Description

The interdisciplinary platform, Future Faculty jointly organizes a new open end research and design project with Project Russia, the International Rotterdam Architecture Biennale 2009 and the Faculties of Architecture and Industrial Design at the TU Delft:

Micro-Urbanistic interventions within the Post-Socialist Russian city.

In this project, students and professionals will collaborate to explore the Russian living environment within pre-fabricated (pre-fab) housing blocks. Conflict and possibility within the collective space will be the main subject for round table discussions accompanied by workshops in both Russia and the Netherlands.

Outline

This project will examine post-Socialist housing blocks in Moscow in order to explore possible solutions that can increase the quality of live in this social environment.

At the basis of this is an event-driven process. Students and experts from various backgrounds will come together in intense round-table discussions and one-day workshops within the Netherlands. These events will constitute the practical and theoretical groundwork for understanding communal space of living/housing areas.

The basic knowledge gained in the first part of this program will be adapted and applied to the actual context of post-Socialist Russia during an exploratory 7 day workshop in Moscow. In this period, a particular housing area will be analyzed, and design ideas will be generated in collaboration with Russian students and professionals.

As a final phase of this project – an open debate/seminar and one-day workshop will be hosted by the Rotterdam Architecture Biennale – to reflect/rethink/criticize the acquired experience and open the discourse towards future development and possible application.

Participants are asked to actively take part in the process by suggesting material on subjects they consider relevant for this project, including lectures or seminars (that could be attended “guerilla-style”), documentaries, films, music, etc.

Results

Results of the project could range from: Proposals, ideas, product concepts, project spin-off ideas, complementary research ideas, new starting points, potential collaborations for further work.

Program

The underlying themes serve to organize and structure the complete program of the project:
April 2009 – June 2009: Round table discussions and workshops in the Netherlands
July 2009: International Workshop in Moscow
September 2009: Open debate/seminar and International Workshop in Rotterdam