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Marina Yegorova: “We think in terms of hectares, not square meters”

The career path of architect Marina Yegorova is quite impressive: MARHI, SPEECH, MosComArchitectura, the Genplan Institute of Moscow, and then her own architectural company. Its name Empate, which refers to the words “to draw” in Portuguese and “to empathize” in English, should not be misleading with its softness, as the firm freely works on different scales, including Integrated Territorial Development projects. We talked with Marina about various topics: urban planning experience, female leadership style, and even the love of architects for yachting.

07 June 2024
Interview
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Archi.ru:
Let’s start with a blitz round: where did you study, where did you work, and how did you start your own company?

Marina Yegorova:
I studied at Moscow Architectural Institute, and I consider my admission there a stroke of fate – initially, I was going to become a designer. After graduating, I went to work at SPEECH architectural company, which was then headed by Sergey Tchoban and Sergey Kuznetsov. The further trajectory of my professional activity was largely associated with Sergey Kuznetsov – he invited me first to MosComArchitectura to head the Department of New Territories Development, and then recommended me for the position of Deputy Director at the Genplan Institute of Moscow. A funny memory: in MosComArchitectura, they jokingly called me the “Queen of the Fields”, as I often went on trips to New Moscow to inspect and survey yet-undeveloped sites.

Having had my fill of working as a government official, in 2021, I decided to open my own company, which I recently named Empate. The name came about like many others: I noticed new niches in the market and saw opportunities in them. In the early 2020s, developers began actively exploring the mechanism of ITD – Integrated Territorial Development. And I, as an experienced urban planner, and as a person who indirectly participated in the preparation of this mechanism and knows the regulations and monitors the emergence of new standards, thought: why not, as an independent entrepreneur, engage in what I have long specialized in.

The name Empate is both a tribute to the profession and a declaration of love for the sunny south: it’s a Portuguese word that translates as “to draw”. Importantly, it also sounds very much like “empathize”. And these are exactly the two words that describe me best – an architect and an empath! Everything fell neatly in place.

You position yourself as an architect / urban planner – does this mean that your portfolio only includes master plans, site plans, and ITD projects?

No, not at all! However, for the record, I see nothing wrong with a narrow specialization.

I know that for most young architects, the main dream is to realize themselves in “volumetrics”, i.e. building design. They consider this task ambitious. And urban planning for them is something unclear, almost abstract. And it’s not entirely clear for them how to position yourself in this regard: when you design a city or a district, the constructed result is still ultimately associated with those who came up with the specific buildings, not the planner. But at the same time, the urban planning concept directly influences the architectural appearance of the structures: everything starts with the volumetric-spatial solution, and only then does work on the facades follow. So, it’s still a big question as to who the main creator here is.

We develop architectural and urban planning concepts that combine both building design and planning. Today, developing architecture already at the urban planning stage is becoming a trend.

But in general, of course, we think on a large scale – in terms of hectares, not square meters. And we like it. However, we would never refuse to design a building or a complex of buildings. We feel excited about any architectural task.

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    Project of planning the territory of a residential complex near the village of Pozdnyakovo in the Moscow Region
    Copyright: © Empate Architectural Bureau
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    Project of planning the territory of a residential complex near the village of Pozdnyakovo in the Moscow Region
    Copyright: © Empate Architectural Bureau
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    Project of planning the territory of a residential complex near the village of Pozdnyakovo in the Moscow Region
    Copyright: © Empate Architectural Bureau
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    Project of planning the territory of a residential complex near the village of Pozdnyakovo in the Moscow Region
    Copyright: © Empate Architectural Bureau
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    Project of planning the territory of a residential complex near the village of Pozdnyakovo in the Moscow Region
    Copyright: © Empate Architectural Bureau


Which projects from your portfolio do you consider the most valuable? What are you working on now?

I am very proud that we developed a site planning project near the village of Pozdnyakovo in the Moscow region in just three months, and it quickly passed the state examination. When I tell people about it, they refuse to believe me because everyone has the standard timeline of a year in mind for this. However, the trick is that we are experienced, we know the subject well, and we can read regulatory documents. Not all architects are capable of understanding all this legal language. But we not only understand it but also know how to translate it into plain language and, importantly, into numbers, which are most understandable to developers.

