From 17 to 28 July, SPbGASU hosted the international summer school "Urban Planning: renovation of public spaces in St Petersburg (from architectural sketch to 3D model)". Its participants were students from Voronezh, Krasnoyarsk, Samara, St Petersburg, Tula, as well as foreign guests from Algeria.

In the first week of the school work, an intensive creative plein air took place in a big city along various thematic routes developed by the coordinator of the summer school, Associate Professor at the SPbGASU Department of Architectural and Engineering Constructions, PhD of Architecture Olga Pastukh. During the course, the participants of the ISS got the opportunity to practice graphic sketching of the architectural masterpieces of St Petersburg, got acquainted with a professional and careful approach to preserving the architectural and cultural heritage and introducing new architectural objects into historical buildings, and were also inspired to create their own architectural concept of a given object.

The route "Soviet constructivism and monuments of the Stalinist Empire style"

On the route “Golden Axis: St Petersburg palaces and embankments, monuments of sacred architecture”, Aleksandr Silnov, Associate Professor at the Department of History and Theory of Architecture, and Anton Korolev, Assistant at the Department of Architectural and Urban-Planning Heritage, told the school participants about the formation of the historical center of the city using the example of the ensemble of the Peter and Paul Fortress. During the class with Yuri Oblasov, senior lecturer at the Department of Architectural and Urban-Planning Heritage, they got acquainted with the features of the iconic architectural styles of the Soviet era (the route "Soviet constructivism and monuments of the Stalinist Empire style").

Week of urban plein air

Aleksandra Glukhova, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Architectural and Engineering Constructions, PhD of Architecture, and Olga Pastukh led the routes “Monuments of the Northern Modern”, “Modern Architecture in the Historical Center of St Petersburg”, “The Newest Architecture of St Petersburg. XXI century”, “Renovation of industrial territories”, “Public spaces of St Petersburg”.

In addition, in the first week, the school participants visited the territory of the former industrial warehouse "Obvodny Dvor", which revitalization is taking place in several stages, and other locations along the Obvodny Canal that have not yet been reconstructed. The participants were shown interactive videos about the objects of the so-called "gray belt", created specifically for the ISS by Andrey Vaytens, Professor at the Department of Urban Planning, DSc in Architecture. The participants were greatly impressed by the lecture on the architecture of the industrial revolution by Anton Smirnov, Associate Professor at the Department of Architectural and Engineering Constructions, PhD of Engineering Sciences.

Trip to Kronstadt

The week of the city plein air ended with a trip to Kronstadt hed by Aleksandr Panin, Associate Professor at the Department of Architectural and Engineering Constructions, PhD of Engineering Sciences. The students fully felt the sea spirit of the Northern capital, saw its defensive outposts on the Gulf of Finland and the Naval Cathedral, built according to the design of the graduate and first elected director of the Institute of Civil Engineers (IGI, now SPbGASU) Vasily Kosyakov (1862–1921).  

At the beginning of the second week, students united in creative groups to develop their own architectural concepts of public space as part of the renovation of one of the industrial locations within the "grey belt" of St Petersburg. Three objects of different scale and degree of renovation were at the center of their attention: gasholders, creative space "Tkachi" and the French bucket on the Obvodny Canal.

Volumetric layout of the project for the renovation of gasholders

The teams did a thorough but exciting job: from hand sketches to 3D models of their projects prepared at the SPbGASU Laboratory of Digital Building Information Models. Then, in the architectural workshops and the university Center for Mechanical Testing of Structural Units, they turned these 3D models into three-dimensional models and presented them at the closing ceremony of the ISS. 

Melissa Yesger, Associate Professor at the Department of Architectural and Engineering Constructions Vladimir Elistratov and Olga Pastukh at the Russia-Africa Summit 

The participants of the summer school demonstrated the skills of sketching, designing, modeling and prototyping. Despite the limited time, they managed to implement their creative ideas.

“Thanks to your hospitality and care, I was able to get acquainted with the architectural diversity of the beautiful city, gain invaluable experience in working in a team with students from various Russian universities, attend events of the Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum. I am under a great and positive impression of what I saw. It seems to me that during this trip I was able to visit all of Russia, and not just St Petersburg!” – shared her impressions Melissa Yesger, a student from Algeria.

At the Russia-Africa summit the next SPbGASU international summer school "Urban Planning: renovation of public spaces in St Petersburg (from architectural sketch to 3D model)", which will be held in 2024, was announced.

Along with Russian students, representatives of architectural and technical universities from Italy, China, and Algeria have participated in the ISS for the past three years. According to the organisers of the ISS, in 2024 the school’s architectural program for creating concepts for the renovation of urban spaces will be supplemented with assignments in various areas of construction, which will attract students of other specialties and give them the opportunity to gain BIM design skills.

At the Russia-Africa summit, SPbGASU specialists presented the results of another international summer school, Ecocamp: Architecture of Ecotourism Complexes, which has been attended by more than 50 students from five countries over the past three years. The first online school was organized in cooperation with the Japanese Hokkaido University. At that time, three Arctic territories became platforms for designing. Summer Schools 2022–2023 were held face-to-face, their participants developed projects for the western part of Kotlin Island. In 2024, this school will also continue its work and is waiting for new participants.