The one-week VDNH Laboratory of the Future workshop took place in Moscow, Russia, organised by the HSE’s Graduate School of Urbanism Moscow, in collaboration with the IAAC | Project for the Self Sufficient City. The director of the workshop was Vicente Guallart, a recent addition to the HSE team as Director of GSU’s International Laboratory. The workshop allowed imagining the possible futures of Moscow’s famous Expo Park.

In the duration of one week, a group formed of IAAC Alumni and Students together with local young architects, designers and artists, selected by experts, have had the chance to revive the constructivist tradition of imaging radical futurism in order to find the keys to the present.

Based on this, visions of flying landscapes, connected hyper structures, knowledge campuses, underground cities and temporary occupations have been born, tackling the debate of the sanctity of patrimony and the need to functionally and spatially reactivate the site.?VDNH, as a place with deep historical significance, deserves a proposal for its future that can project the ambition and radical vision matching the one that contributed to its very creation.

The Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy is one of the largest exhibitions, museums, and recreation complexes in the world. It is one of the most popular public places of the Russian capital. It hosts more than 24 million guests per year.

The Exhibition was opened on 1 August 1939. In spring 2014 the Moscow City Government launched a large scale project of the VDNH’s revival commemorated to the 75-year Anniversary of the main exhibition centre of the country.

On the initiative of the Mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, and according to the results of citizens’ electronic voting the VDNH had its famous historical name of “Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy” returned.  Now, the VDNH is combined with the Botanic Gardens and Ostankino Park. Its total area is more than 520 ha.