“Today’s state of wooden architecture can be defined as an SOS,” says Igor Shurgin, an architect and restorer who runs the Foundation for Maintenance of Wooden Architecture Monuments. “If we do nothing to support it, then nothing will be left in 20 years.” A grant from the European Union enabled the organisation to stage a series of exhibitions in Russia and Europe between 2010 and 2012 that highlighted the problem. — The Art Newspaper
After the contemporary artist Danila Tkachenko photographed a series of the country's abandoned wooden houses set ablaze, attempts to save Russia's wooden architectural heritage have become a high priority for preservation activists. Russia's ministry of culture has intentions to adopt an action plan to preserve these structures based on the work of architect and restorer Igor Shurgin, but many fear that it might be too little too late.
Estimated costs for preservation are assessed at around £183m, in addition to an extra £70m to protect 87 particularly significant works. Though the growing number of grassroots initiatives are promising, Konstantin Mikhailov, a coordinator of the Arkhnadzor preservation group, tells the Art Newspaper "that a great deal now depends on proper implementation of the recommendations."
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