The venue of the forum was the new building of the Tatar Academic Theater named after G. Kamal, designed by the Wowhaus bureau in collaboration with Kengo Kuma and Associates, which was officially opened on January 20.

By its status, this event can be attributed to one of the most important world-class architectural events of this year, as it is a continuation of the BRICS summit.

Among the participants of Kazanysh are heads of municipalities and chief architects of cities, as well as representatives of higher educational institutions from China, Brazil, India, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, as well as Japan, Morocco, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan.

The theme of the 2025 forum, "Unity of Diversity," reflects the ideas of uniting and synergizing the international architectural community for the growth of strong cities and the well—being of their inhabitants. The main focus of the forum is practical work: meetings, discussions, exchange of ideas between institutions and people from different countries, creation of agreements. This will allow each participant to return home not only with new ideas, but also with ready-made solutions to improve the practices of their bureaus, cities and countries.

The business program of the three working days included eight thematic tracks and 85 sessions. For the first time, an educational track is included in the business program. The initiatives to establish international exchange programs for students and young professionals were initiated by representatives of the largest architectural universities of the BRICS+ countries.

So, on February 7, Natalia Chemerisova, Director of the Academy of Architecture and Arts, was one of the speakers in the panel discussion "Architectural Education and creative Industries in the BRICS countries", during which the possibilities and prospects of cooperation between foreign and Russian architectural universities, the joint development of architectural education and the cultivation of creative personnel in demand in the modern world were discussed. In addition to the Director of the Academy, Rashit Nizamov, Rector of KazGASU, and leading professors and deans from universities in India, China, South Africa, Malaysia and Brazil also joined the speakers.

Natalia Vasilyevna also participated in the round table "Russian Architectural schools: new vectors of development", in which the current heads of architectural universities in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan and Rostov-on-Don touched on the ever-relevant topics: "Who is an architect in the 21st century? What competencies should he have? Where and how much should this be learned? Is it possible to acquire these competencies in modern Russian universities, or does the current educational paradigm need a significant transformation? Or maybe it's all about proper additional education?"

Speaking about the future of architectural education, the director of the Director of the Academy of Architecture and Arts SFedU noted the commonality of development vectors for both traditional and innovative schools.

"It is important for us to promote the development of a unified educational space and to have a platform for dialogue," Natalia Chemerisova emphasized.

Representatives of the Academy of Architecture and Arts, Anastasia Sheremet, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Architectural and Environmental Design, Alexandra Chashchina, Senior lecturer at the Department of Fundamentals of Architectural and Artistic Design, as well as Ilya Chikaev, graduate student of SFedU, Chief Architect, were also able to evaluate the grand scale of the international forum, participate as spectators at other work sites, lectures, and round tables. the city of Krasnodar.