Innovative School at MGIMO

The philosophy of the school is rooted in the following idea: "Strong Knowledge is Soft Power". This concept was offered as part of an international competition for an educational center project by a consortium of UNK architects, Storaket, and Smart School. The team developed the concept of an educational environment in which the most learning processes take place in small groups, in the space between classes, rather than in traditional classrooms. This concept was implemented in the architecture as the Hub, a central transparent console volume that connects the elementary, middle, and high school units. A "hub" can be programmed in different ways; there are open and semi-closed spaces here with restricted access for visitors, and up to thirty hub rebuilding scenarios and possibilities have been developed so far. A full-fledged community center inside the console was also required due to the lack of a schoolyard: there is no available space on the site for it. An artificial green hill between the two buildings, descending towards the pond's slope, partially performs this function. The green staircase has become an important component of the school's Ecosystem; indeed, the project had to be not only lively and flexible in terms of education, but also instill a keen interest in nature and expand the amount of green space.