Stars of world architecture to give speech at the 7th International Cultural Forum

The author of the darkest building on earth Asif Khan, the winner of the Pritzker award Pierre de Meuron, one of the project creators for the London Olympic Games, Alex Lifschutz, and others will take part in the section Creative Environment and Urbanism, guided by the Chief Architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov.

This year’s topic of the section Creative Environment and Urbanism at the 7th St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum is the Influence of major international events on development of cities and regions. The immediate participants of these events will help unfold the topic: people who transformed urban environment, who created unique structures that were implemented in the framework of the Olympics, major international projects that became symbols of these events and the countries that host them: art objects that attract tourists from all over the world.

Among the participants of the section is Pierre de Meuron, partner and founder of the studio HERZOG & DE MEURON, winner of one of the most prestigious international awards in the field of architecture, the Pritzker prize, the author of projects such as Tate Modern gallery in London, Beijing National Stadium, the famous Bird’s Nest built for the summer Olympics 2008.

Another guest of this section is Asif Khan, the British architect and artist, creater of projects at the intersection of architecture, new technologies and art. Among his projects is the darkest building in the world — the pavilion for the 23rd Winter Olympic Games that took place this year in South Korea the ultrablack color of which absorbs 99% of flight thanks to the and newest coating Vantablack. He was also the author of the famous project of the Pavilion mega face for the Sochi Olympics in 2014.

The main façade has a 3D image of thousands of interchanging fans’ faces. Among the speakers of the section are Alex Lifshutz, director of Lifshutz Davidson Sandilands, one of the managers of the London Olympic project, the studio also designed 16 residential buildings for athletes; and Gavin McMillan, CEO of Hargraves Associates, a landscape design studio that created the project of the Olympic Park for the British capital and participated in creating of the Zaryadye park. Moreover, Paul Finch will also take part in the section: the program director of WAF — one of the biggest architecture awards in the world and editor-in-chief of The Architectural Review; as well as Phillip Meuser, the German architect and the head of DOM publishers, a renowned international publishing house focused on architecture.

«The guests of our section are authors of projects that don’t only take design and architecture to the next level but also design, technology, engineering solutions, scientific research: the entire interdisciplinary complex that in the end becomes the basis for improving the quality of life globally», said the Chief Architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov, head of the section Creative Environment and Urbanism — «Their projects are real proofs of the fact that structures created within the framework of an architectural event for the satisfaction of the needs of concrete target audience for example, fans, acquire a wider meaning thanks to their uniqueness, become elements of national identity. Can we imagine China today without the Olympic Park or London without Tate gallery — they became symbols of those cities, as well as Zaryadye park can be considered the symbol of Moscow».