heheeey! the video with my short presentation for Future Architect conference in Moscow in english translation is right here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtdHXh42ykg. I start speaking from 33rd minute!

Finally, the most important announcement! I organized a series of lectures on postwar mass housing at Moscow Museum of Modern Art and tomorrow I will be giving the first lecture about Japan there! // Завтра в 16:00 я читаю первую лекцию о Японии из цикла о послевоенном массовом жилье в Лектории ММОМА на Патриарших. Вход (к сожалению) платный, но по регистрации дешевле. Очень всех жду ❤️ https://mmoma.timepad.ru/event/1051504/

последняя лекция сегодня в 16:00 в Лектории ММОМА! всех жду 🎞 одевайтесь теплее, в зале в прошлый раз было прохладно

here we go, my article for strelka magazine got finally published! it’s a short (and kinda sad) story about danchi apartment blocks and their residents. btw if you don’t read russian you can just check out my usual faded style photographs. https://strelkamag.com/ru/article/yaponskie-khrushyovki cheers⭐️

hello everyone and merry christmas! 🎄 for those of you who haven’t seen this on my fb yet, here’s a link to my article about japanese public housing - this time in english 🇬🇧 https://strelkamag.com/en/article/the-rise-and-fall-of-danchi-japan-s-largest-social-housing-experiment

I know I haven’t posted any personal stories for a very long time, it’s difficult to find motivation when there’s master’s thesis writing I need to worry about, dat constant pressure ~ but thanks to some people who texted me that they miss my posts I think I’m ready to stop pushing myself that much and finally find some inspiration. just need a good rest. Happy holidays and see you in 2020!

All Japanese universities finish their academic year in March and despite the public events restriction (virus thing) graduation projects presentations by architecture undergrads of Kyoto University were not cancelled. There were around 25 students in total and they were supposed to speak for only 3 minutes each about their project and then respond to sensei (professors’) critiques. I would be terrified if I only had 3 minutes to explain my graduation project that I’ve been working on for an entire semester, but most Japanese students didn’t seem to have any problems with this. Well, some of them had prepared a speech beforehand and nervously read it out from their phones but the contents were more or less the same for everyone: name of the project, why I chose this area (“I come from this town/prefecture”, “I live around this station” type of thing) and the main idea (which can be as simple as “efficient circulation” or “diverse /fun/ living environment”). Maybe it works better than our long European presentations because these guys have to say everything with their drawings and models. Okay. Now. Recently I realised that I hate being unnecessarily critical because it doesn’t make this world a better place at all, but I cannot avoid mentioning that I was surprised by a generally low level of basic representation skills compared to Europe. Some posters had terrible layouts, pixelated renders with too obvious photoshop cutouts, some drawings were having lots of line weight issues and colour problems, some lacked important details and printed out in weird scales. When I first noticed a 1:300 plan I thought it was A VERY necessary exception for the sake of the presentation format, but later my eyes met 1:600 and 1:400 in another student’s panels and I gave up on trying to find a valid reason for this. When I asked master students about the scale thing, they just shrugged. It didn’t seem to bother them at all. Well, now that I think about it again, maybe they’re right not to pay too much attention to things like that and focus on fun designs. After all, they will learn everything when they get their first job. Companies in Japan give the biggest importance to university name on your diploma and your job interview contents so why not just relax and have fun while you’re a student? Okay, there’s a problem with this too.

