The Agency CENTER was transformed into a group of companies
The Agency for Strategic Development CENTER announced the creation of the Group of Companies. It will include the brand of the Agency for Strategic Development CENTER, which is widely known in the urban consulting market, as well as a recently created International Urban Laboratory CENTER Lab.
The Agency for Strategic Development CENTER was established by Sergei Georgievskii and Ketevan Helaya in 2014. It will continue to develop as an analytical company in the areas of urban planning, property development and urban environment modeling. Its main role in the Group of Companies is handling issues of land strategic development. The Agency activities include projects related to integrated land development, agglomeration development, master planning, as well as social and economic modeling.
Sergei GeorgievskiiChairman of the Expert Panel
2021 marks seven years of the CENTER’s operation. From the very beginning, we wanted to develop the company as an ‘Idea Factory’, a private development institution that has complex interdisciplinary competencies and gathers the best world practices to provide counselling services in the context of government and corporate contracts in order to contribute to the social and economic development of the regions of Russia. The scope and variety of our projects and research activities made us reconsider the structure of business management and diversify our intellectual products.
The idea to create a Group of Companies accords with the spirit of the age – new-format collaborations, co-creation, joint pilot projects that are being implemented by UNESCO and the World Bank, as well as development of horizontal networks and a distributed joint management architecture in order to achieve the sustainable development goals set forth by UN.
CENTER Lab segregated from the Agency in 2021. It will develop as an international urban laboratory, and will also gather unique specialists for transforming the environment of the modern world.
The laboratory will find solutions both for cities and for territories well beyond their borders. The laboratory’s field of work includes initiatives related to innovative urban development works and experimental projects, as well as sociocultural programming and identity matters. The laboratory will also handle the tasks (previously performed by the Agency) related to the production activities for the environment.
Ketevan KhelayaExecutive Director
The modern city is a complex self-developing system. With the international networking, we will study new phe-nomena in urban processes, look for various deflections and approaches related to their development in the interests of future generations not only in Russia, but also in cities and towns around the world.
The main objective of the Group of Companies CENTER is to bring new life to territories of any scale. It will generate ideas for cities and regions and develop new models of land development in Russia, thus allowing each community to unleash its full potential through the formation of cultural, economic, and social hubs.