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DOI: 10.7256/2310-8673.2023.2.41041
EDN: FSHSOE
Received:
15-06-2023
Published:
22-06-2023
Abstract:
The article presents the results of a study conducted by the authors with the support of the Russian Science Foundation grant "Architects and engineers of the eastern outskirts of Russia (second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries)". The features of a significant layer of regional wooden architecture, preserved in the capital of the Trans-Baikal Territory - the city of Chita, are considered. Based on the materials of field surveys and the State Archives of the Trans-Baikal Territory, the preserved objects and original designs of a number of buildings and structures for various purposes were studied. The wooden architecture of the city is viewed through the prism of the activities of the first city architects and engineers, as well as other masters of the building art who received professional education in the leading architectural and engineering schools of central Russia, as well as specialists who did not have a specialized education, but received the right to carry out architectural and construction work after passing exams at the Ministry of Construction Affairs in St. Petersburg. As a result, a complete systematized picture of the historical evolution of the wooden architecture of Chita was compiled, which was formed under the influence of all-Russian architectural traditions, but at the same time had its own distinctive features associated with the specifics of the development of the region and the personal ideas of the masters of architectural and construction art, as well as customers of architecture of this type.
Keywords:
Transbaikalia, Chita, history, architecture, wooden buildings, heritage, architects, engineers, building art, designs
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One of the key features of Chita's architectural landscape is that, unlike many other regional centers of the Far East, a significant layer of wooden architecture has been preserved in the city. In the second half of the XIX century, the city was an intermediate platform for the migration movement to the Far East and the advancement of the Russian state to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The construction of the Trans-Siberian railway contributed to the intensification of the economic and social development of the city, as well as the strengthening of the role of large merchants, which in turn contributed to the emergence of demand for architecture by private order with the involvement of professional architects, engineers and masters of the art of construction. The conducted research showed that by the beginning of the XX century the number of wooden buildings was three-quarters of the entire development of the city. At the same time, in the peripheral areas, wooden residential houses and estates dominated, forming large urban-planning arrays, while in the central part of the city it was actively interspersed with stone. The authors identified 158 preserved wooden buildings, 134 of which are listed in the register of architectural monuments and placed under state protection. During the work in the State Archive of the Trans-Baikal Territory, 47 projects of wooden buildings were found, mainly belonging to the residential type of development. Analysis of the materials obtained showed that 88% of the identified objects and projects were built and developed without the participation of professional architects. It is noteworthy that one-storey wooden buildings built on stone foundations prevailed among them (76%), mainly estates and individual residential buildings built according to primitive drawings drawn up by their owners, while only 12% of public buildings were identified among them. Within the framework of this publication, in accordance with the stated topic, we will consider the wooden architecture of Chita in the context of the professional activities of the first architects of the city. In the course of the study, the authors attributed the authorship of a number of objects (Table. 1), as well as archival projects containing signatures of the masters of architectural and construction art who compiled them (Table 2). Table 1 Preserved wooden objects of the creative heritage of the first architects of Chita | Name of the object | Modern address | Author | Years of construction | Current state of the facility | | House of S. K. Sheshmintsev | 50 Anokhina Street | M. Y. Arnold | 1884 |
| | Post Office building | 37 Butina Street | M. Y. Arnold | 1893 | 
| | Photographer's House V. N. Konovalova | Amurskaya str., 108 | G. V. Nikitin | 1904 | 
| | Merchant T.M. Lukin's House
| 82 Babushkina St. | F. E. Ponomarev | 1905 | 
| | The house of M. D. Ignatieva | 53 Anokhina Street | F. E. Ponomarev | 1904–1908 | 
| | Merchant's apartment house D. V. Polupanova | Zhuravleva str., 28 |
L. I. Korganov | 1905 | 
| | Residential house of merchant D.V. Polutov, 1908 | | L.I. Korganov | 1908 | 
| | Merchant's apartment house D. V. Polupanova | 102 Lenin Street | L.I. Korganov |
1914 | 
| Table 2 Projects of wooden buildings compiled by the first Chita architects and engineers [1-8] | Project name | Author | Year of execution | Preserved document | | Facade and wing plan | S. L. Byshevsky | 1875 | 
| | The project of a wooden one-storey house in Chita | S. L. Byshevsky | 1876 | 
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| The project of the building of the postal and telegraph office of Chita | M. Y. Arnold | 1893 | 
| | The project of a doctor's house on the territory of a psychological hospital, proposed near Chita | B. M. Tustanovsky | 1902 | 
| | Executive drawing of the stable of the Chita psychiatric hospital and the carriage house attached to it | B. M. Tustanovsky | 1905 | 
| | The project of a psychological hospital proposed near Chita | B. M. Tustanovsky | 1906 | 
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Projects of houses for servants of a medical psychiatric hospital | B. M. Tustanovsky | 1907 | 
| | Residential building project in Chita | V. V. Kuznetsov | 1908 | 
