Archinect
Alina Bibisheva

Alina Bibisheva

New York, NY, US

 

About 

With seven years of experience in Urban Design and Placemaking, and seven years of study she has mastered exceptional skills in researching, planning, detailing, designing and coordinating projects in the public and private sectors. Her body of work is diverse at the urban scale, designing for improving a corner, neighborhood, city, or region. In the end she aims to strengthen the connection between people and the places they share.

The pallette of Alina's experience is particularly diverse, falling between research and art, and ranging from the large-scale developments of New Moscow territories to small architectural forms in the Netherlands, from an investment project in Iran to art installations and performances in Moscow Museums. The multiplicity of the insights she has gained enable her to design nonconvential projects by approaching the matter at hand from different prospectives such as economical, cultural, social, political and architectural.

Elsewhere:

Employment 

Project For Public Spaces, New York, NY, US, Project Associate

Alina specializes in the design of unconventional community-oriented projects that integrate economic, cultural, social, political and architectural considerations. Alina developed this holistic approach during her research within an international and interdisciplinary team at the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design (Moscow), where she completed a post-graduate program in urban research. This research on the urban impact of micro-retail phenomenon in Moscow, titled “Enough Retail,” was presented at the Moscow Urban Forum 2014, the world’s largest congress on urbanism.

Alina has supported the design of a number of projects at PPS, implementing community engagement-based research into project design as well as visual representations of the placemaking approach to public spaces. Her body of work is diverse at the urban scale, designing for improving a corner, neighborhood, city, or region. In the end she aims to strengthen the connection between people and the places they share.

Jan 2018 - current
 

METASITU, Athens, GR, Collaborator

Designing and developing unconventional urban solutions by shifting existing paradigms and subverting existing behaviors, re-directing existing systems towards other ends; METASITU’s projects are directed towards innovating strategies for resilience through building a body of knowledge and understanding about the way (urban) territories are inhabited. METASITU practice is framed within the precept of Ecumenopolis, the understanding of the whole World as one continuous urban fabric.

- Das Stadt Lexicon, art object, 1st prize at ARTiculation Competition, exhibited as part of German Language and Literature Festival
- ‘Memento Loci’ video essay project exhibited in Hungary and Austria
- ‘Letters to the mayor: Athens’ exhibition project for Storefront for Art and Architecture and Metamatic :taf exhibited in Athens.
- ‘Snake’ urban research, outdoor gyms in the public urban realm
- DO IT MOSCOW Performance at Garage Centre of Contemporary Art in Moscow | Weekend Routines
- Urban Routines commissioned by 4th Moscow International Biennale For Young Art

Jan 2015 - current
 

Project Meganom, Moscow, Russia, Lead Urban Designer

- Winning concept for the International Moscow River Competition to develop 10,400 hectares of the territories adjacent to the Moscow River.
- Project manager for Riverlink Park project, the development of a city-scale network of water-adjacent public spaces in the territories of New Moscow.
- Development of a concept for Moscow State University Campus.
- Short-listed "Art Mill Square" project for Doha Art Mill competition, Doha, Qatar
- Moscow River Days 2019 Major city event development and programming
- ZIL Peninsula city district development and public space program design.

Exhibitions:
- ZIL Peninsula pavilion design for The XXV International Festival of Architecture “Zodchestvo 2016”
Venue: Trekhgornaya Manufactura, Moscow | 2016
- Moscow Future Ports Pavilion for Moscow Urban Forum 2015
Venue: Moscow Manege, Moscow | 2015
- Moscow Future Ports Pavilion for XIII International Exhibition Of Architecture And Design Arch Moscow 2015
Venue: CHA, Moscow | 2015

Oct 2014 - Oct 2016
 

University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NL, Urban Researcher

- Research within an international and interdisciplinary studio on the future of the Amsterdam Navy Yard. Research focused on how to maintain, develop, and program territories of a former naval dockyard in Amsterdam city center that has been closed for 350 years and would be opened to the public in January 2015.

Jul 2014 - Aug 2014
 

Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, Moscow, RU, Urban Researcher

- Explored the topic of urban routines and city life from unexpected angles as part of an international and interdisciplinary team at the Strelka Institute, which was founded in collaboration with AMO/Rem Koolhaas. As part of the studio focusing on retail, I researched informal urban retailers from a micro-scale perspective to find ways that they could be integrated into the legal economic and spatial fabric of Moscow.