Our firm Empate also has two projects in the Altai Mountains – an apart-hotel and a retreat village. Both are very important to me. These are more about the proverbial “volumetrics”. The architecture is turning out to be quite interesting. There is room for both eco and ethnic motifs.

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    Ecosettlement in Altai
    Copyright: © Empate Architectural Bureau
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    Ecosettlement in Altai
    Copyright: © Empate Architectural Bureau
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    Ecosettlement in Altai
    Copyright: © Empate Architectural Bureau


In addition to your main work, you have several other projects: studying the history of urban planning, researching the economic efficiency of the ITD mechanism together with “Project Russia” and REPA, and a Telegram channel. And you write a lot and well, which is not very typical for architects. What does this activity give you? Is it part of a strategy for scaling and forming a personal brand, and recognition?

Everything I do, I do sincerely. And all of it is somehow connected to my profession. It’s important for me to develop, so I constantly accumulate knowledge, analyze the current situation, and record my observations and conclusions in texts. All of this is so natural, to be honest. There is no strategy or calculation in this. If the recognition of my personal brand increases because of this, that’s great. In our time, it’s essential not to underestimate the importance of a personal brand. Still, there is a lot of artificially inflated things in PR. I wouldn’t want to be artificially inflated.

Regarding this question, I can’t help but share an impression from the recent ArchMoscow exhibition. I left the exhibition’s opening for the first time without buying any books or magazines. On the stalls, in the little corner that the organizers allocate to publishers, there was something about gardening, private house architecture, about architects I already know everything about, and some guides. It felt like intellectual life in the architectural field had stalled because what interesting material is actually in print – and in electronic form too – is dedicated either to things that remained in the past or to some purely utilitarian things. Almost no one speaks about the present, let alone the future. It’s very frustrating. And at the same time, I see it as an opportunity for myself personally.

Regarding our joint research with “Project Russia” and the REPA Association on the effectiveness of ITD, I’d love to talk about it separately at some point. But first, we need to finish it. At ArchMoscow, Julia Shishalova, Julia Solodovnikova, and I presented the interim results of this research.

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    Logistics complex in Anapa
    Copyright: © Empate Architectural Bureau
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    Ecosettlement in Altai
    Copyright: © Empate Architectural Bureau
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    Logistics complex in Anapa
    Copyright: © Empate Architectural Bureau


You are also a skipper! Many architects are sailing enthusiasts. Why do you think that is?

It’s related to the feeling of freedom that such an experience provides. There was a time when many architects were into skiing and snowboarding – the more dangerous, the better. When yachting became more accessible in Russia and ceased to be something exclusively sporty, people started gravitating towards it. The main advantage of yachting over skiing is its year-round nature. Also, let’s not forget that architects love to travel and gain new experiences, and yachting involves constant movement. Thus, by engaging in yachting, you develop both physically and broaden your horizon as well – literally and figuratively.

I’m very excited about the marina system project in Kazan. Recently, we discussed this case with Ilysiar Tukhvatullina at ArchMoscow during a panel discussion. I’m ready to contribute my expertise to this project.

In which marina development projects is your company involved?

I have acted several times as a consultant on marina infrastructure in Portugal and Croatia. I should emphasize that I am not a specialist in the design and technical equipment of marinas themselves. My team and I can develop a master plan for the territory around a specific water area, and make proposals for forming a marina network, but we probably can’t calculate the engineering aspects. Not long ago, I gave a detailed interview on this topic to the “All Marinas of Russia” portal.


Returning to your Telegram channel: you wrote there that a woman entrepreneur should not adopt a man’s model in her career path. Can you create a successful architectural firm using “soft power”?

In Russia, architecture remains predominantly a male profession, even though institutions like MARHI graduate more women than men. Men usually lead, while women do the drawing. This is the way it’s been for decades. However, this does not mean that this practice should be continued. This brings us to the topic of social justice, which is quite complex and abstract. It’s very interesting but somewhat beyond the scope of this interview.

