Oleg Shapiro: changing the face of Russian cities for the better

Architect Oleg Shapiro will take part in the 100+ Forum Russia business program this year.

The founder of the WOWHAUS architectural bureau, the author of many projects in the field of architecture and urbanism, has brought a number of historical territories and objects back to life. The achievements of the Candidate of Architecture have been recognized by the expert community and have been awarded numerous international and Russian awards.

Oleg Shapiro notes that the WOWHAUS method is based on applied pre-project analysis of socio-economic, cultural, historical and spatial factors. This allows us to identify both the explicit and non-obvious needs of the audience and propose the necessary architectural solution and accurately predict its social and investment effectiveness. "We unlock the potential of the space and add value to it in the eyes of users," explains the architect, "we create a convenient and multifunctional environment where thoughtful content corresponds to a high-quality architectural form. Our projects are filled with a positive sense of the zeitgeist, socially oriented and work to strengthen the bond between generations. We strive to preserve cultural heritage by endowing the existing context with new constructive meanings."

One of the newest examples is the new entrance to Gorky Park from Lenin Street (Moscow). He made it possible to realize the idea of creating a through passage from Leninsky Prospekt to Gorky Park, proposed back in 1932 in the general plan of Moscow by architects Shchusev and Vlasov, but never implemented in the thirties of the last century. The WOWHAUS project has preserved the historical scenic landscape and marked the entrance with a luminous arch. The entrance became operational in September 2018 and opened access to a part of the park and to the Garage Museum.

In 2018, a project was implemented to improve the embankment of the Upa River near the Tula Kremlin.  The project was nominated for the 2017 Omens of Cities award, and the embankment was inaugurated on City Day. The area between the river and the Kremlin previously belonged to the Tula Arms Factory, and in the 19th century ponds and a boat station were located on it. Landscaping of the park was planned in the 40s and 50s of the last century, but it was never implemented. As Oleg Shapiro, one of the authors of the project, comments, "the architects worked with the project at all levels, from macro tasks such as the master plan and transport scheme to micro solutions of individual elements..."

Now the new embankment is part of a walking route around the Kremlin, as one of the streets and the square, which previously served as a U-turn automobile ring, have been made pedestrian.  If we consider the implemented project in numbers, it is: a little more than one and a half kilometers and an area of 21 hectares, the length of the wooden embankment along the Upa River is 670 m, the length of the bridges is 270 m, 385 lighting poles, 19 gazebos and pavilions. What has been done: more than 40,000 m3 of silt from the river and 70,000 m3 of garbage and soil have been removed, more than 1,000 piles of larch have been driven into the shore, more than 41,000 m2 of tile sidewalks have been paved, and more than 30,000 m of cable has been laid.

Oleg Shapiro graduated from the Kuibyshev Institute of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Architecture, worked in the first creative association of the Union of Architects of the USSR: chief architect of the project in Architectural Workshop No. 7, then – head of Architectural Workshop No. 4. In 1993 – 2007 he was engaged in business projects and private architectural practice. In 2007, together with Dmitry Likin, he founded the architectural bureau Wowhaus. Today, the bureau has more than 70 employees and implements more than 40 projects per year.

Oleg Shapiro is the co–author of the first and iconic public spaces in Moscow and Russia - Strelka Institute of Media, Architecture and Design, Krymskaya Embankment, Gorky Park, Stanislavsky Electrotheater, Black Lake Park in Kazan, innovative cultural Center in Kaluga and others. From 2011 to 2016, he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Strelka Institute of Media, Architecture and Design. Since 2018, he has been a co–author of the educational course "Designing Public Spaces. Architecture as a catalyst for Urban Life" at the MARSH School of Architecture.