From Russia with Love

Victoria Sandison

9th June 2008

Ekaterina Reyzbikh of Cavendish College ponders the different approaches to architecture in the UK and her homeland of Russia - and why everyone in London ‘loves to play’

Think of Russian architecture and images of the gilded palaces of St. Petersburg or towering concrete Soviet monstrosities spring to mind. However, Cavendish College’s own Russian import, Ekaterina Reyzbikh, is looking to change all that.

“I wanted to come to London because it is the centre of artistic life worldwide!” she exclaims. “I couldn’t believe it when I arrived - everywhere there are new exhibitions, performances, all the time. It is very inspiring.” Ekaterina also values the fact that in London, you can always find somebody who can help bring out your real talent, ideas and skills. “It’s good to grow,” she smiles.

It’s not all praise for the UK from Ekaterina, though: she has had some difficulty adjusting to the highly conceptual nature of studying architecture here, as compared to the professional skills and technical side of construction that are the focus of her course in Russia. “Here it is all abstract, just experimentation. It’s like being told to go and play. In London everybody likes to play!”

She does concede, though, that it has been very liberating to have the possibility of opening herself to new ways of thinking. The result of these two approaches? A fascinating fusion of function and form. Ekaterina’s design for a theatre, entitled “Snake”, was inspired by the way in which a snake’s body and skin stretches and moves when swallowing its prey. That may sound unappetizing, but the outcome is a beautiful ‘scaled’ model roof that slides open in an arch to reveal dappled light through windows. “I wanted to add movement to my buildings. Architecture needs to take a new step, so that the building itself becomes performance, as in art.”

Architecture needs to be in the small details, too, she insists. Without the attention to the small, humans become lost, like insects. “I want my work to be organic, living, to have character. Living spaces should not be a shell – they should have soul.”