PROJECT RUSSIA №61 - Campus

Does MARKHI need a campus? Bart Goldhoorn The existing MARKHI [Moscow Architecture Institute] building does not function too well, in my opinion. Long corridors with closed doors – and you don’t know what’s going on behind these doors. The cellular structure with separate rooms is not very good at getting students and teachers from different groups and years to interact with one another. People don’t know who’s doing what and this means they don’t get the intellectual sustenance and strong creative impulses they need. When you catch sight – even if it’s only out of the corner of your eye, as you pass by – of a good project by another student, you receive a fairly strong stimulus. It’s bad when everyone stews in their own juices. A space to interact in and to communicate with one another – this is what’s most important for educational establishments in general, but especially for an architecture school. Anatoly Belov I could not agree more with Bart. MARKHI reminds me of Hogwarts; it’s very much like a labyrinth. During my first week of studying there, I was almost in tears because I could never find the right lecture hall. Most of the rooms are shut, so it’s a complete mystery what’s going on in them. This lack of openness encourages the faculties, I think, to keep a certain distance from one another. Students at Housing and Public Buildings, say, don’t frequent Town Planning because it’s a long way away and they can’t be bothered, and the other way around. This means they don’t know each other’s work and, as a result, have little idea of the specific problems which are the focus of attention of the different faculties. Alexei Muratov Incidentally, I think this is a universal phenomenon, and it’s got a lot to do with the ambitions of the teachers. The same thing has been observed at Strelka, even though Strelka only opened a year ago. Here we come up against the need not just for contact between faculties, but also for the kind of interaction between different fields of study that is encouraged by university campuses. It would be possible to look at our question from a different angle: perhaps it would be a good idea for MARKHI to become part of a campus where there are students and teachers from all kinds of different disciplines? Perhaps MARKHI is at the moment too self-absorbed, too narrowly specialized, being aimed at a single profession only? Maria Fadeeva I think this issue is best dealt with by setting up contacts with other institutes that are situated, like MARKHI, in the centre of Moscow – for instance, with the Higher School of Economics or the Russian State Humanitarian University. And there’s no need for a campus. You have to admit that MARKHI is more spacious, interesting, and pleasant than any institution of higher education built during the Soviet period. What’s more, some of the final-year students study in a shared space, in the building’s mansard, and can see what the other students are doing. If you possess curiosity, you can find out everything there is to know. Bart Goldhoorn The fact that MARKHI is in the centre is an advantage that compensates up for numerous drawbacks. For architects and urban planners it’s important to be integrated into the urban life, to feel the city. It’s largely for this reason that architecture schools throughout the world are situated in city centres. And if we’re talking about openness within the institute, I think it’s important that there should be a degree of openness with regard to the city too. Students should understand what’s going on out there, and the city should understand what’s happening at MARKHI. Alexei Muratov Accordingly, we may say that for an architecture school the campus is the city itself. And, given MARKHI’s fortunate location in the centre of Moscow, all that’s needed is to try to ensure that the drawbacks of the old building are converted into advantages. In this respect, it would probably be beneficial to implement something like OMA’s project for the Hermitage. Without restructuring the General Staff Building itself, OMA proposed some very interesting ways of making effective new use of its spaces. Anna Borovitskaya I could suggest what needs to be done as a bare minimum in order to substantially improve the way MARKHI functions. PE should be got rid of. The preparatory classes need to be moved to a separate space. The yearly intake should be reduced to 250 students. Right now, there are about 300 students attending the daytime course and they just don’t fit in. There should be Wi-Fi all over the building. The zones for interaction need to be reorganized: currently, they are literally short of furniture. The library must be put in order. Everything else, I think, is a matter of fine tuning. Maria Fadeeva I’d like to suggest that they put benches in the courtyard so that you no longer have students sitting only on the fountain. And all the more so since, unlike at Strelka, you’ve got students sitting around and talking to one another outside even during the winter months. Bart Goldhoorn But it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a new building as well. Anatoly Belov Ideally, there should be a dual structure: the old building and a campus somewhere outside town. Currently, a division is being introduced between BAs and MAs. The MA students could remain in the old building and study the city. And the BAs could learn the finer points of their profession in a tranquil semi-rural setting. That would be wonderful.