Konstantin Kolodin

On 3 February, PhD of Architecture, artist, sculptor, Associate Professor at the SPbGASU Department of Architectural Environment Design, Head of the architectural workshop Konstantin Kolodin is opening his personal exhibition "Conceptual Anesthics" at our university.

The exhibition is only a small part of his works. It is impossible to display all the results of almost half a century of creatng within one exhibition. But what is presented will allow visitors to get acquainted with the unique style of the author, the various facets of his talent, to feel his worldview and, at the same time, to look at familiar things with different eyes.

We are talking with the master about his works, about art, which has long since crossed the borders of Russia and found recognition in the USA, Israel, and England.

– Konstantin Ivanovich, how did it all start?

– I was born in Buryatia. My creation biography began in childhood. In the fifth grade I organized a puppet theater, wrote scripts myself, made puppet characters with my friends, glued decorations, involved classmates in productions. We went on tour with performances to neighboring villages. We hired a man with a horse...

A year later, we won the regional amateur art competition with "Cat's House" play. The second place went to the choir of the Kamensk Asbestos-Cement Plant! And this was a strong team under the leadership of qualified specialists, and the plant did not skimp on costumes and musical instruments. We were awarded a two-week excursion to Moscow.

In the seventh grade, when we were already living with our parents in Biysk, I completed my first concept: I made an architectural model for the reconstruction of the city block where our school was located. It all started when a chemistry teacher who often held theme nights approached me. For them, I drew huge posters with various chemical reactions on the school stage. She asked if I could come up with an idea for the reconstruction of our block. I answered: "I can!", and I could by then see what it would be like. Soon the project was presented at an exhibition of the best school works in the city community center, attracted attention and arose interest among visitors.

– Did this determine your choice of profession?

– I don't think so. I wanted to go to VGIK and become a director-animator. In my senior year, I sent a letter there, inquiring about the admission rules. They told me that I needed at least a year of experience as an assistant director. There was only one theater in our city. I went there and with youthful maximalism asked: "Can you hire me as an assistant director?" They told me that I first needed to graduate from the institute and get a diploma…

I always drew, made sculptures, so I decided to enroll in the faculty of architecture at the Novosibirsk Civil Engineering Institute. I arrived with a backpack full of sculptures. It turned out that the application period had ended. They still asked me to show my works to a commission of specialists from all departments. When I took them out of my backpack, they asked me to leave the room. I heard a heated discussion outside the door. Then the deputy dean came out and told me something. Then he gave me a sharpened pencil, paper and allowed me to join the applicants who were preparing for exams in the drawing room…

– Was it time to think about your future job?

– My studies coincided with the years of stagnation. It turned out that studying wasn't very interesting: the emphasis was on the architecture of typical buildings. And if you imagined that you'd have to do this all your life, it was scary.

Shortly before the diploma defense, a delegation from the Tomsk Civil Engineering Institute came to us to select specialists for the Department of Architectural Design from among the graduates.

I was offered to go to work as a teacher. I had to answer that I had no desire to work in typical architecture. But if they help me open a sculpture studio at the institute, then I will go!

I arrived at the appointed time. I was told that the next day I conducted a lecture. How so? A lecture on sculpture? It turned out that no: it was a lecture on the subject "Introduction to the Specialty".

Now I can't even remember what I was telling, I just remember how I drew the Colosseum in section and perspective on the board. The students later said that they liked this lecture with explanations in the drawings…

The department of sculpture was never opened. Architectural activity began.

At 22, I became the head of the workshop. In 1982, the first graduation took place, almost all of my graduates entered PhD school. Many of them are teaching, now even their children come to me.

– Can this time be called a period of new creative successes?

– Quite so. Even during my architectural pre-graduation practice, I met artists and showed them my sculpture works. And I was quite surprised when I was invited to participate in an art exhibition. The exhibition committee recommended taking all my works and organizing a personal exhibition in the hall of the State Art Gallery of Novosibirsk. My hall was next to the halls that exhibited works by Roerich, Kuindzhi, and Repin.

