The opening of the fountain on the marketplace. "Fountain by August" has become a utopia. Don't waste your time on trifles

Myths and reality.

Water is one of those elements that can be contemplated endlessly. There is something primitive in it, why a person always strives for water. Even in ancient times, people tried to artificially recreate the natural jets of a spring or geyser. Already in ancient Greece, fountains became an adornment of almost every city. Probably, everyone noticed how much easier it is to breathe near the water, how fatigue and irritation disappear, how invigorating and at the same time soothing the coolness from the fountain. However, the ancient methods of building fountains, the standard look of the fountains of the Soviet period and the aesthetics of the transition to a market economy of the 90s formed certain stereotypes and misconceptions in relation to urban fountains among the majority of the population. These often misconceptions can rightly be considered myths.

Myth one: "A fountain in the city is not modern."

The majority of the population under the concept of a city fountain imagines a rather dull picture of jets, a pool with a standard gray tile finish. Indeed, such a legacy has been left to us from the Soviet period in many cities of the former Soviet Union.

But engineering technology does not stand still. Now the city fountain is not only an element of architecture, fashionable design, but a complex system of pumps and computer control.

Modern allows you to create not only a variety of dynamic pictures of water flows, but also control the brightness and color of lighting. The uniqueness of city fountains is given by the variety of shapes and sizes of bowls, their combination with symbols or coats of arms of the city, sculptural or floral compositions.

Computer technologies for controlling the dynamics of light and the pressure of jets, depending on the melody, make it possible to create color-musical urban fountains. The harmonious combination of water columns soaring into the sky with the rhythm of music and color captivates the viewer. Very often, the extravaganza of water, music and light is combined with performances by artists, demonstrations of laser shows, film projections or fireworks. The color-musical fountain becomes the center of the cultural life of any city and the pride of its inhabitants.

Myth two: "A fountain in a park is too traditional and boring a landscape design technique."

Stylish forms of fountains are hallmarks of many European parks, historical estates and palaces, and the splendor of Peterhof fountains amazes more than one generation.

Nowadays, a pedestrian park fountain has become a fashionable element in the design and arrangement of the city park. On hot summer days, the pedestrian fountain humidifies the air, helps to escape from the heat and freshen up.

It is a center of attraction for people, especially children, a place of recreation and entertainment. Thanks to the hidden system of equipment mounting, the pedestrian fountain is an anti-vandal design and can be of any shape and size. The pedestrian fountain is ideal for city boulevards and squares. An additional plus in favor of the pedestrian park fountain is the convenience of its use in autumn and winter. The open area of ​​the fountain can become a place for folk festivals or a skating rink. VODALUX offers its customers a unique technology for converting park pedestrian fountains into a skating rink for the winter.

The sculptural fountain brings a plot feature to the landscape of the park and usually becomes a landmark of the city. The variety of themes, styles, sizes of art forms ("Fairytale and mythical characters", "Symbols of the region and the city", "Animals", "Flowers", "Fantasy", etc.) allow you to create your own fountain, unlike others. A characteristic feature of the sculptural fountain is its all-season attractiveness. In the autumn-winter period, the fountain continues to delight with its architectural forms.

Myth three: "To build a fountain, you need a large area."

Of course, we are used to the fact that the fountain adorns the central square of the city. But the opinion that a large area is needed to build a fountain is absolutely wrong. There are separate types of fountains that look good in the square, on the boulevard, in a quiet courtyard.

"Soaring stone" - a separate type of sculptural fountain. The fountain creates the illusion of a floating stone lifted by a powerful jet of water.

Another popular type of sculptural fountain is a granite ball. Despite its impressive size, the ball floats in a jet of water and constantly rotates. By engraving on a granite base, you can apply not only graphic images of the symbol of the city, company logos, but also slogans, mottos, quotes. This is an ideal option for decorating the territory in front of an exhibition, business or shopping center, in front of a university building or administration. A granite ball is a truly universal type of fountain, since it can be mounted not only on the street, but also inside the building, so it is suitable for decorating the foyer of offices, business and shopping and entertainment centers.

Myth four: "The fountain is too expensive."

