Ruben Arakelyan will become the advisor of the City Development Institute in 2024

Ruben Arakelyan, co-founder of the archburo WALL, will become the advisor of the City Development Institute in 2024. As part of the cooperation, it is planned to develop urban projects and exchange professional experience. Consultations, master classes and other events will be held for young Kazan architects with the participation of the architect from Moscow. This was announced today at the Business Monday meeting by the Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin.

“At the Kazanysh Forum Ilsiyar Tukhvatullina proposed to involve another chief architect who will work on a voluntary basis. Ruben Arakelyan is one of the most talented architects of Russia. He accepted the offer and next year he will become the chief architect of Kazan on a voluntary basis,”- the head of the city said.

At the Kazanysh International Architectural and Construction Forum, which took place in Kazan on 5-7 December, Ruben Arakelyan presented the concept of renovation of the building of the former Krestovnikov Brothers factory. The Moscow architect also supervises several large projects in areas important to the city. “We are inspired and already see the outlines of the renovated building project, which will certainly become the center of public, business and cultural life of Kazan,”- said Kazan Mayor.

Alexey Gorbunov, Director of the City Development Institute, reported on the results of the Kazanysh forum. In three days, the forum was visited by more than 5,000 people, among them 250 speakers, more than 80 foreign participants from 13 countries, including BRICS members. The mayors of Ankara and Tabriz, the chief architects of Tehran, Qingdao, Harbin, Chengdu, Xi'an, Minsk, and Moscow visited the forum.

“Very interesting works were presented at Kazanysh. Among them is the concept of creating fountains on Kaban Lake, which pleasantly surprised and inspired us to implement this project. Thanks to the chief architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov for his personal visit and high appreciation of both the forum and the Kaban Lake concept project,”- Ilsur Metshin thanked the chief architect of Moscow. For reference, the project was presented by Elina Safarova, the head of the architectural bureau Bespoke Architects and the art gallery ES gallery.

On the first day of the forum, Ilsur Metshin took the initiative to create an association of architects from the BRICS countries, which will improve the exchange of experience and technology in the construction sector between specialists from different countries, launch internships at leading architectural schools so that future specialists receive better specialized education.

“I would like to note that Kazan State Architecture and Construction University has already started cooperation with the Architectural and Construction Research Institute at Harbin Polytechnic University (China). The first step towards establishing cooperation has been taken,”- Alexey Gorbunov said.

A number of projects that are planned to be implemented in Kazan in the coming years were also presented at the forum. Among them is the City on Water concept for the development of river service in the city, as well as the Road to School project.