Session Description:

Architectural competitions are a working tool with urban spaces: they initiate a dialog between authorities, business and the expert community, which makes the competition not a “conveyor belt” of one-type, “detached” from reality ideas, but a platform for the creation of high-quality projects. The competition practice reflects the current problems of the city development and offers solutions that can fundamentally change the entire previous urban planning practice. Thanks to competitions, architecture has become a subject of interest for the general public (as a tool for making decisions in the public interest or resolving complex urban conflicts). Competitive practice is quite strictly regulated. There is a set of documents that spell out the main provisions of competition procedures, rules of participation, terms and amount of the prize fund, the functionality of the jury and other bodies that influence the decision-making process. There are also documents regulating competition procedures on a macro scale. Now the emphasis is placed on contests that are publicly accessible and important for residents where it is decided to change something, not only in megacities and cities with millions of inhabitants, but also in small towns in Russia. The contests cover different areas - from the creation of a comfortable urban environment and landscaping to the development of concepts for the development of certain territories.

As part of the session, experts will discuss:
▪ What are architectural competitions for?
▪ How do architects choose competitions to participate in?
▪ Why do you need to participate in competitions?
▪ What happens at the end of the competitions?