Ural Federal University: University Student Wins the City Ecosystem Contest

The winner of the regional stage of the City Ecosystem competition, which was held on October 7 in Arkhangelsk, was a team of students from different Russian cities. They presented the project “I’m in a cabin!”, in which they proposed bright solutions using the urban metaphor. Darya Boyko, a student of the Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture at Ural Federal University, was one of the team members.

“While working on the project, I participated in the creation of the concept, maps and plans of the territory. I was also engaged in the layout of the final presentation. The most difficult thing was to find a common vision for the project, and the most interesting thing was to create the concept, think through the details, find new meanings in the surrounding things to bring the project to life,” said Daria Boyko.

The City Ecosystem project is held by Roskulttsentr (a subordinate institution of Rosmolodezh, supervising the direction “Rosmolodezh. Creativity”) and Consumer Culture with the support of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives. Fifty young specialists, selected by the expert jury out of more than 600 applications, participate in the finals of the competition. The workshop in Arkhangelsk was the final event of the project.

“I liked the energy of the contest and the involvement of the participants. All of the guys were very motivated, asked a lot of questions, and were excited to dive into the context and learn new things. It was very inspiring. I hope that this experience will be useful in their future professional development. The participants decided to rethink the historical traditions of the city and connect them with the modern context,” said Ekaterina Goldberg, mentor of the project and partner of the Orchestra design studio.

The young architects tried to unite all the communities and groups represented in the youth center in one space. They designed zones for games, recreation, lectures, workshops, and fair spaces. The new modern multifunctional space will appear in the city by 2026.