This year, ArchiWOOD awarded the best structures made of wood for the fourteenth time. The competition gathered 203 entries, 65 of them being shortlisted, and the finalists were determined by nine experts – the lineup of the judging panel of the award, as we know, never repeats itself; this year it included Nikita Asadov, Ivan Kozhin, Artem Ukropov, Georgy Snezhkin, Peter Sovetnikov and Vera Stepanskaya, among others. The award ceremony was again held in Moscow’s Peredelkino, but this time in the renovated “House of Creativity”.

The award was curated by the permanent Nikolay Malinin, co-curated by Julia Shishalova, and organized by Rossa Rackenne SPb, which was also the title partner of the event. 

Jury’s Special Prize

Gallery Museum “Zavarka” (“Brew”) (Mashtakov House)
All-Russian Society for the Presentation of Historical and Cultural Monuments, Vega Group Region
Khramov Architectural Studio
Creative space concept: Dmitry Khramov, Armen Arutyunov, Nina Kazachkova, Maria Ionova, Anastasia Knor.
Interior design: Dmitry Khramov, Marina Krichanova, Elena Zagorodneva.
Restoration project: Vega Group Region (Alexander Vyazikov, head of the project).
Scientific advice: Andrei Bode (NIITAG).

There is quite an appalling number of beautiful houses of this kind burning and decaying all over Russia, but only a few of them are properly restored and given a new function. The case of the Mashtakov house in Samara is very beautiful: the restorers managed to preserve about 80% of the original structures, some of them becoming living exhibits in the gallery halls on the second floor. The first floor was adapted for a tea room. The revival took place thanks to the care of All-Russian Society for the Presentation of Historical and Cultural Monuments: in 2021, the local branch of the society won the competition of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives to create a museum gallery named “Zavarka” (“Brew”) in the house. Before that, the mansion by architect Alexander Scherbachev, who “built the better half of old Samara”, had stood behind a blank fence for almost three decades.

You can learn more about the history of the house in the book by Andrei Bode, the scientific director of the restoration project, available on the gallery’s website.