Oct 2013 - Jul 2014
 

Cushman & Wakefield, Moscow, RU, Research Analyst

- Performed research on commercial real estate investment attractiveness in emerging market economies. Research focused on emerging middleweight market cities as well as their demographic and economic trends, determining which cities will undergo the most rapid economic growth in the future.

May 2014 - Jun 2014
 

Kaminvestgrazhdan Project, Moscow, RU, Architect, Urban designer

- Project manager with the Moscow Masterplan Institute for the Diagonal project, about the development of a job creation program in New Moscow.
- Reconstruction concept and light installation for the monumental complex “Motherland” in N.Chelny in collaboration with Seiler Sommer.
- Architectural assistant for Museum complex reconstruction and programming of the House of Cosmonauts in the town of Gagarin.

Aug 2011 - Sep 2013
 

Masshtab, Moscow, RU, Urban planner

- Member of organizing team for the A101 Block City Masterplan Competition and the A101 Urban Block Competition.
- Urban development, preparation of tender applications, and presentations for international competitions on the A101 Project territories located in New Moscow.

Jun 2010 - Dec 2010
 

Education 

University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NL, Navy Dockyard

- Research within an international and interdisciplinary studio on the future of the Amsterdam Navy Yard. Research focused on how to maintain, develop, and program territories of a former naval dockyard in Amsterdam city center that has been closed for 350 years and would be opened to the public in January 2015.

Jul 2014 - Aug 2014
 

Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, Moscow, RU, Urban studies

- Explored the topic of urban routines and city life from unexpected angles as part of an international and interdisciplinary team at the Strelka Institute, which was founded in collaboration with AMO/Rem Koolhaas. As part of the studio focusing on retail, I researched informal urban retailers from a micro-scale perspective to find ways that they could be integrated into the legal economic and spatial fabric of Moscow.

Oct 2013 - Jul 2014
 

The Kazan State University of Architecture and Building Constructions, Kazan, RU, MArch, Urban Design and Planning

Sep 2005 - Jun 2011
 

Awards 

Winning Project International Moscow River Competition, 1st Place

Russian practice Project Meganom has been announced as the winner in a competition to drastically transform the Moscow riverfront. Their masterplan proposal aims to create a series of linear green spaces, while also incorporating new cultural and education spaces along the waterfront and improving the surrounding public transport. Announced at the IV annual Moscow Urban Forum which opened earlier today, the goal of the competition was to return the Moscow river from a "barrier" into a "link" in the city, restoring its historical status as the city's heart and most important transportation route.

2014
 

1st Prize Articulation Competition / Das Stadt Lexicon, 1st Place

Goethe-Institute in Moscow held a competition among artists and architects to create objects of art, design, and architecture. "Strelka Institute" Alumni of 2014 Alina Bibisheva, Liva Dudareva and Eduardo Cassina were the winners of this contest with their installation "Das Stadt Lexikon"(Urban Lexicon), a unanimous decision by an expert jury consisting of Astrid Vega, the head of the cultural programs department of the Goethe Institute in Moscow, and recognized artists from Germany and Russia.

Installation Das Stadt Lexikon, exhibited in the Hermitage Garden, is a dictionary consisting of typical German words that describe the city, such as ‘urbanism,’ ‘buildings,’ ‘cities,’ ‘suburbs,’ ‘place.’ We decided to use concepts characteristic of the German language, describing our environment, by adding two independent words.
Thus, we get:
Stadtbau [urbanism] from the confluence of Stadt [city] + Bau [building].
Vorort [Suburb] = Vor [before] + Ort [place]
Wohnviertel [Residential area] = Wohn [dwelling] + Viertel [quarter]
Fußgängerzone [Pedestrian zone] = Fuß [foot] + Gänger [people] + Zone [zone]
Signage boards are created from neon tubes, and each word is visually divided into two colors. We wanted to emphasize the connection of words that previously existed as separate independent elements. This form of semantic poetry is characteristic of the German language and helps to develop new words for describing the urban environment.

2014
 

Areas of Specialization 

Skills