In January of this year, the city administration of Vyborg conducted a competition for the conceptual design of a music school with a concert hall for 500 people, located at Keppa Street 4, directly across from the famous library built by an Alvar Aalto project. The competition was an open one, yet it got very little press coverage, ultimately racking up only five competitors. By sheer coincidence – a friend sent them a link to the competition – their list included A-Len. According to Sergey Oreshkin, “the competition passed in such a closed-door atmosphere that one had a hard time figuring out why it was organized in the first place.” The victory was won by the project, whose authors “were able to express their idea in the most cost-efficient way”.

To evoke more interest to the location that deserves public hearings and an international competition, A-Len decided to show its proposal.

In addition to the obvious reasons why A-Len decided to take part in the competition – the center of the city boasting a status of a historical heritage site, proximity to the work of the legendary architect, and a rare typology – there was still another one: the leader of the company, Sergey Oreshkin, was born here in Vyborg, and here he graduated from the local art school, where he was “supercharged as a young pre-architect”. He describes Vyborg as a place with unique town planning, “just like from textbook”, which manifests itself particularly vividly next to the location in question.