observations · Heritage · Humour

Another representative of the developer, Yaroslav Katsuba, head of the management company, explains what an ornament to the district their splendid building will be

Another representative of the developer, Yaroslav Katsuba, head of the management company, explains what an ornament to the district their splendid building will be. Touching digressions are not avoided: “We managed to find a descendant of Ludwig Knoop, Andrea Knoop. She is a descendant of Knoop through her husband; her

Archaeology · Architecture · Moscow · Heritage · People

Architect Alexey Ginzburg Speaks of Noble Plans for the Scientific Restoration of Buildings on Kolpachny Lane

Architect Alexey Ginzburg speaks of noble plans for the scientific restoration of buildings on Kolpachny Lane. He adds that he, too, would like the district not to lose its identity. Over the awkward matters, such as the eighteen-metre piles that will reach the cultural layer of the eighth century,

Architecture · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Heritage · Society

The Museum of Architecture Hosts a Debate on Demolition and Construction in the Historic Zone of Ivanovskaya Gorka in Moscow

The Museum of Architecture has provided a venue for a debate on the demolition and construction of buildings in the historic zone of Ivanovskaya Gorka in Moscow. The background is as follows. On Kolpachny Lane, within a protected zone, a five-storey business centre is planned, complete with glazed attic,

Coming Up · Architecture · Moscow · People

Jubilee exhibition of Naum Granovsky's photographs of Moscow open at the Lumière Brothers Centre until end of October

Until the end of October the Lumière Brothers Centre for Photography is hosting a jubilee exhibition of the architectural photographer Naum Granovsky, bringing together photographs of Moscow from the 1920s to the era of Soviet modernism. The book «Naum Granovsky 1920-1980» is also on sale there.