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The creators of the new professional magazine prodigest spoke about strong international interest in partnerships with Russian architects at the presentation of its first issue. The event took place at the Zotov Center and drew a full house. The magazine examines architecture as a business and aims to provide architects with maximum practical knowledge for building their careers, including through collaboration with colleagues from different countries.

One of the key sections of the publication is devoted to professional competitions, in which architects very often participate as part of consortia—teams that bring together specialists from various areas of architectural practice.

“We surveyed around one hundred foreign firms from a wide range of countries and asked a simple question: are you ready to work with Russian companies now, to enter into creative partnerships with them? Fifty-eight teams from very different countries answered positively. Of course, many of them are from the BRICS countries, but there are also firms from Europe, the United States, and Canada. All of them were included in a special selection where we provide basic information about each company—what they do, their areas of specialisation, how long they have been operating, the countries they work in—along with their website and the name of the head,” said Anna Martovitskaya, co-founder and editor-in-chief of prodigest.

The analytical partner of the issue is the Agency for strategic development "CENTER". The agency’s co-founder Sergei Georgievskii, who authored an instructional article on building international consortia, noted that the impact of the magazine’s release on the architectural community continues to be felt.

“The magazine triggered a major wave of interest. We contacted one hundred companies, but they forwarded our enquiries further and further. The issue came out in November, and we are still receiving emails asking to be included in the list. A huge number of architects around the world have a strong desire to collaborate with Russia, and they represent some very unexpected countries. We have received a large volume of messages from South Africa, Korea, Japan, the CIS countries; Europeans are writing to say they are ready and eager to cooperate,” the urbanist shared.

The presentation also featured well-known Russian architects who contributed to the issue. Oleg Shapiro, co-founder of the Wowhaus bureau, who commented in the magazine on his team’s victory in the competition for the new building of the Galiaskar Kamal Theatre in Kazan, explained why his firm takes part in professional competitions: “We have competencies that we cannot always use in our everyday work, but would really like to. We have young architects who want to work on very large-scale projects. And we have curiosity,” he noted.

Amir Idiatullin, founder of the IND bureau and author of a column on architectural awards (another key section of the issue), highlighted a particularly practical feature: “The magazine presents a list of one hundred international awards open to Russian architects—with calendars, entry conditions, and all the nuances. Our PR department once spent an enormous amount of time compiling a similar database. Now it exists in a ready-made form, and in a much more comprehensive version. This is a serious leap forward for any bureau planning to build its own success story.”

Among the magazine’s contributors are Sergey Kuznetsov, architectural critic Maria Elkina, while the feature interview was given by Vasily Bychkov, founder and curator of the ARCH Moscow exhibition. The pages of prodigest also include a detailed guide to competition participation, instructions on building an architectural portfolio, and recommendations for creating conditions for creative and efficient teamwork within an architectural practice. The magazine’s co-founder and art director is Denis Dmitrienko.

With a print run of 1,600 copies, prodigest has already been distributed to more than 20 cities—from Saint Petersburg to Vladivostok, Anna Martovitskaya noted.

prodigest is available for purchase at todigest.ru.

Photo: Nikolai Sokolov