Revolutionary projects that Russian clients want
I have been in Rostov-on-Don for more than two years now and our project experiences have changed from small 70 m² apartments to 700 m² houses. This also happens with our commercial projects (shops, restaurants, boutiques).
Our customers get more sophisticated (in a good sense of the word!), and, of course, their requests are growing. Previously, the main task was to develop only the interior design project, but now more and more often we are engaged in architectural design in all aspects (including design and engineering).
Coming to us, customers talk about their past experience related to design and construction. And, as a rule, this experience clearly illustrates the existing dissonance between the architectural, interior and engineering projects, and the results do not meet the expectations either from an aesthetic or economic point of view.
In fact, local projects are often divided into two components: external (architectural project) and internal (interior design project). But without a common thread which unites the one to the other.
This phenomenon I see in our office: employees are divided into architects / engineers and designers. And it seems that there is no meeting point between them. Those who do architectural planning have never dealt with making interiors and vice versa. And this discrepancy probably starts from the local university education. In fact, I would venture to say that it does not exist in the Russian Federation a “culture of project” as in Italy, where technical drawings are read and understood by everyone. Here without 3D rendering even construction companies are not always able to understand the project (unfortunately!).
Therefore, our office is in great advantage as we combine the preliminary architectural design with the interiors design project and plant-engineering without neglecting the estimate global costs. A normal practice in Europe and something quite extraordinary here.
But the interesting thing is that our Russian clients, who have already traveled all over the world, now want to find what they call the “European standard” in their country as well. If this is already visible in Moscow and St. Petersburg, now the tendency is to do the same in Rostov-on-Don, in Stavropol, in Olginka and even in Nalchik!
Hotels, restaurants, shops are committed to ISO quality standards. The trend is so strong that there is a legislative program for the global harmonization of GOST and ISO. It is necessary to keep pace with the times. Those whose activities are related to regulatory documents will understand me for sure.
To conclude, I noticed that there is an interest in global modernization that starts from our private clients who wish to live in a modern and organized Russia. And with their (quality) projects, they make the first small step to change in better the largest country in the world, not by words, but in deed. A small quiet revolution, initiated by people who had the opportunity to travel outside the country and understand how important it is to bring back that glorious time when St. Petersburg was the cultural center of Europe.