«My River» project allows students to be involved in the work on a mega-project of the city of Moscow related to urban development of territories adjacent to the River Moskva, design and implementation of which is currently under unified coordination of the State Research and Design Institute for Urban Development of the City of Moscow. The result of our cooperation with universities is valuable experience in designing real facilities acquired by students during the work on the development of embankments along with leading specialists of Gradplan as part of the course and diploma projects.

All universities demonstrated different approaches towards solving the given problems: from functional planning, research and analitycal, to conceptual. As a result the project initiated by State Research and Design Institute for Urban Development of the city of Moscow became an important platform for interuniversity communication and exchange of experience.

As part of the projects, we hosted orientation workshops during which we familiarized the students with the specifics of such spaces, gave methodological recommendations for their analysis, and held consultations on shaping the project decision, organized interuniversity presentations of the best works of students involving representatives of the Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of Moscow

«My River» project gives students of the leading architectural universities an opportunity to form a position and offer their own author’s approach towards transformation of the River Moskva embankments that are relevant to the city.

Flexibility of possible interaction allows using the project in order to solve many problems of the educational process, providing connection with practice, stimulates dialogue within the student and professional community, and promotes identification of active and talented students. Interaction resulted in dozens of unique student projects, demonstrating a wide range of approaches towards development of embankments of the River Moskva that can be introduced into practice, as well as the beginning of the professional dialogue and cooperation, interest for the expansion of which is beyond doubt.