Agency for Strategic Development "CENTER" carries out an active information policy, presenting to the public the projects in which it participates, and research that it conducts on its own initiative. What is the purpose of such publicity?
Sergey Georgievsky: We have made publicity a part of our activities, including it in the company's core value system. We publish all the results of our research work and methods in the public domain. We are not afraid to share ideas. With the current level of development of information technology, it is stupid to spend resources and time to protect intellectual property. You will be the first to lose. There will always be someone who can realize your own idea faster than you. But by presenting your work publicly, you are guaranteed to get more ideas and more directions for further work in the form of a response from the expert community.
If we talk about our community, then it is quite critical of any projects or research. How can you benefit from such criticism?
Criticism to criticism is different and the fact that for the most part it boils down to non-constructive formats is a temporary phenomenon, a symptom of the general state of the community, which is not used to conducting a constructive dialogue. And when we publish the results of our teamwork, we hope in this way to change the level, intensity, quality of this dialogue. And by raising the bar of requirements for our own work higher, including under the influence of criticism, we create a different level of competition, which in turn stimulates us to further growth. It is a closed system that spurs on to development, to more and more new steps forward. Without criticism, without public discussion, an information vacuum is formed, which leads, if not to degradation, then to stagnation of the industry.
I am sure there is no point in hiding information, on the contrary, you need to give everything, letting it go through the “meat grinder” of criticism, feedback, positive, negative, collaborations and so on. And as a result, you will get a new 2.0 product. In our field of activity, for an analytical agency specializing in urban planning, urban planning and architecture, this "perpetum mobile" definitely works.
Do your partners and customers share this point of view?
At the initial stage of cooperation, not always. But we promote openness in working with any, even the most difficult territories. We explain to customers and partners that transparency, a high level of information content, and a willingness to engage in dialogue with different audiences is an effective reputational mechanism that will help shape the future of the project in the long term. This is not easy, as it requires a lot of strength, energy, emotions, because in addition to doing the work, you need to explain everything, describe, tell, answer all the questions. But we adhere to our principles and try to convince our partners, who in most cases agree that the tactic of openness works and adopt it when developing new projects. Perhaps this sounds pompous, but we see our mission also in popularizing among the professional community an open, transparent approach to working with different types of real estate and territories. I am sure that these "investments" will give excellent income in the future.
All of the above explains the reasons and logic for participating in various professional events. And what interested you in Zodchestvo? Contacts with regions, a new audience, or something else?
Previously, we have never participated in Zodchestvo, believing that this is not our profile, not our format, limited to a narrow-industry dialogue. We were interested in open intersectoral platforms such as ProEstate or the Moscow Urban Forum. But over time, it became clear that such forums talk about everything except architecture. Urban planning approaches, economics, sociology, socio-cultural programming - everything, except for the actual embodiment, what form it gets. And this underestimation of the role of architecture and architects in modern discourse leads to many serious miscalculations.
I believe that education that gives a person spatial thinking, which allows one to evaluate complex systems in all dimensions, a kind of 5D modeling, can only be obtained by studying to be a geographer or an architect. The rest of the specialties provide a narrower, focused vision on certain aspects of the issue, leading to a simplified picture and inevitable mistakes. The demand and importance of spatial thinking will inevitably lead to the evolution of the profession of an architect. In the future, it is the architect, and not the manager or the marketer, as it is now, who will act as the leader or mediator of complex intersectoral consortia developing an integrated product of urban development. And already today, architectural bureaus of the new generation are achieving success, creating analytical and economic departments within themselves or entering into cooperation with consulting companies such as us. Therefore, we are interested in a dialogue with architects, so that by joint efforts, connecting architecture with other areas of knowledge, create a product of the future.
We go to Zodchestvo, this kind of club, to enter into a dialogue with architects. I hope that for architects the dialogue with us, as with analysts who are constantly engaged in observation and comprehensive assessment of what is happening in this area, will be useful.
How do you plan to conduct this dialogue? As part of a special project that you are showing at the festival?
