– Nikita, tell us how the profession of an architect works in the regions? What is the attitude towards her in society?
- Let's face it, the reputation of the profession of an architect in the regions is not impressive. Basically, people think that an architect is a person who paints beautiful facades. In a professional environment, an architect is a fragment of the approval process. Many players in the construction market treat an architect as a legal necessity when they need to get the right signature on the documentation. In general, up to 70% of the regional market treats an architect as follows: he must be, he must be able to draw a picture, coordinate and build more or less beautifully.
Initially, the very word "architect" meant "chief builder". This property has been lost. Now the architect is one of the many staff members in the company that is spending money to design a construction site. Few people understand that an architect is not only facades and layouts, but a specialist who generates the idea of the territory, how and for whom it will be implemented, how the project will work and develop further.
We have houses in Tver that were built without an architect at all. The foreman drew something on a piece of paper, the designers designed something based on this drawing, they built a house, no one had any questions. I think that if the current legislation did not require, in particular, to pass the town planning council, many current developers would also refuse the services of architects.
– Despite all this, do you still associate your professional activity with the regions? Meanwhile, you are probably one of the most famous architects who specialize in economy class and work strictly in the regions. What does this strategy give you?
- When I started working on my own, I thought - which market to master? I didn't really want to go to Moscow, simply because I considered myself insufficiently experienced. And I chose the first guy in the village tactic. I began to work in the regions, as a rule, with the economy class, showing by my example that a residential building in the lower price segment can be made more attractive practically without increasing the estimate.
– Has this become your "trick"?
- Yes. It worked. They began to order me projects to increase the aesthetic and, as a result, financial attractiveness of the building. Another factor in the success of the chosen strategy is the wariness of customers from the regions in relation to architects from Moscow, who are more expensive, they will draw everything beautifully, but then it cannot be built on the budget. And here, it seems, there is an architect who draws well, offers not too fantastic ideas for the development of the project, participates in all stages, up to the launch of the building, and all this with knowledge of the regional market and without interrupting reality.
Over time, I developed a methodology for working with economy class architecture. In Russia, there are practically no methods or textbooks on this topic, everything had to be created from scratch. This has begun to gradually attract regional developers looking to build something more than just a “sleeping box”. We are not talking about Siberia or the Urals, where powerful architectural schools have been created (and they have a strong lobby). I am not yet very keen on going there, although over the past two years the number of "Siberian" orders has grown greatly. “My” main territory is the Central and Volga Federal District, where there is a shortage of competent and inexpensive solutions. There are enough orders here. As an expert in my field, I began to attract the attention of the Moscow professional audience and the media. I tried to convert their attention into new orders as well. So I gradually developed.
– Tell us about your methodology. What "Moscow" technologies and solutions are not applicable in the regions? Which ones can be adapted?
- Everything depends on the difference in budgets. Take, for example, any facade solutions developed by Moscow architects and published in the most famous magazines. It is unrealistic to copy and apply them in the provinces. We simply do not have the budget to make interesting masonry or windows with clinker bricks - to the floor. Plaster, classic windows are the best you can deal with with us. Next, the game begins within the framework of the proposed circumstances: how to choose the desired shade of plaster, how to combine it, what to do with the first floors. Maybe change the proportions of the windows so that the glazing area remains the same, but the house looks more interesting.
The province is a completely different consumer market. I myself come across such a description in the technical task: "Draw colored facades, because young families like them." Nobody is going to figure out why exactly colored facades, who these young families are. If the order is good, profitable, you yourself have to analyze potential buying preferences, convince the customer that, they say, let's split the apartments into 4-5 types of different families, or that colored facades are not always good. In general, the market is very conservative, any progress and changes are difficult. The most common phrase from the customer at the initial stage of negotiations: “in Moscow they can build anything for their budgets, and you give us a typical drawing and don’t strain …”.
Although I must also say about the opposite phenomenon. In Tver and other regions, there are builders and developers who understand very well what they are creating and for whom, and consciously and often strictly demand the highest quality product from all performers.
– Perhaps the “first guy in the village” brand allows you to insist on your own in negotiations with the customer?
- Customers are different. There are people who order residential buildings, and there are those who order living environment. The second already understand what a person is, what he wants. A growing number of customers are asking themselves to do something original and correct. It is interesting to work with them and it is pleasant to communicate even after the implementation of the project, because they are curious interlocutors with their own worldview.