You really need to understand that the cost of any project depends on the grandeur of the idea. In recent years, a civilized market for the construction of fountains has been formed in Russia. Growing demand and competition encourages the main market players to form a flexible pricing policy. The customer can designate his budget and expectations from the future project. Specialists of the sales, visualization, design and installation department will assess the current situation, select the optimal composition of equipment, visualize and animate the future fountain, and provide a full range of installation and commissioning services. The customer receives a step-by-step plan for the implementation of a particular work, indicating clear deadlines and costs for the work. The technical capabilities of VODALUX and the level of qualification of the staff allow us to offer an original idea, design and install an object of any complexity and for any budget. Thanks to high service and attentive attitude to the customer, VODALUX has created more than 400 projects in more than 150 cities of Russia and the CIS.

In this article, we tried to dispel the most common myths about fountains in the city and convincingly prove that the construction of fountains is one of the most effective methods of modern urban improvement. It should be noted that in recent years there has been a positive trend in this area. The administrations of many urban and rural settlements are turning to the construction of fountains. The fountain becomes not only a decoration of the city, but the center of culture and recreation of its inhabitants.

During the discussion of the sketch of the fountain at the Town Planning Council, it turned out that it was proposed to build something that would be better to completely refuse.

The project was presented to the council by Alexander Kozlovsky, director of the department for strategic development of the local administration. According to him, the fountain in front of the department store is likely to be round, with a thicket about 500 mm deep and with an artificial stone rim. At night, it is planned to turn on the backlight, just like at the fountain in front of the Palace of Children's Creativity. And water cascades - at least five. It seems to be beautiful. However, the speech of the head of the department raised a lot of questions.

It turned out that the new water structure will be smaller than the old one. As a result of negotiations between representatives of the administration and businessman Sychev, the city does not receive the entire area of ​​the former fountain, but only its "stub" of 20 by 30 meters. You can’t really turn around on such a patch: the maximum diameter of the bowl in this case is 18 meters. And suppose that at least one bench is placed next to the fountain (suppose - because the designers did not take care of the recreation area), and it turns out that the diameter should be even smaller.

In addition, it should be borne in mind that Torgovaya Square is, in fact, a market. If, by some miracle, a new fountain is squeezed in, it will be located close to cell phone stores on one side and beer tents on the other. Not the best neighborhood for citizens who want to relax by the water in the summer heat.

Of course, the tents at the Alenka shopping center are a seasonal phenomenon. They are rolled up for the winter. But they stand on the private territory of the mentioned entrepreneur, and there are no guarantees that one day he will not decide to build something similar in their place. The land is owned. The law does not allow...

By the way, after the deal with the Dzerzhinsky administration, Sychev's possessions expanded significantly. For a "generous" gesture in the form of a piece of land 20 by 30 meters, he received another 500 square meters at his disposal. m of the commercial part of the city. Now you can frolic and build pavilions there too. At best, residents will receive a fountain that will appear sometime in the indefinite future, - according to Alexander Kozlovsky, there is no time frame for construction yet.

Or maybe, well, him?

Unfortunately, among the audience of the discussion were not those representatives of the administration who were present at the fateful negotiations with Alexander Sychev. So it was not possible to find out on the spot why such an unequal exchange is suddenly considered fair.

However, several solutions to the problem have been proposed. First of all, completely revise the terms of the contract with the owner of Alenka in favor of the city. Although, according to the head of the strategic development department, now Sychev's agreement with the administration is already at the stage of paperwork.

Secondly, the experts of the Town Planning Council decided to recommend to the head of the administration to completely rethink the draft layout of the Torgovaya Square at the level of the general plan. They even remembered that there is a possibility of seizing land plots for state and municipal needs, but Anatoly Slizov, the first deputy mayor, immediately explained that there were no grounds for this.

Finally, another option for further action is to leave the Marketplace alone. According to Anatoly Slizov, taking into account the conditions in which one has to design, there may be no need to “bury municipal money there [on the square].” And they should be sent to the construction of a water facility in another place, for example, near the drama theater. The council supported this idea and included it in the list of recommendations to the head of the city.

The initiative is wonderful. Especially if it is actually implemented. A large and well-maintained fountain near the drama theater is better than a "basin" with a couple of benches on the edge of the Market Square. But in the bottom line, it turns out that the square, as it was, remains occupied by entrepreneurs, and the residents, as they were, remain without the city fountain, which they were promised. The law protected private property. Administration officials took into account the benefit of the businessman. Who will defend the interests of ordinary citizens is unclear.

Natalia SLEPNEVA.

