A team from HSE University's Faculty of Urban and Regional Development took part in the Global Mayor’s Forum—a global event in urban development. Held in December 2023 in Guangzhou (PRC), the largest congress of urban planners brought together more than 800 guests from 65 cities and 37 countries, as well as nine international organisations.

An international consortium of research organisations from China, India, and Russia, including HSE University’s Faculty of Urban and Regional Development represented by experts from the Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urban Studies and Planning and the Centre for Social Research and Technological Innovation (CITY), is developing an index of technological and spatial urban development (the Urban & Innovation Environment Index). Recently, a list of the top 10 largest cities of the BRICS countries was published on the project’s website. The Russian capital took the first place in the ranking, followed by Beijing, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, and Guangzhou.

Associate Professor Kirill Puzanov of the HSE Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism and HSE University Professor Oleg Baevskiy have held lectures at the Red Square Book festival. They talked about perceptions of the city, its private and public aspects, chamber and representative spaces, and imaginary (or ‘vernacular’) areas. The open lectures took place as part of the HSE University Open to the City project.

Studying in an English-taught curriculum, working with big data, learning the internet of things, and studying smart city technologies—these are some of the key features of the Master’s Programme ‘Prototyping Future Cities’ offered by the Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism. Read on to learn more reasons why future urbanists choose the programme.

In December 2019, Shukhov Lab – the HSE Laboratory for Experimental Urban Design – is turning three years old. For its anniversary, it has set up a gallery with collages depicting future images of Moscow. Before the close of this year, the Moscow-2050 project goes toShenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture in China.

Charlotte Rottiers is a master’s exchange student from Ghent University (Belgium). This semester she is taking courses at HSE University on urban planning in the ‘Prototyping Future Cities’ Master’s Programme as well as courses on Russian language and culture in the Faculty of Humanities. HSE News Service spoke with Charlotte about her courses, living in Moscow, and her extensive weekend travels.

In early July, the fifth summer school organized by French association D’Est together with the HSE Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism, with the support of the French Embassy in Russia and the Paris Mayor’s Office, was held in Paris. For 11 days, students of the HSE Master’s programme in Urban Development and Spatial Planning and members of Moscow’s Municipal Council learned about French urban development, local administration and the country’s participatory democracy.

Master’s programme in Prototyping Future Cities offered by the HSE Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism was launched in 2017 and has since become quite popular among international students. Students from all over the world come to Moscow to learn how to use technologies to deal with future challenges of urban development. Two of the first-year students have talked to HSE News Service about studying on the programme and the projects they have been working on.

Benito Juarez, the founder of the first Fab Lab in South America and the Latin America Fab Lab Network, has come to HSE University for the 2018 autumn semester as an invited lecturer on Master’s Programme in Prototyping Future Cities. He is delivering a course in Impact Analysis for first-year students and leading the City Project module, a practical component of the Master’s programme. Mr Juarez has talked to HSE News Service about fab lab projects, creative cities of the future, and the courses he is teaching at HSE.

The new faculty is set to reinvent the profession of urban planner in Russia. The head of the faculty, Tenured Professor, Mikhail Blinkin, spoke about what it aims to do and where it is headed.

On July 17-28 an intensive course titled ‘In-transition lab: Structure as an Urban Catalyst’ by the Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism (Moscow) and the Architectural Association School of Architecture (London) was held at Moscow’s Shukhov lab.

The new academic journal is entitled ‘Urban Studies and Practices’. The first issue came out this September.  Now a call for papers for special issue on Migrants and the City has been announced. The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2017.

The HSE Graduate School of Urbanism opens a Laboratory for Experimental Urban Design. At first, it will organize lectures and meetings with experts in urbanism, and in the new academic year, the laboratory will become an educational and research platform. But you can already meet it now – the Open Day will take place on December 15, 2016.

In 2017, the HSE Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism is debuting its English-language master’s programme Prototyping Future Cities. The programme is based on the idea of learning by doing, and it is open to students from all over the world. In an interview with the HSE News Service, Vicente Guallart, who is the Academic Supervisor of the Laboratory for Experimental Urban Design, former Chief Architect of Barcelona City Council, and head of the programme, discusses exactly how it will work.

This summer five students from the HSE Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism participated in the second summer school Les Ateliers d’Eté, organized by the French-Russian platform D’est and the Graduate School of Urbanism in Paris and Limoges.

In April and May, the Graduate School of Urbanism (GSU) took part in three of the largest architecture biennales, held in Rotterdam, Moscow, and Venice. The exhibitions presented the results of independent research carried out by the School, student projects, and the results of an international student workshop organized by GSU.

Staff and students of HSE Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism discussed the prospects for the development of Urban Studies at HSE and in Russia at a meeting with the university’s senior management.

International Laboratory for Experimental Urban Design has recently opened at the Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism. It will be headed by Vicente Guallart, a Spanish urbanist, chief architect for the city of Barcelona in 2011-2015, who will be joining HSE shortly. Mr. Guallart has talked to the HSE News Service about what the laboratory will do, what the Advanced Urban Design master’s programme, the principle of learning by doing, and the application of technology in the city life.

The Graduate School of Urbanism at National Research University Higher School of Economics and Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design launch collaborative international Master's programme ‘Advanced Urban Design’

2015 has been a year of many changes for the School. The appointment of a new Dean at the start of the year kicked off a flood of innovations. Launching exciting projects and participating in national and international events, the school has been building its reputation and increasing visibility both in Russia and as far afield as Iran and Hong Kong. Winter and Summer Schools and the Laboratory of Advocacy Planning bring more ideas and minds to focus on  revolutionising the social process of Urban Planning in Russia and around the world.