A retail and warehouse complex with an open parking lot in the urban settlement Moskovsky near the village of Rumyantsevo
The site is located on the territory of New Moscow along the Kiev highway. The authors presented to the council both the previous version of the project, where the facade facing the highway was completely made of travertine, and the rear, northern, facade was made of alucobond, as well as a new version - more "glass". The complex consists of two main functional areas: warehouse and retail, however from the outside they look like a single volume with a total area of 60,000 sq. m with a slightly elevated office and administrative block.
Despite the fact that the complex is planned to be built on the territories recently annexed to Moscow, the site has good transport potential: the Kievskoe highway passes nearby, the Solntsevskaya metro line will be extended in the near future and two new metro stations will appear nearby.
However, the circumstance that prevents the council from approving this project is due precisely to the location of the complex. The fact is that the existing GPZU were issued by the Moscow region, but now the site is located on the territory of New Moscow. Therefore, until the territorial scheme of the annexed territories is developed and approved, it makes no sense to consider a project in this area.
Nevertheless, the council members had a lot of questions about the binding of the object to the place. At the moment, according to Yuri Grigoryan, this complex is excluded from the context and could just as well appear at any point of the Moscow Ring Road. The lack of a master plan for the site raised questions: is there a need for a shopping center at all, for whom is it being built, who determined the volume of retail space and their content? “Near the village and the lake, this huge shopping center looks wild, it does not react to the context in any way. Is it possible that if an investor owns land, then he can build on it whatever he wants? … It is clear that most investors dream of building a trade facility,”noted Yuri Grigoryan.
Grigoryan was also supported by Mikhail Posokhin, who noted that such projects return us to the days of infill development. Posokhin emphasized that in order to stop such construction, it is necessary to develop a single scheme for the location of commercial buildings within the city, including on the periphery, since there, too, they affect the infrastructure of the city no less than in the center. Today Moscow is suffocating in the ring of shopping centers.
Sergei Tchoban said that in Berlin, the existing master plan of the city contains information about all retail space - available, projected and potentially possible, which are distributed throughout the city, taking into account the population size and the radius of attraction in each specific area. If an investor wants to build a new shopping complex, then he has to take into account all the requirements of the master plan. At the same time, there is a company in Berlin that is constantly updating this document: it takes into account the changing needs of the city and makes the necessary amendments to the master plan. And even when the developer received permission to build a retail facility on its territory, questions still arise - what should this facility be, what size and in what specific place on the allotted area it will be located. The same company answers these questions based on a detailed analysis of the site. Sergei Choban emphasized that if we had such a master plan, then the council members would not have asked the question whether a new shopping center is needed in one place or another. According to Choban, such work should be carried out in the near future, and it can become a real urban development breakthrough.
Hans Stimman drew the attention of those present to the fact that the project is intended for construction on the territory of New Moscow, and, therefore, should be symbolic and significant. However, now it is more reminiscent of the Autobahn near Los Angeles. Shtimman addressed his question to the developers of the master plan for New Moscow: "Is this how they see the image of the new city?"
Evgeny Ass also spoke about the architecture of the building, who did not find a justification for the complex configuration and excessively small plasticity of the object. He also remained unclear about the decision to place the entrance to the retail sector in the corner part, and the layout of the shopping area with two dead-end galleries resting on the warehouse was also surprising. Continuing the topic, Andrei Bokov pointed out that a shopping center cannot have steps at the entrance.
In addition, the council members had a comment on the distribution of parking spaces: there are fewer parking spaces for the shopping area than for the warehouse.
Summing up the discussion, Sergey Kuznetsov advised the authors to integrate their project into the schemes developed for the annexed territories, to consult with colleagues from the General Planning Institute. He also recommended revising the transport scheme and redefining the required number of parking spaces. The question of solving the facade against the background of existing problems, according to the chief architect, is already becoming secondary. However, Sergei Kuznetsov still advised to "react" not to the Kiev highway, but to the village and the lake, to create recreation, restaurants, public spaces in this part. But in any case, the authors of the project will have to wait for the finalization and approval of the planning of the territories of New Moscow.
