On February, 17-26, in the Minerva Hall of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Florence, the Second Edition of the International Competition of the Best Diploma was held, for students of architecture, environment and design. This year the competition was inspired by the topic of Ecology: 121 projects presented, 68 Universities from 52 cities and 20 countries participating, 158 professors and students coming to Florence – these are the most important data of the show-competition realized in collaboration with the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Florence, Moscow Interregional Association Supporting Architectural Education (MOOSAO), Moscow Architectural Institute (MARHI) and Faculty of Architecture of the Byelorussian National Technical University, sponsored by Vivahotels.
The main characteristic of the exhibition was the online voting of the projects: in December the same participants could view and vote the works directly on the web site of the Foundation. After the conclusion of the voting the winners were:

• In Architecture - the project “Centre of Psychological Culture for Children and Youth” by Julia Kuritsyna (Odessa State Academy of Construction and Architecture)
• In Design – the project “Heterogeneous Flowing University of Florence” by Patrizia Pisaniello (Faculty of Architecture, State University of Florence)
• In Environment - the project “The Centre of Science, Sustainable Technology and Innovation: the Dublin Doclands Area, an Ecological Approach to the Future, Architecture and Urban Planning” by Katarzyna Lipska and Witold Opalinski (Cracow University of Technology)

At the exhibition in Florence the project “Floating Dacha – “Escaping-3”: “Assembling”, Prototypes, Metaphorical Dismantling” by Huraskina Elena (Samara State University of Architecture and Construction) was specially appreciated and received the higher number of votes.
Thanks to the big number of participants, faculties and countries represented (European, American and Asian), this event was a great occasion for young architects to face and understand different ways of comprehending Architecture, Environment and Design and the way they can be used in Ecology through the professional knowledge and experience of their colleagues from other countries. This initiative of meeting, studying together and exchanging experiences will be sustained by the Foundation Romualdo Del Bianco that will continue organizing further editions of the exhibition. We can already announce to our readers that the III Edition will take place on March 5-12, 2006 with the topic “Heritage in evolution, from the past to the future, preserving each own identity”. At the end of June all the necessary information will be available online on our web site www.florence-expo.com.
on the left foto: The opening of the exhibition in the Minerva Hall of the Faculty of Architecture in Florence; on the right foto: Some of the projects presented at the international exhibition

Exhibition “The Origins of Russian Avant-garde: the School of Vhutemas-Marhi 1920-1930”
On January, 22 – February, 22 at the State Archive of Florence the first exhibition of Russian avant-garde architecture in Italy took place. The exhibition was focused on the school of VHUTEMAS (High Arts and Technical workshops). The initiative was born in collaboration with Moscow Institute of Architecture MARHI, The National Centre for Contemporary Arts in Moscow , Faculty of Architecture of the State University of Florence and under support of the Councillorship for International Relations of Florence and Vivahotels “Art in our HeArt”.
The architectural heritage of VHUTEMAS represents a great rarity. In fact the collection of the MARHI Museum is unique because it consists of not known professors-architects and students of VHUTEMAS and VHUTEIN of 1920-1930 that have never been exhibited before. There are more than 40 architectural projects of G. Barkhin, G. Begman, V. Vladimirov, I. Golosov, G. Golts, V. Krinsky, I. Sobolev, R. Higer and others presented in a historical illustrated contest with rare exhibits and virtual models, documentaries, newsreels, photographs and other witnesses of that period. The full contest of the exhibition allows the visitor to have a complete idea about the VHUTEMAS and to value its importance from the point of view of the culture on the beginning of the XXI century.
At the opening ceremony there were Eugenio Giani (Councillor for International Relations of Florence), Irina Korobina (Director of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts), Larisa Ivanova-Wein (Director of the Museum of MARHI ), Prof. Emma Mandelli (Faculty of Architecture, University of Florence ).
Here below: the presentation of Prof. Alexander Petrovich Kudryavtsev, the promoter of the exhibition.
on the left foto: The Opening of the exhibition. Special guest: Eugenio Giani, Councillor for International Relations of Florence; on the right foto: The
Exhibition;

Russian architectural avant-garde by Alexander Petrovich Kudryavtsev (President of the Moscow Institute of Architecture, President of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Building)
The Russian architectural avant-garde of the 1920s – the 1930s is one of the bright art phenomena of the 20th century. Together with the French rationalism, German and Dutch functionalism it is a turning point in the historical development of the world architectural process, having expressed in unusual forms utopian ideas of the future subject world, a new way of life, of the environment of a new Utopia.
Much less is known about the school of the VHUTEMAS, than about the Bauhaus – the allied educational institute though their lives, purposes and ideals coincide up to incredibility. The generators of a new aesthetics born by the social revolution and victims of totalitarianism, they were that boiler where the new architecture was smelted. The heritage of the Bauhaus has been investigated thoroughly. The knowledge of the VHUTEMAS is far from being exhausted. The Moscow Architectural Institute is an heir of the VHUTEMAS traditions. The MARHI Museum has been collecting a unique collection of educational and design works by teachers and students of the VHUTEMAS for fifteen years.
The avant-garde ideology of the VHUTEMAS was reflected in exhibitions of that time. At the well known international exhibition in Paris in 1925 (in the pavilion designed by K. Melnikov) students' works, executed under N. Ladovsky and V. Krinsky, were awarded Grand prix. The «First exhibition of contemporary architecture» took place in Moscow in 1927 (in the building of the VHUTEMAS). Architectural higher schools and leading architects of the European countries who have offered their vision of architectural avant-garde took part in it, having formed thus «a united front of modern architecture. The first prize was received by the architects Vesnin brothers – teachers of the VHUTEMAS for the project of a Palace of Labour , the second prize by the student of the VHUTEMAS I. Leonidov for his diploma work «Lenin Institute».
After the VHUTEMAS was shut down educational works were not exposed for a long time. During the last decades they began to be exhibited at such prestigious international exhibitions, as « Moscow – Paris » (1986), « Moscow – Berlin » (1996).
«The VHUTEMAS: sources of the Russian avant-garde » is the first exhibition representing the VHUTEMAS and its architectural faculty abroad. I hope, you will receive some new knowledge of the heroic period in the history of arts of Russia , and maybe of the whole world, will feel the burning breath of the epoch full of hopes and expectations of the time in which we live today.

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