The venue for the AFF summer school was the Avant-garde Center on Shabolovka. Students and young architects attended excursions, lectures, master classes for 10 days in July, trying to rethink the experience of the communes of the avant-garde era, so that, under the guidance of practicing architects, publicists and researchers, create a project of a new generation commune school. To solve the creative problem, the territory was chosen, which is part of the "Shabolovsky cultural cluster" - the reserve of the Russian avant-garde; in the 1920s, nurseries, schools and entire neighborhoods for the "families of the future" were designed in this area.
School curator:
Vlad Kunin / Chief Architect of the Artbyten bureau
Teachers, lecturers and experts:
Natalia Voinova / head of the studio "PlanAR Studio"
Oleg Raspopov / designer, urbanist, area development specialist
Yuri Sheredega / architect of the Citymakers bureau
Oleg Volkov / architect, head of the architectural bureau "610"
Maria Fadeeva / journalist, teacher at MARSH school, coordinator of the Avant-garde Center
Mikhail Bogomolny / architect, urbanist, director of the Milhouse Institute (Israel)
Yaroslav Kovalchuk / head of the workshop of the State Unitary Enterprise NI and PI of the General Plan of Moscow
Evgeniy Meituv / architect, "Tsimailo Lyashenko and Partner"
Yuri Volchok / Professor of Moscow Architectural Institute
Nikita Asadov / architect, co-founder of the city development agency "Tochka Rosta"
Ayrat Bagautdinov / engineering historian, author of the project "Moscow through the eyes of an engineer"
Tatiana Shulika / architect, professor of the Department of Architectural Environment Design at Moscow Architectural Institute, member of the TAF workshop
Marina Ignatushko / journalist, architecture critic.
Vlad Kunin
founder and curator of the school "AFF - The Foundation of the Architectural Future", chief architect of the Artbeiten bureau:
“Every year the team of our AFF school selects a non-standard topic and problem for the summer course; they should combine the legacy component - to reveal the identity of the place - and at the same time relevance - for the design in “today's” time. This time, we decided to raise the legacy of the 1920s - 1930s at the intersection of architecture and education. We remembered about the avant-garde reserve in Moscow "Shabolovsky cultural cluster" and the school No. 600 that survived there, which previously existed as a "commune school" and graduated many famous and talented people.
What legacy did the teachers and teachers of that time leave us? Which of this legacy can be incorporated into education today? The guys and I tried to answer these questions in our course. For the design, we chose the existing schools of the Shabolovka district and invited students to rethink the life and study of children inside the current school, as well as analyze the life of students in the context of the district. All this had to be done, relying on the experience and achievements of the avant-garde era. The course gave us the opportunity to meet with the most interesting graduates of the school-commune No. 600: Alexei Grabbe, Honored Artist of Russia, actor of the Taganka Theater, who told us fascinating stories from the life of the school, and writer Yevgeny Kogan, who lived for a long time in the Leningrad commune house and wrote about this book "Tear of Socialism". As well as the best specialists in the field of avant-garde heritage - professor of Moscow Architectural Institute Yuri Volchkom, journalist and teacher of the MARCH school Maria Fadeeva, professor of the Moscow Architectural Institute Tatyana Shulika, architect and urbanist, director of the Israeli Institute "Milhouse" Mikhail Bogomolny, engineering historian Ayrat Bugautdinov.
Each project of our children raises and solves very important problems of the existence of children, their study and recreation in the city: this is the self-identification of a child in an urban environment, this is a broken link between generations of young people and elderly citizens, these are the problems of efficiency and openness of the use of premises - just like in school and its courtyard territory - by all residents of the area. And most importantly, each project of our children offered a rethought program and a new atmosphere for the school of the future!"
Marina Ignatushko
journalist, architecture critic:
“It is great that this summer School has an open final. There are no absolute champions, approved techniques, correct techniques. A bright kaleidoscope of ideas, opinions, views. Architecture is a process of co-creation and creation. One theme and several plots - after each one it seems that everything is so fully taken into account, thought out, lost, but another group comes up with a new one - and it, like the previous one, is good! Some students manage to pack all thoughts and ideas into a convincing form during their studies at the School (despite the temptations of the city, summer, company, youth), others do not succeed right away - they finish painting later. The main thing is that everyone receives such a powerful intellectual recharge that, undoubtedly, after defending their project, they leave the School as Atlanteans who are able to reshape worlds. The atmosphere of the "Avant-garde Center", new knowledge, productive creative communication - as a result, the "Shabolovsky Cultural Cluster" receives dashing forecasts of possible development, future architects - full-fledged experience, AFF School - another portion of confidence in what makes it extremely important and useful for development profession business."
Maria Fadeeva,
journalist, teacher at MARSH school, coordinator of the Avant-garde Center:
“Cooperation with AFF for the Avangard Center turned out to be a very interesting experience. If you look at what we are doing within the framework of the concept of the Shabolovsky Cultural Cluster, then you can see a small touch of the material structure of the region. Yes, we put a commemorative plaque on the poplar, organized video shows in the courtyards, but nothing more. Of course, this is due to the difficulties of coordination and the financial capacity of such undertakings, but also to the fact that architects often turn out to be not “gentle” enough to the prevailing situation, and residents are then frightened by their bold gestures. At the same time, working with student architects seems to us to be very important, especially since Alexandra Selivanova, who runs the Avant-garde Center, and I are Moscow Architectural Institute graduates. So, when Vlad Kunin came to us with such an interesting topic that combined our “avant-garde” interest and a truly “hot” topic of architecture for education, it was impossible to refuse. And then there is the anniversary of School No. 600, which is located at the very foot of the Shukhov Tower, was built in 1929-1935 and has obvious signs of a landmark of that era, but was undeservedly removed from the list of monuments in 2006 due to the commercial attractiveness of its site with a large yard, besides, for a long time she was the flagship of Soviet education, including art.
