GlavUpDK wins silver at 9th All-Russian Architectural Heritage Festival

The Journey through Moscow's Most Secret Mansions.RU, a project by GlavUpDK under the MFA of Russia, was awarded a silver diploma at the 9th All-Russian Architectural Heritage Festival, the Best Innovative Project in Historical & Cultural Tourism category. The festival's official closing and award ceremony took place in the Maxim Gorky Rostov Academic Drama Theater on June 11.

This year, the competition brought in 141 entries by teams from all Russian regions, as well as foreign countries. Its geography covered 67 cities.

The Journey through Moscow's Most Secret Mansions.RU, presented by Irina Maslova, Deputy Director of the Press Service and Information Department of GlavUpDK, introduces the broad public to the unique architectural heritage managed by the Company. We are talking about over a hundred federal and regional architectural landmarks: mansions now used to accommodate embassies and diplomatic corps’ residences, which are mostly closed to the public.

The project includes:

• Inside the Mansion, immersive VR- & AR-powered performances (focused on the House of Zinaida Morozova and the House of Fyodor Schechtel) that turn an architectural tour into an interactive study with gaming elements.
• Virtual 3D tours that make it possible to dive into the details of the their grand interiors and one-of-a-kind decorations.
• Architecture through the Ages: A Retrospective, a visual comparison of archival photos from the late 19th – early 20th centuries and the modern images, demonstrating how the buildings were restored.

GlavUpDK ensures proper accommodations for the Moscow's diplomatic corps, while painstakingly preserving unique mansions entrusted to the Company's care. Realizing their high cultural and historical value, as well as genuine interest lovers of architecture feel for them, GlavUpDK has been consistently implementing a number of projects focused on popularizing its architectural heritage. They include virtual tours, mobile apps, retrospectives, video tours with experts, and awareness campaigns.

A silver diploma at the Architectural Heritage Festival reaffirmed that the path chosen by the Company is correct. Despite the mansions being closed to the public, GlavUpDK's projects make it possible to show their unique interiors to broad audiences and reveal the stories of their creators and residents. And the Company especially values the high praise their effort got from the professional architecture community.

The Architectural Heritage Festival is organized by the Union of Architects of Russia and supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Utilities of the Russian Federation, the Moscow Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning, and the Government of the Rostov Region.