HISTORICISM IN THE ARCHITECTURE OF EKATERINBURG AT THE TURN OF THE 21ST CENTURY: REGIONAL SPECIFICS IDENTIFICATION PROCESS

Abstract

The article describes the process of identifying the regional specifics of historicism in the architecture of Ekaterinburg at the turn of the 21st century by studying retrospectively-oriented modern objects in the city with the help of a specially developed methodology. The historical and critical study establishes the chronology and main trends in the formation of historicism, which is followed by a review of the influence of Ekaterinburg’s historical Classicist and Constructivist heritage on retrospectively-oriented modern objects. The regional specifics of Ekaterinburg’s architectural historicism revealed by the study manifest themselves most clearly in spatial planning solutions, facade compositions, decorative elements, color treatments, as well as in visually recognizable roof structures and finishing materials. Over time, the approach of the architects to the use of the forms of the «past» in modern buildings varies from simplification, modernization and reproduction of recognizable silhouettes to the employment of planning and compositional features of historical architecture and more accurately reproduced characteristic techniques and decorative elements of historically significant architectural styles. The stylistic orientation of modern objects to prevailing Classicism and Constructivism in the historical environment of Ekaterinburg suggests a general trend towards the emergence of neostyles in the architecture of the city.

Keywords

• architecture at the turn of the 21st century
• historical and critical research
• regional specifics of historicism
• contextualism
• classicism
• constructivism