Top Italian architects praise Georgian student project

An architectural project by two Georgian Master’s students that rejuvenates a dilapidated suburb in Tbilisi has been named best of the year by top Italian architects.

Students Aleksandre Andghuladze and Nikoloz Lekveishvili have been lauded for their project ‘Transformation of a Soviet District’, which they created while studying their Master’s degree at Politecnico di Milano, the largest technical university in Italy.

The University’s top architects and professors said the work by the two Georgian architects was the best of the year.

In the project Andghuladze and Lekveishvili tried to give a new life and new shape to now dilapidated buildings created in the time of the Soviet Union. The two students selected the Tbilisi suburb of Gldani as their area of focus and transformed its old urban architect style into something more modern.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union all its ideas and projects started to diminish. People who were promised better life conditions were confronted with a new reality where their living spaces became grey lifeless ruins where melancholy is harsh and daily routines are monotonous,” read the project’s description published on Andguladze’s official webpage.

These residents find themselves living in the sleeping districts. Some of them tried to adapt to those conditions, some tried to change it in their own way, which made it look even more chaotic,” read the description.

While working on the new concept for Gildani district, Andghuladze and Lekveishvili used Platoon’s philosophy and sculptor Henry Moore’s series as inspiration for their design.

Andghuladze and Lekveishvili have both forged an architecture career while advancing their studies.

Andguladze was a finalist of the Young Architects Competition 2016 while Lekveishvili worked with German and Turkish artists for Milan Design Week and Milan Fashion Week.

Both Andghuladze and Lekveishvili currently study and work in Italy.