The names of the hundred participants in the free educational program Architects.rf who won the competition - those who will study in the 2019/20 academic year - were announced on November 20. The program is being held for the second time, it combines an on-line course with periods of off-line training and trips to other countries and cities of the Russian Federation, and in general resembles refresher courses for architects from all over the country. This year, about 3000 applications were received from 150 cities. Architects, urban planners, builders, designers, specialists in real estate management and urban management - with completed higher education: bachelors, masters and specialists can study. It is known that among the graduates of the program there is a high percentage of those who changed jobs, as well as those who started or continued to work both in regional administrations and in such a large institution as the initiator of the DOM. RF program, where two graduates have settled at the moment …
We spoke with the organizers - about how they are helping to find employment for students, and with several alumni working in administrative positions - about what it is like and how the skills learned in the program have helped them adapt and work effectively. Everyone is enthusiastic, young and energetic.
Question to the organizers of the program Architects.rf
Are the organizers of the program promoting the placement of their graduates and, if so, how?
The Program Directorate of Architects.rf in every possible way promotes the search for relevant vacancies in various cities and regions, as well as the promotion of program graduates to new positions. We regularly receive information and direct requests for recommendations of candidates for leading positions from both industry organizations and city and regional administrations. Often, graduates themselves who hold managerial positions or learn about relevant vacancies in companies turn to the program directorate with a request to advise from the alumni community those who might be interested in this position. We have the most up-to-date and complete information about education, previous employment, as well as completed projects of all hundreds of professionals, so we can quickly select possible candidates.
We also constantly integrate alumni into key industry events dedicated to the development of the urban environment, such as the Moscow Urban Forum, the Environment for Life Forum, the World Cities Day, the Russian Investment Forum in Sochi, the VRN Architecture forum, an expanded meeting of the Presidium of the State Council on improving the living conditions of the population and creating a favorable urban environment. At such sites, participants have an excellent opportunity to meet leading experts, potential customers and employers. Of course, we plan to invite participants of the new wave Architects.rf 2019/20 to external profile events. Due to this, we also hope to introduce the two streams of the program and achieve their unification, since graduates often learn about vacancies or projects from personal communication.
Further - questions to the graduates and their answers
Questions:
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Tell the story of your job offer after graduation
Architects.rf. How quickly did it happen, when exactly, were there any intermediate stages, or did you get to this job almost as if it were “according to distribution”?
- What are your main occupations in your current position? What tasks prevail: administrative, coordination? Are there any creative tasks among them?
- What's the hardest part about your new position?
- How is your new job different from your previous one?
- How do you use the knowledge gained in the Architects.rf program? Tell a story when they came in handy.
Answers
Natalia Mashtalir
Deputy Director, Chief Architect
Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Moscow Region of Krasnodar
1
I was invited to work in May, the appointment took place in early September. When I applied for the program, I entered the competition as an architect, and not as a civil servant, since in fact I worked as an architect. I found out that I had entered the program a few days before the appointment.
2
The tasks are varied. One of the main ones is communication with people, the so-called receptions of citizens. 40 people come a week, everyone wants to see the chief architect. They often come with questions that are beyond the competence of the department of architecture: on roads, lighting, selection of sites for construction.
Also, the lion's share of the time is spent on the development of guidelines, their approval, verification and approval of projects on them. You are engaged in administrative work after the end of the working day: you sign letters, arrange meetings with employees. Although the tasks of the department do not include the development of draft designs (yes, there are almost no architects in the department of architecture, since the work of the department is mainly administrative), we also develop them. And of course, also only after the end of the working day.
3
Everybody associates the work of an official with something completely different from what it really is. A small salary, pressure from the prosecutor's office (for example, we recently
it was forbidden to hold architectural and urban planning councils), the attitude of people - all this affects the emotional background of municipal employees. Unlike government officials, municipalities work “on the ground”, they see people's problems not in statistics, but in specific stories. This is both interesting and very difficult. Especially when you can't help. Therefore, the most difficult thing is not to lose heart.
4
In my previous job, I mainly designed social objects. The current job is an eternal dynamic, a lot of meetings, communication with a variety of people with unexpected requests, publicity. I really like to just work in silence, so I come to work on weekends.
5
Yes, all the time. For example, knowledge of how to correctly draw up a technical assignment for the implementation of a draft design for the federal program "Formation of a comfortable urban environment".
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Alexander Vasilyukha
Project manager of the regional team for the development of the urban environment in the Ivanovo region
When Architects.rf just started, I did not have a clear idea of this program. But I understood that Strelka Institute does not make bad projects and it would be cool to learn from its specialists. In addition, due to age restrictions, I could not get into some programs in architecture and urbanism, and there was no such barrier for me at Architect.
I was interested in all the online courses of the program, since there are not so many resources on the Russian Internet that would help structure information on urban planning in such a way. In the offline program, I was most impressed by my visit to Gehl Architects in Copenhagen. It was great that we communicated absolutely freely with the architects and designers of such a well-known European bureau.
