The GAFA bureau, in collaboration with Tegola and Arkhitail, organized an expedition to the island of Kilpola in Karelia as part of Moskomarkhitektura’s “Open City” festival. There, amidst moss and rocks, the students sought answers to questions like: what is the sacred, where does it dwell, and what sustains it? Assisting the participants in this quest were landscape engineer Evgeny Levin, artist Nicholas Roerich, a moose, and the lack of cellular connection. Here’s how the story unfolded.
Written by: Alyona Kuznetsova Translated by: Anton Mizonov
Where ancient rocks, in timeless, quiet rest,
Reflect in waters still, a mirror true,
There, with a careful, tender hand impressed,
Someone submerges treasure deep and blue.
Nicholas Roerich
This year, the “Open City” festival unveils new dimensions under the curatorship of Tsymailo, Lyashenko & Partners. The theme they selected belongs to the realm of the timeless yet elusive and complex to discuss – “The Space of Spirit,” touching on both its religious context and its broader, secular significance. Despite many “buts” this choice feels deeply relevant, resonating with the oscillations of the pendulum of cultural thought. Our era has striking parallels to the period between the two World Wars. Much like back then, people are seeking grounding, explanations, and justifications to navigate reality and its darker sides. But now, these supports are often found outside traditional religious institutions – Nietzsche, breakthroughs in neuroscience, and an information landscape swollen to gargantuan proportions have changed things. More commonly, people turn to esotericism, mysticism, or wellness culture. Where once there was Helena Blavatsky, now we have Elena Blinovskaya.
In this context, it indeed seems valuable to pause and contemplate both oneself and the eternal. What deity do I serve? What do I believe? To what standards do I hold my values? Who is the author of the starry sky and the moral law?
And, more specifically – how does all this coexist within a city? Does the sacred still have a place in the everyday? Does it have a home?
Reflecting the breadth of the theme, the festival offers an impressive array of engaging workshops. We took part in one of them.
The Sacred Language of Nature
GAFA proposed seeking the sacred through understanding nature’s language, a perspective that feels both logical and deeply authentic. If we assume that the sacred truly exists, it emerged long before us; in the “day” of the universe, humanity occupies at most the last few minutes. Thus, it’s plausible that the sacred is most purely expressed or concentrated outside human culture – in nature, which might be seen as an original source.
Expedition to Kilpola Island as part of the “Open City” festival, 2024
Remember the film “Arrival”, which centers on a concept from linguist Ferdinand de Saussure? The protagonist learns the aliens’ language, and in doing so gains the ability to foresee the future, absorbing a fundamental skill of these beings along with their language. Similarly, by learning nature’s language – a language that may indeed articulate the sacred – we might come closer to understanding the essence of the sacred itself.
Expedition to Kilpola Island as part of the “Open City” festival, 2024
GAFA is not the first to search for traces of divinity in nature, yet their approach ingeniously aligns with reality. How much unspoiled nature remains even in our own country? People venture to the Putorana Plateau, the Katun River, or the volcanoes of Kamchatka in pursuit of it. Yet such journeys demand both time and resources, which are often scarce. Karelia, as an alternative, offers an abundance of primal wilderness and mystery, both near and elusive. And it’s here, in the Ladoga skerries, that Nicholas Roerich spent two very important years of his life.
The Treasure, 1919
Copyright: Nicholas Roerich
Why Roerich?
In his flight log, Yuri Gagarin compared what he saw through the porthole to the colors of Roerich’s art. Many would recognize Roerich’s distinctive purple and blue canvases. He is sometimes playfully called the “Russian Indiana Jones” by some researchers – an archaeologist, traveler, artist, and thinker who pursued treasures of a different kind.
We know a fair amount about Roerich’s time in Karelia: where he lived, that he created nearly 200 works, and that he developed his characteristic palette there. In his tale named “The Flame”, he describes the “joy and vigor” of the north. As cultural historian Dmitry Popov writes, in Karelia, “the master gazed ever more deeply into the eternal beauty of celestial constellations, increasingly wishing to unite them with the mysteries of the earth, ever more convinced in his search for kindred threads between the ‘here’ and the ‘there’.”
The students of the workshop took on a similar quest during the expedition.
In the Beginning Was the Word (and at the End)
Many were eager to venture into Karelia – GAFA received 65 applications from students in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kazan, out of which only 15 could be selected. A fairly simple application exercise – an essay on “My Place of Power” – helped identify a motivated and diverse group. This essay also marked the first step in their reflections on the sacred.
