This is the third time that the Urban Awards in the field of urban residential real estate has been awarded, and this year the venue for the celebration was Swissotel Krasnye Holmy, in the Ballroom of which applicants for all sixteen nominations gathered. At the Urban Awards 2011, projects were nominated that correspond to the concept of an “ideal city” (how exactly each of the jury members imagines this phenomenon could be learned from the posters hung in the foyer and a video), and, according to the head of the award Olga Khasanova, the award went only to “objects that made a real step towards an ideal city”. Among them are projects of residential complexes and neighborhoods, microdistricts and eco-cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg - both already implemented and under construction - and the protagonists of the ceremony were the developers who initiated their creation. However, a lot of objects that had previously received the Urban Awards reached the final of this year, and a relatively large number of nominations inevitably led to the fact that the same companies were invited to the stage several times. So by the end of the ceremony, crystal figurines handed over to the winners along with diplomas were on the tables of almost all corporations, which gave the host a reason for numerous jokes.
However, during the evening there were many other reasons for a good mood. In particular, the presenter prepared a comic question for each winner, in addition to applause and awards. Thus, representatives of the Zodiac Residential Complex (the project was developed by Mosproekt-1), which won the nomination for the Best Business Class Residential Complex in Moscow, were asked whether at least one astrologer worked on this project and if so, then did he manage to predict the current victory for the Zodiac? " Some winners tried to joke in response, others answered in all seriousness, for those who did not bring a sense of humor to the stage, artists of the KVN team "Uyezdny Gorod" came to the rescue, who, in between the presentation of awards, performed miniatures like about housing construction. and on much more general topics.
In the nomination "Residential complex of the year economy class in Moscow" the best was the RC "Chocolate" on Altufevskoe highway (chief architect of the project - Stanislav Kulish), and in the nomination "Residential complex of the year business class in St. Petersburg" won RC "Admiral Nakhimov "(JSC" Construction Trust "). The Imperial House residential complex (architect Mikhail Belov) also received a crystal statuette, which the jury considered the best "Elite-class residential complex of the year in Moscow", and Sergey Skuratov's Garden Quarters was recognized as the "Best project for integrated development of territories" (it is interesting that a year ago, the same project received the award as "Residential Complex with the Best Architecture"). The prize for the "Mega-project of integrated development of territories" went to the Gorki-Gorod facility, which is being built for the 2014 Olympics in Krasnaya Polyana (architects Mikhail Filippov and Maxim Atayants).
The prizes were also awarded in the nominations "Best Concept of Improvement and Infrastructure", "Innovation of the Year", "Residential Complex of Moscow Region Economy Class" and "Residential Complex of Moscow Region Business Class". The most discussed project of the year, according to the Urban Awards, was recognized as Danilovskaya Manufactory (KR Properties), and the ceremony ended with the announcement of the winner in the category “Residential Complex of the Year with the Best Architecture”, which was nominated by all 54 projects that reached the final of the award. After a long and multi-stage voting, Barkli Virgin House, designed by Georgy Weisman, was recognized as the most spectacular in terms of architecture (the design concept, that is, the interiors of apartments and a number of general ideas, was developed for this house by the Englishwoman Kelly Hoppen, and it is her name that usually appears in his mentions).
At the end of the Urban Awards 2011 ceremony, its participants returned to the question of what an ideal city should be and how these urban planning dreams can be translated into reality. Someone is sure that such a city should be beautiful, someone called such qualities as "green", "safe", "convenient", but absolutely everyone agreed that the best place to live is a city in which there are no traffic jams at all. And, by the way, it is possible that next year the Urban Awards will establish a special nomination for projects aimed at effectively solving the most painful issue for Russian megacities.
