The conference, organized in strategic partnership with DOM.rf with the support of the Ministry of Construction of Russia, was held for the second time and turned out to be spectacular, informative, well-structured. Lectures and mini-lectures, panel discussions, interviews and talk shows alternated, small and large formats were combined, the main course was served at the end, although everything was interesting. The "bomb" of the first day was a double interview with MVRDV partner Vinny Mas and co-founder and general director of Strelka KB Denis Leontyev - a dramatic story about an architect's career and its risks, the meaning of which boiled down to the fact that a good yachtsman needs a strong wind, and the architecture of the future looks like an extreme sport: who did not score a goal, he flew out, who did not swim, he drowned.
-
Image 
zooming 1/10 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 2/10 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 3/10 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 4/10 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 5/10 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 6/10 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 7/10 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 8/10 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Sonya Elterman, Strelka Mag. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 9/10 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 10/10 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
The main event of the second day was the announcement of the winner of the Archdaily & Strelka Award and a lecture by Thai architect Kulapat Yantrasast, whose American studio wHY has designed about 50 galleries around the world and won the competition for a landscape park of the Zaryadye type with great urban significance, connecting parts of Edinburgh. Kulapat explained the need for a cultural genre by saying that "a museum is a place of sympathy, where people can see each other and like each other." If you put the meaning of a lecture into one phrase, a small office of 30 people can make a great contribution to culture. The bureau has five directions: ideas, buildings, landscapes, objects, museums. Drawing analogies with food, Kulapat said that architecture is moving from Japanese sushi towards Thai noodles, from crispness to blending. Kulapat is a representative of the creative economy.
-
zooming 1/3 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 2/3 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Kulapat Yantrasast, architect, Thailand. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 3/3 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Kulapat Yantrasast, architect, Thailand. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
The conference was chaired by Sonya Elterman, editor-in-chief of Strelka Magazine. All the speakers, without exception, were architects of the future (AB), so the portrait took shape. So, what are the appearance, professional skills and moral and business qualities of the architect of the future?
AB's appearance
This is a man or woman in b / w overalls or robe, sneakers, sometimes jeans, and occasionally in a blue informal jacket (in this sense, little has changed). The most futuristic bow was that of Kulapat Yantrasast, whose lecture ended the second day of the conference. Shining silver sneakers-galoshes, the glare from which flew to the Patriarch's Bridge, together with the striped overalls gave it a resemblance to Cog and Shpuntik from Nosov's futuristic story about Dunno. He turned out to be a brilliant speaker in the Anglo-American tradition, with such a gift one can run for president. In addition to clothing, the architect of the future is also characterized by an expressive manner, which is necessary to promote ideas, to demonstrate energy.
-
zooming Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Kulapat Yantrasast, architect, Thailand. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
AB qualities
Without them, nowhere. In the talk show Winnie Mas and Denis Leontyev, listeners learned the whole truth about the creative economy. At first, the speakers were evasive. Sonya Elterman asked what it is like to be revolutionaries, to which Denis Leontyev replied that it is revolutionary just to be an evolutionary, it is not difficult to break, it is difficult to evolve, adapting to changing conditions. When asked what a young architect should do if he has children and a mortgage, and the project contract expires in six months, the co-founder of Strelka KB explained that there is no need to be afraid of ragged demand. Yes, in creative economies there are outbreaks of quick hiring, new people are forming a pool, you have to quickly dive into the team and swim. Some of the employees who started at Strelka KB 5-6 years ago are now project directors. Strelka KB has 50% of its employees permanently, the remaining 50% change (at MVRDV there are about 50 people on a fixed contract and about 150 freelancers). “We are not sitting on an oil pipe,” stressed Denis Leontiev, “our activity is like surfing on the waves: we need to look for these waves”. Strelka KB's solutions for urban fabric are pre-project activities, and they are risky,”he said. - Some run away in search of a warm chair in large corporations. Others take up the challenge. But young people who come to Strelka want to understand “where I am in this project”. “In our office, internal competition is combined with cooperation. The metaphor of a football team fits in with us. You can be a star and score goals, but you have the right to make mistakes. We let play our game."