A touch of mystery accompanied the selection, as several participants turned out to be classmates from MARHI. This wasn’t intentional; all portfolios and essays were submitted anonymously to the workshop curators.
The resulting group was indeed diverse – some of the participants were already employed at major architectural companies, others focused on industrial design, considered graduate studies in Milan, or questioned their career paths. Many had visited Karelia or similar places, while others were tasting lingonberries or walking barefoot on moss for the first time.
Expedition to Kilpola Island as part of the “Open City” festival, 2024
One of the outcomes of the expedition will be a book, with each chapter dedicated to different aspects of the sacred. For this reason, during their forest walks, the students were encouraged to capture their thoughts, and then develop them into more profound essays.
Expedition to Kilpola Island as part of the “Open City” festival, 2024
The expedition took place on the island of Kilpola – a spot not far from the place where Roerich once lived on a smaller neighboring island. Here, it’s easy to encounter a moose, wild boar, or hare, to be startled by the nighttime silence, to see stars and the northern lights, to feast on blueberries, and to fill a basket with chanterelles within minutes.
Expedition to Kilpola Island as part of the “Open City” festival, 2024
One of the skerries hosts the retreat center “Ostrov” (“Island”) which served as the workshop’s base camp. The center offers a modest asceticism well-suited to the expedition’s purpose: the menu is meat-free, there’s almost no cell reception or Wi-Fi, facilities are outdoors, and you’re expected to wash your own dishes. Yet only a hundred meters from the cabins, you’re surrounded by wild forest, and without an offline map, it’s easy to get lost in it. Under the guidance of the center’s founder, Alexander Argelander, the participants ventured into the most remote parts of the forest. Such walks showed that the sacred remains inaudible in a crowd; it requires solitude and silence.
Contrary to the harsh northern stereotype, the Karelian Isthmus dazzles with an incredible variety of colors and landscapes. Landscape engineer Evgeny Levin – a highlight of the trip – helped the group of students appreciate the genius of evolution and the divine beauty of natural forms. Walking kilometers along trails (and often off-trail as well), they frequently stopped to admire nature’s designs. Here, a boulder with a sloping edge forms a platform for a delicate composition: fern fronds grow through a moss carpet, yellow birch leaves scatter gracefully, a red berry adds a focal point, and a mushroom balances the arrangement. Symbiosis, beauty, and harmony – a beautiful name for a new chapter! Moving on, they find marvelous wetland meadows that filter heavy metals from water, and smooth stone basins within granite – Jun’ya Ishigami’s work is impressive, but even he cannot match the natural perfection of the shapes created by the waves. Nearby, colorful lichens resemble a fisherman’s camouflage jacket. Succession, root systems, material cycling, fungal networks – the group eagerly scribbled notes. Evgeny’s enthusiasm was infectious, connecting what they saw with real-life applications: sponge cities, shade and rain gardens.
The packed schedule included not only forest hikes but also lectures, qigong, plein air painting sessions, and various workshops, ensuring no one left without answers. Victoria Gavalidi acted as a catalyst for the group’s mental explorations, keeping everyone on their toes with questions that sparked discussion. With each hour, ideas about the sacred multiplied, definitions grew more complex, sometimes gaining clarity, sometimes losing it. Grigorios Gavalidis, a skilled moderator, helped keep thoughts grounded, guiding and refining them. Yet, at one fireside “meeting”, he observed, “We won’t find the sacred. First, you need to understand who you are, define the person”.
Perhaps he was right – understanding the sacred is a journey, one that may never reach a definitive truth. Yet there is great value in the search itself.
Expedition to Kilpola Island as part of the “Open City” festival, 2024
There was also space for leisure – an essential part of the creative life. Free time was used in myriad ways: some of the students painted, others climbed hills to commune with the local spirit, or floated on paddleboards in the cold waters of Lake Ladoga, feeling like explorers landing on untouched islands. Many rose before dawn to greet the sun from the water. They drank tea with Vasily. And in these quiet moments, perhaps, they best heard their own inner voice.
Where the Moose Goes
Talking about the sacred in the language of nature proved to be quite simple: participants frequently referred to roots, cycles of life and death, adaptation, and symbiosis, all while gazing at the endlessly diverse patterns around them. At one point, the moose became a symbol for their discussions. Where is it headed, and what is it thinking? Grigorios shared his experience of encountering this creature on a forest path – it seemed to an urban dweller like an alien being, its eyes reflecting the wisdom of the universe. The tale of the moose even made its way to Sergey Kuznetsov upon their return to Moscow.
