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Campus within a Day

In this article, we talk about what the participants of Genplan Institute of Moscow’s hackathon were doing at the MosComArchitecture booth at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition. We also discuss who won the prize and why, and what can be done with the territory of a small university on the outskirts of Moscow.

11 June 2024
Report
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Few would agree that a university campus project, even a small one, can be created in just a day, even in its most preliminary concept form. Nevertheless, we know that such things do happen sometimes. Another thing that we know is that hackathons are popular because they mobilize both feelings and thoughts in people.

In our case, the work took place at an exhibition – a well-known approach where the design team becomes a sort of exhibit in itself. Evgeny Ace tried this many years ago at a biennale – and, interestingly, one of the teams won a significant prize: 150,000 rubles. There was something to compete for beyond professional growth, and it was worth staying up for 24 hours.

The brainstorming session took place at the MosComArchitecture stand, which also showcased three new Moscow campuses in various stages of readiness: the Lomonosov cluster in the Moscow State University Valley, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, and the master plan for Moscow State University of Civil Engineering located on Yaroslavskoye Highway.

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    The teams were working at the Moscomarchitecture stand behind a polycarbonate wall, but it was possible to take a sneak peek inside
    Copyright: Photograph © Provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow
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    The MCA booth where the hackathon was held was dedicated to the new Moscow campuses, with three projects of varying degrees of readiness displayed on the outside of the stand in the form of a prismatron
    Copyright: Photograph © Provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow


Students participating in the hackathon were asked to come up with proposals for the territory of Moscow City Pedagogical University. All three teams worked on the same task but autonomously, and on different days.

The university in question is small and located in the eastern part of Moscow, on the edge of a district nestled between Izmailovo and the Moscow Ring Road; it is bordered by a park on two sides. The campus includes two academic buildings, one built in 1987 and the other in 2002, both three stories high, with a characteristic cross-like plan aimed at maximizing light exposure in the classrooms – charming buildings with calm white-pink facades, and an 11-story dormitory deeper in the territory. There is practically no landscaping on the grounds, although some time ago it was the site of the only landscape design college in the country. Currently, the faculties of natural sciences and sports are located here. The entire territory is fenced, and inside, besides the three buildings, there is a square with a characteristic circular path and an open stadium situated next to the eastern boundary.

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    Tatiana Guk announces the winner of the hackathon at the stand of the MCA and the Genplan Institute of Moscow
    Copyright: Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
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    The winner announcement. The hackathon organized by Genplan Institute of Moscow and MosComArchitectura at ArchMoscow 2024
    Copyright: Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru


As expected in our times, the proposals leaned towards creating public spaces, co-working areas, and overpasses between buildings – surprisingly absent until now. Additionally, there was a focus on at least partially opening up the campus to the city and local residents: two teams suggested a thoroughfare running through the campus to the park, while one team concentrated on “intensifying” the only city street adjoining the university grounds, notably named after the architect Chechulin.

All the contestants worked heroically and showed interesting results – as much as it is at all possible when brainstorming is limited to just one day. Such experiments are useful both for students and tutors – and for the university too; we saw the interest of the customer, a representative of Moscow City University was on the jury and it is obvious that the ideas expressed by the participants aroused the interest of the university administration.

Yes, the prize went to just one team – that was the rule in this case – but I would like to emphasize that each proposal had its own strengths. Appreciating the efforts of all teams, we decided to award two second places in addition to the first.


There is one winner and two second-place holders:

1st Place / Poznanie (“Cognition”)

Team 3, the authors of “Cognition” project
Copyright: Photograph © Provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow


Curators: Alexander Kotenkov, Deputy Head of the Department of Prospective Projects at the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Maria Pomelova, architectural company “Chekharda”
Students: Alina Arakcheeva / MITU-MASI, Margarita Vykhodtseva / MARKHI, Anastasia Gavrik / GUZ, Anastasia Gracheva / SPbPU, Valeria Degtyareva / MARCH, Ksenia Kaspirovich / MARKHI, Alexander Kovriga / MARKHI, Igor Oskolkov / KGASU, Nikita Pavlov / HSE, Kamilya Khiyasova / GUZ, Anna Chvilyova / KubSU


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    The hackathon organized by Genplan Institute of Moscow and MosComArchitectura at ArchMoscow 2024
    Copyright: Photograph © Provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow
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    The hackathon organized by Genplan Institute of Moscow and MosComArchitectura at ArchMoscow 2024
    Copyright: Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru


This team, the largest, worked on the last day and was known for pulling an all-nighter to complete their project, resulting in the most visual content. However, as noted by Andrey Gnezdilov, there was no “master plan” – the team didn’t present an actual transformation plan for the campus territory but rather focused on a collection of proposals not consolidated into a cohesive whole. Perhaps this was for the best, as they offered numerous “growth points”.

“Cognition” project, the hackathon winner
Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 3


Like other teams, they proposed utilizing the park but, unlike their peers, extended a bridge to it: on the western end of the park, they placed a stage, and on the eastern end, in a nook of the academic building, a summer cinema. Another “performance space” predictably found its place in the square. The stadium remained in the eastern part, where it originally was.

The team connected the dormitory and the two academic buildings with overpasses; naturally, these are necessary. However, the function of the old (eastern) building remains uncertain after the Design and Technology Faculty moved out in 2015. In the building’s northeast corner, the team proposed a winter garden combined with a covered walkway.

The conceptual framework of the project was defined by the architects as activating different senses: taste, sight, hearing, touch, smell... Additionally, they proposed a “sensory alley” along the city street where all these senses converge. This is a beautiful approach to explaining the functional program, making the campus image less dull. The only questionable element might be the “Five Senses” art object proposed by the team, which resembles a lollipop with five legs. However, its role in this rapid research is minimal.

