Almost all megacities of the world are concerned with the complex reconstruction of spaces that until recently were occupied by factories, ports or railway junctions. Some, like Hamburg, New York or Shanghai, have achieved truly impressive successes in this field, others, like Moscow, are just moving from theory to practice. Without pretending to be absolutely complete, we have selected several stories of reorganization of industrial zones, the optimal design of which was obtained through a competition. I must say that tenders are not always held for the reorganization of industrial zones. But in those cases when architectural competitions do happen, they really help to find a successful result: for example, to preserve more historical buildings or open more to the townspeople.
They have
Industrial park / Duisburg, Germany, 1991
In 1991, in Duisburg, Germany, a closed architectural competition was announced for the best solution to reorganize the vast territory of a steel plant. The Latz + partner bureau project was recognized as the best of the five participants' options. Unlike its rivals, it proposed to keep most of the industrial facilities - workshops, locomotive depot, bridges and bunkers - and make them the main theme of the new park. New bridges were built here, pedestrian and bicycle paths were laid, alleys and groves were planted, all kinds of sites for active and passive recreation were organized. One of the blast furnaces has been converted into a climbing wall, the other has an observation deck, and a diving center is located in a former gas tank.
Port city / Hamburg, Germany, 1997-1999
The HafenCity district in Hamburg is perhaps the most famous example of the successful renovation of an industrial area in Europe. After the city authorities decided in 1997 to withdraw the port on the Elbe from the center of Hamburg, almost 155 hectares of its territory were radically renewed. The program of the international competition, announced in 1999, ordered the creation of a new multifunctional area there, equally saturated with housing, offices and infrastructure, as well as link it with the city center and the high-speed road and improve the embankments with a total length of 10 km. Hamburgplan and Kees Christiaanse / ASTOC won this competition, and already in 2000 the city adopted the HafenCity master plan developed by them. The architectural and planning idea of the winners is based on the maximum preservation of the topography of the place. HafenCity is made up of land-carving canals and long narrow "tongues" of former historic harbors and therefore has a distinct "maritime" character. This project made it possible to incorporate the Elbe into the urban context of Hamburg, which previously always turned away from the river. International competitions were also held for selected HafenCity properties.
Peninsula with a view / Oslo, Norway, 2002
Oslo is located on the shores of a picturesque fjord, but until the end of the 20th century, access to water for the townspeople was almost everywhere closed by port facilities and shipyards. However, in 2000, a large-scale harbor reconstruction program “City by the Fjord” was launched in the Norwegian capital, according to which a strip of industrial zones should turn into attractive areas with housing, offices, and cultural institutions.
One of the first projects was the Tjuvholmen district, in terms of resembling an elongated peninsula: in 2002, a closed competition was held for its reconstruction project, which was won by the venerable Norwegian architect Nils Thorp with the concept of "Panoramic view": the territory of the district was divided into segments by canals, along which offer spectacular vistas of the fjord and the center of Oslo. Tjuvholmen is almost entirely a pedestrian zone, along the water there are embankments and squares, cafes and shops on the ground floors of buildings are supplemented by offices and housing above in a ratio of 1: 2. A city beach and a museum of contemporary art have been erected on the "bow" of the district, which stands out in the sea.
Gateway to the Basque Country / Durango, Spain, 2004
Architectural competitions in the professional environment are traditionally considered "banks of ideas", however, these creative contributions usually remain in the store of ideas "on demand". Cases when all the finalists of the competition continue to develop their projects or take on a new business together are extremely rare. The Spanish city of Durango is one of the lucky exceptions to the rule: the competition held here in 2004 for the design of the new headquarters of EuskoTren, the state transport authority for the Basque region of Spain, has been the impetus for a massive architectural change that involves all the participants in the competition.