At the same time, if I were the creators of the program, I would talk more about successful Russian cases in the field of urban planning and architecture and about our architectural bureaus and companies. For example, we were impressed after talking with the Assistant to the President of Tatarstan on issues, including the urban environment and improvement, Natalia Fishman. She spoke about the real experience of implementing improvement projects in her region.
1
In general, participation in the Architects.rf program turned my life upside down. Before him, I was a design engineer, I was engaged in the development of working documentation for projects of residential complexes in Tyumen. During our training, one of the participants, Sofia Poznanskaya, who became an advisor to the governor of the Ivanovo region on the urban environment, said that she was recruiting a team and invited me to join it. I still remember that moment. This was the third module of our training, we went to Barcelona to the Institute of Progressive Architecture of Catalonia. It is in the mountains, and against the background of such a beautiful view, she invited me to become part of their team in Ivanovo. I moved there, and now I am engaged in local projects for the development of the urban environment.
2
After graduation from the program and my move, my team and I were engaged in a large project for the improvement of the central avenue in the city of Ivanovo-Sheremetyevsky. It took only a few months to develop the concept. Implementation may start next year or in a year. Now I am engaged in projects for the improvement of small towns in the Ivanovo region.
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zooming 1/3 Campus in the city. Project for the transformation of Sheremetevsky prospect into Ivanovo © Alexander Vasilyukha / regional team for the development of the urban environment in the Ivanovo region
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zooming 2/3 Campus in the city. Project for the transformation of Sheremetevsky prospect into Ivanovo © Alexander Vasilyukha / regional team for the development of the urban environment in the Ivanovo region
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zooming 3/3 Campus in the city. Project for the transformation of Sheremetevsky prospect into Ivanovo © Alexander Vasilyukha / regional team for the development of the urban environment in the Ivanovo region
5
As for me, participation in the Architects.rf program structures your work well. When preparing a portfolio and resume, you begin to understand where to move professionally. In addition, 100 cool specialists from all over Russia appear in your life. And this is what it is worth participating in the Architects.rf program for.
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Ivan Poslovin
Deputy Head of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Administration of the Severo-Yeniseisky District
1
Prior to the Architects.rf program, I worked in the administration of the Severo-Yeniseisky District of the Krasnoyarsk Territory as a Chief Specialist of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning. Although there was no position of deputy head of a department in the department at that time, in fact, I performed these duties. After Architects.rf at work, they appreciated my zeal for self-education and all that layer of valuable knowledge that I received on the program, and to make changes to the regulations on the department of architecture and urban planning, adding the position of deputy department, to which I was transferred.
2
Basically, my duties as a deputy head include overseeing the activities of the department in his absence, the distribution of duties and control over the implementation of tasks assigned to the department. In addition, I deal with the documents of territorial planning and urban planning zoning of the territory of the North-Yenisei region (master plans of settlements, land use and development rules, territorial planning scheme for the area), namely, the development, introduction and approval of changes in them. In addition, I am engaged in the development of concepts (design projects) for the improvement of the territory of the district, work with the population on the provision of municipal services, the approval of project documentation, and so on. The work is mainly administrative and coordinating, there is very little time left for the creative part.
3
The most difficult thing is the correct timing. There is always a lot of work, and it is the correct time management that is very important. Alas, it is not always possible to follow it in urgent situations.
4
A little more interaction with heads of related departments, and in general with people, has been added. Also, some areas of the department's activities, such as control over the execution of municipal services, were completely transferred to my powers as a deputy head.
5
As part of the municipal service, the experience of conducting participatory design that I gained during the program was very useful. In March of this year, I worked with the population of the district to develop a concept for the future park. The media announced the date, place and purpose of the participatory design, according to all the canons, the caring and active citizens present were divided into groups and offered their options for the development of the territory of the planned square (with a graphic image on pre-prepared bases). As a result, a unified development concept and a design project for the future square were developed, which will form the basis for future design.
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Bakhtiyor Mirzakarimov
Leading Architect of the DOM. RF Foundation
1
At the end of the offline training period, an open vacancy for an architect appeared at the DOM. RF Foundation, to which I responded. This was followed by a series of interviews in mid-December, and the work process began at the end of January. Everything was in the mode of a general competition on a par with other applicants, although the passage of the Architects.rf program, I think, is a fairly significant line in the CV.
2
In fact, this is a combination of all three areas, since in the DOM. RF Foundation each of the colleagues is involved in supporting their projects from the start of the task to full implementation. Among the most resonant ones that I managed to implement together with the team this year are the “Competition of improvement projects in small towns and historical settlements”, the Forum “Environment for Life: Cities” in Veliky Novgorod, work on the Urban Environment Quality Index, projects for the pilot application of the Standard integrated development of territories. Each of these projects requires knowledge of modern tools, trends and, of course, the experience of an architect in its broadest sense - a moderator of all involved participants. Within the framework of the Architects.rf program, a lot of attention is paid to the so-called "soft skills" in order to increase the level of students' communication skills, which gives them an advantage in the implementation of their projects and interaction with a large circle of people.
