Ayrat Bagautdinov

He graduated from the Kazan State University of Architecture and Engineering in 2010. In 2011–2012, he finished his master’s course at the National Research University “Higher School of Economics”. He has been a co-founder and one of the top managers of Moscow Free Tour company and its Petersburg Free Tour department, working with foreign tourists in Moscow and Saint Petersburg since 2011. Moscow Free Tour company was the top company among Moscow tour companies according to TripAdvisor.com for a long time. The company is still the leader in the number of positive comments. The company services up to 25,000 tourists per year. In 2014, he founded Moscow through the Engineer’s Eye educational project. The company is engaged in arranging tours, lectures and master classes for children. The project’s mission is development of a more conscious attitude to the city on the part of Moscow residents through understanding the architectural language. The company arranges tours on architectural and engineering topics, access to unusual urban locations — from the Clock Tower of the Kiev railway station to the avant-garde house-commune. The goal of such tours is to help residents to see Moscow from an unusual point of view, to learn perception of architectural context, reading architectural code of streets and buildings.  Over the five years, Moscow through the Engineer’s Eye has become the leader of Moscow tour projects. The company organizes about 50 various regular tours, takes part in the city and all-Russian festivals and projects: Afisha Picnic, Avant-garde Days, Geek Picnic, Cinema through the Engineer’s Eye, World Contents, ArtFever, Metro Family, etc. The company services about 30,000 guests per year. The company also has a department in Saint Petersburg — “Petersburg through the Engineer’s Eye”. Another important project is Guide’s School Moscow through the Engineer’s Eye. The school has been operating since 2015, with 350 graduates already. Our task is to teach people to be “city tour guides”, develop signature routes being of interest to city residents. The partners of Moscow through the Engineer’s Eye are the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Gorky Park, Museum of Russian Impressionists, Avant-garde Center in Shabolovka, MosKino movie house chain, Adidas, Danilovsky market, etc. The company cooperates with such media as The Village, Afisha Daily, Colta, Strelka Magazine, Buro 24/7, Moscow-24, Mayak radio station, Russia-24 TV channel, etc. In 2015, Moscow through the Engineer’s Eye company was the winner of the All-Russian contest of innovations in education with its children’s engineering master classes program. In 2019, Moscow through the Engineer’s Eye company won the tender announced by the Moscow Cultural Heritage Department for the right to conduct a series of free for Moscow residents and guests of the capital city events related to historical sites of the city.