The transformations began from the city "gate" - the Durango railway station, where trains from the direction "Bilbao - San Sebastian" arrive. The closed competition for the project of this complex was won by Zaha Hadid Architects, proposing a radical urban planning solution - to arrange the railway tracks underground, and to design the station building in the form of a tower, which will serve as a kind of light well for the platform of the deep foundation. The use of underground spaces has freed up huge areas in the heart of Durango, which the city decided to reserve for the construction of housing and offices. All participants of the competition were involved in their design - Eduardo Arroyo, FOA, Dominique Perrault, Ercilla y Campo Arquitectura and, of course, Zaha Hadid herself.
Hudson Gardens / New York, USA, 2007-2012
New York's largest rail yard is located just three streets from Madison Square Garden. This stretch of Manhattan was for decades the last undeveloped piece of land on the island, until the development company Extell Development Group took over its development. However, the station could not simply be liquidated - the city needed it - and therefore a decision was made to close the railway junction from above. The proposed plan was simple: the existing railway lines are slightly buried underground, and from above, on especially strong platforms that serve as a kind of acoustic casing, the Hudson Yards multifunctional complex is located. At the beginning of 2007, an architectural competition was organized for the best master plan of the area, in which Stephen Hall's architectural firm won. However, in 2010, the management company changed - now the project is being implemented by Related Companies, which, in turn, invited Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates to develop the master plan for the new area. And if the first project provided for the division of the territory into two "yards", cut by the diagonal of the boulevard, now it is planned to build 16 skyscrapers on the platform above the railway tracks with a total area of slightly more than 1.8 million square meters, and plant trees in the space between them. The construction was officially started in December 2012.
We have / Moscow
Moscow industrial zones occupy an area with a total area of more than 18.8 thousand hectares. The first program for their comprehensive reconstruction was adopted by the Moscow government back in 2002, but its implementation then did not really begin. This was prevented by several circumstances at once: both the expensive preparation of contaminated land, and the difficulties of relocating enterprises to new territories, but, most importantly, conflicts of owners, of whom, as a rule, dozens on the territories of former plants. However, the withdrawal of factories and the reconstruction of their territories began, and by the time of 2008 it had borne fruit and even gained popularity. However, at first Moscow customers, as a rule, did not dare to hold high-profile tenders for the reconstruction of large and complex territories of industrial zones; however, as a rule, the most worthy architects were invited.
No competition
So, one of the first implemented projects of transferring production from Moscow was the withdrawal in 2008
factories "Red Rose", factories "Red Rose" (5.89 hectares, urban planning concept - "Sergei Kiselev and Partners"). At first, the immediately famous Moscow Artplay Center arose here with inexpensive offices for artists and architects. Then, in 2008, the artists were evicted, and the Morozov business center settled in the newly rebuilt buildings. Artplay moved to Yauza, where it mastered the buildings of the former Manometer plant next to another art cluster - Winzavod, opened a year earlier on the territory of the Moscow Bavaria brewery (the reconstruction project was carried out by Alexander Brodsky). Another art cluster, the Flacon design plant, was equipped in 2009 by the Archhelp bureau. However, the creation of art clusters is the most resonant, but far from the most profitable way of reconstructing former factories.
As a rule, residential and office quarters are created on site. In 2012, the bureau
SKiP completed the construction of at least two business centers in industrial zones: Vivaldi Plaza on the site of the Furniture Plant and a business center on Novoryazanskaya Street on the territory of the Mosavtotekh plant. In the past few years, the Moscow bureau ADM architects is also engaged in the reconstruction of relatively small industrial zones: last year they completed the construction of the first stage of Alkon Plaza on the site of the Izolyator plant on Leningradsky Prospekt, they are completing the reconstruction of the business park in Nauchny Proyezd on the site of the Scientific Research Institute of Vitamins (developer Sminex, 36 ha). A recent event in Moscow's architectural life was the completion of the reconstruction of Stanislavsky's factory (2.88 ha, developer Horus capital, bureau John McAslan + Partners). Of course, this list is far from complete.
