Archi.ru:
– In August you
told us about their plans to turn the national branch of the international competition for architectural diplomas Archiprix into a full-fledged educational platform. Did you manage to realize these plans?
Oscar Mamleev:
- The plans are starting to come true. We held three seminars - in St. Petersburg, Tyumen and Vologda - with the support of Armstrong. I am very glad that outstanding Russian and foreign architects agreed to take part in our project. Of course, they are all busy people, and the more valuable is their "live" participation in discussions with colleagues and students. A teacher from the Moscow Architectural Institute, Munich architect Michael Eichner was able to come to St. Petersburg, Narine Tyutcheva, the head of the Rozhdestvenka workshop, who teaches at Moscow Architectural Institute and MARCH, visited Tyumen, Levon Airapetov and Valeria Preobrazhenskaya (Totement / Paper bureau) spoke in Vologda.
Our visit to St. Petersburg was timed to coincide with the XXII International Review-Competition of Diploma Works in Architecture and Design, which was held this year at the SPbGASU, and a full audience gathered to listen to us. After the speech, the audience asked many questions. There, as in Tyumen and Vologda, I started the seminar with
a story about new trends in architectural education, about the Strelka Institute, the MARSH school, and the Graduate School of Urban Studies. All of these institutions have different tasks, but their cognitive education unites as a more creative approach to teaching, which deepens students' understanding of the material being studied. The teacher acts here as a navigator, and the student - as a search engine, and not an empty vessel where they throw various information, and sometimes garbage.
Then the invited architect talked about his experience in design and construction, and the architect of Armstrong Tatiana Moskvina, translating the discussion to the level of detail, spoke about very interesting, imaginative projects created using the products of this manufacturer.
In St. Petersburg, your performance was timed to coincide with the competition, but how was it organized in Tyumen?
- In Tyumen, where we were very warmly received, our lectures were combined with the Armstrong seminar: it took the first half of the day, and in the second half of the day, the three of us - Tatyana Moskvina, Narine Tyutcheva and I - spoke at the Tyumen State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering. I note that not only students came to listen to us, but also practicing architects: this shows how much a system of continuous architectural education is needed in Russia.
And now we have returned from Vologda, where we held a seminar at the Technical University with Levon Airapetov, Valeria Preobrazhenskaya and Tatyana Moskvina. After this meeting, the teachers of the Department of Architecture conducted a survey-testing of students and received very interesting results. I think we'll talk about this later.
Did Archiprix Russia, in addition to the seminar held, take part in the St. Petersburg competition?
- As I have said more than once, the weak point of this annual review is that often the assessment of diploma works is carried out by academic advisors, that is, in fact, they evaluate their own achievements. Therefore, it is important to create independent juries at such events, especially since "alternative" awards in this case can receive theses that go beyond the usual standards.
In St. Petersburg, under the leadership of Alexei Bavykin, the vice-president of the CAP and the chairman of its Council for Education, the jury of the Union of Architects of Russia worked, the head of the Chernikhov Foundation, Andrey Chernikhov, awarded on behalf of the foundation, and three works were awarded with Archiprix Russia diplomas. Petersburg architects Yuri Zemtsov and Sergei Padalko took part in the work of our "refereeing" teams.
I would like to note that out of almost four hundred works submitted for the review competition by 63 Russian and 11 universities from the CIS countries, none fully met the criteria of the Chernikhov Foundation - they did not "open new horizons for architectural thinking" and did not "have a high quality presentation of architectural graphics ", so Andrey Chernikhov presented his prize - a cash prize of 1,000 euros for a trip to the Venice Biennale - to the Department of Architecture of the Samara State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering for the consistently high level of training of its graduates.
Who received the awards from Archiprix Russia?
- Firstly, we awarded the professor of SPbGASU Valery Anatolyevich Nefedov for his contribution to architectural education, striving to integrate the Russian educational system into the international one.
And among the graduates of architecture universities, we noted Renata Nasybullina from Samara University for her master's thesis “Metaphysical aspects of architectural design. Museum of Light. Light is more”is a rather modest, functional architecture reminiscent of the works of Peter Zumthor and Sverre Fehn. A serious pre-project analysis was made - the problem and the importance of light in architecture, in particular, in the interior, were considered. However, it is impossible not to note the influence on the work of its scientific advisor, Professor Vitaly Samogorov: for example, I recall the similar work of his 2011 graduate - the project of a bath complex.
Also, Polina Bush's diploma work "Reconstruction of the historic quarter and a fragment of the Pegnitz River embankment in the city of Nuremberg", carried out at the Department of Reconstruction and Restoration of the Moscow Architectural Institute, was awarded. In fact, we are talking about a new area in the historic center of Nuremberg - a very complex topic. According to the general plan, everything fit in amazingly, but still there is an aggressive contrast between new and old architecture, by the way, perfectly hand-drawn. Michael Eichner noticed inconsistencies in the work with German standards, but for a Russian student such a gap in knowledge is forgivable.
And the third awarded project - "Reconstruction of Matisov Island in St. Petersburg" by SPbGASU graduate Alexander Zinoviev. This is the transformation of an old industrial zone on the water practically in the center of the city into a modern residential area with a Shipbuilding Museum.
Some of the jury saw aggressiveness in the huge plane of the museum's facade leaning outward, but in fact this is the author's intention: the reception reminds of the side of an ocean liner protruding above the embankment, of the bewitching contrast of a huge ship and urban development.
In conclusion, I want to say that I am very pleased with such an active start of the Archiprix educational program and sincerely grateful to all colleagues who help us.
