At the third meeting of the Living Environment Forum in Kaliningrad, Russia—this year centered on the theme "All About Housing"—the organizers presented the winning projects in the Open International Competition for Standard Housing and Residential Development Concept Design.
The competition, organized by the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Utilities, the Russia Housing and Urban Development Corporation (DOM.RF), and Strelka KB, aimed to develop residential projects for three different urban models: low, medium and high-rise living environments.
A total of 299 projects were received from 39 different countries, including Russia, Italy, Spain, France, The Netherlands, and India. The most popular urban model among the proposals was for medium-rise development, consisting of buildings between 5 and 7 floors in height, with free recreational areas and local infrastructure development.
The winning offices were TA.R.I-Architects (Italy), Grupo H d.o.o (Slovenia), Plan_B (Russia), Archifellows (Russia), and ESCHER (Russia), who each received 2 million rubles ($32,100 USD). In addition, another 1.5 million rubles ($24,100 USD) was given to 5 finalists, and 1 million rubles ($16,050 USD) to another 10 outstanding projects. Read on for descriptions of the 5 winning projects in the words of the design teams.
The 5 Winners
TA.R.I-Architects (Italy):
"For great personalization opportunities"
"We moved from the importance to bring “the one” and his self-expression to the central role they used to have. Thanks to the involvement of citizens since the very beginning, it would be possible to restore a sense of belonging and identification to their homes. This is, in our opinion, the starting point and the real innovative solution to recognize the house as the spatial extension of ourselves, that plays the important role not only to welcome us, but to represent us, affirming who we are."
GRUPO H.d.o.o. (Slovenia):
"For an unconventional focus on diverse living scenarios"
“Well, our solution is innovative in a way that it is deeply rooted in the tradition of mass housing in Russia and our home Slovenia (and region of ex-Yugoslavia). We just took all the principles that existed, updated them and continue on that good basis. Our main objectives ware to create modern open-plan apartments and houses that can be adapted to suit occupants needs—in that way we achieved pragmatic and flexible solutions.”
Plan_B (Russia):
"For exception flexibility of planning solutions"
“Our solution allows citizens to experiment with boundaries: boundaries of space transformations, boundaries of social communication, boundaries of self-identity. With our project, we’ve laid a wide basis of possibilities for such experiments.”
Archifellows (Russia):
"For respecting the needs of the users while offering design solutions"
“With our projects we strive for evolving the user experience, not just creating new spaces. We’re trying to perceive the architecture as a service that is, above all, intended for people, and to always improve our approach.”
ESCHER (Russia):
"For providing dynamic and diverse public spaces"
"We created a specific shape that can be rotated, that's how we bring diversity, and make the house we want. It's like lego construction."
See a complete list of the winners below:
1st Category Winners:
TA.R.I-Architects (Italy)
GRUPO H.d.o.o. (Slovenia)
Plan_B (Russia)
Archifellows (Russia)
ESCHER (Russia)
2nd Category Winners:
Akhmadullin Architects (Russia)
Architectural Group DNK (Russia)
AD Hoc Architecture (Russia)
Sara Simoska (Macedonia)
Bold-Collective (Netherlands)
3rd Category Winners:
Project Group Pioneer (Russia)
Ppa Arquitectura (Brazil)
Architectural Studio 2 Portala (Russia)
Anarchitects Studio (Netherlands)
Boustany / Suphasidh / Desfonds + A2OM (Russia, France, Spain, Thailand)
DO Architects (Lithuania)
Bureau ARD (Russia)
DA Project (Russia)
Luis Eduardo Calderón García (Colombia)
Pole-Design (Russia)
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