Architecture Steps into Eternity: Exhibition of Golden Trezzini Laureates Open in the Peter and Paul Fortress

On 9 September the annual exhibition “Architecture as Art” opened at the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg. The exposition includes 83 projects by winners and finalists of the eighth season of the International Golden Trezzini Award from 13 countries.

The ceremony in the museum’s conference hall was opened by Natalia Sidorkevich, Chair of the Board of the Worldwide St. Petersburg Club. She noted the continuity between St. Petersburg’s urban-planning traditions and contemporary architectural practice, emphasising that the September exhibition in the Peter and Paul Fortress has become a notable annual event in the professional and cultural life of the city.

A message of greeting to the organisers, participants and guests of the exhibition was sent by Yevgeny Grigoryev, Member of the Government of St. Petersburg and Chairman of the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg. He stressed that the Award has become an integral part of the city’s international image and an authoritative global platform for professional dialogue among architects from around the world, and highly valued the contribution of the Worldwide St. Petersburg Club and the Golden Trezzini Organising Committee to strengthening the international cultural ties of the Northern Capital.

Welcoming remarks were delivered by Alexey Mikhailov, Chairman of the Committee for State Control, Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments of St. Petersburg, and Vladimir Grigoryev, Director General of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, representing the Award’s general museum partner.

Pavel Chernyakov, Chairman of the Golden Trezzini Organising Committee, thanked the museum for its many years of cooperation and for the opportunity to transfer materials of projects representing the best examples of world architecture into the state museum collection each year. These works confirm that architecture has been and remains an art, despite attempts to reduce it solely to a utilitarian craft.

Representatives of the academic community spoke about the importance of a professional school and dialogue between generations. Anastasia Yarmosh, First Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of St. Petersburg State University, recalled the successful development of the university’s partnership with the Award, the striking beginning of which was the February exhibition “Memory and Progress” in the Building of the Twelve Collegia. The greetings were joined by Golden Trezzini jury experts: People’s Architect of the Russian Federation Oleg Kharchenko and Anna Kislitsyna, Rector of the St. Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design.

Representatives of projects that were among the winners of the previous season and are presented at the exhibition shared their vision of the place of architecture in the pantheon of the arts: Olga Korneva, Director of the All-Russian Pushkin Museum (the project for the recreation of the second-floor exhibition of the Memorial Museum-Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo received the People’s Choice award); Anastasia Kuryokhina, Artistic Director of the Sergey Kuryokhin Centre for Contemporary Art (the reconstruction of the former Priboi cinema building carried out by PSB Zhilstroy won in the reconstruction category); and Maria Ryadova, Chief Architect of the Tsarskoye Selo Museum-Reserve (the project for the restoration of the private apartments of Catherine the Great in the Zubov Wing of the Catherine Palace was the winner in the restoration category).

The theme of continuity was catched by Andrey Surovenkov, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture of SPbGASU. In the past season the university achieved three victories thanks to the works of lecturer Alexander Gorshkov and students Alexei Volkov, Dang Van Hung and Nina Maslikova. In turn, Vladimir Rukavishnikov, head of the AVANT residential complex project of the AAG holding, drew attention to the importance of professional recognition for development solutions that work with the historic fabric of the city.

A striking conclusion to the opening ceremony was the performance by Dmitry Komov, opera singer and author of the artistic image of the Golden Trezzini statuette, which he created in 2018. He performed Canio’s arioso from Ruggero Leoncavallo’s opera Pagliacci and Calaf’s aria from Giacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot.

Among the guests of honour at the vernissage were film director and People’s Artist of Russia Alexander Sokurov; Andrey Yermakov, Head of the North-Western Federal District Department of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation; Beatrice Latteier, Consul General of the Swiss Confederation in St. Petersburg; Ran Gidor, Consul General of the State of Israel in St. Petersburg; and Sun Zhenjia and Liu Haoyu, Consuls of the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in St. Petersburg.

Also taking part in the ceremony were Marina Shaposhnikova, Head of the Museum and Library Educational Centre and Chief Curator of the Mariinsky Palace; Josef Willem Haazen, Chief Carillonneur of St. Petersburg and Professor at St. Petersburg State University; Alexey Chachba, Head of the “Culture” Studio of GTRK “St. Petersburg”; and Ekaterina Galanova, Artistic Director of the International Dance Open Ballet Festival. The architectural community was represented by Doctor of Architecture and Corresponding Member of the RAASN Margarita Stieglitz, as well as well-known St. Petersburg architects Anton Glikin, Anton Golovin, Alexander Zyuzin, Kirill Kozlov, Mikhail Mamoshin, Daria Miroshnichenko and their colleagues.

After the official part guests proceeded to the exhibition hall of the Ioannovsky Ravelin. The exposition aroused lively professional interest: animated discussions arose at the display panels. Visitors studied renders, documentary photographs and conceptual graphics.

The exhibition impresses with the breadth of creative exploration and the diversity of the directions presented. Here the technological boldness of Asian architecture stands side by side with delicate Russian restoration, imaginative solutions by theatre and exhibition designers, masterful works of architectural ceramics and lighting art, as well as daring student projects that set landmarks for the future.

Works by authors from Argentina, Brazil, China, Georgia, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Russia, the UAE, and the USA are presented in the halls of the Ioannovsky Ravelin. The exhibition will run until 22 September and is open during the opening hours of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg.

Five days remain until the close of applications for the ninth season of the Golden Trezzini. The deadline is 15 September at 23:59 Moscow time. Architects, restorers, designers and students of specialised universities may still submit their projects to the international expert community. Participation is free of charge. Applications can be submitted on the official website of the Award: https://www.goldtrezzini.ru/en/.

The International Golden Trezzini Award was established in St. Petersburg in 2018 under the aegis of the Worldwide St. Petersburg Club and is named after the city’s first architect, Domenico Trezzini. The motto of the Award is “Architecture as Art.” The laureates’ projects enter the collection of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg. The International Council of the Award is headed by Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director General of the State Hermitage Museum and President of the. The awarding ceremony for the winners of the ninth season will take place on 20 November 2026 at the State Hermitage Museum.

Photo: Elik Yafarov