Nikita Tokarev:
What are your impressions of the first results of the school's work?
Robert Mull:
First of all, I would like to note that creating a school in such a short time is the main achievement. The whole educational environment at MARSH is very positive, it supports the type of work you have chosen, and I am very impressed by this. As for the portfolios themselves, they are conceptually very strong, complete in terms of volume and topic disclosure. It is interesting to note that many projects are very "Moscow", touching upon the problems of Moscow not only as a physical context, but also its complex social aspects, the everyday life of Muscovites. Thus, the projects outline what I would call the school's agenda - the link between academic education and architectural practice, the practice of modern architecture in Moscow. And as we can see, these relations are developing successfully. Significant work has been done, today you can be sure of its results, I would not be afraid to experiment in the future.
Nikita Tokarev:
How would you compare the work of our students with the projects of their colleagues in London?
Robert Mull:
The comparison is often in favor of Moscow students. As we have already discussed, we have a slightly different course structure, the studio lasts a year and all the relationship between project and research develops longer over time. MARSH students have already gone all the way in one semester from context research to project development. Therefore, it is not easy to compare the works right now in the middle of the year, but in terms of the scale of tasks, development of solutions in the best portfolios, they are absolutely comparable to ours. Considering that your students found themselves in a new environment for themselves, the very idea of a portfolio, as we understand it in the UK, was not familiar to them, their success in such a short time is very great.
Nikita Tokarev:
What advice would you give to our students, how to work further, what should they pay attention to?
Robert Mull:
Having looked carefully at the portfolio, I see that the majority of MARSH students draw beautifully, using drawing, both for research and for project presentation, this distinguishes their projects from what we usually see. This approach to work is unusual in our context. I mean an artistic way of thinking or a special attitude to presentation, as, for example, in the studio of Anton Mosin and Ksenia Adzhubey, where the drawing is used in the study of the political language of architecture, which is also uncharacteristic for Russia. Speaking about the course as a whole, about its goals, rather it makes sense to look not for similarities between our projects, but to celebrate and support diversity, make it more conscious, and use it. Show the freshness of your eyes, characteristic of your students who have passed the Moscow Architectural Institute, where the tradition of beaux-arts is strong.
Nikita Tokarev:
As you can see the continuation of cooperation between MARSH and the Faculty of Architecture, Arts and Design. What will be important next year?
Robert Mull:
We plan to organize in the next academic year a joint design studio with MARSH, where students of both schools could do their graduation projects during the year. The interest of this project is not only in trying out different working methods, but also in dialogue, comparing the physical and social contexts of London and Moscow. Work with students can be continued in the form of research programs between the two schools, which will form the basis for new projects. For the near future this year, we want to make student exchange more frequent, activate our websites, in a word, establish an informal dialogue, discussion of works and ideas between students, which are essentially our common ones,belong to both schools. In London there is a great interest among our students and teachers in what is happening at MARSH.
Ksenia Adjubei:
I think that this area is very important and should not be underestimated. If we consider MARSH as one of the schools within the faculty of The Cass [1], then our students are thereby involved in the world architectural community, world architectural practice. They not only have a new "agenda", they become international students and subsequently architects, our partnership is integrating Russia into world architecture, in which it is now underestimated and underrepresented.
Robert Mull:
I see cooperation with MARSH as part of our direct daily work, and not as a "remote" interaction. We made a conscious decision to consider MARSH as a part of The Cass faculty, including based on the tasks of shaping our image. Now it's up to MARSH, how and what to fill our common space so that MARCH news becomes a part of our daily life, like any other events at the faculty, and vice versa, so that everything that is done with us becomes a part of your student life. This kind of mixing, exchange of people and ideas between schools is an even more natural process than specially organized joint projects, it will just go on every day. And he's already coming!
Nikita Tokarev:
To create a shared environment.
Robert Mull:
Or a common value system, such a value system is already appearing in your projects. I have great sympathy for your work, for the intellectual and physical space in which students work.
Nikita Tokarev:
I would add that the same day-to-day cooperation should ideally unfold between teachers, since the school involves not only students, but also teachers in the learning process.
[1] - Sir J. Kass Faculty of Architecture, Arts and Design, London Metropolitan University
You can read about the program of the second, spring semester of MARSH school (studios of Evgeny Ass, Vladimir Plotkin, Narine Tyutcheva) here.
