The three-hour marathon "Own Bureau" became one of the events of the online program of the Moskomarkhitektura festival "Open City". Fourteen participants in the format of short presentations told about the beginning of their professional career, the problems they faced, significant projects, and also shared advice on creating and developing their own bureau.
SCHEME
SCHEMA partners Natalia Orekhova and Andrey Sviridov initially relied on creativity and experimental projects. And since the desire to abandon the "streaming" can lead - especially at first - to financial difficulties, the architects recommended looking for third-party income (lectures, master classes and other activities that can bring additional income). In due time on the basis of SCHEMA bureau the educational project "Soft Culture" was launched. Also among the recommendations - constantly broaden your horizons and allocate time and resources for the implementation of one or two "volunteer" projects per year, which will not bring profit, but will be useful to someone.
As part of the presentation, the architects presented several of their non-standard works, including those made jointly with artists and students. One of such projects is the annual pavilion "Preservation of Silence", which allows you to hide from extraneous noise, for example, in a park or on a busy street. There are plans to build such a pavilion in Europe.
Project Team 8
Dmitry Smirnov, Managing Partner of Project Group 8, said that there was no purpose to create a bureau from the very beginning, especially since Dmitry himself is not an architect. But there was a desire to change his hometown - Vologda - for the better, to come up with a mechanism for effective interaction between the authorities and the townspeople in the implementation of certain projects to develop the environment. The team created and implemented their first works without a customer.
A decade later, the principles followed in the work of "Project Group 8" have not changed significantly. The team is still committed to creating a quality urban environment and is actively promoting the participatory design mechanism.
Liphart Architects
The key to successful self-realization for Stepan Lipgart was adherence to his own views, tastes and interests. In particular, interest in the relationship between architecture and history. Having started his career in 2006, the then Moscow architect created mainly competitive projects and architectural fantasies, took part in festivals, was inspired by the architecture of the 1920s - 1930s, and sought to capture in his works the feelings and emotions that determine a specific historical moment. Full self-realization took place about five years ago, and no longer in Moscow, but in St. Petersburg, where Liphart Architects has been working since then.
One after another, residential buildings and complexes are being implemented according to the bureau's projects, and all of them are united by a delicate inclusion in the historical environment.
dot.bureau
The founders Alexey and Nadezhda Chadovich described the path of the bureau's development as a path from “boring” to “scary”. It’s scary - because, while developing a bureau, you need to think not only about architecture, but also solve a large number of complex organizational issues. The process of creating a project in a bureau is usually divided into three stages: brand - form - details.
The architects talked about several interesting projects - how they turned an amusement park into an experience park, a gas station into more than a gas station, and a port warehouse into a “re-warehouse”.
A2M
Andrey Adamovich, partner of A2M, founded the bureau in 2012. Then he collaborated with the Luxembourg company BENG and, accordingly, was mainly engaged in foreign projects - this allowed him to gain valuable experience. In the first years after the founding of the bureau, it also actively participated in Russian competitions. It was the contests that gave impetus to its development in Russia. Since 2015, A2M architects have begun to design commercial and social facilities - with different budgets - in the Moscow region.
A2M employees have the opportunity to go through all stages of object creation - from design to implementation. This is a principled position in the "education" of professionals - not to limit some of the architects with concepts, and others - with working documentation, and so on.
AZONE
Azon architectural group partner Azat Khasanov spoke about the childhood, youth and maturity of the company. Architects started in the studio of Sergei Skuratov, where they mostly assisted, gained knowledge. Then they worked in the bureau of Sergei Kiselev and Vladimir Plotkin; already working in the latter, we began an independent path. The first implemented project was a hotel in Moscow, now the architects have switched to larger formats - for example, a master plan for Reutov, participation in the competition for Mitino Park as the leader of a large consortium. The bureau also has renovations, private houses and other projects. Among the interesting things are methodological manuals for the improvement of the territories of the MEGA and IKEA shopping centers.
The main advice for aspiring architects is to be helpful. This allows you to build mutually beneficial relationships. Also, great importance should be given to communications - an architect must be able to speak - with customers, with city activists, with experts, partners. Azat Khasanov even advised three books with which you can start preparing for the creation of your own bureau: "Business for your own", "Rework. Business without prejudice”and“Partnership agreement. How to build a joint business on a reliable basis”.
