Recall that the Alexei Gutnov Prize has been awarded for large-scale urban planning and architectural planning projects, as well as research, theoretical and legislative developments in the field of urban planning for more than ten years. This year, the award was given to three creative teams. The team led by Valery Becker was awarded for the development of proposals for the formation in Moscow of a "system of strategic planning documents that ensure the connection of socio-economic forecasting with territorial planning", Alexander Kuzmin and his subordinates were awarded for the development of a system of scientific and methodological support of the City Code of Moscow, and the team led by Sergey Tkachenko, - for the project of the general plan of Nizhny Novgorod.
A multifunctional residential complex on Karamyshevskaya embankment is being built on a site owned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB of Russia, and is intended for the resettlement of employees of these departments. From the west, the territory adjoins residential area No. 70 "Khoroshevo-Mnevnikov", from the north - to Zvenigorodsky prospect, the southern side faces the Moskvoretsky park and the embankment. From the north-west, the facility is bordered by the site of the Don-Stroy company, where a high-rise complex is planned to be built on the site of the car depot according to the design of the workshop of Pyotr Biryukov. A transport interchange hub and a new metro station will soon appear at the intersection of Zvenigorodsky Prospekt with the projected highway from Filevsky Boulevard.
As the head of LLC "New Project" Vladimir Paltsev said, the key influence on the volumetric-spatial composition of the residential complex was exerted by the restrictions on insolation for the neighboring residential area. High-rise dominants are spaced along the edges of the site and are connected by a lowered building. As a result, in the plan the composition resembles the letter Z, the ends of which - 31-storey buildings - are deployed towards the embankment and Zvenigorodsky prospect. The first has a complex cascade shape, the second is triangular in plan, with rounded corners.
As a material for facades, fiber cement plates of different colors are used, of which the authors proposed three options for decorative solutions. The first is three-part, with a combination of tape and vertical glazing (clearly reminiscent of Sergei Skuratov's "House on Mosfilmovskaya"), the second uses traditional tape glazing, and the third is built on a system of vertical planes offset from each other. All the first floors of the residential complex are given over to a shopping and entertainment and health complex, as well as social and domestic services. Its main entrance faces the embankment, while its courtyard is completely isolated from the street. The strong difference in the relief made it possible to arrange natural lighting in the 3 underground levels of the shopping mall, as well as to do without ramps when entering the parking lot.
The council generally approved the project, but a number of architects still found flaws in it, mainly related to the volumetric-spatial composition. Many agreed with the opinion of the project assistant Alexei Vorontsov that the complex lacks high-rise accents. Now both buildings are the same (105 m each), however, as Vorontsov noted, the surrounding buildings clearly tend to decrease towards the embankment, so it would be more logical to make the designed residential complex of different heights. According to Svyatoslav Mindrul, due to the fact that both corps are almost identical and do not have active endings, there is a feeling of compositional indistinctness.
In addition, Alexey Vorontsov suggested that the authors think about creating links between the residential complex and Moskvoretsky Park, which, for example, could be solved in the form of a pedestrian bridge. The council also fully supported this idea. Summarizing the opinions of the speakers, Mikhail Posokhin urged not to repeat the mistakes of Moscow City, where the embankment was cut off from the complex, and regarding the architecture itself, he noted that the author's decision should be more humane. The chairman proposed to approve the project with the announced amendments, but only with those that do not require its radical alteration, since the volume-spatial solution, according to Posokhin, is too late to change.
The second council discussed the planning project for the area of 64.5 hectares between Leningradsky Prospekt and the Central Aerodrome. M. V. Frunze (State Unitary Enterprise "GlavAPU"). The site is bounded from the south-east by Begovaya Street and from the south by the 2nd Botkinsky passage, and from the south-west it is approached by the buildings of the former Khodynskoye field (Frunze airfield). Now there are three aircraft factories - them. S. V. Ilyushin, MAPO MiG and Sukhoi Design Bureau - by 2018 it is planned to transfer them to Zhukovsky near Moscow, and to build residential quarters and commercial real estate at this place. Residential development accounts for 86 percent of new construction, with a total of about 1.4 million sq.m. new areas. In addition, the project provides for a significant expansion of the road network and the creation of seven green areas with a total area of 12.5 hectares. The building was designed taking into account the recommendations of the Center for Landscape and Visual Analysis, mainly related to the Petrovsky Travel Palace, located on the other side of Leningradka. Its height near the avenue does not exceed 10-12 meters, and the tallest buildings (88 meters) are located on the opposite side of the site, next to the Ice Palace.
In general, the Architectural Council highly appreciated the planning project developed by GlavAPU. The main complex of comments to it was contained in the conclusion of the Research and Development Institute of the General Plan, which was read out by its head Sergei Tkachenko at the council. The architect drew the attention of his colleagues mainly to the volume of construction. Tkachenko stressed that the project specifies 1,400 million square meters, which is about two-thirds of the volume of Moscow City, and some plots even exceed the permissible density of 50 thousand square meters per hectare. In particular, experts recognized the density of buildings near the Ice Palace as unacceptably high: public buildings here are located right along the "red lines" and are closely adjacent to residential buildings. The head of the Research and Development Institute of the General Plan considers such volumes to be the maximum possible, and then only if they are provided from the point of view of urban planning. In particular, we are talking about the construction of two new metro stations and the development of a street and road network, duplicating Leningradka. The authors agreed with this and noted that the project, in their opinion, can only take place if the corresponding section of the Fourth Transport Ring is built.
Some council members were also embarrassed by the perimeter development of residential areas, which, according to Svyatoslav Mindrul, would have been appropriate 30 years ago, but not today. In addition, the city planner recommended adding a planning center to the project, accented, for example, with the help of a monument. Mikhail Posokhin agreed with all the speakers and approved the project, taking into account the comments of the Research and Development Institute of the General Plan.