I believe that it is entirely possible to build a successful business using “soft power”, and not just in the creative industries. The key, if you’re a woman, is not to try to pretend to be a man or use typically male methods of management and negotiation. There was a time when I was aggressive, exerted pressure, and made demands. But these are all traits of the male model of behavior. A man is a conqueror. At some point, I realized that the effect of my aggressiveness was not what I wanted, and this “I will cover the whole herd” position was destroying me from within. I began to work seriously on myself to return to my natural feminine state.

There is a popular misconception that “soft power” is all about manipulation, unpredictability, and lack of system. Women’s business is about something else. It is about acceptance, intuition, and empathy. It is not about domination. Women actually make excellent leaders. Business is, after all, about managing resources, and a woman is a natural manager, focused on preservation and development.


07 June 2024

Headlines now
​A Brick Shell
In the process of designing a clubhouse situated among pine trees in a prestigious suburban area near Moscow, the architectural firm “A.Len” did the façade design part. The combination of different types of brick and masonry correlates with the volumetric and plastique solutions, further enhanced by the inclusion of wood-painted fragments and metal “glazing”.
Word Forms
ATRIUM architects love ambitious challenges, and for the firm’s thirtieth anniversary, they boldly play a game of words with an exhibition that dives deep into a self-created vocabulary. They immerse their projects – especially art installations – into this glossary, as if plunging into a current of their own. You feel as if you’re flowing through the veins of pure art, immersed in a universe of vertical cities, educational spaces – of which the architects are true masters – and the cultural codes of various locations. But what truly captivates is the bold statement that Vera Butko and Anton Nadtochy make, both through their work and this exhibition: architecture, above all, is art – the art of working with form and space.
Flexibility and Acuteness of Modernity
Luxurious, fluid, large “kokoshniks” and spiral barrel columns, as if made from colorful chewing gum: there seem to be no other mansion like this in Moscow, designed in the “Neo-Russian-Modern” style. And the “Teremok” on Malaya Kaluzhskaya, previously somewhat obscure, has “come alive with new colors” and gained visibility after its restoration for the office of the “architectural ecosystem” as the architects love to call themselves. It’s evident that Julius Borisov and the architects at UNK put their hearts into finding this new office and bringing it up to date. Let’s delve into the paradoxes of this mansion’s history and its plasticity. Spoiler: two versions of modernity meet here, both balancing on the razor’s edge of “what’s current”.
Yuri Vissarionov: “A modular house does not belong to the land”
It belongs to space, or to the air... It turns out that 3D printing is more effective when combined with a modular approach: the house is built in a workshop and then adapted to the site, including on uneven terrain. Yuri Vissarionov shares his latest experience in designing tourist complexes, both in central Russia and in the south. These include houseboats, homes printed from lightweight concrete using a 3D printer, and, of course, frame houses.
​Moscow’s First
“The quality of education largely depends on the quality of the educational environment”. This principle of the last decade has been realized by Sergey Skuratov in the project for the First Moscow Gymnasium on Rostovskaya Embankment in the Khamovniki district. The building seamlessly integrates into the complex urban landscape, responding both to the pedestrian flow of the city and the quiet alleyways. It skillfully takes advantage of the height differences and aligns with modern trends in educational space design. Let’s take a closer look.
Looking at the Water
The site of Villa Sonata stretches from the road to the water’s edge, offering its own shoreline, pier, and a picturesque river panorama. To reveal these sweeping views, Roman Leonidov “cut” the façade diagonally parallel to the river, thus getting two main axes for the house and, consequently, “two heads”. The internal core – two double-height spaces, a living room and a conservatory, with a “bridge” above them – makes the house both “transparent” and filled with light.
The White Wing
Well, it’s not exactly white. It’s more of a beige, white-stone structure that plays with the color of limestone – smoother surfaces are lighter, while rougher ones are darker. This wing unites various elements: it absorbs and interprets the surrounding themes. It responds to everything, yet maintains a cohesive expression – a challenging task! – while also incorporating recognizable features of its own, such as the dynamic cuts at the bottom, top, and middle.
Urban Dunes
The XSA Ramps team designed and built a three-part sports hub for a park in Rostov-on-Don, welcoming people of all ages and fitness levels. The skate plaza, pump track, and playground are all meticulously crafted with details that attract a diverse range of visitors. The technical execution of the shapes and slopes transforms this space into a kind of sculptural composition.
