Projects for the Arctic were Presented at the ArchConcept Competition

On 12 December, an exhibition of works by participants of the All-Russian Open Creative Competition "ArchConcept" opened  on the balustrade of the SPbGASU main building.

The main theme of this year was the architecture of multifunctional complexes that take into account the climatic features of the Arctic region – the so-called crypto-climatic complexes. The competition received a very wide audience in connection with the state program "Socio-economic development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation" and thanks to the support of the Committee of St Petersburg for the Arctic. The main experts, program leaders and authors of the task for the competition were associate professors at the SPbGASU department of architectural design Fedor Perov and Aleksandra Eremeeva.

“The theme of the “ArchConcept-2022” competition draws attention to the specifics of Arctic architecture. The Arctic is a special region with, on the one hand, a unique nature, and on the other hand, a harsh climate. Therefore, for a comfortable life and tourism in the Arctic, special architectural solutions are needed. The concept of a crypto-climatic complex, which combines spaces for housing, work and leisure and provides an autonomous life for people regardless of environmental conditions, appeared back in the 1980s, but in practice this type of structure has not received proper development. Today, when technologies have advanced, the issue of modern design proposals for crypto-climatic complexes for the Arctic has become especially relevant. The creation of concepts for this type of structure is the main task of the participants of the competition,” Aleksandra Eremeeva described the design tasks for the contestants. Fedor Perov told the contestants about the peculiarities of the region and architectural techniques that provide comfort in a harsh climate.

Traditionally, various nominations are announced in the competition, which attracted the attention of students, teachers and schoolchildren from all over Russia. Students and groups of authors from leading Russian universities, including those from regions where the topic of the Arctic and the cold climate is well known, sent their creative proposals: Tomsk State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Ural State University of Architecture and Art, Tyumen State Institute of Culture, Orenburg State University , St Petersburg Mining University, St Petersburg State Academy of Art and Industry named after A. L. Stieglitz.

Most of the works demonstrating bright and modern proposals for the shaping of architectural objects were presented in the nominations "Idea-concept for a multifunctional complex", "Architecture of a multifunctional public complex" and "Architecture of a residential multifunctional complex". The works of participants in these nominations delight with the environmental approach to the architectural appearance of buildings and the quality of the study of volumetric and spatial solutions. Of particular interest is the nomination "Layout" with spectacular models of buildings on snow-covered slopes, clearly demonstrating adaptation to the peculiarities of the Arctic nature.{gallery name="архконп"}

The expert jury had an exciting but responsible task of choosing the best "Arctic projects" of the "ArchConcept-2022" competition. The representatives of the competition jury from the St Petersburg Union of Architects this year were its president Oleg Romanov and a member of the union Ilya Yusupov, Andrey Anokhin, deputy chairman of the St Petersburg Committee for Arctic Affairs, was invited as an honorary member of the jury.

Text: Maria Voronkova, assistant at the SPbGASU department of architectural and urban-plannig heritage; Andrey Surovenkov, acting head of the SPbGASU department of architectural design
Photo: 1 – Andrey Anokhin; 2, 3, 4, 5 – presented by Maria Voronkova