On April 17, Metropolis held the final qualifying stage at the Belarusian-Russian University in an online format and thereby completed the qualifying stages of the International Engineering Championship CASE-IN. Now on May 29, the participants will face the final in Moscow. In the meantime, we share the interim results of the current season and tell how the cooperation between the Metropolis company and CASE-IN developed.

Metropolis is a strategic partner of the International Engineering Championship CASE-IN, which is held with the support of the presidential platform «Russia – the Land of Opportunities». At the Metropolis initiative, for the second year in a row, a competition of future architects, designers, designers and engineers is being held. Students from specialized universities from different regions of the country have the opportunity to demonstrate their professionalism and start a career in the company. Metropolis evaluates the decisions of talented guys, and includes the most promising of them in the personnel reserve or makes a job offer.

In 2023, on the initiative of Metropolis, the Special League «Architecture, Design and Construction» was organized for the first time, and this season the competition expanded its boundaries: in 2024, the direction «Architecture, Design, Construction and Housing and Public Utilities» started within the framework of the Student Championship League and was supported by the Russian Ministry of Construction.

The first participants in the Metropolis competition in 2023 were 412 students from 7 universities, who had to develop complex concepts for a four-star hotel in Kaliningrad with a room capacity of at least 200 units and a total area of no more than 12,000 sq. m. m. As part of the general final of the XI season of the CASE-IN championship in Moscow, 10 student teams from St. Petersburg, Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod presented their final solutions to the expert community.

This season, participants were asked to develop a project for a standard universal multifunctional complex that could be built in any Russian city with minimal changes. The complex has an area of no more than 10,000 sq. m. on 3 floors (including one underground floor with parking) should provide various premises, for example, office space, food court, cafe, fitness center, spa, children's club, bank, etc. The student teams had to take into account the principles of lean manufacturing and the modern level of architectural and construction design technologies when designing.

During the qualifying stages, more than 360 students, united in 85 teams from 25 universities in Russia and Belarus, solved a case on the main topic of the XII season of the CASE-IN championship «Lean Manufacturing». The geography of the direction in 2024 expanded to 2 countries and 19 cities; at the start of the project in 2023, the direction covered 4 cities in Russia.

Based on the results of the qualifying stages, 12 student teams from 9 universities qualified for the finals. The Ampersand team (St. Petersburg Mining University of Empress Catherine II) is in first place according to the point rating. This team from the northern capital is participating in CASE-IN for the first time, so the guys didn’t even think about reaching the finals.

«Our main goal is to give our best and gain as much practical knowledge as possible. In the finals, we want to gain valuable experience and develop skills that will allow us to build a successful career», - said captain Andrei Shtykhin about the team’s plans.

Another St. Petersburg finalist, but this time from the St. Petersburg University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, explains their success not only with a well-executed technical task, but also with the idea itself:

«According to the technical specifications, it was necessary to develop a universal multifunctional complex for different regions of Russia. Accordingly, we needed to discover the factor that unites our large country. During the study, we found out that such a factor is a fairly cold climate. In addition, almost the entire territory is rich in green spaces. This is how the idea arose to create an oasis in the urban environment - a winter garden as a powerful point of attraction with recreation areas and educational playgrounds. We share the victory with our practical mentor, we will definitely take into account the recommendations of experts and improve our project for the next stage of the championship», - said Anastasia Dyadyurina, the captain and architect of the Dyadyurina and Partners team, a master’s student at the Faculty of Architecture.

Another CASE-IN debutant, the Ural Architectural Bureau team from South Ural State University, said that they had a difficult task that had to be solved in a fairly limited amount of time:

«Our knowledge and previously accumulated experience of real work in the field of construction and BIM helped us achieve intermediate success, as well as the coordinated actions of team members and effective interaction. At the finals we want to learn even more about the construction business and gain important practical knowledge», - said team captain Nikita Nikitin.

The finalists from Sevastopol State University, united in the MoreArchi team, at the championship were able to improve their cross-functional interaction skills and adopt each other’s best qualities, learned to work with neural networks and various programs:

«When developing our project, we adhered to the «Bionics» style, since the bionic component is in short supply on the architecture market. The unusual form of the solution creates a feeling of novelty, the multifunctionality of the complex creates development themes. We believe that the jury members noted our decision because it was unique, and we ourselves confidently showed ourselves in defending it», - team captain Anastasia Bemm said.

To achieve success in the future, the guys believe, that it is necessary to develop progressively and not be afraid to leave the comfort zone, as well as comprehensively master the engineering profession. Perhaps this is what brought 12 teams from 9 universities to the finals of the CASE-IN league:

1. St. Petersburg Mining University of Empress Catherine II
2. St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering
3. Astrakhan State Technical University
4. Nizhny Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering
5. National Research University South Ural State University
6. Saratov State Technical University named after Yu. Gagarin
7. Sevastopol State Universityт
8. Kaliningrad State Technical University
9. Belarusian-Russian University.

We wish success to all finalists and look forward to their case solutions!