IAKOV CHERNIKHOV INTERNATIONAL
FOUNDATION (ICIF)
The
beginnings of the ICIF date from a 10-day Mediterranean competition-
cruise
in June 1988 on board the Soviet liner “Leo Tolstoy”. Entitled
«The Space of Civilization in the ÕÕI Century», this event was
organized by the International Academy of Architecture (IAA) and
the International Forum of Young Architects (IFYA) with the support
of the USSR Union of the Architects. The main prizes of the competition,
which included 300 young architects from 35 countries, were four
books of Iakov Chernikhov’s architectural fantasies, presented
from the personal archives of the architect Andrey Chernikhov,
director of the IFYA program.
In1989 Andrey Chernikhov, with the assistance of architecture
professor Catherine Cooke (Cambridge, UK), offered at the Sotheby’s
«Russian avant-garde» auction six of Iakov Chernikhov’s architectural
fantasies. This charity donation served as the financial basis
for organizing the Iakov Chernikhov Foundation.
The
International Architectural Foundation named after the
Soviet architect, graphic artist and pedagogue Iakov Chernikhov
(1889-1951) - the first such charitable architecture foundation
in Russia - was instituted in 1991 at the initiative
of the IFYA (President - Marcos Bargilli, Cyprus; General secretary
- Georgy Stanishev, Bulgaria) and the MAA (President – Georgy
Stoilov, Bulgaria) with the support of the USSR Union of the Architects
(President Yury Platonov). Subsequent foundation sponsors included
the German Museum of Architecture (Frankfurt-on-Main), the airline
«Deutche Lufthansa», and the architectural school of the University
of Michigan (USA). National centers of the ICIF opened in Bulgaria,
the USA and Russia.
The
ICIF defined the following basic direction: the support of experimental,
educational and research works in the field of innovative architecture
and town planning; the encouragement of the innovative architectural
concepts and initiatives by young architects throughout the world;
the organization and conducting of architectural competitions
and exhibitions of Iakov Chernikhov and Russian avant-garde; and
the support of the children’s architectural creative work in Russia.
Foundation
donors include:
- Andrey Chernikhov
- Helen Stamo
- Marina Chernikhova (Moscow)
- Helen Chernikhova (St.Petersburg, Russia)
- Yulia Chernikhova (Pavlograd, Ukraine)
- Zinaida Grek, (Cologne)
- Leonid Lamm (New York)
