What is Russia’s model of the future?

Tuesday 21 March, 20.00 at Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam. Entrance is free of charge, reserve tickets via the website of Pakhuis de Zwijger.

Bottom-up planning processes in The Netherlands are regarded as an effective way to gain influence over top-down planning processes. This is why Dutch architects have become experienced partners in (small-scale) bottom-up architectural projects. In Russia, the rigid soviet planning system is slowly giving way to participatory models too, creating meaningful changes in architecture. Here, citizen involvement is a necessity for individuals to gain control over large-scale free market forces and ‘Urbanism’ is a widely accepted model for Russian activists to improve local neighbourhoods.

With public space becoming a topic of public discussion, Dutch architects are involved in creating public areas that connect neighbourhoods and residents, implementing their skills in today’s Russia. How is their knowledge being valued? And what can we learn from the developments in Russia, now that Dutch bottom-up is ready for upscaling in Amsterdam based projects like the Bijlmermeer?

With among others:

• Markus Appenzeller, director and partner at MLA+
• Eugene Asse, architect and dean of the Moscow Architecture School (MARCH)
• Adriaan Geuze, landscape architect West8
• Dasha Paramonova, director of Bureau Alexander Brodsky
• Julia Bourdova, BuroMoscow
• Olga Aleksakova, BuroMoscow
• Pero Puljiz, architect at Architecten Cie

The discussion at Pakhuis de Zwijger is part of a bigger programme, initiated by the Moscow Architecture School (MARCH), MLA+ and BuroMoscow. In the framework of the MARCH graduation studio ‘Moscow Region – The Assembly Manual’, lectors Markus Appenzeller, Olga Aleksakova and Julia Burdova organized a visitors programme for their students to the Netherlands. The visitors programme is supported by DutchCulture.