Proportional Growth
The project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential area has been announced. The buildings are situated on an elongated plot – almost a “ray” that shoots out from the center of the area towards the river. Their layout reflects both a response to Moscow’s architectural preferences over the past 15 years, shifting “from blocks to towers”, and an interpretation of the neighboring business park designed by SOM. Additionally, the best apartments here are not located at the very top but closer to the middle, forming a glowing “waistline”.
The “Staircase” Building
In designing the “Details” residential complex in New Moscow, Rais Baishev spiced up the now-popular Moscow theme of a “courtyard” building with an idea drawn from the surrealist drawings by Maurits Escher. He envisioned the stepped silhouettes and descending slopes as a metaphysical mega-staircase, creating a key void within the courtyard that gave the project an internal “spine”. This concept is felt both in the building’s silhouette and on its façades.
Projection of the Quarter
No one doubted that the building that Vladimir Plotkin designed as part of the “Garden Quarters” would be the most modernist of all. And it turned out just that way: while adhering to the common design code, the building successfully combines brick and white stone, rhythmically responding to the neighboring building designed by Ostozhenka, yet tactfully and persistently making a few statements of its own. This includes the projection of the ideal urban development composition “14–9–6”, which can be found right next door, mathematical calculations, including those for various types of terraces (and perhaps the only reminder of the Soviet past of the Kauchuk rubber factory!), and the white “cross-stitch” pattern of the façade grid.
Domus Aurea
In this issue, we examine the “Tessinsky-1” house, designed by Sergey Skuratov and completed in 2023. Located in the middle of the Serebryanicheskaya Embankment district, at the intersection of its main streets, this house assumes a sort of “nodal” role: it not only responds to everything around it and preserves many memories of the former EMA factory within itself, but it weaves all this into a newly directed pattern, reconciling bright “gold” and dark-colored brick, largely with the help of the new, modern-yet-archaic Columba brick, which, come to think about it, is the most precious element here.
The Chimney of Nikola-Lenivets
In this issue, we are examining the “Obelisk House” designed by KATARSIS and built for the Arkhstoyanie 2023 festival. However, it was only finished later on, and this is why we are examining it now. It seems to us that after the “Obelisk House” appeared in Nikola-Lenivets, a dialogue and a few inner connections appeared between the temporary structures built here. These houses no longer look like “accidental neighbors”, more of which below.
​Periscope by the Bay
The jury awarded the second place in the competition for a public and cultural center in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the companies GORA (“Mountain”) and M4. In the consortium’s proposal, the building resembles a sperm whale with a calf swimming next to it or a periscope, whose lenses capture the most spectacular views from the surrounding landscape.
From Arcs to Dolmens
While working on the competition project for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, ASADOV Architects prioritized the value of the natural and urban environment, aiming to preserve the balance of the location while minimizing the resemblance of the volume that they designed to a “traditional building”. The task was challenging, and the architects created three versions, one of which having been developed after the competition, where their main proposal took third place. However, the point of interest here is not the competition result but the continuity of creative thinking.
Hide and Seek
The ID Moskovskiy house, designed by Stepan Liphart in St. Petersburg, in the courtyards near Moskovskiy Avenue beyond the Obvodny Canal and recently completed, is notable for several reasons. Firstly, it has been realized with considerable accuracy, which is particularly significant as this is the first building where the architect was responsible not only for the facades but also for the layouts, allowing for better integration between the two. On the other hand, this building is interesting as an example of the “germination” of new architecture in the city: it draws on the best examples from the neighborhood and becomes an improved and developed sum of ideas found by the architect in the surrounding context.
The Big Twelve
Yesterday, the winners of the Moscow Mayor’s Architecture Award were announced and honored. Let’s take a look at what was awarded and, in some cases, even critique this esteemed award. After all, there is always room for improvement, right?
Above the Golden Horn
The residential complex “Philosophy” designed by T+T architects in Vladivostok, is one of the new projects in the “Golubinaya Pad” area, changing its development philosophy (pun intended) from single houses to a comprehensive approach. The buildings are organized along public streets, varying in height and format, with one house even executed in gallery typology, featuring a cantilever leaning on an art object.