Grigorios Gavalidis, Victoria Gavalidi, Evgeny Levin. Expedition to Kilpola Island as part of the “Open City” festival, 2024
As a result, each participant found their own sense of the sacred, which they will express through drawings and text for the collective book. The students also collected various artifacts during the expedition to create a unified panel. A third outcome of the workshop will be a film that intersperses reflections on the sacred with scenes of the Karelian landscapes. Given the intensive work of two cameramen, it promises to be visually stunning.
The festival’s final exhibition, which will showcase the outcomes of the Karelian expedition, will take place in November at the “Ruin” wing of the Shchusev Museum of Architecture.
This journey was made possible through the support of like-minded companies, including Tegola, Arkhitail, and the Timeless project.
Resort on the Kama River
Wowhaus has developed a project for the reconstruction of Korabelnaya Roshcha (“Mast Grove”), a wellness resort located on the banks of the Kama River.
Nests in Primorye
The eco-park project “Nests”, designed by Aleksey Polishchuk and the company Power Technologies, received first prize at the Eco-Coast 2025 festival, organized by the Union of Architects of Russia. For a glamping site in Filinskaya Bay, the authors proposed bird-shaped houses, treehouses, and a nest-shaped observation platform, topping it all with an entrance pavilion executed in the shape of an owl.
The Angle of String Tension
The House of Music, designed by Vladimir Plotkin and the architects of TPO Reserve, resembles a harp, and when seen from above, even a bass clef. But if only it were that simple! The architecture of the complex fuses two distinct expressive languages: the lattice-like, transparent, permeable vocabulary of “classical” modernism and the sculptural, ribbon-like volumes so beloved by today’s neo-modernism. How it all works – where the catharsis lies, which compositional axes underpin the design, where the project resembles Zaryadye Concert Hall and where it does not – read in the article below.
How Historic Tobolsk Becomes a Portal to the Future
Over the past decade, the architectural company Wowhaus has developed urban strategies for several Russian cities – Vyksa, Tula, and Nizhnekamsk, to name but a few. Against this backdrop, the Tobolsk master plan stands out both for its scale – the territory under transformation covers more than 220 square kilometers – and for its complexity.
St. Petersburg vs Rome
The center of St. Petersburg is, as we know, sacred – but few people can say with certainty where this “sacred place” actually begins and ends. It’s not about the formal boundaries, “from the Obvodny Canal to the Bolshaya Nevka”, but about the vibe that feels true to the city center. With the Nevskaya Ratusha complex – built to a design that won an international competition – Evgeny Gerasimov and Sergei Tchoban created an “image of the center” within its territory. And not so much the image of St. Petersburg itself, as that of a global metropolis. This is something new, something that hasn’t appeared in the city for a long time. In this article, we study the atmosphere, recall precedents, and even reflect on who and when first called St. Petersburg the “new Rome”. Clearly, the idea is alive for a reason.
On the Wave
The project of transforming the river port and embankment in the city of Cheboksary, developed by the ATRIUM Architects, involves one of the city’s key areas. The Volga embankment is to be turned into a riverside boulevard – a multifunctional, comfortable, and expressive space for work and leisure activities. The authors propose creating a new link with the city’s main Krasnaya (“Red”) Square, as well as erecting several residential towers inspired by the shape of the traditional national women’s headdress – these towers are likely to become striking accents on the Volga panorama.
Valery Kanyashin: “We Were Given a Free Hand”
The Headliner residential complex, the main part of which was recently completed just across from Moscow City, is a kind of neighbor to the MIBC that doesn’t “play along” with it. On the contrary, the new complex is entirely built on contrast: like a city of differently scaled buildings that seems to have emerged naturally over the past 20 years – which is a hugely popular trend nowadays! And yet here – perhaps only here – such a project has been realized to its full potential. Yes, high-rises dominate, but all these slender, delicate profiles, all these exciting perspectives! And most importantly – how everything is mixed and composed together... We spoke with the project’s leader Valery Kanyashin.
The Keystone
Until quite recently, premium residential and office complexes in Moscow were seen as the exclusive privilege of the city center. Today the situation is changing: high-quality architecture is moving beyond the confines of the Third Ring Road and appearing on the outskirts. The STONE Kaluzhskaya business center is one such example. Projects like this help decentralize the megalopolis, making life and work prestigious in any part of the city.
Perpetuum Mobile
The interior of the headquarters of Natsproektstroy, created by the IND studio team, vividly and effectively reflects the client’s field of activity – it is one of Russia’s largest infrastructure companies, responsible for logistics and transport communications of every kind you can possibly think of.