Cedra
The bureau has existed for a year and a half, but during this time, according to its head Ivan Shilnikov, the team managed to go a long way, to complete a considerable number of projects - from a schweppes bar to the reconstruction of a Yalta park.
Architects love experimentation and daring solutions, while at the same time they have an interest in working with a historical context.
Orchestra Design
The bureau, which appeared 3.5 years ago, has offices in St. Petersburg and Paris, since one of its partners is the French architect Edouard Moreau. The second partner - Ekaterina Goldberg - is not an architect, which allowed expanding the bureau's activities to architectural + cultural and educational. The bureau works on public and cultural spaces, strategies for the development of urban areas.
Like many other young companies, the bureau started its journey with participation in competitions, now its portfolio includes a lot of completed public spaces in different cities of Russia. The “trick” of the company is in the search for new connections between the person and the environment, in the creation of opportunities for a new look at the familiar. We remind you that Archi.ru with partners Orchestra Design last year published
interview.
NZ Group
Natalya Zaichenko calls her bureau a “personal story”. For eight years, her portfolio includes more than 30 works. Basically, these are exhibition projects. The company initially did not have a business plan, never had an office and did not have permanent employees. All interactions are mostly remote.
Natalya Zaichenko decided to go by the way of working with exhibitions “at the call of her heart”. It turned out to be what she liked, what brought satisfaction. Now Natalia is looking for development in behavioral architecture.
Vosduh
A married couple of architects, Maxim Lagutin and Alexandra Pekina, started in large Moscow bureaus, doing projects in various directions - from urban planning to multi-storey housing. Later they switched to private practice. Now Vosduh is a young interior bureau with an established circle of customers, which sees its development in the design of public spaces. Some projects are created by architects together with German partners, which makes it possible to enter the foreign market in the future.
Advice for those who are at the very beginning of their journey is to participate more in contests. Also among the recommendations is to listen to the opinion of the customer, learn communication, competently convey your ideas, work on your own style.
WE Architects
The history of the bureau dates back to 2008. Its founder, Vladimir Dudin, began with the execution of private orders, but the problem was that there were not many such orders corresponding to the architect's worldview. Hence - participation in competitions and festivals, where there are more opportunities for self-expression and for meeting like-minded people. After a while, Vladimir managed to organize his own bureau.
Among the principles of the company is the pursuit of a clear and concise architecture. Now such architecture is in trend, so the number of orders corresponding to Dudin's worldview has increased significantly. Now the bureau is growing and developing, there is a desire to build quality facilities around the world.
BuroZavod
There is no leader-leader in the team, it is a horizontal structure in which the importance of roles is evenly distributed. The bureau appeared, one might say, spontaneously, initially a team of classmates created projects "from time to time." Now the company has six girls (four architects, an economist and a sociologist) who are engaged in design and consulting in the field of territorial development. All of them are the first graduates of the RANEPA master's program "Territorial Development Project Management".
Among the projects created in two years there are applications for the competition of small towns, two of which have won and are now being implemented; redevelopment of the former building of the tax inspectorate in Manchegorsk - now it is a “city living room”; master plans for the cities of Zapolyarny and Nikel.
MAParchitects
Alexander Poroshkin planned to open his own office while still a student. But the most difficult thing was not to create a company, but to get the first order. The solution was to participate in a variety of competitions, which made it possible to form a portfolio and become more visible. This practice continues to this day. Almost immediately, the bureau managed to find its first permanent customer. The staff of the company increased every year. The scale and format of projects has changed - from the design of residential areas, the creation of urban development concepts and work with historical heritage to private houses.
The bureau has won several victories in major competitions. Despite the fact that not all of the competition projects were implemented, the bureau managed to secure itself with orders thanks to this practice.
.ket
The bureau has existed for less than a year, but its history began a little earlier. After graduating from Moscow Architectural Institute in 2018,.ket founders Karen Bilyan and Tigran Danielyan gained experience at AI Architects. The architects made the decision to "secede" and create their own company in February 2020, right before the pandemic.
Here you can read about one of the bureau's first projects - the architects created a furniture showroom and a car wash for the Millennium Park cottage community.
Architects try to bring new meanings to the already familiar typologies, add artistic value to such objects, to the creation of which it is generally not customary to involve architects. The bureau takes on a variety of projects - from a reality show platform to a health center. Orders are received even through Facebook.
Below is a full video of the event, where you can learn more about the history of each participant.
