The first day, September 21st, will be held at the site of the International Architectural Congress (Krasnopresnenskaya embankment 12, Moscow) in person.
Time limit for speeches is 20 minutes.

The second day, September 22nd, will be held online and will be devoted to the discussion following the conference.

The kaleidoscopic variety of contemporary trends does not fit into the canonical ‘history of styles’ and requires new approaches to the analysis of architecture.
The outstanding researcher of the Russian avant-garde S.O. Khan-Magomedov put forward the thesis of the confrontation in the twentieth century between two superstyles in architecture – classics and modernism. ‘It was, – he writes, – about the creation of a certain global style – or rather, a superstyle, standing above the usual styles and comparable to the classical antique order.’
Now the first quarter of the 21st century is coming to an end: how does the idea of two superstyles relate to the latest processes, on the one hand, and a millennial architectural history, on the other? We invite the participants to go beyond the usual ‘styles’ in search of more general patterns of architecture development.

Themes for discussion:

1. Architectural and town-planning processes of modern times in the context of the classical (‘Wölfflin’s’) theory of styles. Problems of periodization and classification of the contemporary architecture.
2. Thesis of S.O. Khan-Magomedov on two superstyles in architecture and architectural and urban planning processes of modern times.
3. The theme of superstyles in the context of philosophical paradigmatics: tradition, modern, postmodern.
4. Traditional/totalitarian; modernist/democratic: patterns and stereotypes.
5. Avant-garde of the early twentieth century: another historical style or the beginning of a new superstyle?
6. Art Deco: a symbiosis of superstyles?
7. Postmodernism: chronological convention, total eclecticism, new style of the era?
8. Conservative architectural and urban planning trends of modern times.
9. National and regional in modern architecture.
10. ‘Living’ and ‘dead’ architecture. Regularities of the formation of ‘living’ architecture of different periods.
11. Classic (traditional) architecture of the future.
12. Computer engineering: the end of the struggle?
Abstracts up to 1500 characters, please send to the following address: ibembel@yandex.ru

Organizing committee of the conference:

• Irina Olegovna Bembel, Art History PhD, chief editor of the journal ‘Kapitel’ (SPb), NIITAG senior staff scientist.
• Tatiana Yurievna Bystrova, Dr. Phil., professor of UrFU named after B. N. Yeltsin, deputy chief editor of the journal ‘Akademicheskij Vestnik UralNIIProekt’.
• Andrey Dmitrievich Barkhin, architect, architectural historian.

Following the results of the conference, it is planned to publish an electronic volume with indexation in the RSCI.
Video recording of the conference will be organized for posting on the Internet.
The most interesting articles from the point of view of the Organizing Committee can be published in the journal ‘Akademicheskij Vestnik UralNIIProekt’ (VAK, Yekaterinburg) and in the journal ‘Kapitel’ (St. Petersburg).

REGISTRATION FEE:

for participants from Russia and neighboring countries – 1000 rubles;
for participants from far abroad – 25 euros.

The MONUMENTALITÀ & MODERNITÀ project (monumentality and modernity – It.) originated in 2010 and is dedicated to the study of conservative trends in the architecture of modern times.
The initial impetus was the study of ‘Mussolini’s’ and, more broadly, ‘totalitarian’ architecture. In the future, the chronological framework has expanded, covering all modern times. In the area of attention of the project participants are phenomena that in one way or another inherit pre-modernist traditions – architectural and urban planning (art deco, ‘totalitarian’ versions of the classical style and everything that exists today under the conditional and broad name ‘postmodernism’, as well as the movement of New Urbanism, which uses experience in planning old cities, etc.).
What is the reason for the persistence of these trends, and how do they relate to the latest developments in architecture?
The conferences of the MONUMENTALITÀ & MODERNITÀ project, which are held every two years, are devoted to the comprehension of these issues.
One of the founders of the project was the St. Petersburg architect and restorer Rafael Dayanov (1950–2021), and we dedicate this conference to his memory.

On the history of the project:
http://aaaunion.ru/monumentalita-modernita/

Project Monitor – Irina Olegovna Bembel
ibembel@yandex.ru