Technopark "Dmitrovsky Dvor" on Dmitrovskoe highway
The concept of the technopark was presented to the council by Andrey Asadov, who said that this pre-project proposal was developed three years ago and has now been “revived” by the customer. A narrow, very elongated section, located near the Moscow Ring Road, is sandwiched between Dmitrovskoe highway and a closed industrial zone. It is proposed to build a large technopark on this territory, "investigating" the issues of architecture, building technologies and design. The authors have developed several options for the development of the site, suggesting the sequence of development. The first stage envisages the construction of an extended volume with a height of about 18 m. Further it is planned to build a multi-level ground parking. The final stage of construction involves the erection of a dominant volume up to 40 m high, called by Andrey Asadov "the head of the liner": the complex with a total length of about 400 m is indeed very similar to a giant futuristic ship. There was also an option with a two-part composition, when it was proposed to make a square with a view of an existing industrial building, which is very expressive in architecture, in the place of the parking located in the center. However, the customer did not support this idea.
The authors thought for a long time about the appearance of the technopark - the council members were presented with a huge number of options for solving the facades. As a result, the architects agreed that all three components of the building complex must be connected with one generalizing technique. Thus, a single volume has turned out, including exhibition spaces, conference rooms, research laboratories and offices.
The main remark to the project is the discrepancy between the architecture of the building and the declared function. Most of the council members agreed that the presented project is far from the typology of a technopark, it is rather an office and trade complex. Andrey Bokov noted that technoparks in the world practice are very modest in architecture buildings with highly efficient engineering and technical equipment, and he did not see anything similar in the presented project; however, Bokov called the sketches very high quality.
Mikhail Posokhin wondered for whom this complex was being built and who would work in it. To which Alexei Vorontsov replied that the right side of the city highway, which has its continuation already in the Moscow region, is the right location for a new shopping center. There are no other recommendations, according to Vorontsov, for this territory. There are many residential areas around, so the appearance of offices is appropriate here - there is a potential for their filling. Alexey Vorontsov advised the authors to clarify the typology of the object and directly declare that this is a shopping and office center.
Hans Stimmann said that the day before he visited the site and saw a highly fragmented production area that is in dire need of an early transformation. Yuri Grigoryan noted that the town-planning context was not taken into account in the project. However, as the speakers explained, the problem is that a general planning project cannot be developed for this territory, because it is being developed separately for Dmitrovskoe highway, and the industrial zone is a secret territory. Nevertheless, all participants in the discussion advised the authors to study the scale and nature of the surrounding development. Sergei Kuznetsov recalled that, first of all, it is necessary to create an environment: there should be streets in the city. And the very long continuous volume of the complex becomes an insurmountable obstacle for pedestrians and cars and falls out of the urban context. This idea was actively supported by Andrei Gnezdilov: “This project strongly resembles a shopping center on Voykovskaya, where a huge shopping center has grown on the site of a once secret enterprise, practically without gaps with a length of more than 200 meters. In fact, it is a fence that poses colossal problems for the city. It is necessary to divide the building into three parts, and to organize passage streets in the gaps between them”.
The idea of splitting the volume was also expressed by Sergei Tchoban, who noticed that all three buildings have different functional purposes. The first building is, in fact, a shopping center, the second is a parking lot, and the third, located in the northern part, is a business center. Sergei Tchoban found the desire of customers and authors to unite the buildings with a formal "mega-theme" seemed unreasonable. In his opinion, these should be three volumes of different architecture.
Vladimir Plotkin noted that the original two-part version was more accurate and correct. Such a solution would create a public space - a square - and create a more permeable urban environment. And the inevitable loss of square meters could be compensated for by increasing the height of the first stage, thereby the buildings would be close to the scale of the surrounding buildings. Sergei Kuznetsov agreed with Plotkin and drew the authors' attention to the fact that the present concept does not take into account the social component at all: “It would be more correct to make taller, but separate buildings, separated by a central square,” advised the chief architect of Moscow. Hans Stimmann doubted the need to accentuate the northern volume, which is decided as a corner one, although the entire complex is located along the highway. He proposed to move the emphasis to the center of the building.
As a result, it was decided to send the project for revision, taking into account all the recommendations made by the members of the council.
