The SPbGASU Associate Professor, PhD of Architecture Fedor Perov devoted his entire life to architecture: as a specialist he became established in the industry, became the author of 155 scientific papers, since 1986 he has graduated several generations of undergraduate and graduate students and continues to train young personnel within the walls of his native university. We talk with him about architecture, the learning process and the competencies of a modern teacher.

– Fedor Viktorovich, share your story of becoming a professional.

– There were no architects in our family. At school, my classmate, now a colleague, associate professor at the Faculty of Architecture, Yulia Aleksandrovna Devyatova, studied at the preparatory courses of the LISI (now SPbGASU) Faculty of Architecture. Looking at my purposeful classmate, I also decided to take a closer look at the profession of an architect. My first success at the Department of Drawing came when I learned to draw a plaster head - this was a necessary stage in the artistic training of an applicant to the Faculty of Architecture. I liked the Faculty, I was impressed by the meeting with the famous architect Aleksandr Ivanovich Kubasov, who designed many significant objects, including the Baltiyskaya metro station. Then I met the dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Boris Viktorovich Muravyov. After this meeting, I firmly decided to become an architect.

I would like to note that open days play a very important role in choosing a profession, faculty, or university. Studying at the Faculty of Architecture was associated with the teachers of the Department of Architectural Design Andrey Aleksandrovich Grushke, Viktor Fedorovich Shapovalov - teachers who influenced my future professional life. Olga Abramovna Mustafaeva, an architect who studied at LISI in the fifties and today remains an example in life for us, had a great influence on my professional development. This is an amazing person, a scientist and a true professional. She encouraged me to pursue science when I worked at the Leningrad Zonal Research and Design Institute for Standard and Experimental Design of Residential and Public Buildings (LENZNIIEP). The Institute dealt with the problems of the Arctic and the North and built the cities of Nadym and Novy Urengoy. The city for 200 thousand people was built over a five-year period. After defending my dissertation in 1986, I began to combine professional practical architectural work with teaching.

– In your opinion, what should a modern teacher be like?

– I can say with confidence that a modern teacher is a complex of competencies that allows students to understand classical and modern architecture, architectural techniques, and have the skills to use them. Such knowledge is accumulated through experience. American architect Frank Lloyd Wright said that an architect should live 150 years because the first 100 years he studies. In architecture, it is not just one teacher who is important, but the team – the architectural studio. Our architectural workshop employs several teachers of different ages. I am a graduate of 1979, representing a Soviet school. Olga Gennadievna Kokorina is my former student, she graduated fr om the university in 2000, Aleksandra Fedorovna Eremeeva is a 2012 graduate, she is a PhD of Architecture.

The workshop consists of teachers with different experiences. I have more experience, and certain stereotypes have formed. I know how and in what sequence to teach students, that is, the methodology for transferring professional competencies. On the other hand, students need to be taught to understand modern architecture. And what is it? Does modern architecture mean beautiful? Or is it an architecture that involves building with innovative materials? Architecture is the living environment of people. It should reflect the modern pace and quality of life. Life today is certainly different from the one we lived in 50 years ago. Architecture changes taking into account social orders, technologies, aesthetics, and people’s lifestyles. We began to work on computers, we have a different dynamics of life, a different speed of perception of information, so we need a different space, and therefore a different architecture. The younger generation of workshop teachers understand modern requirements and the necessary conditions for a comfortable life in this period. Therefore, a set of competencies can most effectively be transferred to students by people of different generations.

Will I prepare sought-after architects if I, like a conservative, load students with only my history? The answer is obvious. That is why the architectural workshop is the main creative educational center, a team of like-minded teachers who are able to consistently transfer basic professional knowledge to students. Each discipline and activity is a puzzle, and the workshop collects these puzzles into a common system. And this issue is fundamental in the educational sphere.

– Does this mean that a teacher is primarily a practitioner?

– No doubt. I returned to SPbGASU as a teacher in 1986, when I had already gained some experience at LENZNIIEP, wh ere I was engaged in design and scientific research. We opened a workshop in which I taught students, combining teaching with my direct work. This workshop operated until 2015, and Olga Gennadievna and Aleksandra Fedorovna worked in it. About two hundred significant projects were implemented in the workshop. We are a member of the Union of Architects of Russia, and only those who have experience in significant architectural projects are accepted into it. And this is another powerful argument for the importance of practical activity. In addition, in an architectural studio, the learning process is not limited by disciplines. Here we also discuss ideological problems, which is valuable in all respects.

– What do you see as the result of teaching activity?

– The result can be seen only when students start working in their profession. But the meaning of pedagogical work is obvious. Our task is to consistently and intelligibly, moving from simple to complex, teach students professional competencies and principles of project implementation. Architecture is a complex discipline, moreover multifactorial and dependent on many circumstances. If we take into account the years of study at a university, including graduate school, it will be ten years, but even this period does not guarantee that students have learned everything. Technically, all graduates can work, but only 10 percent of them can be considered mature specialists. You need to complete your studies and constantly improve your skills through practice. For example, our master's students recently returned from an expedition from the North. This is already professional work, during which the guys gained invaluable experience.

– What problems in specialized education and industry concern you?

– The high competition for the SPbGASU Faculty of Architecture - twenty applicants for one place - speaks of the demand for the specialty and the quality of education. Most of the students enter on a contract basis, two-thirds of the students are from other cities. We have no problems in the educational process. The problem is that nonresident university graduates do not return to their regions. And it is precisely there that there is a shortage of architects. The picture is as is: the outflow of population from the periphery is due to the lack of a comfortable environment there, which, in turn, can be created by these young specialists. If the state encourages their return, then in years to come we will be able to observe new styles of architecture even in small towns in Russia.

The project's other materials

Elena Kurakina: “Pedagogical Practice Predetermined My Future Profession”

Andrey Boyarintsev: “I Adhere to the Partnership Model of Education - It Is the Most Effective”

Anna Telyatnikova: “Teaching Methodology is the Key to Learning Success”