An exhibition-study that approaches standardised housing in Moscow and Hanoi through the concept of "adhocism"—the improvised ways in which ordinary people transform the reality that surrounds them.
The new residential complexes that appeared in Hanoi in the second half of the twentieth century were largely inspired by the Soviet experience with large-panel construction and urban planning. The exhibition Moscow—Hanoi. Landscapes of Optimism, created in collaboration with the Vietnamese architect and curator Trung Mai, uses examples of mass housing in the capitals of Vietnam and the USSR to show how modernist architecture acquires individual traits and adapts to climate, culture, and people’s habits, forming the way of life of a whole generation.
Admission to all of our exhibitions is free on the first Wednesday of every month.
Photo: Nguyen The Son. From the Changing Face series, 2016; Alexey Bogolepov. Untitled. From the Universal Catalogue series, 2025
The exhibition’s architecture functions as a discursive apparatus: a 1:1 superimposition of Soviet and Vietnamese apartment plans that generates a field of overlap, drift, and mutation. The transition from mikrorayon to KTT is staged as a spatial translation of ideology, refracted through memory and diaspora rather than reproduced as form. The installation operates simultaneously as an archive and a projection, where past ambitions and standards are reconfigured into present spatial practices.
— Trung Mai, exhibition curator, architect, urbanist, founder of Hanoi Ad Hoc research bureau
Alexey Bogolepov. Untitled. From the Universal Catalogue series, 2025
Nguyễn Thế Sơn. From the Changing Faces series, 2016
The exhibition’s architecture is a three-part labyrinth. The first section details Moscow’s standardised mikrorayons (micro-districts built in 1950s—1970s) and housing models developed for other nations, including Uzbekistan, Ghana, and Vietnam. The second part centres on the Vietnamese collective housing, the Khu Tập Thể (KTT), featuring archival and research materials. Linking these two chapters is a section dedicated to the life of the Vietnamese diaspora in Moscow and the story of Salon Natasha—the first independent centre for contemporary art in Vietnam, founded by the Vietnamese artist Vũ Dân Tân and his wife, Soviet philologist Natalia Kraevskaia. Tracing parallels between the USSR and Vietnam, the project brings together archival materials, works by contemporary artists, and personal stories from residents of both countries.
— Co-curator Trung Mai, a participant in the Venice Architectural Biennale of 2025, is also an artist in this project and the author of its architectural concept.
— The architectural concept reproduces the plans of 16 Muscovite and Vietnamese apartment plans superimposed upon one another to produce a many-layered collage.
— Visitors to the exhibition will learn the story of Salon Natasha, the first centre for contemporary art in Vietnam, founded by the Vietnamese artist Vũ Dân Tân and his wife, Soviet philologist Natalia Kraevskaia.
Anastasia Tsayder.
Plant Species, 2026
Artists
Alexey Bogolepov — Hà Nguyên Long — Nguyễn Thế Sơn — Nguyễn Vũ Hải — Phạm Ngọc Lân — Sanya Sazhenskaya — Kamil Sazhensky — Anastasia Tsayder
Principal architect
Trung Mai / Ad Hoc Practice & Hanoi Ad Hoc: Trung Mai, Lucas Dimayuga, Hana Lotzer, Ryan Nguyễn, Bảo Nguyễn, Emma Reix
Executive architect
Notchway Buro: Juliana Chernyaeva Notchway
Architectural design development
SLOVO
Research authors
Hanoi Ad Hoc: Trung Mai, Ylan Vo; Nikolay Erofeev, Natasha Kraevskaia, Ira Maslova
Curators
Mark Akopyan, Trung Mai, Artem Timonov, Elena Yaichnikova
Residence programme curator
Marina Bobyleva
Production team
Andrey Belov, Artem Kanifatov, Ksenia Kosaya, Pavel Luzhin
Producers
Sasha Chistova, Stacy Dementyeva
Art logistics and registration
Angelina Korovina, Daria Krivtsova, Daria Pankevich
Graphic design
Maria Kosareva, Max Maslov
Accessibility and inclusion
Aleksandra Kharchenko, Vladislav Kolesnikov, Victoria Kuzmina, Varya Merenkova, Vera Zamyslova
Editors
Grigory Cheredov, Olga Grinkrug, Olga Stebleva
English texts
Charlotte Neve
Media specialist
Anastasia Melnikova-Belinskaya
The exhibition is organised in collaboration with
Kamensky District Local History Museum
Museum of Moscow
Personal archive of Natasha Kraevskaia
RIA Novosti
Russian State Archive of Economy
Russian State Archive of Samara
Russian State Archive of Scientific and Technical Documentation
Sakhalin Regional Museum
Shchusev Museum of Architecture
Museum of Contemporary History of Russia
Special thanks to
Pyotr Antonov
Semyon Bakulin
Ruslan Vũ
Sergey Zolkin