Nuanced Alternative
How can you rhyme a square and space? Easily! But to do so, you need to rhyme everything you can possibly think of: weave everything together, like in a tensegrity structure, and find your own optics too. The new exhibition at GES-2 does just that, offering its visitor a new perspective on the history of art spanning 150 years, infused with the hope for endless multiplicity of worlds and art histories. Read on to see how this is achieved and how the exhibition design by Evgeny Ace contributes to it.
Blinds for Ice
An ice arena has been constructed in Domodedovo based on a project by Yuri Vissarionov Architects. To prevent the long façade, a technical requirement for winter sports facilities, from appearing monotonous, the architects proposed the use of suspended structures with multidirectional slats. This design protects the ice from direct sunlight while giving the wall texture and detail.
Frozen Magma
A competition for the creation of a public and cultural center was held in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Three architectural companies made it to the final, and we consider it important to share about the work of each. Let’s start with the winner – the consortium led by Wowhaus.
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.
Vertical Civilization
Genpro considered the development of the vertical city concept and made it the theme of their pavilion at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition.
Marina Yegorova: “We think in terms of hectares, not square meters”
The career path of architect Marina Yegorova is quite impressive: MARHI, SPEECH, MosComArchitectura, the Genplan Institute of Moscow, and then her own architectural company. Its name Empate, which refers to the words “to draw” in Portuguese and “to empathize” in English, should not be misleading with its softness, as the firm freely works on different scales, including Integrated Territorial Development projects. We talked with Marina about various topics: urban planning experience, female leadership style, and even the love of architects for yachting.
Andrey Chuikov: “Optimum balance is achieved through economics”
The Yekaterinburg-based architectural company CNTR is in its mature stage: crystallization of principles, systematization, and standardization helped it make a qualitative leap, enhance competencies, and secure large contracts without sacrificing the aesthetic component. The head of the company, Andrey Chuikov, told us about building a business model and the bonuses that additional education in financial management provides for an architect.
The Fulcrum
Ostozhenka Architects have designed two astonishing towers practically on the edge of a slope above the Oka River in Nizhny Novgorod. These towers stand on 10-meter-tall weathered steel “legs”, with each floor offering panoramic views of the river and the city; all public spaces, including corridors, receive plenty of natural light. Here, we see a multitude of solutions that are unconventional for the residential routine of our day and age. Meanwhile, although these towers hark back to the typological explorations of the seventies, they are completely reinvented in a contemporary key. We admire Veren Group as the client – this is exactly how a “unique product” should be made – and we tell you exactly how our towers are arranged.
Crystal is Watching You
Right now, Museum Night has kicked off at the Museum of Architecture, featuring a fresh new addition – the “Crystal of Perception”, an installation by Sergey Kuznetsov, Ivan Grekov, and the KROST company, set up in the courtyard. It shimmers with light, it sings, it reacts to the approach of people, and who knows what else it can do.
The Secret Briton
The house is called “Little France”. Its composition follows the classical St. Petersburg style, with a palace-like courtyard. The decor is on the brink of Egyptian lotuses, neo-Greek acroteria, and classic 1930s “gears”; the recessed piers are Gothic, while the silhouette of the central part of the house is British. It’s quite interesting to examine all these details, attempting to understand which architectural direction they belong to. At the same time, however, the house fits like a glove in the context of the 20th line of St. Petersburg’s Vasilievsky Island; its elongated wings hold up the façade quite well.
The Wrap-Up
The competition project proposed by Treivas for the first 2021 competition for the Russian pavilion at EXPO 2025 concludes our series of publications on pavilion projects that will not be implemented. This particular proposal stands out for its detailed explanations and the idea of ecological responsibility: both the facades and the exhibition inside were intended to utilize recycled materials.
Birds and Streams
For the competition to design the Omsk airport, DNK ag formed a consortium, inviting VOX architects and Sila Sveta. Their project focuses on intersections, journeys, and flights – both of people and birds – as Omsk is known as a “transfer point” for bird migrations. The educational component is also carefully considered, and the building itself is filled with light, which seems to deconstruct the copper circle of the central entrance portal, spreading it into fantastic hyper-spatial “slices”.