The Spring School Russia and China Workshop 2025 was held from March 27 to April 2 in the Russian city of Irkutsk, which is located near Lake Baikal in southern Siberia.

It was initiated by the College of Architecture of Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology (XAUAT) and the Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning of Moscow State University of Civil Engineering (MGSU).

Its participants also included students from the School of Architecture, Construction and Design of Russia’s Irkutsk National Research Technical University (INRTU) and the School of Architecture of China’s Chang’an University (CHU).

In response to Irkutsk’s strategy of urban transformation and development, the Chinese and Russian students had exchanges and research on urban and architectural design in the cold region under five topics, namely, AI technology, science & education, medical care, Olympics and multiculturalism at the waterfront areas of Lake Baikal and Angara River.

Team 1 AI Technology

Team 2 Science & Education

Team 3 Medical Care

Team 4 Olympics

Team 5 Multicultural Exchange

The students finalized their designs on the morning of April 2 after six days of intensive research, visits, discussions and designing.

Campus visit

On-site survey

Discussion and exchange

Discussion and exchange

Mid-term report

Yury Perelygin, chief engineer of “Lengiprogor” in Saint Petersburg, chaired the defense session. Others present at the defense were Marina Petrova, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Industry of the Irkutsk Region, Anton Zhukov, chief architect of the city of Irkutsk, Viktor Kuzevanov, professor of Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Valery Kozlov, professor at INRTU, and teachers from the participating universities. They listened to the students’ wonderful reports and commented on their designs.

Yury Perelygin, chief engineer of “Lengiprogor” (Saint Petersburg).

Marina Petrova, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Industry of the Irkutsk Region.

Anton Zhukov, Chief architect of the city of Irkutsk.

Viktor Kuzevanov, candidate of Biological Sciences at Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, professor of Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.

Valery Kozlov, professor at INRTU.

The experts applauded the students’ innovative ideas and spoke highly of their fruits achieved within the short time span of six days.

Defense session

Experts

Experts

Concluding remarks

Concluding remarks

Certificate awarding

The ranking of the teams was determined based on the scores given by nine Chinese and Russian experts and teachers.

First place

Second place

Third place

Fourth place

Fifth place

The workshop then concluded in success.