| | The project of the apartment house of the merchant D. V. Polutov | L.I. Korganov | 1914 | 
| The analysis of the wooden heritage of Chita architects shows that for the most part their architecture tends to the modern, and not only externally, but also in content. Behind the stucco masks and garlands of floral ornament, sandricks and attics, the lack of symmetry of facade and planning compositions, one can see the freedom of shaping, so inherent in the works of architects of the Eastern suburbs of Russia at the beginning of the XX century, who are not bound here by strict construction regulations and established traditions, and, therefore, are constantly in search of their own architectural language and means of artistic expression of buildings [9, 10]. The greatest expression is noted in the works of G. V. Nikitin, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, which in general can be considered quite natural, given the peculiarities of the training of architects in this educational institution and attention to its artistic component [11]. Complex silhouettes and elaborate details in the form of multi-faceted cornices, carved platbands and paneled shutters form a unique look of the objects of his heritage. One of the most memorable works of G. V. Nikitin is the house of photographer V. N. Konovalov with its powerful portable wooden currency with overhead elements imitating the tail of a comet. The buildings of the builders F. E. Ponomarev and L. I. Korganov, on the contrary, are more ascetic. The masters worked with large asymmetrical shapes, making clear and uncomplicated silhouettes. Their work is characterized by the layout of blocks of different storeys and the use of tower volumes with tent-like completions accentuating the corners of buildings. An example of eclectic architecture is the post office building, built according to the project of a civil engineer, a graduate of the Construction School M. Y. Arnold [12]. The structure consists of three volumes cut from a large timber, sheathed with a board and connected by stone volumes with inserts, in which two entrances are located. The strict almost classicistic symmetry of its three-dimensional composition, reinforced by the plasticity of the walls of the stone fragments of the facades, is enlivened by the expressive forms of the hipped roofs and the central turret, which give a reference to the architecture of the Russian style, and in the drawing and proportions of the decorative elements, the motives of modernity are clearly read.
The projects identified by the authors of this publication in the course of work in the State Archive of the Trans-Baikal Territory mainly contain drawings and estimates for the construction of individual residential houses, estates and schemes of the planning organization of land plots. It is noteworthy that the size of the objects and the nature of the decorative study of their street facades depend primarily on the period of construction. So, in the projects of S. L. Byshevsky, dating from 1875-1876, simple, uncomplicated one-story volumes with few decorative elements bordering mainly window openings are presented. In turn, in the projects of civil engineer B. M. Tustanovsky, one can notice a more detailed study of the wall planes and a complication of the nature of the decor [13]. It should also be noted that the enfilade and single-chamber planning structures ("five-wall" or "six-wall") common in Chita in the first half of the XIX century, due to the peculiarities of the log structure of residential buildings, were gradually transformed through the use of internal self-supporting partitions. At the beginning of the XX century, a new type of urban residential building appeared, consisting of two living cages connected by the volume of the vestibule, or of a living cage and a kitchen block connected by the vestibule. A new type of apartment building with a sectional structure and a distribution space in the form of a stairwell with two or four separate apartments on each floor has also been formed [14]. Architects also began to combine traditional structural and planning techniques of folk architecture, such as a combination of schemes of a "five-wall" and a "cross" house with six capital walls. A new planning structure of a city house with an internal distribution space in the form of a hall was formed. During the construction of public buildings, a mixed design scheme was often used, implying the construction of internal load-bearing brick walls in wooden buildings that simultaneously function as an element of the furnace heating system and an additional stiffener [15]. Such a decision fully illustrates the project of a psychiatric hospital, compiled by B. M. Tustanovsky in 1906. Conclusion The objects of wooden architecture preserved in Chita play an important role in the formation of architectural ensembles of the central part of the city. Reflecting the various stylistic trends common in the architecture of the region at the turn of the XIX–XX century, as well as the ideas of the first Chita architects and engineers who had different educational bases and previous work experience, about form-making and the artistic component of architecture, reveal the originality of the pre-revolutionary architecture of the region.
References
1. State Archive of the Trans-Baikal Territory, Fund 1, Inventory 1 (str), File 22. PP. 2-3
2. State Archive of the Trans-Baikal Territory, Fund 94, Inventory 1, File 31. P. 4
3. State Archive of the Trans-Baikal Territory. Fund 31. Inventory 5. File 1667. P. 1
4. State Archive of the Trans-Baikal Territory. Fund 1. Inventory 1. File 261. P. 4
5. State Archive of the Trans-Baikal Territory. Fund 1. Inventory 1. File 261. P. 1
6. State Archive of the Trans-Baikal Territory. Fund 1. Inventory 1. File 261. P. 3
7. State Archive of the Trans-Baikal Territory, Fund 94, Inventory 1, File 604. P 49
8. State Archive of the Trans-Baikal Territory, Fund 94, Inventory 1, File 770, P. 70
9. Bazilevich, M. E. (2021) Technitian-builder Leon Ivanovich Korganov and his architectural heritage in Chita. Architecton: Izvestiya vuzov, 3 (75). Retrieved from http://archvuz.ru/2021_3/15/ – doi: 10.47055/1990-4126-2021-3(75)-15
