During the international competition "Pasta Builder", students studied the theory, made calculations, designed and built towers and bridges from macaroni products. The competition was held at SPbGASU for the fifteenth time. This time it involved 26 teams from six Russian regions, as well as from Armenia and the Republic of Belarus.

Every year the competition is gaining more and more popularity, and its participants demonstrate a high level of skill, which is for obvious reasons: in this way, the contestants develop practical skills in construction mechanics, architecture and other professional disciplines, exchange experience, ideas and knowledge, and develop creative abilities.

The competition was attended by teams from the National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia, Polotsk State University named after Euphrosyne of Polotsk (Republic of Belarus), Astrakhan State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Tyumen Industrial University, Nizhny Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Belgorod State Technological University named after V.G. Shukhov, Tver State Technical University, Emperor Alexander I Petersburg State Transport University, SPbGASU, Lyceum No. 387 named after N.V. Belousov, School No. 518 of Vyborg District, Schools No. 106, No. 246 of Primorsky District, School No. 69 of Kalininsky District, School No. 87 of Petrogradsky District of St Petersburg.

"The rather rich history of the competition confirms that it is possible to successfully create structures from pasta and develop the competencies that are necessary in the professional activities of future architects and builders. Participants understand from their own practice which structure works and which does not, see their mistakes, and remember successful examples. That is why not only victory is important, but also participation," said Andrey Nikulin, Dean of the SPbGASU Faculty of Civil Engineering.

The competition includes two nominations: "The tallest structure. Towers" and "Structure with the largest span". For the base of the towers, participants are provided with 100x100 cm stretchers, and tables are used as supports for the bridges. In addition to pasta, sculptural plasticine is used. Four hours of evening time are allocated for the construction of the structures. The structures must stand until 9 am the following day. The jury also took into account constructiveness, expressiveness, and rational use of materials.

The anniversary competition was marked by a unique event: for the first time in its history, one team became the winner in both nominations. The team from the Belgorod State Technological University named after V. G. Shukhov (Veronika Smulyarova, Aleksey Dmitriev, Ivan Pakhomov, Aleksandr Barelsky, Anna Migulina) was recognized as the champions twice.

"We participated in the competition for the third time and gained good experience. In addition, we trained hard to become professionals in our field. This victory is the result of many years of work. This year, we built a copy of the Chinese Guangzhou TV tower. It is built in the shape of an hourglass, erected in an interesting way, which attracted us. Our bridge is a cable-stayed suspension bridge dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. On one side, we installed paper numbers 1945, on the other - 2025. Each structure used 800 grams of pasta - this is a rational use of materials," said Aleksandr Barelsky.

The team from Tyumen Industrial University (Dmitry Bakunin, Artemy Vasiliev, Ilya Moskaev, Nikita Leskov, Arseny Naidanov) also achieved double success, taking second place in both nominations.

In the nomination “Structure with the largest span”, the third place went to the team of the National Institute of Architecture and Construction of Armenia (Vladimir Safiridi, Movses Hakobyan, Gevorg Yusisyan, Tigran Tevosyan, Nikolay Harutyunyan).

“First of all, I would like to thank the organizers of the “Pasta Builder”. Such competitions are one of the types of training for students, when they assemble what they designed with their own hands and see in practice how this structure works and for what reasons it falls. It is a useful thing to see how structures work. The competition encourages students to new achievements. We built a railway bridge on the bypass of the branch from the city of Dilijan to the city of Vanadzor. The guys assembled the model and the bridge span correctly, making a close copy of the real structure. In addition, they got acquainted with the design experience of other students. We will try to take into account the first experience we have gained in the next competition, which we would like to attend,” said the team leader, Head of the Department of Roads and Bridges of the National Institute of Architecture and Construction of Armenia Artashes Sargsyan.

In the nomination "The tallest structure. Towers" the third place was taken by the team of the Astrakhan State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (Olga Kupetskova, Yulia Yudina, Ekaterina Nesterova, Roman Mukhatov, Daria Yakovleva).