Architect’s Assistant & Volunteer

Tver Oblast Competition for the Architectural Image of Vyshny Volochyok’s Historic Centre

Built the evidence base for the town’s design code and architectural requirements for a 148-hectare historic centre

• Mapped the town in QGIS: 9,515 building footprints, 186 water features, the town boundary and the design area as my own vector layers (GeoPackage + shapefile, EPSG:3857)
• Produced 2 print-ready maps with legends: the design area in the context of the town, and historic places numbered to the heritage register
• Compiled a 520-year history (1437–1958) from chronicles, the cadastre books of 1546 and 1582 and the imperial decrees of 1770–1772
• Traced 4 shifts in the town’s economy and their traces in the buildings: portage → Russia’s first artificial waterway (1703–1722) → railway (1849–1851) → textiles, glass and woodworking
• Built a heritage register of 7 key sites with dates, locations and current condition, from the Magistrate (1777) to the Museum of Local History (1932)
• Conducted an archival and on-site photo survey and paired each heritage object with its present condition
• Analysed residents’ and visitors’ reviews into a semantic profile of 8 traits (soulful, Russian, Soviet, grey, doomed…) that framed the central conflict: “Russian Venice” vs “the most depressing town in Russia”
• Translated the cultural code into 7 design motifs for the code: brick red, the arch, the bridge, carved shutters, the boat, the dome, water
• Defined the design position: the town as a stop on the Moscow–St Petersburg highway, not a corridor to drive through
• Designed the competition presentation: diagrams, a historical timeline, “object — condition” spreads and the final conclusions in one layout and colour system

Triangular Square

Developed a year-round concept for an idle 130 × 138 × 190 m triangular square inside a heritage palace-and-park ensemble

• Surveyed the site and its context through photo surveys and street-level panoramas, and measured the plot by hand
• Drew the site plan from hand sketches to a dimensioned digital drawing in Figma with 4 functional zones: pavilion, sports ground, bike parking, toilets
• Defined a two-season programme for the 28 m pavilion: café with a small hall year-round, bike, scooter and roller rental in summer, skate storage and sharpening with a changing area in winter
• Designed a 27 × 28 m multi-use ground: a café terrace and picnic area in summer, an open-air rink in winter, with small architectural forms shaped like the pavilion
• Calculated a covered bike parking for ~35 bicycles along the pavilion, sized from bike dimensions (1.8 × 0.7 m) and buffer zones
• Replaced the existing toilets with modern modular units integrated into the plan
• Prepared 5 presentation sheets with functions, dimensions and international references
• Drafted technical specifications for the pavilion and coordinated the concept with the local heritage authorities

Restoration Site Visit · Tsarskoye Selo palace complexVisited the closed restoration site with the contractor working alongside our bureau. We reviewed the current stage of the restoration of the basement rooms, which are planned as restrooms, learned the building’s history, and discussed which materials and design approaches suit the historic vaults and walls.

“Not Just an Architect: New Life” — Regional Architecture Festival

Helped organise and run the 5th edition of the open-air architecture conference-festival: 2 days, 16 business sessions, 2,000+ guests

• Coordinated guests and accompanied speakers, including Sergey Lutchenko (Chief Architect of Leningrad Oblast), Sergey Kosenko (Deputy Chair, St Petersburg Committee for Urban Planning and Architecture) and international architects from Spain, France and Belgium
• Supported sessions such as “General Plan vs Master Plan: How to Govern the Future of St Petersburg” and “International Practices of Revitalisation”
• Took part in networking sessions with practising architects, planners and developers