The New Rural programme brings together a multidisciplinary team participants to research, design and build together, consisting of architects, sociologists and artists. You will participate in a collective design workshop to create a vision for a new rural way of life and propose an architectural and social intervention, taking into account current trends in digital farming, new artistic and craft movements, and a post-labour, de-urbanising future. Participants will be immersed in the life of Nikola-Lenivets Art Park, evening lectures and design sessions will help us design a spacial and cultural proposal for how people can live and prosper in the contemporary and future rural condition, in Russia and beyond.

The Nikola-Lenivets Classroom is part of the Global Free Unit international educational network which was established by Professor Robert Mull to push higher education into contexts of rapid change or hardship, by allowing students to explore these conditions from the inside, and offer educational opportunities to the people experiencing these events on the ground.
The work of Nikola-Lenivets Classroom is crucial in the future programming of the Art Park and in supporting the local population, as well as designing for visitors and maintaining the collection of artworks by renowned artists and architects.

Results and Opportunities
The international Summer School at Nikola-Lenivets is a perfect opportunity to acquire hands-on experience in designing and building an architectural intervention in a beautiful natural landscape. Teams are international and are composed of young architects and artists. In 2017 we had participants from the UK, Italy, Latvia and Russia. Peer to peer learning and ideas exchange is just as important as the knowledge you receive from the School's tutors.

We invite tutors and experts from the Umea School of Architecture (Sweden), ETH (Zurich), the AA (UK), University of Brighton (UK), MARCH (Russia), as well as others. The tutors for each school are confirmed a month before the start date.

Invited tutors of previous schools include Kate Goodwin, Head of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts, Niall Hobhouse, art collector, curator and public figure, Alexander Brodsky Russian artist and architect , Peter Markli, Swiss architect and educator, Thomas Randall-Page, designer, tutor at the AA and Oxford Brookes, Alex Scott-Whitby, senior lecturer at University of East London and founder ScottWhitbyStudio, Dasha Paramonova, CEO of Strelka Architects, Alejandro Haiek Coll, architect and lecturer at Umea School of Architecture, Julia Bychkova, Director of Archstoryanie Festival, Robert Sollis, Director of Europa, as well as experts in timber construction and forestry.

There will be a public presentation of the School's results on the last day of your stay.