Who is this invisible hand overseeing order in the city? Who gently supports scaffolding? Who helps residents and groundskeepers by designing convenient courtyards? It’s not the invisible hand of the market—but the visible hand of architect Slava, an energetic and spirited character who embodies the core traits of the founders of the Slava+ architectural bureau.
The graphic trope originated from a signature move in the bureau’s presentations—the team constantly added objects and animals unrelated to the landscape: for example, a panda hugging a tree in the northern latitudes, or a parrot sitting among pigeons in central Moscow. Now, these disparate gestures have gained a new dynamism—Slava’s hand lifts the veil of the forests for an elderly grandmother, grows candles from modules, mischievously places a traffic cone on the head of a random passerby, stretches internet cables between new buildings, or carefully mimics a zebra at a crosswalk. Slava’s hand appears everywhere—where the city grows and comes alive with new events.