David Sarkisyan was the Director of the Museum of Architecture from 2000 to 2010. David made the museum a new center for urban culture, visited by thousands of people. Under his leadership, the State Scientific Research Museum of Architecture became the Moscow Museum of Architecture (MUAR), an open museum space promoting dialog with like-minded individuals and a stimulating environment for social projects. David showed how an archaic institution could be transformed into a lively venue; a place for celebrations and gatherings; a city museum enjoyed by many different kinds of people. 

David’s office, the very act of visiting him, became a Moscow attraction. David put the Museum of Architecture on the world map with his international connections and charm, illustrating the role an individual can play in history. Alexander Brodsky, Yuri Avvakumov, Yury Grigoryan, Zaha Hadid, Oscar Niemeyer, Álvaro Siza, the Coop Himmelb(l)au Studio, and other contemporary architects were featured in the museum’s exhibitions organized by David Sarkisyan. It was due to his active engagement that the world-famous Ruin was created in Moscow — a romantic exhibition space in a dilapidated wing of the museum. 

Biologist, inventor, director, entrepreneur, patron of talents, and fighter for justice, David Sarkisyan was unceasing in his creative pursuits. As he himself admitted, he had lived four lives — and all four of his amazing biographies would come together in his role as director of a living museum.

YEAR 2014–2019

BOOK CONCEPT Meganom

AUTHORS AND COMPLIERS Natalya Dushkina, Taisia Osipova

EDITOR Yuliya Tarnavskaya

TEXTS BY Eugene Asse, Kirill Asse, Yuri Avvakumov, Kristina Barbano, Anatoly Belov, Mikhail Belov, Viktor Belyakov, Boris Berenfeld, Christian Boltanski, Alexander Brodsky, Anna Bronovitskaya, Clementine Cecil, Irina Chepkunova, Jean-Louis Cohen, Richard Davies, Tatiana Drubich, Natalya Dushkina, Clodine Galea, Elena Gonsales, Alexandr Gozak, Yury Grigoryan, Alexander von Hahn, Hans Hollein, Pavel Kaplevich, Marina Khrustaleva, Vlad Kirpichev, Lyudmila Kirpicheva, Anatoly Korshunov, Vadim Kosmatschof, Irina Kulik, Sergey Kulikov, Renata Litvinova, Ivan Loungine, Antonina Manina, Alexander Mozhayev, Alexei Muratov, Peter Noever, Taisia Osipova, Nicolai Ouroussoff, Alexandra Pavlova, Yuri Palmin,

Mila Rapoport (Emilia Trakovskaya), Grigory Revzin, Maria Rogozina, Eleonora Rudzit, David Sarkisyan, Osanna Sarkisyan, Vladimir Sedov, Maria Sedova, Lyubov Shaks, Anvar Shamuzafarov, Valentina Shuvalova, Olga Sviblova, Alexey Tarkhanov, Vsevolod Tkachuk, Anna Travkina, Maria Tsantsanoglou, Irina Vasilyeva, Mascha Veech-Kosmatschof, Natalya Volodina, Elena Yazykova-Castillo, Diana Zhdanova, Elena Zichon

RESEARCH Natalya Dushkina, Elena Borisova, Maria Erman, Sergey Tourchin

SCANNING Alexander Orlov

TRANSLATION Clive Phillips, Alexandra Yagnukova

PROOFREADING Jon Waterlow

PUBLISHED MATERIALS FROM THE ARCHIVES OF Vladimir Arkhipov, Kirill Asse, Yuri Avvakumov, Anatoly Belov, Clementine Cecil, Elena Gonsales, Marina Khrustaleva, Alexey Komlev, Anatoly Korshunov, Eric Owen Moss, Alexander Mozhayev, Peter Noever, Vladimir Paperny, Ivan Poshibyakin, Maria Rogozina, Eleonora Rudzit, Osanna Sarkisyan, Lyubov Shaks, Anna Travkina, Maria Tsanstanoglou, Mascha Veech-Kosmatschof, Elena Zichon; materials form David Sarkisyan’s archive from his office in the Museum of Architecture (David Sarkisyan’s Archive, now preserved at the Meganom office for architecture); materials from the archives of the Moscow House of Photography (Multimedia Art Museum), Museum Benaki (Greece), and the Shchusev Museum of Architecture (Moscow).

PHOTOGRAPHS BY Alexander Batyru, Anatoly Belov, Dasha Gaian, Alexey Komlev, Georgy Malets, Taisia Osipova, Igor Palmin, Yuri Palmin, Richard Pare, Ivan Petrov, Ilya Utkin, Andrey Yagubsky, Marco Zanta, and Elena Zichon.

PUBLISHED MATERIALS FROM THE FOLLOWING SOURCES: AD, Afisha, Archi.ru, Architectural Bulletin, Bolshoy Gorod, Broadcasting.ru, Forma, Information agency “Culture,” Inostranets, Interior + Design, Iskusstvo, Izvestiya, Kommersant, Kreal, Media Group “JV!”, Novaya Gazeta, Observatory of Culture, Project Russia, Real-Life Tales of War (internet-project), RusArch (electronic library), Snob Media, Stengazeta, The Guardian, The New York Times The Times, The Russian News and Information Agency RIA Novosti, the Shchusev Museum of Architecture, Vremya Novostei, and Zavtra.

INTERVIEWS WITH DAVID SARKISYAN Christiane Bauermeister, Ekaterina Bernovskaya, Sergey Khachaturov, Larisa Kopylova, Yulian Makarov, and Elena Yegereva.

