Urals Academy of Architecture (Ural State Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture; Russian: Уральская государственная архитектурно-художественная академия, often abbreviated USAAA or in Russian УрГАХА) is situated in Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation. It was founded in 1947 as a department of architecture at the Ural State Technical University. Later, in 1967, it was reorganized and became a branch of the Moscow Institute of Architecture which later became an independent school of architecture originally named Sverdlovsk Institute of Architecture. It is one of the most prestigious schools of design and architecture in Russia. The Academy has 20 chairs, 6 departments and 2 institutes (Institute of Visual Arts and Institute of Urbanism). The Academy is known for the role it played in forming the rock subculture (subculture of resistance, in fact) in the USSR. The Sverdlovsk Rock Club founded at the Academy in 1986 was a birth place for a considerable number of famous Russian rock bands such as Urfin Dzhyus, Chaif, Nautilus Pompilius, Nastya, Trek, Agata Kristi.