SPbGASU and the development company Glavstroy St Petersburg are carrying out a joint case championship MAF project. The result of the competition will be the development of an album of small architectural forms for the residential complex "Northern Valley" in the Vyborgsky district of the Northern capital.

Students defending their project concept

Glavstroy St Petersburg is a regular industry partner of the St Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering. The developer annually participates in the SPbGASU job fair, holds thematic master classes and business games for students, and also organizes internships for graduates in various divisions of the company. In one of the social facilities built by Glavstroy St Petersburg, school No. 428 in the Yuntolovo residential complex, an educational cluster of the university is being developed. The program aimed at early career guidance includes lectures, case studies and master classes in a wide range of areas.

This year, the cooperation between the developer and the university has expanded to a large-scale case championship for the development of small architectural forms "MAF project". It involves the competition of student teams in solving a practical task based on a real project of the Glavstroy St Petersburg company - a public space in the center of the comfort class quarter in the "Nothern Valley" residential complex.

According to the terms of the competition, the design concept of a small architectural form should contain from three to five elements. At the same time, students can offer any project format for implementation - from street furniture to a dry fountain.

“The main objective of this championship is to go beyond the standard improvement of our project, to create a new comfortable environment for family recreation and walks for residents of the entire microdistrict. We want to install truly unusual small architectural forms in the comfort class quarter - with a pronounced concept, a unique design code and without use of standard equipment. At the same time, it is important for us that the product being created harmoniously fits into the already existing development of Nothern Valley, is safe for children and is made of functional, durable materials,” said Dmitry Kalinin, director of the "Nothern Valley" project by Glavstroy St Petersburg.

“The SPbGASU Division for Study Administration has always supported holding of competitive practice-oriented events together with the university's industry partners and repeatedly acted as the organizer of such events. Holding a case championship together with Glavstroy St Petersburg is another opportunity to organize students team project work to improve a real facility. This is a modern and popular format for both students and potential employers, which allows you to combine training for students and obtaining a product for the company. Working on a project, students of the Faculty of Architecture acquire the competence to interact with the customer, the skills of public defense, the ability to defend their idea and concept and at the same time fulfill the requirements of the customer. It is no less valuable to hold a series of educational events (lectures, master classes, business games) during the case championship from the specialists of the Glavstroy St Petersburg company,” emphasized Marina Malyutina, head of the SPbGASU Division for Study Administration.

During the qualifying stage, students explored the surrounding buildings of the microdistrict and presented their personal ideas to their mentors for creating new small architectural forms on the territory of the "Northern Valley". The authors of the most interesting developments, which are about 50 students, united in 14 working groups. Each team developed a single sketch-idea of the future object and presented a preliminary project to the teachers, as well as the Glavstroy St Petersburg team.

Currently, the participants of the case championship are preparing for the final defense of their projects - they gather all urban planning documentation, create renders, 3D models and volumetric layouts, calculate the project estimate and “package” it into a ready-made presentation format. The developer team helps the students to perform this work: during March and April, master classes and workshops from the employees of Glavstroy St Petersburg are held in the SPbGASU auditoriums.

The case championship leaders will be determined in April this year. The winning projects will appear on the territory of the public space in the comfort class quarter in the Nothern Valley residential complex before the end of summer. In addition, several winners of the championship will have the opportunity to undergo an internship or practice at Glavstroy St Petersburg.