Post date: Jun 05, 2012 1:31:47 PM
MOSCOW, RUSSIA (REUTERS) - A new iPad application offers visitors to Russia's capital a free guided tour of Moscow's Avant-garde architectural monuments.
Funded by the European Union, the new project has launched a series of interactive tourist itineraries to guide visitors to some of Moscow's avant-garde and constructivist buildings.
A tour of Moscow can now be accessed on iPad in an effort to educate tourists and city residents about Moscow's monuments of avant-garde architecture.
The itineraries, which can be accessed online, utilize audio guides, images and text in both Russian and English.
The chairman of the Russian branch of the 'Docomomo' building preservation organization, Vladimir Shukhov, hopes the guides will be utilized by both native Russians and foreign visitors.
"In Moscow there are a lot of really interesting monuments of architecture which are not only unknown abroad, but are, above all, unknown in the city and by the residents of Russia. For everyone to find out about them both abroad and accordingly in Russia, they need to be studied on one hand, and on the other hand be popularized - that is, presented to the public," Shukhov said.
The project aims to not only improve tourists' visits to Moscow, but to also raise awareness about the unique value of avant-garde buildings in Moscow, many of which have fallen into disrepair.
"In Russia, and in Moscow in particular, there is a unique architectural plast, architectural srez - avant-garde and constructivism. It all happened here with a backdrop of the (1917 Communist) revolution, it was developing more actively and more widely here because that was architecture of the new power, architecture of the new life," Shukhov said.
For Docomomo member and tour guide Nikolai Vasilyev, the application will help educate tourists on the importance of Moscow's heritage of constructivist buildings.
"In general (we need to) explain to people what this is - that it exists, that it's valuable, that it's not just another construction; that it's, to some degree, a higher take-off of Russian 20th century architecture," Vasilyev said.
The application - a truly international project - was initiated by the city of Rome and implemented in partnership with Kiev, Moscow, the Sapienza University of Rome, the Shukhov Tower Foundation (Russia), Docomomo International and the Moscow State Academy of Municipal Economy and Construction.
"This is an application that we developed on behalf of the commission, of the European Commission. It's free for whoever wants it, for whoever wants to take it, use it and develop it once the project is over, so the use of new technologies for us is very important, the idea of the audio guide in two languages is something unique," Paul Blackmore, who developed the 'RKM Save Urban Heritage' application told Reuters.
Other similar applications have been developed for Kiev.
Buildings featured on the tour include Moscow's 'Red Gates' metro station, designed by the architect Nikolai Ladovsky and Russia's Agriculture Ministry building, designed by architect Alexei Shchusev.