Chair of the Department of Architecture and Media Arts Stepan Novikov elected chairman of the Tatarstan Branch of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Monuments of History and Culture
In recent history, the Tatarstan Branch of ARSPMHC has been working since 2009, but its activities were suspended after the passing of its former chairwoman, Honored Architect of the Republic of Tatarstan Farida Zabirova, in 2021. The new meeting, Novikov said, was needed to update all the papers.
鈥淲e want to unite activists in historical heritage and practicing professionals whose mission coincides with ours. We are going to attract young people, students, with whom we work a lot now at the sites, after all, we ourselves grew out of practice with our teachers,鈥� says the new chairman.
The candidacy of Stepan Novikov was supported unanimously.
鈥淚n addition to the fact that Stepan is a member of the organization since his student years, he is a professional and has extensive experience in the restoration of architectural monuments. It is important that under his leadership the branch will consolidate the community of defenders of cultural heritage, and the organization itself will acquire a new voice and again become one of the brightest branches within the federal society,” comments Chairman of the ARSPMHC Artyom Demidov.
鈥淲e are aimed at attracting motivated, inquisitive young people who are ready to take up real ambitious ideas, for which Tatarstan has always been famous. A number of initiatives of our public organization were implemented at the federal level, and many objects of cultural heritage were saved thanks to the civil position of our activists,” adds Novikov. “Since the day of its inception, the KFU’s Institute of Design and Spatial Arts has been running an architecture and restoration club, where we – together with students- conduct excursions, write papers, and scan historical objects. I think our club will become a youth branch of the society.”
Among Novikov’s notable projects in Kazan are the reconstruction of the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, Ivanov’s Rental Apartments, Yunusov’s Estate, the repurposing project of the Gubernatorial 每日大赛 of the Kazan Kremlin, and many others. He is a member of the board of the Union of Architects of the Republic of Tatarstan, a member of the Scientific and Methodological Council on Cultural Heritage under the Committee of the Republic of Tatarstan for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, a member of the International Council for the Conservation of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).