This summer, Strelka is launching a new project, Agents of Change. The theme of the project is the transformation of urban life. Its heroes are citizens. The site is Moscow. The purpose of the project is to share change, understand what it is and investigate and celebrate how it happens. 

Who are the Agents of Change? They are people who change the world about them through the force of their ideas, knowledge and experience and share them in new, creative and imaginative ways. They are professionals who design and deliver urban development projects and transform the places in which we work, live and play. They may design new buildings, publish a new local newspaper, organise new ways in which waste is managed in cities, develop master-plans, re-imagine public transport systems or create new routes to bicycle around Moscow. But all of the professionals have one thing in common: they seek to transform urban living for the better.

It is people who create the excitement, dynamism and pleasure of spaces and places in cities. Authorities may be responsible for the management of public places but those places only come alive when people feel that the city belongs to them and they play a part in its change. Do it right and cities don’t just look good and work better but their social life transforms. The recipe for success often involves people coming together and associating in different ways, in support of different interests – social, political, environmental or local. From coming together to create a place for people to sit in a park to making more comfortable and healthy office space, from creating cities that are friendly to forming new, complex networks of people and places, the heroes of our summer programme invite you to join them and share their knowledge and experience of urban change. 

Agents of Change 2012 will feature well-known international experts, such as Eduardo Souto de Moura (winner of Pritzker Prize 2011), Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron (Pritzker Prize 2001 winners), Scott Nazarian (Frog, USA), Giancarlo Mazzanti (architect, Colombia), Perry Chen (artist, co-founder of Kick-Starter), as well as new local heroes, such as Yegor Korobeynikov (founder of UrbanUrban.ru), Alexei Mityayev (initiator of a bicycle lane project in Moscow), Anton Polsky (founder of Partizaning), and many others. During the workshops, university professors from Central Saint Martins, Hyper Island and Parsons School of Design, together with young professionals, citizens and representatives from local governments will design and deliver changes and improvements to various districts of the city, including Mitino, Tagansky and Otradnoye. Urban transformation and the projects created this summer will be open for one and all.

Katya Girshina, summer programme curator

In the academic year of 2010-2011, the first 33 students worked on research projects within the bounds of one of five themes: Preservation, Energy, Thinning, Design, and Public Space. The process was curated by 15 tutors and resulted in research products of various formats, ranging from a documentary to a performance. In late June 2011, the research projects were presented to the public. 

Strelka’s president Ilya Oskolkov-Tsentsiper explains the essence of education at the institute: 

«I think that the main objective of a year at Strelka Institute is to take on tasks that are so significant, complicated and ambitious that you can hardly come across them in real life. However, when finally you find a solution to this or that absolute problem, you can then apply it to easier, more down-to-earth, more commercial problems. This is what education at Strelka is based on».

In 2011, the following people graduated from Strelka Institute:

Alena Lanina, Anastasia Albokrinova, Anastasia Chernyshova, Andrei Goncharov, Anna Butenko, Anna Shevchenko, Anna Trapkova, Anton Ivanov, Daria Nuzhnaya, Daria Paramonova, Daria Syuzeva, Denis Leontiev, Evgenia Nedosekina, Gleb Vitkov, Ivan Kuryachiy, Ivan Solomin, Jezi Stankevich, Karina Bunyatova, Kuba Snopek, Maria Gulieva, Merve Yucel, Minkoo Kang, Naina Gupta, Natalia Zaychenko, Oleg Semakin, Olga Khokhlova, Pavel Geichenko, Sergey Shoshin, Shi Yang, Tamara Muradova, Victoria Kudryavtseva, Xenia Makarova, Yefim Freidine. 

© Sergei Leontiev

Bar Strelka is a project of Strelka Institute and a comfortable urban space.

The eclectic interior comprises elements of art deco, and Italian and Scandinavian designs of the 1960’s and 70’s.

The guests are offered an extensive cocktail list and an international menu created by the chefs Nathan Dallimore and Natalie Horsting.

At weekends, one can listen to DJs or jazz music played on an antique J. Becker piano. In summertime, there is a rooftop terrace with a unique view of the Moscow River and Christ the Saviour Cathedral.

All the profits of the bar go to support Strelka Institute.

From Monday till Friday the bar is open from 9 a.m, at weekends—from 12 p.m. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays we close at midnight, while on Fridays and Saturdays the parties go on until 5 a.m. the next day.