Strelka launches project to give new lease of life to Moscow neighbourhood

Strelka Institute has teamed up with a Moscow gallery on a project designed to give a new lease of life to Belyayevo, an old residential neighbourhood in the capital. Both Strelka and Belyayevo Gallery aim to promote the area as a cultural hotspot and in doing so help preserve the city’s heritage. The large residential district in south-west Moscow includes over 400 hectares of housing that dates from the Sixties right up until the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The concept behind the project, Belyayevo Forever, is based on a case study by Polish urban planner Kuba Snopek, which he used as part of his request to UNESCO to include Belyayevo on its list of world heritage sites. Although the area’s generic apartment blocks means it is not an obvious choice for the list, Snopek argued that the usual criteria should be widened.

Belyayevo Forever will organise a variety of different events to promote the neighbourhood including walking tours in English and Russia; visits to the apartment of Dmitry Prigov, one of the founders of Moscow conceptualism; public lectures on architecture and urbanism; film screenings and more.