The near future. A large-scale architectural conference was held in Kyiv

The international architectural conference Architecture of the Future was held in Kyiv from October 9 to 11, which gathered about 2 thousand guests from different countries. PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA followed the events.

The Architecture of the Future conference took three days, each dedicated to a separate topic in architectural design and construction. On the first day, the future of the cities was discussed. Paolo Testoliny (Woods Bagot) and Laura Zertuce (Foster + Partners) talked about urban planning taking into account the constantly growing population density and other factors.

Paolo Testolina

"We investigate how new technologies change the way we live, work and play," said Paolo Testoliny. - Take, for example, self-driving cars. Everyone is delighted with them, but if you dig deeper, it will become clear that they can cause harm, as they can lead to the uncontrolled growth of cities. At the same time, we strive for compact cities."

Emmanuel Naboni (KADK) and Mario Bodem (ING+ARCH) focused on the problem of climate change.

"Now we need radical changes in construction and architecture that would help reduce the negative impact on the climate. There is already a technology that helps to reduce resource consumption by 90% compared to the standard," said Mario Bodem.

Mario Bodem

Helen Taylor (Woods Bagot) and Rachel Cooper (Arup) using the example of their Londoner project showed how deep basements can become the future of cities.

The speakers of the second day of the conference discussed the topic of the future in the design of residential and public areas. Lukash Platkovski (Gensler) focused on workspaces, Artem Bylyk (UCSS) talked about the restoration of the House of Trade Unions in Kyiv. Michael Bentley (AI SpaceFactory) and Xavier De Koestelier (HASSELL) showed their housing projects for Mars.

Michael Bentley

"We participated in a competition for the design of housing for Mars by NASA. This project took first place. We proposed the design of a vertical house printed on a 3D printer using biopolymer. We realized that this material is a very strong and sustainable alternative to concrete, because it can be recycled later," explained Michael Bentley.

Conference Architecture of the Future

Tyson Hosmer (Zaha Hadid Architects, Bartlett UCL RC3) talked about the prospects of autonomous and unified architectural systems. A similar topic was raised in his speech by the curator of the conference, Dmitry Aranchiy. "Each particle that is used in construction must be able to be recycled. And I believe that we need to use as many universal modules as possible in the architecture of the future, which can be clustered into any typology," he said in an interview with the publication.

Dmitry Aranchy

The third day of the conference was devoted to the topic of introducing innovations and digital technologies in architecture. Tim Geertjens (CTO MX3D) talked about his project of the first metal bridge printed on a 3D printer. Sushant Verma (rat[LAB]) and Anya Ehrenfried (Citythinking SL by EDDEA) covered the topic of parametric design. Ahmet Burchyn Gurbuz (GarageATLAS) and Jose Pareja Gomez (Zaha Hadid VR Group) devoted their speeches to VR technologies, and David Bazulto (Archdaily) touched on the issue of the transformation of the architect's profession in the age of the Internet.

Conference Architecture of the Future

 

"Our focus is on virtual reality and immersive technologies in architectural design. We are investigating how these technologies can be used not only as a communication tool, but also for something more," said Jose Pareja Gomez.

Jose Pareja Gomez

"Talking about architecture today, without considering it from the perspective of new technologies, is already wrong," Tatiana Kolchanova, organizer and founder of the Architecture of the Future conference, noted in a comment to PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA. - In fact, we are already living in the future. It has already come. As our speaker Lukash Platkovski said, it occurs unevenly. Ukraine does not feel this yet, but the future is visible in developed markets. We want this future to come closer to our region. It is clear that this cannot be achieved in one or two years. But we are trying to create a full-fledged architectural hub in Ukraine, which would become a center of architectural design and construction, study and development of new technologies."

Tatiana Kolchanova

Read the interview with the speakers of the Architecture of the Future conference in the November volume of PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA magazine (№17, 2019).