Archi.ru:
The School of the Chief Architect was organized in August 2016 in Yekaterinburg. For what purpose was it created?
Timur Abdullaev:
- I started working on the project "School of the Chief Architect" during my work as the Chief Architect of Yekaterinburg. The idea of organizing the School came as a response to the need to build a dialogue between developers, the administration and the expert community. The practice of working as the chief architect of the city has shown that often such a dialogue simply does not take place, because conditions have not been created for it. A developer promoting his projects does not hear counter-arguments, the administration does not try to enter into a dialogue, and the professional competencies of experts are not involved. It turns out to be very difficult or even late to change the course of development of many stories at the moment when the project is being coordinated, since the design solutions have already been developed, the costs have been incurred, the loans have been issued and the time is running out. This situation, I think, is absolutely typical for any Russian city. As a result, all residents become hostages of unsuccessful and ill-considered design decisions that cause massive condemnation of the population.
It is fundamentally important to start the process of discussing project cases at the earliest stages, when the ideology and approaches to design are determined. It is necessary to create a suitable mechanism for this. Another important task, in my opinion, is fostering the correct attitude to the mission and the role of an architect in modern society among young professionals, when it is important to work with the city not just as a material environment, but as a set of social, cultural and economic processes, where in the center a person is always worth attention.
Thus, the School is not just a modern educational program for young professionals, but also a unique communication platform on which all participants in the process can work together to find the right solutions for the development of the urban environment and determine a common understanding of the values of urban development. The School organizes multidisciplinary interaction between specialists in various fields: architects, marketers, economists, sociologists, builders to jointly search for innovative design solutions. The involvement of the development community is of particular importance, since only in the process of joint work it is possible to find new non-standard approaches that also become interesting from an economic point of view and can be implemented.
On September 16-24, 2017 in Yekaterinburg, at the site of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center, the third "School of the Chief Architect" was held. At the same time, the cases developed at the School are always real design tasks from leading development companies. The School's experts were leading Russian and foreign experts in the field of architecture, urbanism and urban economics. We cooperate with leading educational institutions such as the Higher School of Urbanism, the Skolkovo Foundation, the Union of Architects of Russia, the International Academy of Architecture, the Yakov Chernikhov Foundation. The School's strategic educational partner is also the International Association of Urban and Regional Planners ISOCARP.
In addition, in the year that has passed since the start of the first "School of the Chief Architect", the project has already acquired the status of not only all-Russian, but also international. More than 700 applications from 40 cities of the country were submitted for participation in the second "School of the Chief Architect", and in September 2017 experts and young specialists from more than 10 countries, including Brazil, the USA, South Africa, India, wanted to take part in the School., Indonesia, Great Britain, France, Holland, Poland, Estonia and Serbia.
During the course of the project in Yekaterinburg, almost all the largest development companies in the region, as well as federal ones, such as Kortros and LSR, became its partners. But the project continues to develop dynamically, including geographically, since this platform can be successfully used in other major cities of Russia, which face similar challenges.
City development is always about finding a balance between private and public interests. How openly and constructively are we ready to discuss this? The mission of our project is to create a correct understanding of the values of urban development among all participants in the process.
What program - exhibition and event - will the school offer visitors to the Zodchestvo festival?
- At the Zodchestvo festival, we present an exposition with reports on the results of two seasons of the project, and demonstrate video diaries of the School of the Chief Architect, allowing you to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the project and feel the drive that always reigns on our work site. This is a real synergy, in which non-standard solutions are born that will undoubtedly have an impact on the life of the city in the future.
We are also planning a small presentation of the project "The School of the Chief Architect - as a Mechanism for the Development of the Urban Environment". On October 7 at 13:45, Gostiny Dvor will host a round table on the topic "City development - finding a balance between private and public interests." The issues that we want to bring up for discussion concern the relationship between developers and society, the role of architects in this process and the position of administrative bodies. Despite the fact that the project is only one year old, we have already received a large number of invitations to hold project sessions in other cities. This shows that such a platform is relevant on a national scale. For our part, we are also interested in scaling the project and in promoting the most open and constructive approach to urban development issues. Therefore, we invite not only experts to participate in the round table, but also representatives of the development community - from among those who have already had experience in the project "School of the Chief Architect" and those who simply could be useful and interesting.
How will the theme of the future workshop sound? In what format will it be held and who will be able to take part in it?
- The next "School" is planned for March 2018, and we would like the maximum involvement of both talented youth and the progressive business community. The format is a nine-day intensive with full immersion in real cases. Architects, urban planners, economists, marketers, sociologists, engineers are invited to participate. An all-Russian competition will traditionally be announced for participation. I think that we will definitely develop active international cooperation - both at the expert level and at the level of the participants.
When choosing topics for a workshop, each time we make an individual selection of 4-5 tasks from partner companies. The tasks are always multifaceted and versatile, but they are all united by their social and socially significant context. Three multidisciplinary teams of 5-6 people work on each topic. So it's also a competition for the best ideas. Ultimately, everyone benefits from this: partners open up a new vision and opportunities, experts share their competencies, students get an interesting start-up, and the city administration gets an open and transparent project process with a high level of community involvement.
The school teaches all of us to jointly find the right ways to solve various project problems. In teams, young specialists, partners and experts work together. It is pleasant to note the interest of partners and their desire to implement interesting ideas. Each final presentation of projects is not the end of the process, but only the beginning of real work in many areas.