In the 1990s, under the Manezhnaya Square, which at that time was returned to its previous name, an underground shopping complex Okhotny Ryad was built. A cascade of fountains, which are part of the Okhotny Ryad shopping complex, appeared at that time on the renovated square. They are located around the glass domes of the shopping center, towering above the ground.

One of the fountains is located around the main dome, which is a geographical map with the names of cities. During the day, the dome makes one full rotation and, in fact, it is a clock by which you can determine the time with an accuracy of five minutes in the cities indicated on the map.

Let me explain how it works. The dome with the names of cities is divided into 24 sectors and rotates around an axis; the lower ring around the sector is motionless and is also divided into 24 sectors, denoting each hour of the day. Each sector has 12 lights, each of which means five minutes. Now we select a city, look at the bottom number (this is an hour), count the lighted bulbs and multiply them by five (this is minutes), as a result we get the time in the selected city.

If you raise your head, being under the main dome of the Okhotny Ryad shopping center, then the map can be seen in this form.

The authorship of these watches most likely belongs to the Mosproekt-2 design workshop, which, with the participation of Zurab Tsereteli, was developing Manezhnaya Square and the Okhotny Ryad underground shopping complex. The sculpture crowning the dome, which is not difficult to guess, is the creation of Zurab Tsereteli. And it depicts St. George the Victorious slaying the serpent - a symbol of Moscow, which can be seen on the coat of arms and flags of this city.

The sculpture is symbolic. The plot depicting George is connected with one of the many miracles of the saint. George, with his miraculous appearance, saved the king's daughter and many other inhabitants of the Lebanese mountains from death by killing a snake that devoured people. In Russia, George the Victorious has long been considered the defender of the Orthodox army. The name of the founder of Moscow, Yuri Dolgoruky, is associated with his name. Yuri, Gury, Egory, and even Rurik are all variants of the name George. During the reign of Dmitry Donskoy, Saint George was revered as the patron of Moscow, later the image of George the Victorious is part of the Russian state emblem, and since 1995 he has been depicted on the coat of arms of Moscow. By the way, Moscow itself is depicted on the map as a sculpture of the Kremlin, which can be seen on the left side of the picture.

The Fountain of the Clock of the World, like all other fountains of the square, dates back to 1997, when on the occasion of the celebration of the 850th anniversary of Moscow, Manezhnaya Square acquired its final form and the entire fountain ensemble located on it was put into operation.

Paying tribute to the historical name "Okhotny Ryad", the designers from the American company Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum Inc., which was responsible for the design of the complex, installed on the ground floor under the dome with a clock a fountain depicting the goddess of hunting Diana and her two companions in tunics. Each character is equipped with the attributes of hunting and the game he has obtained. Above them rises a huge bowl from which water flows. The authorship of the sculptural composition probably belongs to the same Zurab Tsereteli, and the uniqueness of this year-round fountain is that it is located below ground level - at a depth of about fourteen meters.

Initially, there was no complex here, despite the fact that it was supposed to arrange a new center of Leningrad on Moskovsky Square. It was opened with pomp in 2006 in the presence of the governor. The result was one of the largest fountain complexes, among those located outside Peterhof. In addition to bowls, there are several string colonnades. In the evening, this spectacle is especially mesmerizing: for 20 minutes, the space of the square is filled with the sound of classical compositions, and the jets of the fountain, as if waltzing, rise to the sky with different intensity, colored with reflections of multi-colored illumination.

m. Moskovskaya, Moskovskaya square

The light and music fountain at the Finland Station on Lenin Square recently celebrated its tenth anniversary. This is one of two urban dancing fountains in St. Petersburg. The complex is smaller than the fountain on Moscow Square, but the light and music show is almost the same. Jets of water dance to the classics, Andrey Petrov's doubts, and sometimes to the accompaniment of the hits of the 60s. The performance can be viewed at 12:00, 21:40 on weekdays and at 12:00, 20:00, 21:00 and 21:40 on weekends and public holidays.

m. Lenin Square, Lenin Square

There are no such fountains anywhere. The fountain was opened in the summer of 2017 on the Trade Square of Peterhof. The spring appeared in the same place where in the middle of the 19th century there was a bowl with a drinking fountain. They did not recreate the landmark according to the historical project: Vodokanal needed to draw water from the other side of the avenue. However, they managed to complete a more unusual project: the source is capable of projecting images directly on the water. The light and music fountain is equipped with a laser projector and can even work in the training complex mode. For example, it can broadcast lectures accompanied by a synchronized dynamic design of water, light and music, the city administration said. Any image can be projected onto its water screen.