Another type of customer is something like this: “I need 150,000 m2 on 6 hectares . Nothing else bothers them. If the customer also has his own brick factory in addition, it means that all architectural and construction solutions should be made of this material. It is almost impossible to overpersuade.
What is your pride in your profession and what is disappointment?
- The answer to this question begins with the following understanding: what is taught at the university and what you encounter in real life are completely different pictures of the world. The university teaches you that you are an artist. In reality, you are just trying to make the most of the opportunities and limitations that make up the project.
For me, the opportunity to deal with the difficulties of the real market and construction site, and despite everything, try to create something functional, cost-effective and beautiful - is a matter of pride and professional satisfaction. Indeed, in practice, it turns out that you have not just created a beautiful project, but overcame a bunch of obstacles on the way to its creation. This is the most interesting thing in this profession.
And this is at the same time the biggest disappointment, because sometimes the restrictions in work are so terrible that nothing can be done about it. You understand that you are creating horror, but if you do not, someone else will come and make the horror ten times worse.
– You are simultaneously teaching at a specialized university. How are modern students different? What can you give them and what can they give you?
- Most of the students upset me, and the minority makes me happy. But so in any area. Many children today go to university because it is necessary, believing that the university will provide them with the necessary skills. They are not motivated to learn anything outside of the learning process.
But that student minority, which pleases, behaves in a completely different way. They mature early and enter the profession early. There are young people 16-17 years old who have a solid goal and understanding of what they want from life. If five years ago I was afraid to hire a young specialist right after graduating from the university, now, for example, I have a wonderful talented girl who is still in her last year of study. And there are more and more such examples.
For me, teaching has just become the mechanism that allows me to find talented children, train them, inspire them not to stop at the achieved results, and later, if there is a general interest, invite them to my internship and work.
– Has it become a way for you to resolve personnel issues?
- To some extent. Tver is located near Moscow. It is accepted in our country that all talented architects leave for the capital for higher salaries and a theoretical opportunity to become famous. And this is very bad for my city (and any other city near Moscow). So I am trying to offer young professionals an alternative to professional implementation, which they will not get in Moscow. After all, not every trainee, when he comes to the company, can be entrusted with an independent project, which will subsequently be built, and he will proudly put it in his portfolio.
– What skills and tools does a young architect need in a changing world?
- You need to accustom yourself to regularly review, analyze professional publications, magazines, collections of works by architects from different countries, in different languages, to understand what is happening in the industry where the profession of an architect is evolving. It is advisable, starting from the 3rd year, to organize study trips for future architects in different countries. It is necessary to study modern programs, since the profession is rapidly "digitizing", and I have not met a single Russian university, where they would provide high-quality training to work with "software". If we compare the educational process with a textbook, then a university is a table of contents. Everything else needs to be learned through practice.
– Is it profitable to be an architect?
- It is very difficult to earn money in this profession in the regions. For an ordinary architect with up to 3 years of experience, a salary of 35 thousand rubles a month is a success. The salary of the chief architect of the project is 50 thousand rubles, if you are very lucky, it reaches 60 thousand. In this regard, many young architects go to visualization or design, where salaries are still higher.
The only way out for a provincial architect is to make money on volumes. And here I have conflicting information. I know specialists who say that there is no work at all, and I know their colleagues who are overwhelmed with orders. Their professional level is about the same. What conclusion can be drawn from this? Probably like this: there is work, but PR or connections decide everything.
In general, I am somewhat pessimistic about the future of the provincial architecture market. I believe that at the moment it is possible to survive only in Moscow or the largest federal cities, and then not for long, because there are now many specialists on the market who dump prices for their services. And this trend is only getting stronger. Moscow customers of architectural services also often place their orders in the provinces, often at the expense of quality, but cheaper. Fortunately, the Moscow market has protection in the form of an Architectural Council and an outstanding chief architect, who protect the capital from the flood of substandard projects.
I myself am going in the medium term, in two or three years, to change the scale of my business: to create a network of architectural and design bureaus specializing in providing services of a certain quality level.
The Open City conference will take place in Moscow on September 28-29. The program includes workshops by leading architectural firms, sessions on topical issues of Russian architectural education, a presentation of the study "Professional Development in Russia and Abroad: Traditional Models and Alternative Practices", a fair of additional educational programs, Portfolio Review - presentation of student portfolios to leading architects and developers in Moscow and other.
