Archi.ru: If MARSH school is not a branch of London Metropolitan University, what then is your relationship with LMU?
Nikita Tokarev: MARSH is by no means a branch of London Metropolitan University. Our relationship is partnership. We use and adapt the LMU training program. We are now part of an educational consortium that is being formed around the British Higher School of Art and Design. It also includes a film school, a computer graphics school Scream School and others. In an organizational sense, the MARSH school is an independent educational institution with an independent leadership and its own teaching staff.
Archi.ru: Will the school issue two diplomas, Russian and European, or will it be one diploma?
NT: So far, this topic is under discussion, the decision depends on whether it will be possible to combine all the standards in one document.
Archi.ru: How much will the training cost?
NT: We plan to keep it at the same level as other architectural schools in Moscow. Now the planned amount is 250,000 rubles per year of study. At the Moscow Architectural Institute last year there were, it seems, 215,000 rubles. On April 10, the school's website should open, where you can find out all the details.
Archi.ru: You also said that at the moment the school will only teach the specialty "architect" and will not train urbanists and landscape designers. Why? And how long is it?
NT: The fact is that the London Metropolitan University program, on which we rely, does not include the specialty "urbanism" or "landscape design". Therefore, in order to include these two subjects, we need to develop another program, in agreement with other partners, or create it "from scratch" ourselves. Both are complex and responsible processes, so I think that for at least the next few years we will confine ourselves to the specialty "architect". More precisely, the school will issue a Postgraduate Diploma in Architecture.
Archi.ru: What other specialties do your partners have at London Metropolitan University (not covered by MARSH school)?
NT: There are two more courses, after which London students receive not just a Postgraduate diploma, but a Master of Architecture: for historians and theorists of architecture, and for interior designers. The difference between these courses is that they take one year (three semesters in a row without long vacations), and also that the graduate's thesis is not a project, but a dissertation. It is unlikely that we will adapt them: in the near future, a lot of work is foreseen within the framework of the architectural specialty itself.
Archi.ru: What exactly has been changed in the MARSH school curriculum in relation to the London LMU program?
NT: Firstly, our course will have more hours devoted to working with computer graphics, London students master the technique on their own. We have added urban planning topics to the module on structures and technologies, because we consider it very important for our country. And finally, the third: we made a part of the humanitarian, historical and theoretical courses, from which one can freely choose in London, obligatory, thus expanding the humanitarian part of the course. Overall, compared to the London program, we have increased the number of compulsory subjects and reduced the amount of independent work. Although there is also a lot of it - for independent work, students will receive one day out of five a week.
