Akademgorodok is a former Soviet science town in the depths of the Siberian woods. It was the first of many of its kind. Such science towns were once intended to encourage scientific innovation but largely fell into disrepair with the end of the USSR. In 2006, however, Putin called for Akademgorodok’s revival and announced its prospects as ‘the next Silicon Valley’—an ambition that, decades later, has not yet been fulfilled.

“AKDM” is a speculative architectural proposal, for a virtual double of this former science town—inhabited and controlled by algorithms (bots), who take on this promise of the city as a contender on the global stage.

The project explores relationships between physical and digital territories, and speculates on consequences for the built environment in an age where realities multiply and truths can be manufactured and post-produced.