This strongly impressed me. It was scary, but also exciting that my works were honored with such high attention from the organizers and appreciation of the visitors.

– Tell us about your first memorable projects.

– My first project was a Komsomol assignment. I was asked to design a ski base. And, strangely enough, it was built.

The next project also found me. It was the "Project of a village for three thousand residents for the Anzhersky chemical and pharmaceutical plant" in the Kemerovo region.

Many of my conceptual projects were initially perceived ambiguously. For example, "Reconstruction of the central part of the city of Tomsk with the construction of an inhabited bridge along both banks of the Tom River" raised the question: can there really be bridges along rivers?

But it is a wonderful idea to harmoniously integrate new buildings into the urban development, which will allow to develop empty spaces, to create new symbols of the old city. In these bridges-buildings, according to the concept, there are offices, shops, restaurants, concert halls, museums, hotels. In the structure of the bridges we have integrated eco-friendly transport with free travel for passengers.

– Do you propose this idea in Saint Petersburg?

– It really suits Petersburg. In 1990, I won a competition and was invited to the design institute "Lengrazhdanproekt" to the position of chief architect of projects in Leningrad.

Later I became deputy head of the administration for architecture and urban development of Zelenogorsk, and headed the program “Karelian Isthmus Resort Zone” – now this is the Resort District of St Petersburg.

My mind was crossed by an idea to develop St Petersburg in the north-west direction with the creation of a ring road around the city. With a concept drawn on a regular sheet of paper, I came to the Committee on Urban Development and Architecture and heard: "This is not Moscow, no one will build a ring road here!"

Then, regarding the development of the concept, I turned to Valery Nefedov, who was the dean of the faculty of architecture at the time. He suggested bringing the issue up for discussion at the department of urban planning. The department unanimously voted against the concept.

Soon I received a call from MArchI, saying that the department where I studied was being closed because it had not passed certification, and they asked me to help “pull it up” to the required level.

I agreed to transfer to the position of associate professor. The rector of MARCHI asked me: "Will you help?" I answered that I would help. "What do you want in return?" I said: "An architectural studio for students, where I would teach according to my program." "Why do you need that?" "I want to carry out a city reconstruction project." "Which one?" "St Petersburg!" "Anything, design Paris, just don't touch Moscow!"

The department became the best after two years. I was promoted to professor. We were invited to the international exhibition "300 Years of St Petersburg: Russia Open to the World" with the works we had done on St Petersburg. We called the project "St Petersburg 300 for St Petersburg 400". Our exhibits were appreciated by Patriarch Alexy, deputies who came to the exhibition, the city's chief architect and Governor Vladimir Yakovlev, who was in charge of the city at the time. We visited Moscow and Berlin with the concept. The project traveled to various exhibitions for six months.

Time shows that initially misunderstood ideas are later implemented. For example, the Lakhta Center was built not far from the place indicated in my concept, and the ring road is almost the same as in our concept. The Western High-Speed ​​Diameter was also present in our model.

Our conceptual project “Street of the World” seemed like a strange fantasy to everyone, but today a similar concept is being implemented in Saudi Arabia.

– How do you manage to be ahead of your time?

– I am often asked: why do I do such projects? I don’t know. I just do it, and I like it. I explain it as a gift sent from heaven and accept it as an assignment that must be fulfilled without fail.

The list of awards, exhibitions and prizes can go on and on, but every project is dear to me.

There are still a lot of ideas, as before, but I understand that there is less and less time left.

I would be glad to open a studio if such an opportunity were provided. I am often asked, where do you store the exhibits? The question is absolutely correct. It is not always possible to preserve something valuable. It would be good if our university museum would deal with these issues.

Just think: decades will pass, other generations will be here, and what we did will be visible, studied, learned from, ideas picked up or improved. This is important for the common history.