HSE Art and Design School Students Among Winners of Arch Moscow 2020 Student Project Competition

At Arch Moscow 2020, master’s students of the HSE Art and Design School won the student project competition in the category ‘Best Architectural and Planning Solution’. In the competition, participants had to conduct a comprehensive analysis of Yauza River bank territories and propose a project for their redevelopment.

Student teams from the country’s best architecture and design universities submitted their projects for the competition: MARCHI, MGSU, RANEPA, RUDN, the University of Land Use Planning, the HSE Art and Design School, and KSUAE. The project submitted by students of the HSE master’s programme in Territorial Branding and Urban Design was called ‘Yauza for the People’. They spent two modules working on the project under their mentors’ supervision. The students analysed, investigated, and devised how to redevelop the river bank territories while preserving local cultural heritage, developing an environmentally-friendly design, and creating more greenspace.

Mikhail Ermolaev, project mentor

Students performed a comprehensive analysis of the territory between the Yauza’s inflow into the Moskva River and the MKAD [the Moscow Automobile Ring Road, which encircles greater Moscow – ed.], chose a section, and divided it into separate projects so that each of the students could analyse their part of the territory. Then, they suggested comprehensive changes to the transport infrastructure, which constituted their main idea: to change the existing transport infrastructure in order to implement new functions for residents and create new links between areas.

In their project, the students focused on developing bike and pedestrian paths, attracting new visitors, and expanding the space’s potential use.

‘My area included river bank lines near Bauman University. In terms of general design principles, I focused on the environmental aspect: I investigated and suggested various ways to purify the water with the use of oxygenating plants,’ says Albina Gubaidullina, one of the project participants. ‘Most of all, the project helped me sort out the key elements that can create an urban environment that is friendly and comfortable for people.’

Albina Gubaidullina

Photo courtesy of Albina Gubaidullina

Students of the master’s programme in Territorial Branding and Urban Design develop a strong foundation in architecture, urban construction, landscape and industrial design, urban economics, and transportation systems. At the same time, they work on real projects. The programme is for students who want to learn the theory and practice of urban spatial planning and spatial branding tools, as well as to get to know the trends in urban environment design.

The students not only put their urban environment design skills to use, but developed their soft skills. ‘Most of all, I liked working in a team – this is both hard and interesting at the same time,’ says Elizaveta Glushkova, one of the project participants. ‘The most difficult task was to present my idea in clear and simple language, without complicated schemes and texts, and without losing the concept of the project. Participating in the competition motivated me to take a closer look at project presentation techniques: designing slides and texts, as well as articulating them.’

Elizaveta Glushkova

Photo courtesy of Elizaveta Glushkova

The competition jury gave the students’ project a positive evaluation. The HSE Art and Design School students won in the category ‘Best Architectural and Planning Solution’. Their supervisors believe that experience with collaborating with project institutions is an important part of learning and an opportunity for future collaboration in real cases.

Anya Semikolenova, project participant

Photo courtesy of Anya Semikolenova

For me, being group leader was a new experience. I learned to work in a team and guide my peers in creating the materials for the project. We were willing to present our thoughts, solutions and vision of Yauza’s banks and adjacent territories in the best way, and at the same time, follow the tight development schedule. We received a lot of help from our mentors, Mikhail Emontaev and Eriс Belousov, who advised us on what we were lacking in the materials, or what we needed to elaborate on or redevelop. When you work on something so hard, you become less perceptive of things, so the consultations with our mentors gave us additional perspective, as well as a feedback on how well we present our ideas.

In my work, I try to get inspired by the location and find ways to reflect its character or atmosphere in various details. Global solutions are based on territory analysis, on what it is lacking, or the problem it has. To develop my solutions, I looked at experiences elsewhere in the world of working with locations that have similar problems and studied how architects dealt with those problems.