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zooming 1/5 Exhibition of the Forum "Environment for Life: Cities", 19.09.2019 Photo: DOM. RF
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zooming 2/5 Exhibition of the Forum "Environment for Life: Cities" Photo: DOM. RF
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zooming 3/5 Exhibition of the Forum "Environment for Life: Cities", 19.09.2019 Photo: DOM. RF
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zooming 4/5 Exhibition of the Forum "Environment for Life: Cities", 19.09.2019 Photo: DOM. RF
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zooming 5/5 Exhibition of the Forum "Environment for Life: Cities", 19.09.2019 Photo: DOM. RF
3
Intensity. I think that I was looking for just such a job where I could be in the center of events, so now this is even a plus.
4
Previously as an architect, my responsibilities included designing various public and residential buildings in Vladivostok with a height of 2 to 25 floors. Now I work as a lead architect already in the customer's service. And although I have to deal with architecture and urban planning on a daily basis, the working functionality now includes providing work for counterpart partners, the implementation of current projects, and interaction with government authorities.
5
This program helped me to determine the vector of my career development - today an architect has the opportunity to do a lot: from IT and design to civil service and master planning, which, it seems to me, was the main task of Architects.rf - to help specialists find their way into the world of urban development projects, gain new competencies and make many friends who are not indifferent to the development of their country.
It would also be an omission not to pay attention to the fact that many of the projects that I am currently working on were first told to me during my studies. The essence of modern approaches to the development of the urban environment, which is not taught in many universities, was presented by the world's leading experts through a set of tools and personal cases, including master plans, volumetric-spatial regulations, design code.
Even now, contact with the alumni of the program helps me a lot. The guys with whom I finished offline training became close to me like classmates from the alma mater. These are very competent and motivated individuals working in many regions of Russia, many of whom are high-ranking civil servants or founders of their own architectural bureaus. There are many specific stories and they are mainly related to the desire to attract our graduates to be involved in projects implemented with the participation of DOM. RF. And I hope that in the second stream, which received more than 3000 applications, there will be specialists who are “burning” in their work.
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Vera Mizgir
Chief Architect of the Center for the Development of the Urban Environment of the Udmurt Republic, - Head of the Architectural Bureau, Izhevsk
1
After finishing the program, I had a "big reboot" of myself. I understood that for further development it was necessary to go further, open up other horizons, set new goals and solve new problems. Already in May 2019, I wrote a letter of resignation and left the organization in which I worked for 8 years.
This is a serious step, but I understood that only going out of the “comfort zone” would cheer me up and start a new chapter in my life.
I attended educational architectural events, where I met with graduates of the Architects.rf program, who became a big architectural family for me. It was at these meetings that interesting job offers arose, which I thought about. In August, I received a call from Udmurtia with a proposal that coincided with my goals and plans. And it was decided to move from Rostov-on-Don to Izhevsk. Two weeks later, I already took up my new duties as the chief architect of the Center for the Development of the Urban Environment of the Udmurt Republic - the head of the architectural bureau.
2
Another important issue is the preparation of projects for the "All-Russian competition of 2020 for the best projects for creating a comfortable urban environment in small towns and historical settlements." Here I interact with the expert community and involve it in the work and projects of the Center.
There are many tasks and it is insanely interesting. One of the main tasks of the Center is the implementation of the federal program "Formation of a comfortable urban environment", and in the architectural bureau we develop such projects for the municipalities of the Udmurt Republic. I interact with the expert community and involve it in the work and projects of the Center.
I participate in the preparation and implementation of educational programs.
3
Control your strength, as there are many diverse and interesting tasks.
4
She's completely different. In my previous job, I was engaged in the development of urban planning documentation in the field of territorial planning and spatial development. Now I communicate more with experts and representatives of government bodies in charge of the formation of a comfortable urban environment, I am in charge of the current activities of the architectural bureau.
5
On the program, I gained invaluable experience of getting to know world and domestic practices, experience of working in a team, where you need to interact with completely different people and find a solution to the tasks set. In my work, I adhere to the main goal of the architectural policies of various cities and countries - creating conditions for the formation of an aesthetically valuable, comfortable and diverse environment, providing the prerequisites for joint and harmonious living of townspeople of different ages, origins and wealth.
I believe that an architect is, first of all, a professional who can organize an intuitively comfortable space for a person, anticipating his desires. An integrated approach is important. At the same time, it is important to take into account, but not copy the context of the place, emphasizing the identity of the territory, pay great attention to details and respect the opinion of the established urban community. An architect can bring some new behavioral scenarios into a person's life, so you always need to take into account people's opinions when designing a space, be it an apartment, a building, a public space or the development of a city development strategy. The ambitions of an architect are endless, but you need to build on exactly what the person wants, and bring your new professional thoughts and ideas into this.