80% of study models looked like various compositions on the theme “cute little cubes in disarray”. Sometimes absolutely unjustified by the program of the project and rarely justified by anything at all apart from personal preference, this little-cubes trend seemed to be popular not only here, but in Tokyo University of the Arts, too. Cubes that defy structural sanity floating in monstrous randomness over all kinds of landscapes: bamboo forests, river in Kyoto, Tokyo or Sapporo downtown. It’s okay to see one project like that, but I felt bad seeing no other strong ideas.
My supervisor, the only non-Japanese professor of the jury was supposed to criticize the projects as well but I never heard him say anything out loud that day. When we had a chance to exchange our opinions, I asked why none of the jury professors seemed to mention the cube trend or at least ask the students’ position on it. He said that maybe it’s because one of the professors was Akihisa Hirata, a famous architect who builds a lot of successful cute little cuby projects in reality, and a possible reason why every single student wants to do the same. Of course, even his most influential colleagues couldn’t attack this obvious feature of his own works. However, cubeness of Hirata’s projects is well-justified and goes beyond just the shape in his designs, while even students from his lab couldn’t really sell their formal copy attempts, at least to me. Or maybe I’m being too critical to poor undergrads? Even after two years spent here I still don’t understand many things about local educational system so I won’t judge yet. This confusion gave birth to my phd research proposal (I just applied to Kyoto Uni, lets see if they like it). I want to investigate how architectural education in Japan works and what role do universities and professional communities play at transmitting tacit (implicit) knowledge about design to newbies. But more about it later. I still have to finish writing my Master’s thesis to submit in April…

If coronavirus didn’t hit the world so hard, today I would be jetlagged at home in Russia, hastily finishing writing my thesis. After the submission deadline on April 9 I would work part-time in our family bar and restaurant and maybe join an exciting project of my friend’s architectural studio. I would receive the result of my phd application from Kyoto University in early June and in case it goes well I could go back to Japan in October.

Now all of it is a long-forgotten dream. My flight home, just like ALL other flights to Russia or Italy, has been cancelled. No one knows when Russia will allow its own citizens to repatriate. I left my info to the Russian Consulate in Tokyo but no news so far. There are around 300 Russians in Japan wishing to return but we might not have such opportunity at least until early May. My Japanese residence permit expired and was converted into a flimsy 30-day Temporary Visitor sticker on the page behind my student visa. I am not eligible for national insurance anymore, cannot work part-time, use university services and student privileges anywhere. All my international exchange scholarships ended. Of course, I still have to pay rent and stuff, as no ‘special’ situation or emergency was declared in Japan.

Speaking of ‘special’ situation that was declared in Moscow, it didn’t really help save our family restaurant, LavkaLavka and all the side-projects such as Herbarium Polugar bar or the burger joint at Aviapark department store. 70 percent of Lavka’s income were foreign tourists - all gone since the end of February. The ruble’s value fell more than 30 percent of its January position while the landlord continued to charge rent in US dollars. This commercial rent contract doesn’t allow any changes even due to coronavirus emergency and the mayor’s decree. Since we couldn’t pay monthly fee in March, the contract will be most likely terminated, obliging LavkaLavka to pay 3 monthly rents in US dollars as a penalty. Herbarium was closed forever even before the mass self-isolation happened because the demand fell sharply. More or less similar stuff is happening to FFB. My family decided to continue paying salaries to all employees: most of them are not registered in Moscow and will not get any unemployment support from the local government. To get out of this massive dept we are trying to sell our only apartment, so I might not get to come back ‘home’ when Russia re-opens the borders.

So I decided to help them out. Since I am stuck here in Japan anyway and my thesis deadline was postponed until late May, I am thinking of starting an online shop selling various local items. I live in Uji, a city that produces the best matcha tea in the world, but this is just one of the many options for the merchandise. For now the delivery time to Europe will be around 8-10 working days. What would you buy from Japan?

to share your ideas contact me here @knoblako

Yesterday I completed all the registration forms (there were 3 very similarly confusing online forms asking for all kinds of personal info) for the repatriation flight Tokyo-Moscow announced for 12 April. The Russian Consulate messed up all the communications, made 2 groups in Whatssapp, one in Telegram, each with different and slightly insufficient information at first. Telegram group is being constantly flooded with questions from confused people like me. I feel sorry for those who submitted a phone number not linked to their messengers to the Consulate or just don’t use these apps normally, because the Consulate decided to stop answering all their phones from Thursday. I can see that there are many inactive accounts invited by them into the chats, so there will be literally no way to get information on time for some people. The registration for the flight was announced at 2 am Japan time, only in chats, no emails or sms. This morning when I woke up and finally figured out which link and what form to use to book a seat, it turned out there were no more seats available. I guess Japan doesn’t want me to leave, yey!