We want to show the research "Moscow PE: industrial". This is our own long-term project that allows us to see the potential, primarily economic, of the former industrial zones. In our work, we have come across a stereotypical attitude towards industrial heritage. It is believed that working with him is always unprofitable, regardless of whether it is a monument of historical and cultural significance or not. We have shown in our research that this is not the case, that the idea of insane costs for restoration and adaptation is a delusion. For the first time, as far as I know, we have combined architecture, urban planning, economics and the historical and cultural block, conducting an independent research based on a comprehensive analysis.
We have been doing this research over the past two years together with the Rozhdestvenka architectural bureau, as well as with specialists from the Research and Development Institute of the General Plan of Moscow and the architectural historian Marina Khrustaleva. And now we present at Zodchestvo its most current and complete version with an emphasis on the architectural aspect. In our exposition, as part of a curatorial project, everything related to redevelopment and renovation of industrial zones will be presented with reference to Russian and international experience. Our "architecton" will employ experts who are open to dialogue with everyone: who would like to discuss the research and the methodology for its implementation. We will talk about this at the panel discussion, which will take place on November 21, on the last day of the festival's business program.
Participation in an exhibition is always a need to find the right format for presenting information. You successfully use printed and digital formats, but how difficult was the expositional way of presenting analytical information for you?
We, of course, have a harder time than ordinary exhibitors, who have material objects at their disposal, which in themselves carry a large amount of information, visual, tactile and associative. But we decided to use infographics to the maximum, transforming the research results into concise and visualized messages. We will show a demo version of the study itself and provide an opportunity for all visitors to get it for free. But the most important thing is that we ourselves will work at the exposition, which will turn into a mini-public space, a discussion platform.
In this case, we did not strive for any innovations and used the most traditional methods, since for us the exposition is only a background against which the dialogue takes place. And the value is the point, the place where this dialogue is possible, and where you can find someone who is as interested in the dialogue as you are.
And this, in our opinion, is the most important meaning and the most popular format of communication at Zodchestvo: not monologues from the rostrum, but direct, personal communication between professionals. I did not accidentally use the word "club". It seems to me that this is the key to understanding the meaning of "Architecture", during which collaborations should be created, informal and constructive dialogues between the members of the "club" - architects from different regions of Russia.
The “club” concept assumes a behind-the-scenes, intra-shop format of communication. But isn't the Zodchestvo festival a place for establishing a dialogue between professionals and society, including for lobbying the interests of the shop?
It seems to me that from the point of view of the profession and our entire industry, if there was an internal, intra-shop dialogue of a different quality, then it would be easier to lobby for our interests. The architectural community is now fragmented. But the main thing is that no modern communication technologies are capable of giving the constructive, symbiotic effect that is achieved when professionals come together on the same platform to discuss urgent problems together. There is no that contact, there is no that constructive energy. Therefore, live and public formats are so important, such as the Zodchestvo festival, which make it possible to feel part of the community, with clear values, guidelines and common knowledge, experience, thoughts and aspirations - this feeling gives a different boldness of ideas and a different behavioral model in relationships with customers and partners.
What else are you planning to show at the Zodchestvo festival?
Another story that we will present at Zodchestvo has been inspiring us throughout the last year. We work all over Russia, but recently we found ourselves in Yakutia, which completely impressed us with its passionarity. The republic occupies one sixth of the territory of Russia and its resources, and its potential is only being revealed now. And we are very happy to participate in this process. One of our joint projects with Knight Frank -
We showed “Kangalassy 2.0” in October at the Eastern Economic Forum, and at “Zodchestvo” we decided to present a completely new project - innovative for the Far North public space “Park of Future Generations” in the capital of the Republic of Sakha. The leadership of the republic is seriously thinking about the importance that Yakutia and its inhabitants will have in the future, and already now they are working a lot to make this future arise. Including in the form of a public space of a new quality. Permafrost conditions and extreme temperatures make this year-round urban park project particularly challenging. Using the example of this park, we are trying to develop new solutions for Arctic cities, proving that the quality of public spaces for the Far North can be no lower than in all other cities of the country, and the people who live there deserve the same degree of comfort. We will talk about this project and the approach being developed at a press conference that will take place on the second day of the festival, November 20.
