The annual competition this year acquired international status and gathered a record number of participants from different cities of Russia, China, the Republic of Belarus, and Transnistria. A total of 528 projects were presented, of which 123 were selected for the final. Many of them are on display at the exhibition organized on the upper balustrade of the SPbGASU main building. This year, the contestants developed design concepts on the topic of "Living Environment. A New Look."

The chairman of the competition's organizing committee, honorary president of the Union of Architects of St Petersburg Oleg Romanov emphasized its relevance, recalling that the term "archidea" was once used by avant-garde artists, because a conceptual idea is the basis of a successful project and its implementation. Participation in such a competition is already a victory, because in our profession it helps to develop ideas, new thoughts, Oleg Romanov summed up.

"Four years ago we developed the regulations for the competition open to the most daring ideas. It is gratifying that "ArchConcept" is developing, its geography is expanding, and the level of projects is increasing," noted Ekaterina Vozniak, deputy chairperson of the competition's organizing committee and dean of the SPbGASU Faculty of Architecture.

The competition participants included professional architects, restorers, designers and creative teams, students of higher education institutions and students of secondary vocational educational institutions, and schoolchildren. They presented works made in traditional hand graphics, using computer modeling and graphics, in the form of installations, and also using artificial intelligence (neural networks).

The projects were evaluated in nominations. The winner in the nomination "Architecture. Conceptual Proposal" was the concept of a vertical city by a creative group of students from SPbGASU consisting of Anastasia Zolotareva, Olesya Suslina and Anastasia Urdasheva.

“Our project demonstrates an original approach to residential architecture by moving away from the classic concept of high-rise towers. Instead of the traditional separation of public and residential areas, the residential towers are harmoniously surrounded by public spaces. This solution encourages residents to interact with the surrounding infrastructure, encouraging them to look into nearby shops, enjoy dinner in restaurants located along the spiral staircase, relax in the library or by the pool. Residents easily interact with neighbors and the general public, which leads to the creation of a vibrant and interconnected area. The spiral shape of the building allows for the integration of different types of residential premises, both business class and social housing: this contributes to the diversity and affordability of living,” said Anastasia Zolotareva.

According to her, their team’s participation in the competition has become a tradition: for four years they have enthusiastically taken on interesting tasks set by the organizers of ArchConcept.

The winner among professionals in the nomination "Architecture. Pre-project proposal" was the project by Elizaveta Shevtsova and Aleksandr Vishnyakov.

"My professional activity is related to the design of low-rise construction. I chose this direction back in my years of study at SPbGASU and want to continue developing compact low-rise development. I submitted a project of a low-rise residential complex in Ivangorod for the competition - my master's thesis. This is a blocked carpet-type development, which was attractive abroad in the 50-70s of the last century, but did not take root here, although design proposals were developed. I decided to make an experimental development. There are territories in Ivangorod that need to be developed, and, in my opinion, such a complex would fit in well there. This is housing for a large family: it has terraces, mini-gardens on the ground floor. My project is aimed at reviving Russian family traditions, popularizing large families. The presented combination of urban and rural development allows us to offer residents good conditions and comfort," explained Elizaveta Shevtsova.

The Grand Prix winners were representatives of Zhengzhou University (China) Ye Zijian and Ren Yujie.

The competition curator, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Architecture for Discipline, Senior Lecturer at the SPbGASU Faculty of Architecture Daria Boytsova noted the record number of works submitted, thanked both students and the professional community for their interest in the competition. She also presented awards to students who took an active part in organizing the art exhibition and "ArchConcept" as a whole.

Competition results