The new institution is designed for graduates of Russian universities, primarily architects, designers, media professionals, but also specialists in other areas, since an interdisciplinary approach will be key in the learning process. The founders of Strelka (its president Ilya Oskolkov-Tsentsiper, philanthropists Sergei Adonyev and Alexander Mamut, architects Dmitry Likin and Oleg Shapiro; together they made up its board of trustees) believe that an educational center is now needed that would train specialists to solve current Russian problems, and their solutions at the international level. At the same time, the institute will work with the general public: it is planned to hold open lectures and seminars, as well as implement a publishing program that includes translations of key works on the theory and practice of modern architecture.
Teaching there will follow the principle of research, that is, with a deeper than formal approach. At the same time, according to Oleg Shapiro, the currently rather weak ties in the field of architecture and design between Russia and the rest of the world should be strengthened so that our country becomes more actively involved in the global process. Since students will study at Strelka free of charge, it is expected that it will be able to gather the most talented young people from all over the country, from which in a few years a new layer of specialists with a broad outlook and diverse practical and research experience will emerge. The graduates of the institute will be ready to work in the best foreign bureaus, but the founders of Strelka hope that they will nevertheless remain in Russia. Such people, according to Ilya Oskolkov-Tsentziper, will be able to “change the landscape around us” for the better, thereby making our society more human.
"International in level, Russian in content" education (as Oskolkov-Tsentsiper described it) in the first academic year 2010/2011 will follow the program developed by the AMO research center, a subdivision of Rem Koolhaas architectural bureau OMA. Anticipating his story about it, Koolhaas emphasized that a new system of architectural education is needed now not only for Russia, but also for the world as a whole; Over the past 30 years, the profession of an architect has changed more than in the previous 300: instead of state and public customers, commercial structures now play the main role, and after the shift of the center of gravity in design and construction to the East, the problem of cooperation between architects and non-democratic regimes has become urgent. Thus, the architect must not only know his specialty perfectly, but also understand the mechanisms of the market economy and geopolitics. It is necessary to prepare for this from the student's bench, but so far in most universities, education is organized according to the classical scheme. Koolhaas has already tried out his pedagogical ideas while teaching at Harvard, but for him collaboration with Strelka is a much larger scale experiment.
The program is based on five paradox problems, as the architect himself called them. These are topics that are topical for the whole world, which acquire special urgency in relation to Russia; it is important to note that all of them, in one aspect or another, were considered by Koolhaas in his works and projects, that is, to some extent, he plans to grow from Strelka students adherents of his approach to architecture, which presupposes exactly the breadth of interdisciplinary research on which hopes are pinned the founders of the institute.
One of the subjects will be public space, its gradual seizure by private capital, the opposition of real space to virtual (in particular, in the aspect of the degree of freedom, when the control of the authorities in the form of increased police patrolling, widespread installation of video cameras, etc.) is growing on city streets and squares. as well as the Russian contrast between the sometimes huge area of public spaces and their absolute disorder.
The issue of (architectural) memory will also be considered: according to statistics provided by Rem Koolhaas, now about 5% of the land surface has a protected status, while a considerable number of valuable objects still perish; the concept of a monument is also changing: now it can be a construction only 40 years ago, that is, the past is gradually merging with the present.
The problem of "thinning" is associated with both the decline of cities, which has already become a wandering plot, and the low population density in new cities and even residential buildings (for example, in Dubai and condominiums in New York, it is about 30% of the planned, which is primarily due to the investment role of this development), although sometimes a deceptive impression of a stormy life is created there. In domestic realities, this issue also includes constant migration from the countryside to the city, as well as from single-industry towns (scientific or military-industrial complex) to more promising ones.
The design issue will include the study of the role of design, its place in society, various factors influencing it.
The last topic named by Koolhaas was energy, more precisely, its new, "green" types, as well as the hypothetical future when Russian oil and gas will stop buying in Europe (which echoes the large-scale OMA / AMO project "Road Map 2050", according to which the middle of the 21st century, the EU will achieve autonomy in the matter of energy supply).
Each Strelka student will have to choose two of the five proposed topics for their project and develop them during a six-month course, making them at the end a ready-made media product suitable for distribution through various media.
The renovated complex of the institute deserves special mention. Basically, these are garages of the industrial zone "Red October", until 2009 were used as a cultural center "ARTStrelka". When the concept of Strelka was being created, Dmitry Likin and Oleg Shapiro were simultaneously designing its building. In its center there is a courtyard - a full-fledged public space, suitable thanks to its wooden amphitheater for holding various events and delimited from the street area by a block of utility rooms. There are five classrooms in the main building, each with a mezzanine floor, which allows 10 groups to study there at a time. On the side of the Moskva River, there is a wing with a bar, on the roof of which there is a spacious terrace.
Classes at Strelka Institute will begin this fall, with a 2-month "orientation" course, but for now it will be open to everyone. In the summer there will be an extensive public program, including lectures, seminars, round tables and other events. In the coming days, within the framework of the Second Moscow Biennale of Architecture, at Strelka, actions of the Cities festival are planned, including a competition for the creation of temporary pointers along the way between the Central House of Artists and the institute building, and the starting event of Strelka itself - Red October: the discovery of the island."
Making forecasts for the future is a thankless task, but the beginning of the work of the Strelka Institute inspires cautious optimism: it seems that this educational center will really work for the good of society, and only for this purpose - what could be better?
