Iced Architects

The Iced Architects (??????????? ????????????) group was founded in 1993 by Ilya Bilashenko, Mikhail Leikin and Ilya Voznesensky. The current members are Igor Bury, Alexei Kononenko, Ilya Voznesensky, Vera Samorodova and Mikhail Leikin.

The Iced Architects are currently the most famous architectural group from Moscow. Their unusual name is a pun on the Russian word for “unification of architects” – changing one letter gives “iced architects.” The members work in several different directions, creating projects for both large urban complexes and small country cottages. They design futuristic buildings, while simultaneously participating in humorous or ephemeral projects that, in style and execution, have much in common with works of contemporary art.

While all of the group’s works, objects, projects, designs and animations are linked to and based on architecture, this is not the same high architecture that is one of the three fine arts. It is a special type of quasi-architectural creativity imbibed with cultural references. Such creativity, however, does not take this culture entirely seriously – just as the results of the group’s collective creativity are not always taken seriously either.