Archicontest Nayada
Us, mediapartner of the award, attends the prize-giving in Moscow

US №4/08 disember 2008 - gennaio 2009

The prize-giving ceremony of Archicontest, the interior design competition organized by Nayada (www.nayada.ru, a leading Russian manufacturer of movable partitions) and Russian Architects Union, was held in Moscow on October 18th, at the Manezh Exhibition Hall durino the architecture exhibition “Zodchestvo”, taking place every year inside the historical building of the Man?ge close to the Red Square attended by a large number of architects.

Now at its third year, the international contest was on the theme “Office Space: creativity, technology and innovation” Many agreed to this project, now mature to make itself known to an even wider international public.

Photo Archicontest NayadaUs, mediapartner of the award, attends the prize-giving in Moscow

Dmitry Cherepkov, president of Nayada Group, summed up the reasons, that three years ago drove the company to organize this competition addressed to designers and students, quite popular among Russian architects: «When we realized that there was no contest in Russia to award creativity in the office space, even though we spend most of our time in this environment, we thought of involving the Russian Architects Union, that appreciated and promoted our project. The aim of the competition, boasting of WWF and The State Academy of Architecture IAM among its partners, is to attract the architects’ attention to the working environment theme, to award and advertise the projects and works that combine practicality and aesthetic quality, harmony and comfort at best and to become a source of wellbeing and inspiration for the people who work there».

The authoritative members of the jury (chaired by Sdobnov Y.A, deputy chairman of the Russian Architects Union) spoke on one another into the microphone to give the reasons for the choices made and the prize statuettes given to the different categories, causing amazement. Besides the official prizes given by Nayada, for a total of 20.000 dollars, there were some special mentions from the media partners of this project.

Juror Luciano Capaldo’s comment

Chairman of RICS Europe, International Associate American Institute of Architects, Luciano Capaldo – an engineer based in Milan and London – really international for his training and experience, is the most suitable person to make a comment about the competition and his experience as juror.

What is your first comment?

— My experience as member of the jury was positive, even though it was hard to pass judgment due to the “obstacle” of the language (the papers were written in Russian only!), also the translation of the categories did not allow to define the guidelines clearly and express a critical/analytic opinion of projects. The quality of projects as regards architecture and space planning was reasonable. Some of them hit the mark as far as the customer’s corporate image concept is concerned, some instead proposed futurist solutions hardly feasible. It surprised me that the theme of eco-sustainability hadn’t been stressed as it deserved, not only concerning materials but also architecture, volumetry and plant engineering.

May we ask what project did you choose?

— I gave my vote to one of the few projects, that provided for an eco-sustainable working place and, all things considered, "workable".

What would you suggest the organizers should do to improve the competition and give greater visibility to the next event?

— Notice of competition and papers in English, to lend internationality to the event, more focus on the sustainability theme, now basic in planning and a clearer definition of the three categories, that could be, for instance, Best Space Planning, Best Architectural Design, Best Environmental and Sustainable Project.

Categories and winners

The three categories provided for in the contest – ArchiEmbobiment, Archidecision, Archipartition – were respectively focused on projects of interior design already carried out, projects making use of the partition walls Nayada, andon studies and creative solutions for the design of the movable partition. The prizes, not in order of merit from the first to the third one as decided by the jury, were awarded as follow:

ArchImplementation:

	«The project of Sveza-les interior» Authors: Natalya Selivanova (Moscow) Second place
	«Office of the Teva corporation» Authors: Anna Ulyanova (Moscow) Second place

ArchSolution:

	The project «Advertising agency office concept» Authors: Alexander Datsik (Minsk) First place
	«The main office of a large tourist agency» Authors: Vladimir Romanov and Victoria Safronova (Moscow) Second place
	«Architectural studio office» Authors: Plotnikova Yekaterina (Angarsk) Third place
	«The office of ARCH-625 architectural bureau» Authors: Sergey Nesedkin Third place

ArchPartition

	«TETRIS» Authors: Elizaveta Skovorodina (Moscow) First place
	«Open Space G.1_5» Authors: Sergey Nasedkin (Moscow) Third place
	«Resheto» Authors: Victoria Novick (Moscow) Third place

People's Choice Award

«ECOffice»

Authors: Kashov Evgeny and Poponin Aleksey (Moscow)

Sponsor Award

	«Office of the managing company» Authors: Kozlova Oksana (Samara) TATLIN Magazine
	"Mermaid" project Authors: Smurygina Anna (Moscow) «Architectural Herald» Magazine
	«The project of developer company office» Authors: Solopova Natalya and Simakova Maria (Moscow) «Construction Technologies» Magazine
	«Project of Sveza-les office interior» Authors: Selivanova Natalya (Moscow) «Office Interior» Magazine
	"Cheese" Project Authors: Andrey Cherdakov, Yekaterina Savenkova (Saratov) «100% OFFICE»
	project "MTV ECO OFFICE CHILLOUT" Authors: Yenin German (Moscow) «100% OFFICE»
	STONERS company office Authors: Churilina Yulia (Riga) WWF