Archinect - News

Prominent Russian architectural school, Strelka Institute, suspends activities in protest of Ukraine invasion

2022-02-28T14:53:00-05:00

As casualties mount in Vladimir Putin's war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine, the prominent Moscow-based Strelka Institute for Media Architecture and Design has issued a statement condemning the loss of life and announcing that it has suspended all academic activities until further notice.

The 12-year-old institute, which in the past has contributed to the country’s design for the 2014 Venice Biennale, is amongst the most influential architecture schools in eastern Europe and now joins several other academic and cultural institutions inside Russia in expressing their opposition to what the government still insists on calling a “special military operation.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Strelka Institute (@strelka_institute)

Strelka's Director of Education Varvara Melnikova and Program Director of The Terraforming Benjamin Bratton also shared their views via social media, joining a chorus of protests that has extended into academia and other...

Strelka announces "The Terraforming," a research program headed by Benjamin Bratton

2019-08-27T17:45:00-04:00

The Moscow-based Strelka Institute has announced a new research program geared toward exploring the issues of planetary urbanism, global energy infrastructure, “geotechnology,” and speculative design, among other topics.

Directed by professor and theorist Benjamin Bratton, the three-year program will be tuition-free and will explore the topics above as part of a multi-disciplinary effort involving both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The initiative, The Terraforming, seeks to approach the future inhabitation of planet Earth a literal world-building exercise. A website announcing the program explains: "The term 'terraforming' usually refers to transforming the ecosystems of other planets or moons to make them capable of supporting Earth-like life. However, the looming ecological consequences of human activities suggest that in the decades to come we might need to terraform our own planet if it is to remain a viable host for Earth-like life."

A focu...

The Garage Screen summer movie theater is now open, but for a limited time

2019-06-25T16:13:00-04:00

Russian firm Syndicate Architecture Bureau won an architectural competition organized by the Garage Museum and Strelka KB to design a temporary summer movie theater space in Moscow's Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure.

Aerial view of Garage Screen summer movie theater. Photo by Iwan Baan.

The design is a palpable contrast: while the lightweight material palette of the structure hints at its own temporality, its pyramidal profile makes it appear as though it will be standing well after its intended purpose has been fulfilled. The architects intended for the design to be "a self-sufficient central object" in the plaza, with a glowing, iridescent skin that changes appearance throughout the day.

Top of Garage Screen summer movie theater. Photo by Iwan Baan.

Garage Screen was launched in 2012 to show museum goers the best of Russian and international filmmaking, including documentary, experimental, and feature films. Garage Museum was founded in 11 year ago by Dasha Zhukova and Roma...

Strelka Institute announces enrollment campaign for postgraduate education programme

2016-10-04T14:40:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Strelka Institute.

During the new academic year Strelka students will answer the question: ‘What has become “The New Normal” in the modern world?’

Strelka Institute for architecture, media and design launched the enrollment campaign for the postgraduate education program. The theme of the 7th academic year at Strelka is The New Normal.

Research will focus on the new contemporary condition, which has emerged because of the rapid development of technology — including machine intelligence, biotechnology, automation, alternative spaces created in VR and AR — and define new paths for urban design and development.

The New Normal is:

30 international students from Russia and abroad
monthly stipend of $600
5 months from February 2017 to July 2017
for experts in media, architecture, design, urbanism, creative industries (artists, scenarists, writers, filmakers), and other fields like software studies, digital media, social sciences
in English

Students will learn the met...

Non sibi sed aliis

2016-06-09T03:15:00-04:00

An approach called Projective Preservation brings speculation about the future into a dialectical relationship with preservation of a city’s historic and pre-existing environments. Historic architecture, sites and cities can and should be preserved, but they must also be open to reinterpretation and adaptation to meet the needs of present and future generations.

Ryan Madson (an urban planner and landscape designer who also teaches architecture at SCAD — Savannah College of Art and Design) published an essay digging into authenticity, "memory values" and the "paradox of mainstream preservation ideologies". He also proposes 'Projective Preservation' an alternative approach. Along with A (5 point, draft) Manifesto for Savannah*

Critical irony in Russia’s special mention “Fair Enough” pavilion in 2014 Venice Biennale

2014-07-18T20:59:00-04:00

The "Fair Enough" exhibition of Russia's 2014 pavilion at the ongoing Venice Biennale gives a clever response to the Absorbing Modernity: 1914-2014 theme that Biennale director Rem Koolhaas assigned to curators. Curated and designed by the Strelka Institute, Russia received one of three Special Mentions out of 84 national pavilions during the 2014 Biennale awards ceremony.

"The Russian pavilion's 'Fair Enough' exhibition responds to Koolhaas’ curatorial theme by the concept itself: 20 Russian architectural ideas are presented, using the universal language of the international trade fair...'Fair Enough' is not a fair of products, but an Expo of ideas."