Meanwhile, since the early 2000s, competitions have been held for the reconstruction of industrial zones. As a rule, these were completely non-public, undeclared competitions, which the developer held “for himself,” ordering several projects to different architects, who often found out about the existence of “rivals” after the fact. More often, architects knew that they were participating in an undeclared custom-made competition, but no one except the participants knew about it. In the second half of the 2000s, the aforementioned bureau "Sergey Kiselev & Partners" made a little less than 10 such projects for the reconstruction of industrial zones.
Moscow / competitions
Precision Measuring Instruments Factory / 0.74 ha, 2002
One of such small, unannounced competitions gave Moscow a wonderful building, the Hermitage Plaza. The developer of the project, Forum Properties, came to the site back in 1997, having rented one of the plant's buildings from the management of Tizpribor, which was later reconstructed and leased to the American company Caterpillar. It was possible to undertake a full-scale reconstruction only a few years later, and at first the company did not plan to hold a full-fledged architectural competition, but limited itself to ordering projects from two bureaus at once - Ostozhenka and the workshop Sergey Kiselev and Partners. However, the architects learned about this from each other and in order to avoid an ambiguous situation, they actually forced Forum Properties to turn the order into a competition. The winner in the competition was the workshop "Sergey Kiselev and Partners", which has implemented one of its most interesting objects on this site - the office complex "Hermitage Plaza".
Factory "Crystal" / 50 ha, 2004
The industrial zone of the Kristall plant occupies 50 hectares. To the east of it runs Volochaevskaya street, to the west - the Krasnokazarmennaya embankment bends. The competition was closed, six teams were invited to participate - three from Moscow and three from Bavaria. The first prize was shared by the team of authors led by Boris Uborevich-Borovsky (Mosproekt-4) and the architectural bureau of Josef Peter Mayer-Skupin from Munich. The Russians proposed to build up the territory mainly with residential buildings - elite two-three-storey and less expensive high-rise buildings located along Volochaevskaya Street. The Germans, in turn, relied on the preservation of the industrial zone, including warehouses, transport entrances and workshops, which they proposed to surround with parks and small objects such as cafes and hotels. The winners divided the prize fund, but no one remembered about their projects anymore - the real withdrawal of Kristall from Lefortovo began only this year.
Danilovskaya Manufactory / 8 ha, ser. 2000s - present time.
Danilovskaya Manufactura is located at the Third Ring Road between Varshavskoye Shosse and Novodanilovskaya Embankment. The textile empire was founded in 1867 by the merchant of the 1st guild, Vasily Meshcherin, and by the beginning of the 20th century it had grown so much that it occupied an area with a total area of about 8 hectares. In Soviet times, the factory was named after Mikhail Frunze and remained “the largest advanced enterprise in Moscow,” but the free competition of the 1990s, alas, put an end to the success of this production. In the 1990s, the premises of the factory were mainly leased, and over the past few years, Danilovskaya Manufactory has been gradually turning into an office loft - its entire territory is being reconstructed into business centers, commercial space and apartments. Perhaps the most famous project implemented within the framework of this concept is Sergey Skuratov's Danilovsky Fort business center, which has received many architectural awards. Such companies as Sergey Estrin's Architectural Workshop, Project_Z bureau and City-Arch workshop also worked here. The Danilovskaya Manufactory is managed by KR Properties, which holds separate closed tenders for the reconstruction of each of the objects of the former industrial zone.
Spinning and weaving factory "Gardtex" / 1.5 ha, 2010
The closed architectural competition for the best project of a residential complex on the site of the factory, held in 2010, became only one of the stages in the development of this site and, paradoxically, actually did not affect its further fate in any way. 4 architectural bureaus were invited to participate in the competition - "Sergey Skuratov Architects", TPO "Reserve", "Bogachkin and Bogachkin" and "Sergey Kiselev and Partners". The latter was familiar with the site much earlier (for the first time it was invited to work on the site on Savvinskaya in 2002 and managed to build a beautiful residential building nearby, which won many professional awards), but did not make it to the second round. Three other bureaus, on the contrary, received a notification from the organizer of the competition about the imminent holding of the final of the competition, but that was the end of its story: a few months later the architects learned that Tsimailo, Lyashenko and Partners had been invited to develop a concept for the reconstruction of Gardtex.
