I remember that some years ago I was awakened early in the morning by a phone call from Grigory Revzin, who was already a partner at Strelka at the time. He instructed me to quickly name three or five of Moscow’s best architects. Perhaps that is the proper way to conduct such surveys – catch people half asleep and ask for an immediate answer. This time, however, Strelka was more merciful: participants were asked to name five architects and were given a couple of days to think it over. The ubiquity of messaging apps, fortunately, made it possible to avoid telephone calls.

The final ranking is interesting, of course, but perhaps even more intriguing is the breakdown by four categories of respondents (shown in the chart on the left below). Yuri Grigoryan, for example, ranked first in two categories: Business & Management and Culture & Education. Sergey Skuratov also led in two categories: Media & Communications and Planning & Consulting. 
Two international architects – Rem Koolhaas and Renzo Piano – appeared in a single category, Planning & Consulting. This category also proved to be the most diverse. While each category included eleven respondents, the final tables in three cases featured five architects, whereas this one included seven: five Russian architects plus two international figures.



What does that tell us? It probably deserves some further thought. Then again, the categories themselves were defined by the backgrounds of those doing the voting.

The overall ranking was calculated using a points system.



Was Sergey Skuratov’s victory justified? Very much so, I would say. At the very least, judging by our publications at Archi.ru, his projects consistently enjoy strong support from readers. Was he on my own list? Absolutely. What I find particularly interesting is that in the Business & Management category – or, more simply, among developers – he slipped to fourth place. Then again, developers do tend to have their own particular way of looking at things. We all know that.

Rather than speculate further, here is the first dozen or so names from my own list, up to and including Rem Koolhaas.



In no particular order: Tsimailo & Lyashenko, Sergey Kuznetsov, Vladimir Plotkin, Yuliy Borisov, Alexander Brodsky, Ivan Grekov, Oleg Shapiro & Dmitry Likin, Romanov & Kuznetsova, Butko & Nadtochy, Renzo Piano, Timur Bashkaev, Apex (which apparently also counts as an architect), Strelka (they do too), Rem Koolhaas – and so on, as shown in the chart above. Incidentally, if we are speaking specifically about contributions to Moscow architecture over the last twenty-five years, then Piano and Koolhaas are undoubtedly among the leaders. Herzog & de Meuron made the list as well, though somewhat lower down.

Congratulations to Sergey Skuratov and to all those included in the ranking. We wish them continued creative – and business – success.

The editor-in-chief of the new magazine and curator of the ranking is Alexey Muratov, partner at Strelka.