The enrollment of the MARCH school in 2012 amounted to about 40 students from different regions of Russia, as well as Latvia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. From the total number of students, three study groups were formed - architectural design studios. The rector of the school, Evgeny Ass, Sergey Skuratov and Anton Mosin, took over the management of the studios. Each of the teachers has developed his own training program, designed for one semester, within the framework of the general theme proposed by Eugene Ass: "Urban Dialogues". According to the rector, the topic covers the whole variety of urban interactions. The city is viewed as a multifaceted and rich system, the components of which are in constant dialogue with each other, or rather, a polylogue.
We present excerpts from the speeches of the heads of design studios.
City Dialogue # 1:
Transformation of values
Studio Evgeny Ass
Evgeny Ass, what will be taught:
“What determines the value of architecture and urban environment? How do we evaluate fragments of a city, buildings, interiors? What factors influence the formation of values? How does our personal assessment compare with the assessments of experts - from residents to developers and city authorities?
We will attempt to build a certain value system that will define the criteria for assessing architecture and urban environment. We will evaluate it based on universal, cultural, political, urban, artistic and other values. Our goal is to develop personal value systems, within the framework of which urban loci will be considered with further identification of their value characteristics. As a result, we will be able to formulate a program for the chosen locus and develop a project proposal to increase its value indicators."
How will they teach:
“We will invite students to analyze their personal criteria for assessing certain urban objects, introduce them to various methods of assessing urban situations and conduct an analysis on specific examples, which will allow us to adjust and clarify personal assessment criteria, as well as get acquainted with the position of other architects.
With the help of the developed apparatus, we will investigate various urban situations from the point of view of their value. Let's analyze the environment in various aspects of its existence, identify its advantages and disadvantages. And then we will develop scenarios and programs for the transformation of the environment, on the basis of which we will be able to offer our own design solutions”.
City Dialogue # 2:
New cultural space
Sergei Skuratov Studio
[it was introduced to the audience by Sergey Skuratov and Vladimir Yuzbashev]
What will be taught
Sergey Skuratov:
“20 years of extensive construction in Moscow. 20 years of crazy development projects, 20 years of housing for sale. The city as a space for life froze and practically died."
Vladimir Yuzbashev:
“What distinguishes and defines a city? A city becomes a city only when it receives a cultural function. And Moscow lacks this central core. In the 1970s, Paris tried to regain its status as a cultural center, lost after the Second World War, when all culture was concentrated in New York. As a result, the built Pompidou Center has become a symbol of the new cultural space of our time."
Sergey Skuratov:
“In Moscow every now and then there are centers of interest. There are practically no centers in Moscow that could unite people who are interested in intellectual communication. But it is precisely the cultural space that could become the point of intersection of the most diverse interests. The new cultural space is a space in which not only basic leisure, but also working communications should take place, it is a space in which culture is able to give an adequate response to the modern needs of the city."
How will they teach
Vladimir Yuzbashev:
“We are raising the issue of the lack of cultural space in Moscow. The Russian capital needs its own Pompidou. And this is a problem that students are invited to solve during the semester, and, first of all, from the standpoint of city residents, users of urban space, and only then - architects."
Sergey Skuratov:
“The first step is to formulate the problem. And the first task for the students is to write a letter (the addressee is not important), in which they indicate their perception of the current state of culture in our country, identify the main painful symptoms and offer their own recipes for treatment. This will allow teachers to correctly assess the level of students' understanding of the problem posed. And already proceeding from this, we will move on in accordance with the serious strategic plan developed by us, all the details of which, of course, we will not disclose at once”.
City Dialogue # 3:
Architecture and politics
Anton Mosin Studio
Anton Mosin, what will be taught:
“The change in social and economic formations is always accompanied by a change in the style and scale of architectural structures. Thus, the changes that took place in the 1990s in Russia led to the emergence of such megaprojects as the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the reconstruction of Manezhnaya Square, and the construction of the Moscow City complex. On the one hand, all these structures symbolize political, economic and ideological changes. On the other hand, our population is still a hostage of totalitarian socialist urban development. The aim of our studio's program is to try to distinguish between the characteristic and defining features of a totalitarian architecture and a democratic architecture."
How will they teach:
“In the course of the research, we will invite students to analyze the manifestations of totalitarian and democratic languages using specific examples, to identify their signs and differences. Research will be carried out on examples of public urban spaces, office buildings and public interiors. I would like each of the students to independently systematize the signs of a totalitarian and democratic architecture. To begin with, we will, of course, consider their distinctive features. The result of the analytical work will be the creation of a simple and easy-to-understand dictionary of two architectural languages that could be used as a design tool. Actually, after the research part, the students will start designing the building of the state administration, relying on the terminology of their dictionaries."
In addition to all of the above, the training program at the MARSH school provides for a cycle of lectures and master classes from invited Russian and foreign architects, regular meetings with figures of contemporary Russian art, science and culture, educational excursions. Sergei Skuratov, for example, suggested that students take weekly excursions to the objects built by the studio "Sergei Skuratov architects" for their serious and critical analysis.
