Strelka presents a guide to the highlights of its summer program

About 400 000 people visited last summer program

Roger Connah aka Professor Vertigo – writer, architecture critic and an author of popular architecture books as- Pulp Architecture (2009), Architecture Degree Zero (2008), A House for De Kooning’s Friend (2006), How Architecture Got its Hump (2001); Welcome to the Hotel Architecture (1998); Writing Architecture (1989). At 1990 his book “Writing Architecture: An Architectural” book won the first prize of The CICA International Book Award. The workshop was assisted by a former student of Professor Vertigo, an architect and Strelka graduate Maria Slavnova. A three-day investigation took the method of Gonzo writing and applied it to architecture. This produced an experiment of ‘writing on the run’, discourse on immediacy and criticality and in the end, ‘punk pamthlets’ or printed books. Here is a record of a workshop by Maria Elkina, a participant and journalist from St. Petersburg.

SUPERMAN & THE DUVET: CHANGE COMMUNICATION, CHANGE ARCHITECTURE

SUBJECTIVE OVERVIEW

I got up, got dressed and had breakfast; it was a usual day… In one of my English tests this phrase was suggested as the first sentence for an essay. Well, that’s a good start for a story.

Strelka is hosting the Architectural Association (AA) Visiting School from August 12th to 18th. Maria Fedorchenko, a leader of the design unit at AA and the Director of Moscow Visiting School talks about the upcoming workshop, AA methods of architectural design, ‘loose fit’, diagrams and design provocations.

Your educational background is diverse: Moscow Architectural Institute (MArchI),  followed by Princeton University and UCLA. All these schools suggest different approaches to architectural design and practices. What are the main differences between them? 

Saskia Sassen is a famous American sociologist and economist, who coined the terms “global city” and “centralities”. She is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and Co-Chair, The Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University. On June 17th, Saskia talked about large complex cities and their frontier zones at Strelka.

Anton Kalgaev and Anna Shirokova, curators of the summer programme.

Russia is the Shore of a Frozen Ocean.

Waste management system needs to be improved as you read this. Our world is gradually becoming overpopulated and more and more interconnected. The defining challenge of the 21st Century is demanding new forms of global cooperation. The paradox of a unified global economy and divided  national societies poses the single greatest threat for our planet. And although there are appropriate waste management solutions, the main problem is the global framework that should put them in place where they are most needed. Let’s try to create it.

For three years Strelka’s public programs have focused on the changes taking place in Moscow, but our field of study is by no means limited to the capital. The “Thinning“, “Energy” and “Hinterland“ research studios have been engaged with nation-wide problems, and much student work has been devoted to the country’s borders.

Border areas are the ultimate terra incognita. In Russia, the “border zone” is not simply a narrow strip of land along the national frontier. It covers as much as 3 to 5 percent of the country’s entire territory and is home to about one million people. In some places the ”border zone” takes in entire regions. But no definitive map of these areas is publicly available, and the total land area classified as part of the border zone changes almost every year.

Alongside the visible changes of everyday events, there is something that is often overlooked in public discussion. Long-term cycles, complex phenomena, and large-scale processes radically change our lives via barely noticeable shifts in the world. What lies beyond the horizon of our immediate notice, and what visual aids do we need to see it? What do we know about Russia, and how is that knowledge possible?

Since one person cannot simultaneously look to either side, at the road under his feet and straight ahead, Strelka is bringing together people with different views, expertise and interests.

This summer, Strelka took an important, bold step — it left its immediate surroundings and started working on residential regions outside the city center. With the help of a series of workshops, we made targeted changes to eight Moscow regions. For example, we turned the Voikovsky region into a playground, build a hotel in Mitino, launched a website for activists in Troparevo-Nikulino, and shot several films about Pechatniki. Most importantly, our experiment confirmed that it is possible and essential to forge partnerships between experts, residents and local officials.