Architect Yuri Grigoryan: biography, creativity, projects

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The well-known architect Yuri Grigoryan has a special approach to urban planning. Large-scale projects for the renewing Moscow are born in his bureau. He has repeatedly received awards and the most flattering reviews of his projects. Let's talk about how the architect's creative biography develops, what he is famous for and how he sees the future of cities.

Childhood and origins

Yuri Eduardovich Grigoryan was born on August 13, 1965 in Moscow. He comes from an old Armenian family, but nationality for him is not at all the main thing in life. He is a Muscovite, and this obliges. Yury's grandfather, Artashes, was a major general in the Soviet Army, he went through the entire Second World War. The boy's parents were very far from the world of art, both worked as engineers. Since childhood, Yuri had artistic abilities, and this predetermined his fate.

Education

After school, our hero entered the Moscow Institute of Architecture, although the competition there was only slightly less than in theater universities. In school, almost immediately had to dobreak: Yuri was drafted into the army for 2 years. He studied very well, already in those years, talent and a non-standard approach to solving urban planning problems were visible. During his studies, Yura got the opportunity to do an internship at Columbia University (USA). In 1991, he graduated from Moscow Architectural Institute and went to conquer the world.

The beginning of the creative path

In the early years of his career, Yuri Grigoryan built up a reputation and connections. Together with classmates Pavel Ivanchikov and Vasily Soshnikov, they open the A 15/5 bureau. The time for architecture was not very simple: on the one hand, a real construction boom begins, on the other hand, customers do not want anything avant-garde, they try to impose their requirements on architects. There was another problem in that many customers did not have time to implement the project, as they ran out of money. The bureau was not a commercial success. But young architects find their place in this time. Grigoryan is gradually groping for his author's style, a circle of customers is forming around him.

Meganom Project

In 1999, Yuri Grigoryan matured to create a large, real bureau. Together with his companion, colleague, like-minded Alexandra Pavlova, he opens the Meganom Project. This name was taken from geography, this is the name of the rock in the Crimea. The bureau immediately had its customers. Yuri met a major developer Boris Kuzinets, president of the construction company RGI. He was just about to launch several projects at Ostozhenka. With him, Meganom built houses in Dairy andKorobeinikov lanes. Boris was an ideal customer, he met all the ideas of the architects and even reworked almost finished parts of the house, if the architects said that it was necessary. Today, the bureau has several dozen projects, including abroad, and many professional awards.

After the death of his partner (Sasha Pavlova), Grigoryan turns the bureau into an educational project. Here students of the Moscow Architectural Institute embody their ideas and gain skills. The best of them become partners of the master. Today there are already four of them: Grigoryan, Staborovsky, Kuleshov and Uglovskaya.

Teaching

In 2006, Grigoryan returned to the Moscow Institute of Architecture, but already as a teacher. He says that he does not feel like a teacher, but there is a tradition in architecture: having accumulated knowledge, you need to give it away. And at some point he felt an urgent need to share his experience and discoveries. Grigoryan strives to be on the same wavelength with his students. He sees his task in teaching them to think creatively, originally, boldly. Grigoryan also taught a course on urban architecture for some time in the Strelka cultural space. In his Meganom bureau, students and graduates have the opportunity to work on large-scale real projects. Many of the graduates remain in the bureau and even become partners with their master.

Projects

Yuri Grigoryan, whose famous projects are already becoming modern classics, is in constant work. Underhis leadership in the bureau simultaneously creates several projects of various sizes. The most famous buildings of Grigoryan and his company are the restructuring of the market in the Tsvetnoy shopping center, the Sesame house in Tel Aviv, a number of residential buildings in Moscow, and the house of arts in Beirut. Now the first American skyscraper of Yuri Eduardovich in New York has begun to be erected. This super-thin building will be the tallest in the United States designed by Russians. Work is also underway on the project of the Kremlin Museum on Red Square in Moscow, the renovation of the territory of the former ZiL plant, the new building of the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

The architect devotes a considerable part of his time to social activities, he participates in urban planning conferences and events where the improvement of Moscow is discussed. The capital is dear to him, and he wants to make it more beautiful.

Awards

Architect Grigoryan has repeatedly received high marks for his professional activities. The most prestigious of his awards are the title "Architect of the Year" (2006), a nomination for the State Prize of the Russian Federation. But the main achievements of the architect are the won competitions for project management and the trust of customers.

Private life

Yuri Grigoryan does not like to talk about his family life. And the general public is more interested in his work than private details. It is known that now Yuri is in a second marriage. With their first wife, Natalya Evgenievna Kopot, they lived for quite a few years. The couple has a son, Stepan (b. 1991). Second wifeGrigoryan, Natalia Tatunashvili, gave birth to the architect's son Peter in 2017.