Winnie Mas, in turn, told how the MVRDV office is arranged. Once at the dawn of the studio's founding in the 1990s, the Dutch were famous for their horizontal hierarchy: all team members gathered at a long table, and there were no bosses and subordinates as such, but each was responsible for his own part of the work. But now MVRDV has grown, and "the table has expanded to a quarter," there is a Chinese branch and others. A large company loses its horizontal position. But Winnie still dreams that in the debate all employees are equal. To the question “who do you hire to work?” Winnie Mas listed in descending order of importance: those who write texts and are responsible for communication; able to write algorithms, programs and scripts; organizers who know where to go and where not to go; able to work with their hands. And Denis Leontiev simply said that they were interviewed. Both speakers were asked from the audience if they would have taken young themselves into their current companies. Vinny Mas found it difficult to answer, and Denis Leontiev answered in the affirmative, because he created a company several years ago, in which he wanted to work, but which did not exist at that moment.
-
zooming 1/7 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Vinny Mas (MVRDV) and Denis Leontyev (KB Strelka) © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 2/7 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Vinny Mas (MVRDV) and Denis Leontyev (KB Strelka) © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 3/7 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Vini Mas © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 4/7 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Vinny Mas (MVRDV) and Denis Leontyev (KB Strelka) © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 5/7 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Vinny Mas (MVRDV) and Denis Leontyev (KB Strelka) © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 6/7 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Denis Leontyev © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 7/7 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Vinny Mas (MVRDV) and Denis Leontyev (KB Strelka) © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
AB skills
Moving from moral qualities to professional skills, I must say that the architect of the future is an architect plus something. There should be an additional specialty: biology, computer games, entertainment, programming, volunteering, ecology, sociology, politics, art. I was amazed that when one of the speakers was asked what computer programs you need to know in order to get a job in their bureau, he replied that the programs change every week, but you need to be a good professional, that is, apparently, be able to master new programs instantly.
+ Storytelling
Public speaking is an essential skill for an architect. All speakers owned it. Many told stories about themselves in TED format - short, vivid, pre-resolved questions. For example, a young architect-researcher Tatiana Knoroz shared a story about how she chose her education and what kind of forks she had. She entered the Milan Poly, because they teach for free and pay a scholarship regardless of citizenship, but in the third year she realized that there were no prospects for working in Italy. She managed to enter the program of a Japanese university with her research on the renovation of European "Khrushchevs". At the same time, the difference in mentality with the Japanese at first greatly interfered, but in the end it turned out to be useful. The main thing is that in Japan there is a scholarship that allows you to study the theory of architecture in a relaxed mode (and extreme overloads for AB, as is clear from the previous, are everyday life). Now Tatiana is filming a film about the inhabitants of the Japanese Khrushchev, but since they do not like to complain, she invented deviceology. The presence of devices - devices that compensate for the inconvenience of their homes, shows their needs.
+ Creative writing
The second most important skill - and Winnie Mas, when asked who he would take to his MVRDV bureau, named it first - is the ability to write lyrics. “Text is an important part of the design work. He makes it clear what we want. We need to live in a world of words,”said MVRDV partner.
+ Biology
Katya Bryskina, an AA graduate in London who worked in Tel Aviv, took up architecture at the intersection of technology. First, modeling using small robots that act on the principle of termites, reacting to light bulbs of different colors, and then growing biomaterials, examining the mycelium obtained from woody mushrooms. Robots can do anything, but toxic materials are used in 3D printing, and mycelium is environmentally safe, it can be grown anywhere.
The Italian architect Matteo Brioni also spoke in part about biology, since in the technology of processing clay, which he deals with, he also meets its combination with cereals. But it is possible with rubber, if anything, there are only 12 ways. Brijuni, as a true Italian who appreciates the simple joys of life, recalled that architecture is material, that it was made of clay from Adam. After all, the name Adam is not only translated from Hebrew as a person, but is also the same root for the words "red" and "clay". And if man was created from dust and returns to dust, then let’s make architecture even more from Mother Earth. Ethical, aesthetically pleasing, environmentally friendly. Michelangelo's fresco, where the Lord stretches out his hand to Adam, confirmed the truth of what was said.
+ Gamification
Daria Nasonova, a Moscow Architectural Institute graduate and video game developer, argues that architecture and game design are one and the same. Both are made up of the organization of space and narrative. Games are studied by cultural scientists and philosophers, there is even a magazine Heterotopia on this topic. Daria, in her graduation project to transform the Aremkuz plant into a university campus, made a game in which a freshman walks around the campus and communicates. Another game is dedicated to the destruction of constructivist monuments. The Tatlin Tower is attacked by postmodern monsters and bombarded with shells - Ionic capitals, and the tower is fired back by other shells - the windows of the Melnikov House. Another game has been created to assimilate philosophy. Nietzsche, as you know, philosophized with a hammer. A figurine of a mustachioed philosopher with a hammer gallops across the field and kills Marx and other idols created by European civilization. The most practical game simulates the situation of a district or a courtyard, residents play, placing benches, fountains, cafes and a dog playground wherever they want. Then the architects build it.
