To be honest, I went to class, thinking that I would develop the idea in this direction: how to combine ancient and modern architecture.  This topic has always seemed interesting to me, but in the process of selecting material, I came across old apartments located in my hometown (St. Petersburg).  Very often, many families immediately settled in these apartments, owned by wealthy noble families, after the 1917 revolution (family members per room).  Now, unfortunately, people continue to live in such conditions, but are increasingly making repairs that their fathers had dreamed about.  Very often, due to this, many ancient objects, Tiles, floors, fireplaces, etc. are replaced by European-quality repair, not realizing that they are destroying the heritage.  Then I thought that they are protecting themselves from History, this is how to build walls.  Therefore, the idea came up to make Glass walls, which will symbolize separation from the past.  Now I don’t really understand how I’ll make a healthy model, but perhaps from cardboard and plexiglass.

Polyfoam is perfectly suited for the construction of partitions. The only thing, it was almost impossible to cut it at a right angle (since I used a cutter for this). This complexity lengthened the process. It was also impossible to bond walls to each other with a glue stick. Then I had to fasten the walls with a glue gun. Unfortunately, the use of wire did not lead to the desired result. The design turned out to be very soft, unable to hold the “glass”, and the sensation from it was like from a barbed wire in a prison. I had to use wooden sticks. It seems to me that painting them was a good idea, because it looks like this graphically, standing out against the background.

In the process, I tried to combine several areas of interest to me: Russian culture, history and architecture.  I started my process with a mixture of ancient and modern architecture, I tried to find the ancient architecture that interests me.  It turned out to be the apartments of the nobles of pre-revolutionary Russia, which after 1917 began to belong to other people.  All life, furniture and even utensils overnight acquired new owners who did not value what was transferred to them.  Exploring what happens to “communal apartments” with an architectural heritage, I realized that much is being destroyed, replaced by the ordinary.  In the process, I used those materials that were unusual for me: polystyrene, acrylic, wooden sticks - this was my first experience in 3D.  I always drew my ideas, but I never created models, so this task was very challenging for me.  It was important for me in the end to get an accurate model that will show clean lines, slices.  The process showed me that I am interested in working with new materials, creating volumetric models, and visualization.  If I had the opportunity to continue working on this project, I would find a certain apartment in St. Petersburg, which would depict the lives of people, the very people, study how they adapt to the rooms in which they live, which they consider valuable.  Further, I would take a series of photographs from different angles, allowing me to create an accurate model of the room, and on the same principle as in the classroom, I would build a “protective shell” inside and I would incorporate all these changes by rigorously working in my sketchbook and depicting how the model evolves  over time.

This week helped me understand that architecture allows us to explore not only buildings, interiors, but also people's lives.  If earlier I thought that the main thing is to create a beautiful picture that pleases the eye, now I am sure that one of the main factors is the cultural component of the project, which is based on the needs of people, their desires, and ideas about the definition of beauty.  The most interesting thing for me is to look for a compromise that will create something unusual even for people with a conservative way of life.