Peterhof, Trade area

One of the youngest singing fountains in the city was installed in the Grand Canyon. It is a sculptural composition of bronze children circling in a round dance. Water jets and monuments "dance" to popular children's music from dozens of countries around the world. The author of the "singing source" was the sculptor Konstantin Garapach. As planned, this fountain "Peace for Children" symbolizes the friendship of all the children of the planet, and the opening is timed to coincide with the International Day of Peace.

Prospect Prosveshcheniya, 154 Engels Ave.

It was the beginning of August in the mouth of Mr. Vinogradov figured as the deadline for the completion of the construction of the municipal fountain. Judging by today's situation on the Market Square, there are serious doubts about the reality of this promise. The one-story pavilion where they sold shoes was finally dismantled. They also dismantled the bowl of the fountain itself, on which the ill-fated "barn" was located. Part of the vacated area was covered with paving stones. And then there was already a summer cafe. And there are no traces of the construction of a new fountain.

Multi-move?

Gennady Vinogradov said that the new fountain will be erected almost at the same place where the old one was located. Only it will shift somewhat closer to Tsiolkovsky Avenue. It turned out that the entrepreneur Alexander Sychev, the owner of the same "shed" and "Alenka", will transfer to municipal ownership not all, but only part of the land adjacent to the south side of the shopping center. 1/3 of the area of ​​the old fountain will become municipal property. This, apparently, is such a compensation for a broad gesture on the part of the entrepreneur - the liquidation of an unauthorized building. If we take into account that in the future Alenka will also receive part of the municipal land on the eastern side of the shopping center, then the whole story with the hype around the demolition of the barn can be viewed as a well-thought-out move by a merchant who eventually bargained for himself more than he lost. And ordinary citizens can be considered disadvantaged in this situation, who, having lost their traditional place of rest, have not yet received anything in return. However, Gennady Vinogradov is in a hurry to reassure the Dzerzhinsky residents, assuring that the new fountain will be no smaller in area than the old one.

Where I'm from, I won't say.

But now the official is afraid to name the date of delivery of the new fountain. Vinogradov referred to the deputies of the City Duma, who had already approved the allocation of 500 thousand rubles from the city budget for the design of the fountain. It is clear that money will be needed for construction. But Mr. Vinogradov reminded us that today's authorities have long learned to build objects on loan. "Payment usually occurs 300 days after execution," Vinogradov stressed.

Don't waste your time on trifles

Well, where is the very "barn", why is Mr. Sychev in no hurry to assemble it in the place designated for this? Recall that, under an agreement between the administration and the entrepreneur, this object was to move to the territory from the western side of Alenka. It was assumed that the city administration would agree on the transfer of this land to the owner of the entrepreneur. The head of the administration said that while there were no documents for the allocation of a land plot, there was only an agreement.

Why is Mr. Sychev not in a hurry to reassemble the wooden box in order to invite a tenant there and start earning money? Moreover, the location of the pavilion has already been officially agreed with the city administration.

We tried to ask the entrepreneur himself about this. On Tuesday morning they called Alexander Sychev. And on the other end of the wire, a familiar voice answered. However, after listening to a question regarding plans to expand the Alenka shopping center, our interlocutor unexpectedly stated: “You didn’t get there, in my opinion.” Well, in the absence of official comments, it remains to build arguments and assumptions. Although the answer regarding future transformations in the trading area seems to lie on the surface. Obviously, the entrepreneur decided not to waste money on trifles, but to use the territory allotted by the city for the implementation of a more global project. We are talking about reconstruction (read - expansion)
Shopping center "Alenka" Andrey Dementyev, head of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, recently told media representatives that the reconstruction of the shopping center was conceived ten years ago, and this year the deadline for the implementation of this project has come up.

It is clear that the expansion of a shopping center that is no longer a small one will not add to the attractiveness of the Trading Square. The attack of glass and concrete on the space still free for pedestrians is unlikely to cause the approval of the majority of Dzerzhinsky residents. However, the city authorities are not afraid of any dissatisfaction. “I am not afraid of social unrest, although you will make every effort for this,” Gennady Vinogradov summed up, without specifying who he means by the word “you”.

Vadim Shchurenkov