+ Volunteering
Joana Dabage and Ricardo Luca Conti told how architecture can become ascetic. Their not-for-profit bureau CatalyticAction is based in London, but has done projects in a refugee camp in Lebanon. The architects went there, lived there for four months and, together with the local population, built a children's school from local scrap materials. Men worked on the construction, and women, who, according to Muslim laws, are forbidden to be around, made thermal insulation from sheep's wool. Children also participated and drew the whole process. Of course, it is an ethical act to go to the forefront, to where it is most difficult, to immerse yourself in the hardships of local life and make it a little easier. For this project, Joana and Ricardo were awarded the
architectural competition LafargeHolcim Awards for sustainable building.
-
zooming 1/3 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Architects Joana Dabage and Ricardo Luca Conti. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 2/3 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Architects Joana Dabage and Ricardo Luca Conti. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 3/3 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Architects Joana Dabage and Ricardo Luca Conti. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
+ Politics
Bryn Davis, an Australian urbanist with a post in the Melbourne government, presented a long-term project to revitalize the former Fisherman's Bend industrial zone, on a scale comparable to the ZIL Peninsula. 80 thousand people will live on an area of 480 hectares, the same number of planned jobs, car and aircraft workshops in the Art Deco style have been preserved. “You have to form a vision, then people will cooperate, and everything will work out,” Davis said, teaching on working with public opinion. Although is it possible - to make a person want? An important point, which struck me, that an urban official uses in working with people is to demonstrate his vulnerability.
+ Art
The theme of architecture as an art sounded lightly in the lecture by Dan Rosegaard, the Dutch artist and speculative architect (i.e. visionary), who opened the first day. He showed his fantastic projects for galleries and urban spaces on the theme of ecology. For example, the Free smog tower, an air purifier tower that is installed in the city. A ring with a particle of compressed smog, which can be purchased to contribute to the cleansing of the planet, Dan has let through the rows, and at the end of the first day it has not yet returned. Another project is a laboratory of space debris formed by old satellites released into circulation, which collide with active ones and explode. Nobody wants to clean up eight million tons of this garbage, just like a little boy doesn't want to clean his room, Dan complained. But you can make fireworks out of garbage. When asked from the audience how to get an order, Dan said that we must first make a project, and then look for subsidies. “My clients are ministers, mayors, museums,” said the artist. And in general, to find 20% of beauty, you have to cope with 80% of rubbish. Then I remembered the aphorism of the architect Nikolai Lyzlov that an architect is a director: 80% of his time is spent running around the offices, the rest is creativity. Dan Rosegarde was very artistic. But, returning to the theme of architecture as an art, it was not entirely about hand drawing.
-
zooming 1/3 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Dan Rosegaard, speculative architect, Netherlands. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 2/3 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Dan Rosegaard, speculative architect, Netherlands. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 3/3 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Dan Rosegaard, speculative architect, Netherlands. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
+ Entertainment
Chinese architect Lam Le Nguyen, author of amusement parks: Disneyland, Star Wars, and others, mentioned drawing and handwork in his lecture. To create them, you need to draw a lot by hand, which means that there is a connection with art, but the appearance of this architecture in the traditions of terry postmodernism, if not kitsch, will hardly amuse the strict taste of the architects. This is not about artistic insights. It's about storytelling. Telling stories in architecture is extremely important today. People want to be in a fairy tale and are willing to pay for it.
-
zooming 1/6 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Varvara Melnikova, director of the Strelka Institute, and co-founder of KB Strelka Denis Leontiev. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 2/6 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Presentation of diplomas of the Strelka & ArchDaily Award competition. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 3/6 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. David Basulto, founder of ArchDaily / © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 4/6 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Viktor Stolbovoy, architect, Moscow. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 5/6 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Presentation of diplomas of the Strelka & ArchDaily Award competition. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
-
zooming 6/6 Conference "Architect of the Future" 2019. Maxim Kaluzhak, architect, Moldova. © Lyudmila Savelyeva. Courtesy of the Strelka Institute