10. Baklysky, P. V. (2009) Elements of modernity in the wooden architecture of Chita. Project Baikal, 20. 178-183.
11. Ivanova, A. P. & Bazilevich, M. E. (2021) Justification of Nikitin. Project Baikal 70. 179-185.
12. Bazilevich, M. E. (2022) Creative activity of civil engineer Maximilian Arnold in Chita. Project Baikal, 72. 42-45.
13. Bazilevich, M. E. (2022) Civil engineer Boris Tustanovsky and his legacy in Transbaikalia. Project Baikal, 72. 29-33
14. Figol, D. D. & Bazilevich, M. E. (2022) Profitable houses of Nikitin in Chita. Urbanistics, 3. P. 24-35. Retrieved from https://nbpublish.com/library_read_article.php?id=38653
15. Salmina, S. V. (2018) Architectural features of wooden architecture monuments in the city of Chita. Herald “Architect. 21 century", 3. 30-37
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The author submitted his article "Wooden buildings of Chita in the works of the first architects of the city" to the Ubranistika magazine, in which a study of architectural wooden objects of Chita architects was conducted. The author proceeds in studying this issue from the fact that one of the key features of the architectural landscape of Chita is that, unlike many other regional centers of the Far East, a significant layer of wooden architecture has been preserved in the city: by the beginning of the XX century, the number of wooden buildings amounted to three quarters of the entire city development. Unfortunately, the article lacks a theoretical component, in particular, an analysis of the scientific validity of the studied problem, which makes it difficult to make provisions on the scientific novelty of the study. The study also lacks a bibliographic analysis. The relevance of the research is due to the need to study objects of historical and cultural heritage as a means of forming cultural identity in order to preserve them for future generations. The methodological basis of the research was an integrated approach, including general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, historical and cultural method, analysis of project documentation. The empirical base was made up of archival design documentation, as well as samples of preserved wooden buildings in Chita. The purpose of the study is to examine the wooden architecture of Chita in the context of the professional activities of the first architects of the city, as well as the attribution of a number of objects and the identification of archival projects containing the signatures of the masters of architectural and construction art who composed them. Based on historical and cultural analysis, the author concludes that in the second half of the XIX century, the city was an intermediate platform for the migration movement to the Far East and the advancement of the Russian state to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The construction of the Trans-Siberian railway contributed to the intensification of the economic and social development of the city, as well as the strengthening of the role of the large merchant class, which in turn contributed to the emergence of demand for architecture by private order with the involvement of professional architects, engineers and masters of construction art. The author has identified 158 preserved wooden buildings, 134 of which are listed in the register of architectural monuments and placed under state protection. During the work, 47 projects of wooden buildings belonging mainly to the residential type of development were found in the State Archive of the Trans-Baikal Territory. The analysis of the materials obtained allowed the author to conclude that 88% of the identified objects and projects were built and developed without the participation of professional architects. Among them, single-storey wooden buildings built on stone foundations prevailed (76%), mainly estates and individual residential buildings built according to primitive drawings drawn up by their owners, while only 12% of public buildings were identified among them. Information about the preserved wooden objects of the creative heritage of the first architects of Chita and a list of projects of wooden buildings designed by the first Chita architects and engineers, as well as the projects themselves are presented by the author in the form of tables. The projects identified by the authors during their work in the State Archive of the Trans-Baikal Territory mainly contain drawings and estimates for the construction of individual residential buildings, estates and schemes for the planning organization of land plots. The author also established the relationship between the size of the objects and the nature of the decorative study of their street facades from the period of construction. Using the example of preserved buildings and design documentation, the author describes various stylistic trends common in the architecture of the region at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries, as well as the ideas of the first Chita architects and engineers who had different educational bases and previous work experience, about form-making and the artistic component of architecture, reveal the originality of the pre-revolutionary architecture of the region. Based on the analysis of the wooden heritage of Chita architects, the author comes to the conclusion that for the most part their architecture tends to be modern, and not only externally, but also in content. Behind the stucco masks and garlands of floral ornament, sandricks and attics, the lack of symmetry of facade and planning compositions, the author sees the freedom of shaping characteristic of the works of architects of the Eastern suburbs of Russia at the beginning of the XX century, not bound by strict building regulations and established traditions, and, therefore, constantly in search of their own architectural language and means of artistic expression of buildings. In conclusion, the author presents a conclusion on the conducted research, which contains all the key provisions of the presented material. It seems that the author in his material touched upon relevant and interesting issues for modern socio-humanitarian knowledge, choosing for analysis a topic, consideration of which in scientific research discourse will entail certain changes in the established approaches and directions of analysis of the problem addressed in the presented article. The results obtained allow us to assert that the study of objects of historical and cultural heritage of certain Russian regions, the possibilities of their protection and restoration is of undoubted theoretical and practical cultural interest and can serve as a source of further research. The material presented in the work has a clear, logically structured structure that contributes to a more complete assimilation of the material. An adequate choice of methodological base also contributes to this. The bibliographic list of the study consists of 15 sources, which seems sufficient for the generalization and analysis of scientific discourse on the subject under study. The author fulfilled his goal, received certain scientific results that allowed him to summarize the material. It should be stated that the article may be of interest to readers and deserves to be published in a reputable scientific publication after these shortcomings have been eliminated.
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