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    “Cognition” project, the hackathon winner
    Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 3
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    “Cognition” project, the hackathon winner
    Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 3
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    “Cognition” project, the hackathon winner
    Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 3
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    “Cognition” project, the hackathon winner
    Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 3
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    “Cognition” project, the hackathon winner
    Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 3
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    “Cognition” project, the hackathon winner
    Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 3
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    “Cognition” project, the hackathon winner
    Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 3
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    “Cognition” project, the hackathon winner
    Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 3


The architects also made several charming, specific proposals: for instance, a bike parking area with hanging bicycles (although the area seems large enough for regular bike parking) and summer-only solitude capsules.

“Cognition” project, the hackathon winner
Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 3


Nonetheless, it’s not surprising that the project impressed the jury with its thoroughness and the understated charm of its details without aiming for large-scale interventions. The only significant interventions here could be the two overpasses and the winter garden.

“Cognition” project, the hackathon winner
Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 3


The “Cognition” project team was also the only one to include a detailed analysis of the campus’s transport accessibility in their urban planning review.

2nd Place / Wheat Alley

Team 1, the authors of the Campus City project
Copyright: Photograph © Provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow


Curators: Sergey Lukyanenko, Head of the Workshop on Urban Environment Design, Genplan Institute of Moscow; Milan Stamenkovich, Head of the Conceptual Department, Pride Union.
Students: Elizaveta Usova, Nikita Pishchaev, Polina Lukianchuk, Kristina Babenko, Daria Ivanushkina, Arseniy Yezhov, Vladislav Paschinsky, Anastasia Kostenko, Daria Petrushina, Tatyana Chesnokova


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    Tatiana Guk announces the winner of the hackathon at the stand of the MCA and the Genplan Institute of Moscow
    Copyright: Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
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    The hackathon organized by Genplan Institute of Moscow and MosComArchitectura at ArchMoscow 2024
    Copyright: Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru


This project’s distinguishing feature is the relatively active intervention of the proposed structures into the context of the area. In other words, while Team 3 only suggested points, themes, and references for further development, the second team provided very specific and detailed drawings in three types of graphics: a site plan in fashionable axonometry, an introduction styled like comics, and a 3D cartoonish character named “Universie”.

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    Wheat Alley, 2nd place
    Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 2
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    2nd Place / Wheat Alley
    Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 2


In short, it was obvious that the team members could draw well and in various styles – a useful skill in our era dominated by presentations.

The second team was the only one of the three that did not propose connections between the dormitory and the academic buildings, nor did they focus on creating a passage through the area from the city to the park. Their proposal distinctly reads as consisting of two parts: the first runs along the street and connects mini-cafes and entrance groups into a sort of wall. The second consists of several pavilions on the territory, connected by a winding “roof” path deeper within the area.

Wheat Alley, 2nd place
Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 2


Notably, this team, in addition to the three types of quality graphics, also brought a 3D model to the presentation.

The hackathon organized by Genplan Institute of Moscow and MosComArchitectura at ArchMoscow 2024
Copyright: Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru


As mentioned, the project includes a lot of buildings: two amphitheaters, one being a sports amphitheater in addition to the stadium in its original place, another for entertainment, and a third circular “circus.”

Wheat Alley, 2nd place
Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 2


The most obvious drawback of the proposal is that the “roof” path is distributed rather randomly across the area, and the architects seemed to forget about the shortest paths. The greatest strength was the presentation, which was energetic to the point of theatricality, though perhaps a bit too much at times.

2nd Place / Campus-City

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    Team 1, the authors of the Campus City project
    Copyright: Photograph © Provided by Genplan Institute of Moscow
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    The hackathon organized by Genplan Institute of Moscow and MosComArchitectura at ArchMoscow 2024
    Copyright: Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru


Curators: Anastasia Agafonkina, Viktor Obvintsev
Students: Ekaterina Repan, Anna Merkulova, Alisa Murashova, Ekaterina Yatsenko, Amrita Dhali, Svetlana Vavrina, Egor Chernykh, Nikita Mazhuga


The team that worked on the first day of the hackathon created a project with the most “traditional” presentation style, following the rules of master plan professionals.

Campus City project
Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 1


Their proposal includes activating the park, creating a daytime thoroughfare for city residents (which could be closed at night for safety), as well as overpassing connecting the dormitory and the academic buildings. The architects expanded the existing sports ground with a larger stadium in the center of the area, acknowledging the campus’s sports specialization. They also proposed an additional entrance group on the western side, but as a ground passage rather than a bridge, and an “accent” square at the sharp corner on the western side. The difference is that the square features a fountain instead of an art object. In this project, the square becomes the main public space due to its central location: the architects cover it with a non-linear “wing” canopy. The place hosts a co-working space, museum, cafeteria, and another symmetrical wing serving as a canopy over a new academic building.

Campus City project
Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 1


The project strikes a reasonable balance between new structures and their utility, despite somewhat lackluster graphics – a potential drawback that might have affected the otherwise strong proposal.

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    The open and closed territories. Campus City project
    Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 1
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    Pre-project research: sociocultural anthropology. Campus-City Project
    Copyright: Hackathon of the Genplan Institute of Moscow, Group 1


The Campus-City project was most explicitly oriented towards opening the area for joint use by the university and city residents. However, it’s evident that not all solutions to the challenging task of combining openness and security were thoroughly considered by the architects. Nonetheless, this challenge is likely one of those that cannot be fully addressed within a single day.

11 June 2024

Headlines now
​The Power of Lines
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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.
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”.