PUBLISHED STILLS FROM THE FOLLOWING FILMS “Lenin: Leader and Patient,” “Comrade Kollontai and Her Lovers” — directed by David Sarkisyan and Viktor Belyakov, produced by Alexander Radov; “Anna Karamazoff” and “Unexpected Joys” — directed by Rustam Khamdamov; “Vocal Parallels” — directed by David Sarkisyan. The book also takes interviews from the film “David. Е la nave vа” — by Andrey Loshak and Maria Ishchenko, directed by Oleg Bermanas.

AUTHORS AND PARTICIPANTS OF THE PROJECTS PUBLISHED IN THE “MUAR PROJECTS” CHAPTER Eugene Asse (Asse Architects); Yuri Avvakumov (AgitArch); Boris Bernaskoni, Sergey Pensky (Bernaskoni); Alexander Brodsky (Bureau Alexander Brodsky); Yulia Burdova and Olga Aleksakova (BuroMoscow); Igor Bury, Ilya Voznesensky, Alexey Kononenko and Vera Samorodova (Iced Architects); Yury Grigoryan, Yury Kusnetsov, Alexandra Pavlova, Semyon Rastorguyev (Meganom); Zaha Hadid (Zaha Hadid Architects); Hans Hollein (Coop Himmelb(l)au); Boris Kondakov and Stepan Liphart (Children of Iofan); Daniel Lorenz, Natalya Sidorova, Konstantin Khodnev (Architectural Group DNK); Nikolay Lyzlov (Lyzlov Architectural Studio); Eric Owen Moss (Eric Owen Moss Architects); Vladimir Plotkin (Creative Union Reserve); Andrey Savin, Mikhail Labazov, Andrey Cheltsov (A−B Studio); Sergey Skuratov (Sergey Skuratov Architects); Narine Tyutcheva (Rozhdestvenka); Yulia Ardabyevskaya, Vladimir Arkhipov, Kirill Asse, Anatoly Barkalov, Sergey Barkhin, Dmitry Bashev, Marat Baskayev, Bernard Bat, Alexander Batyru, Alexey Bavykin, Anatoly Belov, Ekaterina Belova, Mikhail Belov, Tatiana Belotelova, Nikolay Belousov, Kirill Boldyrev, Christian Boltanski, Leonid Buchev, Dmitry Bush, Carlos Castanheira, Irina Chepkunova, Sergey Choban, Vera Chuklova, Sergey Chuklov, Nicole Corsino, Norbert Corsino, Alexis Dallas, Mikhail Dashevsky, Nikolay Datyuk, Richard Davies, Jacques Diennet, Eric Doloris, Natalya Dushkina, Michael Embacher, Mikhail Filippov, Polina Filippova, Elena Fomina, Norman Foster, Clodine Galea, Massimo Gardone, Sylvain Georget, Stephen Gill, Olga Golovina, Svetlana Golovina, Nikita Golyshev, Elena Gonsales, Olga Goryacheva, Andrey Gozak, Etienne Grandguillo, Charles Grossir, Arata Isozaki, Alexander Ivanov, Maxim Khazanov, Mikhail Khazanov, Alexander Khomyakov, Vladislav Kirpichev, Lyudmila Kirpicheva, Alexander Konstantinov, Igor Korbut, Nadezhda Korbut, Anatoly Korshunov, Alexey Kozyr, Totan Kuzembayev, Yury Kuzin, Vladimir Kuzmin, Konstantin Lagutin, Cyrille Cramesnil de Laleu, Georgy Lebedev, Sergey Leontiev, Ivan Lounguine, Antonina Manina,Boris Messerer, Philipp Meuser, Barbara Michelson, Vyacheslav Mikhailov, Yevgeny Monin, Eric Owen Moss, Alexander Mozhayev, Igor Mukhin, Sepp Muller, Alessandra Muran, Alexei Muratov, Alexey Naroditsky, Sergey Nebotov, Svetlana Nesterushkina, Kadu Niemeyer, Oscar Niemeyer, Peter Noever, Valery Orlov, Yuri Palmin, Alexander Pankin, Richard Pare, Nikolay Pavlov, Dmitry Petrov, Nikolay Polissky, Grigory Revzin, Sergey Reznikov, Valery Rivan, Natalia Rivo, Maria Rogozina, Frédérique Rose, Alexey Rosenberg, Yulia Rossokhina, Mikhail Rozanov, Fyodor Rozhnev, Natalya Samover, Vladislav Savinkin, Anna Sazhinova, Sophie Schmit, Maria Sedova, Ivan Shalmin, Nikita Shangin, Dmitry Shelest, Alvaro Siza Vieira, Oleg Smirnov, Vladimir Somov, Gleb Soshnikov, Ana Teixido, Boris Tombak, Samuel Toulouse, Svetlana Troshina, Evanthia Tsantila, George Tsypin, Vladislav Tukanov, Ilya Utkin, Mascha Veech-Kosmatschof, Dmitry Velichkin, Carme Vidal, Richard Whitlock, Igor Yavein, Vladislav Yefimov, Anatoly Yerin, Alexander Yermolayev, Anke Zalivako, Ilya Zalivukhin, Patrick Zanoli, Marco Zanta, Pavel Zeldovich, Alexander Zosimov.

TYPOGRAPHY Zwaan Printmedia (the Netherlands)

BOOK PHOTOGRAPHS Beukers Scholma 

The book, “David,” was published in 2019 as part of the “MGNM books” program by the Meganom office for architecture, in a series of two books: “Kaplya” and “David”.

KAPLYA

Architect Alexandra Pavlova

ISBN 978-5-600-00464-1

UDK 72.037(470)(092)

BBK 85.11

Auth. sign K20