Water and Light
Church art is full of symbolism, and part of it is truly canonical, while another part is shaped by tradition and is perceived by some as obligatory. Because of this kind of “false conservatism”, contemporary church architecture develops slowly compared to other genres, and rarely looks contemporary. Nevertheless, there are enthusiasts in this field out there: the cemetery church of Archangel Michael in Apatity, designed by Dmitry Ostroumov and Prokhram bureau, combines tradition and experiment. This is not an experiment for its own sake, however – rather, the considered work of a contemporary architect with the symbolism of space, volume, and, above all, light.
Champions’ Cup
At first glance, the Bell skyscraper on 1st Yamskogo Polya Street, 12, appears strict and laconic – though by no means modest. Its economical stereometry is built on a form close to an oval, one of UNK architects’ favorite themes. The streamlined surface of the main volume, clad in metal louvers, is sliced twice with glass incisions that graphically reveal the essence of the original shape: both its simplicity and its complexity. At the same time, dozens of highly complex engineering puzzles have been solved here.
Semi-Digital Environment
In the town of Innopolis, a satellite of Kazan, the first 4-star hotel designed by MAD Architects has opened. The interiors of the hotel combine elegance with irony, and technology with comfort, evoking the atmosphere of a computer game or maybe a sci-fi movie about the near future.
History never ends
The old railway station in Kapan, a city in southern Armenia, has been given new life by the Paris-based design firm Normal Studio. Today, it serves as a TUMO center.
A Deep, Crystal Shine
A new luxury residential development by ADM architects is set to rise in the Patriarch’s Ponds district, not far from Novopushkinsky Square. It will replace three buildings erected in the early 1990s. The project authors, Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova, have placed their bets on the variety among the three volumes, modern design solutions, and attention to detail: one of the buildings will feature smoothly curved balconies with a ceramic sheen on their undersides, while another will be accented by glass “sculpture” columns.
Grigory Revzin: “What we should do with the architecture of the seventies”
Soviet modernism came in two flavors: the good, author-driven kind, and the bad, standardized kind. The good kind was “on the periphery”, while the bad kind was in the center – geographically, in terms of attention, scale, and everything else. Can we demolish it? “That would be destroying public consensus out of thin air”. So what should we do? Preserve it, but creatively: “Bring architecture into places where it hasn’t yet appeared”. Treat these buildings not as monuments, but as urban landscape. Read our interview with Grigory Revzin on the pressing topic of saving modernism – where he proposes a controversial, yet really intriguing, way of preserving 1970s buildings.
A Roadside Picnic of Urban Planning Theorists
Marina Egorova, head of Empate Architectural Bureau, brought together urban planning theorists – the successors of Alexey Gutnov and Vyacheslav Glazychev – to revive the substance and depth of professional discourse. At the first meeting, much ground was covered: the participants revisited the theoretical foundations, aligned their values, examined a cutting-edge case of the Kazan agglomeration, and concluded with the unfathomable intricacies of Russian land demarcation. Below, we present key takeaways from all the presentations.
Perspective View
CNTR Architects has designed a business center for a new district in Yekaterinburg, aiming to reduce the need for commuting and make the residential environment more diverse. The architectural solutions are equally focused on creating spatial flexibility, comfortable working conditions, and a memorable image that could allow the building to become a spatial landmark of the district.
Malevich and Bathhouses, Nature and High-Tech
The Malevich Bathhouse complex is scheduled to open in the fall of 2025 on the Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Highway. The project, designed by DBA-GROUP under the leadership of Vladislav Andreev, is an example of an unconventional approach to the image of a spa in general and of a bathhouse in particular. Deliberately avoiding any kind of allusion, the architects opted for streamlined forms with characteristic rounded corners, a combination of wood with bent glass, and restrained contemporary shapes – both inside and out. Let’s take a closer look at the project.
Rather, a Tablecloth and a Glass!
After many years, the long-abandoned Horse Guards Department building in St. Petersburg has finally received the attention it deserves: according to a design by Studio 44, the first restoration and adaptation works are scheduled to begin this year. Both the intended function and the general scope of works imply minimal alteration to the complex, which has preserved traces of its three-century history. All solutions are reversible and aimed, above all, at opening the monument to the city and immersing it in a lively social scene – hence the choice of a cultural center scenario with a strong gastronomic component.
Materialization of Airflows
The Nikolai Kamov International Airport in Tomsk opened at the end of August last year. We have already written about the project – now we are taking a look at the completed building. Its functionality is reinforced by symbolic undertones: the architects at ASADOV sought to reflect local identity in the architecture as fully as possible.