To be honest, I was jealous of our students. I remember how difficult it was to understand in the 3rd year, when it was required to design a school at Moscow Architectural Institute, what is important in this assignment, what aspects can be relied on. It turned out boring, it seemed that the only space of invention was the facade solution. Unfortunately, no one then explained to us that global transformation of the educational process, which would allow us to think about the functioning, and not the shell. This formulation of the problem by the AFF teachers made the students break their heads, abandon many familiar patterns, enter the field of experiment, but the result was worth it. I love the way they handled, while remaining quite sensitive to the space they were working with: they continued it, although sometimes in a very futuristic way."
Film "School-Commune: From Utopia to Reality", marked with the "Silver Sign" of the "Zodchestvo" festival -2015 with the wording "For a high level of stylistic perception of avant-garde architecture by means of other art for authors (cinema)."
Filmed: Alexandra Golikova, Gleb Urusov, Alexander Plakhin.
We publish the best projects of the summer school participants.
Shabolovskaya cultural and educational laboratory of the avant-garde (SCHOOL)
Group "Aristonomy": Alena Avdeeva, Anastasia Anisimova, Irina Garifulina, Anastasia Koneva.
The project is based on the desire to rethink the educational process, to get away from the usual classroom-lesson form of education. The main emphasis in the SCHOOL, which is proposed to be built on the site of the mathematics lyceum, is made on creative pedagogy. The authors propose to create a system of workshops where specialized and general education subjects are grouped by subject. Thus, the main thing is not the variety of subjects, but interdisciplinary connections. The creative principle can be traced in the organization of space.
The volume of the building is just a consequence of a new way of life, new routes and scenarios. Training workshops are concentrated around several atrium spaces - a lecture hall, stage-theater, exhibition area and laboratories. A large stylobate, on which the main atrium volumes are located, protects children from the outside world, allows them to hide from the sun and rain thanks to a canopy, and forms parking spaces. The roof of the stylobate can serve as a platform for outdoor activities and a transition between buildings. The open sports complex of the new school can be used not only by students, but also by all local residents. So the school becomes the center of the district's renewal.
Interstellar school
Group "Quarter": Anastasia Krutikova, Inna Morshinina, Anna Kalabishko, Ksenia Baturina.
Interstellar school is being created on the basis of school number 600. The main principles of the project are: preserving life on Earth and conquering a new space, and the components of an ideal school, according to the authors, are multifunctionality, self-sufficiency, dynamism, environmental friendliness, manufacturability, compliance with the interests and needs of children. The school building is being reconstructed, new rooms with a stepped green roof are being created in the courtyard, sunk into its surface.
Residents of the district and the school interact with each other through not only recreational, sports, exhibition and library areas, but also unique laboratories: communication, structural modeling, radio communication and ecology.
Experimental innovation school-commune
Der Bruch group: O. Gorkova, A. Kotenkova, A. Malakhov, A. Chistyakov.
This school is filled with the latest technologies and developments, and the curriculum is based on the game form of acquiring knowledge. The classrooms of the school are equipped with modern interactive equipment. The school is designed as a single space with a smooth transition from one zone to another, and classrooms are designed as cubicles, isolated and at the same time included in the overall system.
The new school seems to link the entire area into a single whole. Five blocks located throughout the Shabolovka district become points of attraction for residents: general education, laboratory, exhibition, sports, and also a winter garden. The blocks are united by an automatic transport system. The main building is built around the Shukhov Tower, which is the visual and semantic dominant of the project.
Another school
Restart group: E. Ovdenko, N. Timofeeva, A. Zgurskaya, D. Dementieva.
The main idea of the project is the integration of living and learning space. The authors propose to rid the school of borders with the outside world, so that children can socialize faster and more successfully: now they lack the practical experience necessary for personal growth. According to the authors, some classes can be held in pavilions built on the site of empty playgrounds. It is also planned to use the first floors of four neighboring houses for classrooms (this will be a kindergarten, primary school and hobby groups: individual rooms better meet the needs of young children than sectors in a large building shared with adolescents). Residents will be offered to move to a new house built nearby. For schoolchildren of middle and senior grades, two separate buildings are created, connected by the cafeteria and the assembly hall area. A total of seven hills with green roofs are planned, the school appears to be covered with a green carpet.
With the emergence of this school, the authors believe, the district will be significantly transformed, a qualitatively new environment will be created, and the outlook on the current education system will change.
Generation Link Project
Svyaz P Group: Sergey Skarednov, Ksenia Dolmatova, Elena Shokurova.
“Link between generations” is a phrase that became the ideological basis of this concept. The main principles and proposals of the project: to revive the significance of school No. 600 and its historical experience by placing a new educational institution in it; create a boarding school on the territory of the school; ensure intergenerational interaction through integration into a nursing home boarding school. The authors also propose to cultivate agricultural crops on the territory of the complex to feed the inhabitants of the complex and for sale.
The architectural concept is based on the desire to preserve the heritage of the avant-garde. The facades are devoid of decor, natural lighting, vertical and horizontal landscaping, functional division of the buildings are conceived. There is an outdoor pool on the school grounds, which can be visited by everyone all year round. This ensures the interaction of the school and the district.
