ARCHPOLIS

The village of Nikola-Lenivets is well known today as the territory the Archstoyanie festival, but also as an artistic laboratory of such famous artists as Nikolay Polisskiy and Alexander Brodskiy.

Villages, groves, and glens scattered across the picturesque landscape reveal dozens of works of art. The brief for the project was to propose a masterplan for the development of this territory, including the new residency for artists, small pensions, workshops and studios for the guests of the festival.

Archpolis project marked the first stage of conceptual ideation about the future development. Simple strategy proposed by SVESMI showed one of the possible trajectories and offered
a timeline of the step-by-step build up.

The Archpolis concept proposes a largescale square (250x250m) superimposed on the landscape with twenty gardens of more or less equal sizes forming its perimeter – or “the frame”.
Each garden has its own unique ecology, specific program and distinct character.

The space inside the perimeter – “the plaza’ – is organized as a free landscape. The plaza hosts various cultural and social events, also serving as a ground for artist installations.
In stark contrast to the well-defined grid of the “frame”, the plaza is not designed – it looks like a random combination of elements: a hill, a pond, a field.

The frame that is created by twenty gardens is the locus of artistic activity. Each of the twenty gardens contains exhibits and is curated by a specific curator. A walk along the perimeter is a walk along the line-up of specific addresses. SVESMI team also proposed a mobile Archpolis app that could help to navigate the events and environments of the plaza and the frame.