Revival of the elegant classics

Revealing the history of the idea of the future building of the Ministry of Agriculture and food of Republic of Tatarstan and the difficulties which aroused during construction, author of the project, head architect of “Antica” company – Leonid Gornik.
— Leonid Grigorievich, how did you manage to win the contest? We know that this was your “trial run” is such sphere.
— The project was created extremely fast. The time was very limited – one month only. In the first place, we were aimed at victory, and this winning energy have influenced the whole design stage and construction of the object. I think that is why we have succeeded. The victory is born at the beginning, but it is acquired only at the end.
We had one month of time. I had 12 days to create and to draw the project. Remaining 18 days were dedicated to computer graphics and creation of 3D model, this was a hell of a brainstorm, but I have noticed, that when you do not have time to think, the ideas that are created are more interesting and daring. That is how we won the contest – non standard, daring idea and serious presentation of the material: beautiful computer graphics and highly detailed model.
— We also know that the last word in the approval of your project was said by the President of Tatarstan – Mintimer Shaimiev, he highly appreciated the potential of «Antica».
— Undoubtedly we are very grateful to our president, we are grateful that he appreciated our enthusiasm and abilities. Frankly speaking if he hadn’t said his last word, we with our approach towards architecture

would have been unable to break through the wall of opinions of the City planning council.
— Аnd why the approach to the architecture is extraordinary? Why many persons disagree with you?
— You know, I believe that the saying: the habit is the person is quite true. What the person is used to is deemed to be the only right solution. And within the architectural circles of our city there is some sort of stereotype of how the architecture of our city must look like. We propose something different and very unusual.
— And what unusual solutions do you propose?
— Forgotten, but real classics… Not provincial, miserable classicism, but classics for the capital city, complex and beautiful, daring and therefore attractive.
— Leonid Grigorievich, the building of the Palace of Farmers is really beautiful and complex in it’s forms. How did “Antica” managed to create all of that in such a short period?
— Well, the time period scheduled for construction was as tight as the time for design development. This building we accomplished in two years. Sometimes I can hardly believe myself, but we did it! But enthusiasm is a great thing, it allows to overcome everything. I believe, that one of the main factors is our 20 year construction experience. All these years we were sharpening our craftsmanship in creation of classical forms.
— Can You please tell as what does the famous tree of the Palace symbolize and was it difficult to create it.

— The name itself – “Palace of Farmers” have defined the thematic. Farmers work is to cultivate the nature, and keeping it in order, to feed the people. The tree of life in the middle of the building symbolizes the nature cultivated by the farmers.
The creation of the tree faced many difficulties, at first the tree had to be formed by professional sculptors and then the pieces had to be joined in such a way, so that the seals remain invisible. The tree itself is a complex engineering structure, during its creation we had to consider a lot of factors: wind loads, thermal expansion, constructive rigidity etc. For the creation of the Tree we had to consider a lot of factors.
— In our opinion the most complex part of the building is its cupola, isn’t it?
— Yes it is. Frankly speaking we had a lot of arguments on the possibility to “spin” the structure of the cupola, make it spiral. Finally everything was resolved with the aid of computer technologies and skills of professional engineers. And that was pure enthusiasm as well. If you set a complex task, people just get sucked into the idea and resolve everything. This is amazing!
— Leonid Grigorievich can you please tell us what will be the fate of the territory by the building? Are you planning anything?
— Yes, on this place we are planning a large park. We have designed our own park, because we see the building and the park as a single organism. They shall be in accordance with each other. If the park, apart from the plants will contain classical architecture, trust me, it will be very interesting.
In order to sum up I would like to say the following: I have always thought that classics is very simple. A lot of works were written and a lot of stuff done – you just have to look and do. But just recently I have understood that in order to create classics, you have to love it, because when you love something, you treat it seriously, look deeper and understand it’s secrets, but only at the end of this path you deserve to say your own word.