01/10/2026
Another international success for KSUAE students in Switzerland!
In the "UTOPIA : NOW! 2026" international student ideas competition—organized by the Swiss architectural firm Itten+Brechbühl (IB) in collaboration with the Swiss Architecture Museum (S AM) — KSUAE architecture students won two of the three top prizes!
The UTOPIA competition is held biennially and aims to discover the boldest socially-oriented architectural projects. This year, the "NOW!" theme challenged participants to propose solutions for creating a utopia here and now, using modern, accessible means of implementation. After reviewing 64 entries from architecture schools across Europe—including the Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy), ETH Zurich (Switzerland), the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Austria), and the Berlin University of the Arts (Germany), as well as institutions in France, Finland, Poland, Spain, Belgium, Hungary, Latvia, South Korea, and Russia—the jury selected three equal-ranking projects for the top prize during a closed session on June 4, 2026.
Two of these three top awards went to projects created by students from our university (from the TIArch architectural studio, led by Ilnar and Rezeda Akhtyamov): ⁃ "THE BATTLE OF HEIGHTS: WHO'S LOWER?" by Valeria Burkova; ⁃ "UTOPIA S-NOW" by Sofia Shcherbak. The official award ceremony took place on September 3, 2026, at the Swiss Architecture Museum (S AM) in Basel. The works of the winners and finalists were showcased at an exhibition at the DOMUS Haus gallery in Basel from September 4 to 11, 2026.
Detailed information about the competition is available on the organizers' official website: https://www.ittenbrechbuehl.ch/en/utopia-2026
The News is submitted by International Relations Dept of the University.