The City as a Narrative
Sergey Skuratov’s approach to large urban plots could best be described as a “total design code”. The architect pays equal attention to the overall composition and the smallest of details, striving to ensure that every aspect is thoroughly thought out and subordinated to the original vision. It’s a Renaissance-like approach, really – a titanic effort demanding remarkable willpower and perseverance. The results are likewise grand – architecture that makes a statement. This article looks at the revived concept for the central section of the Seventh Heaven residential district in Kazan, a composition so thoroughly considered that even the “gradient of visual emphasis” (sic!) across the facades has been carefully worked out. It also touches on the narrative idea behind the project – and even the architect’s own doubts about it.
A Garden of Hope for Freedom
In October, at the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery in Suzdal, the Prison Yard Garden opened on the site that had served as a prison from the 18th century until the Khrushchev Thaw. The architectural concept was developed by NOῨD Short Film, and the landscape design by the MOX landscape bureau. In fact, there are two gardens here – very different ones. We try to understand whether they evoke the right emotions in visitors, while also showing the beauty of June’s ruderal plants in bloom.
A Laconic Image of Time
The Time Square residential complex, built on the northern edge of St. Petersburg, appears more concise and efficient than its neighbor and predecessor, the New Time complex. Nevertheless, the architect’s hand is clearly felt: themes of “black and white”, “inside and outside”, and most notably, the “lamellar” quality of the facades that seems to visibly “eat away” at the buildings’ mass – everything is played out like a well-written score. One is reminded of both classical modernism and the so-called “post-constructivism”.
The Flower of the Lake
The prototype for the building of the Kamal Theater in Kazan is an ice flower: a rare and fragile natural phenomenon of Lake Kaban “froze” in the large, soaring outlines of the glass screens enclosing the main volume, shaping its silhouette and shielding the stained-glass windows from the sun. The project, led by the Wowhaus consortium and including global architecture “star” Kengo Kuma, won the 2021/2022 competition and was realized close to the original concept in a short – very short – period of time. The theater opened in early 2025. It was Kengo Kuma who proposed the image of an ice flower and the contraposition of cold on the outside and warmth on the inside. Between 2022 and 2024, Wowhaus did everything possible to bring this vision to life, practically living on-site. Now we are taking a closer look at this landmark building and its captivating story.
Peaceful Integration on Mira Avenue
The MIRA residential complex (the word mir means “peace” in Russian), perched above the steep banks of the Yauza River and Mira Avenue, lives up to its name not only technically, but also visually and conceptually. Sleek, high-rise, and glass-clad, it responds both to Zholtovsky’s classicism and to the modernism of the nearby “House on Stilts”. Drawing on features from its neighbors, it reconciles them within a shared architectural language rooted in contemporary façade design. Let’s take a closer look at how this is done.
An Interior for a New Format of Education
The design of the new building for Tyumen State University (TyumSU) was initially developed before the pandemic but later revised to meet new educational requirements. The university has adopted a “2+2+2” system, which eliminates traditional divisions into groups and academic streams in favor of individualized study programs. These changes were implemented swiftly – right at the start of construction. Now that the building is complete, we are taking a closer look.
New Aeroflot Office: Lightness, Play, Comfort
Even if you have no plans to fly with Aeroflot anytime soon, their new office at 2A 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street is still worth a visit for its interior design alone.
Penthouses and Kokoshniks
A new residential complex designed by ASADOV Architects for the Krasnaya Roza business district responds to its proximity to 17th-century landmarks – the chambers of the Hamovny Dvor and St. Nicholas Church – as well as to the need to preserve valuable façades of a historic rental house built in the Russian Revival style. The architects proposed a set of buildings of varying heights, whose façades reference ecclesiastical architecture. But we were also able to detect other associations.
Centipede Town
The new school campus designed by ATRIUM Architects, located on the shores of a protected lake in the Imeretian Lowland Ornithological Reserve, represents an important and ambitious undertaking for the team: this is not just a school, but a Presidential Lyceum for the comprehensive development of gifted children – 2,500 students from age 3 through high school. At the same time, it is also envisioned as a new civic hub for the entire Sirius territory. In this article, we unpack the structure and architecture of this “lyceum town”.
Warm Black and White
The second phase of “Quarter 31”, designed by KPLN and built in the Moscow suburb town of Pushkino, reveals a multifaceted character. At first glance, the complex appears to be defined by geometry and a monochrome palette. But a closer look reveals a number of “irregular” details: a gradient of glazing and flared window frames, a hierarchy of façades, volumetric brickwork, and even architectural references to natural phenomena. We explore all the rules – and exceptions – that we were able to discover here.