Moscow cardboard and printing plant / 4.15 ha, 2011
A closed competition for the best project for the reconstruction of the plant in 2011 was held by AFI Development. The list of participants was not disclosed, although it is known that among them were not only Russian architectural workshops, but also Western ones. The winner was the bureau "Sergey Skuratov Architects", which proposed to create a kind of campus in the former industrial zone - a comfortable and stylish area designed mainly for young people. The industrial buildings of the beginning of the XX century became part of the new residential complex, which the architect included in the project on his own initiative, preserving the “memory of the place”. The new pedestrian bridge across the Moskva River, proposed by Sergei Skuratov Architects, also looked extremely impressive, connecting the building block with the opposite bank and the Avtozavodskaya metro station: the bright red supports were "recruited" from separate semi-oval plates, and from the water snow-white hemispheres grew towards them. Unfortunately, both this bridge and the idea of the campus remained on paper - over the next two years, the winner repeatedly revised the project at the request of the customer, gradually increasing the class of housing that is planned to be created on Paveletskaya Embankment, and its density.
Berezhkovskaya embankment / 26 ha, 2013
In March of this year, the results of the competition for the best pre-design solution for architectural and urban planning development were summed up in Moscow.
the former industrial zone on the Berezhkovskaya embankment. The site with a total area of 26 hectares is currently occupied mainly by warehouses and services, and in the future it should turn into a multifunctional area saturated with housing, offices, and all related infrastructure. The competition was closed, the organizer - investment and financial company LIRAL - invited seven teams to participate: "Asadov Architectural Bureau", "Meganom", TPO "Reserve", "ArchProject-2", "Creative Workshops" under the leadership of Mikhail Shubenkov, as well as groups of authors led by Pavel Andreev (Mosproject-2) and Vadim Lenk (Mosproekt-4). The winner was the Meganom bureau, which relied on the strategy of gradual re-profiling of the former industrial zone by creating separate clusters.
Garden quarters / 13 ha, 2007 – present time.
Since 2007, the project has been implemented by the method of construction of separate blocks-queues
Sadovye Kvartaly is a residential complex being built between Frunzenskaya and Sportivnaya metro stations on the site of the former Kauchuk plant. The developer, the Unicor management company, began work on the project with a commissioned competition for the town-planning concept for the development of the territory. Two workshops won in it - "Meganom" and "Sergey Skuratov architects". Then the customers arranged an interview and opted for Skuratov's workshop, which was asked to develop an urban planning concept and make projects for most of the houses. The rest, about 10% of the total, is divided between other famous architects - the already mentioned Meganom, as well as the AB group, Alexander Brodsky, Alexey Kurenniy, Vladimir Plotkin, Alexander Skokan and Sergei Choban.
Red October / 48 hectares, 2002-present time.
There is still a discussion about the future of the Krasny Oktyabr factory, the territory of which has been managed by GUTA-Development since 2002. In 2003, the Moscow government adopted a resolution approving the Golden Island program. The project promised to become the first example of integrated development of the territory in the central part of Moscow: more than 1 million sq. m. of real estate - mainly housing and offices, however, such an ambitious project was not implemented, although it became the subject of competitions several times, including international ones. Jean-Michel Wilmott, Norman Foster, MacAdam Architects, Jan Störmer and partners, Eric van Egeraat were involved in them, but the projects received were so extravagant and far from the history of the "chocolate" island that the project was transferred to Mosproject-2, who developed an urban development concept for the entire territory of the factory. After the economic crisis of 2008, Guta returned to the idea of tenders, but already closed and for separate small areas - for example,
16 E and 17 F, or 18-20G on Bolotnaya embankment. However, these projects are still on paper. In May of this year, information appeared that the fate of only 15 hectares was finally determined - blocks No. 360 and 361 on the Bersenevskaya embankment, where housing and cultural objects will be built.
ZIL / 430 ha, 2013
Among the projects of modern times, the largest and most significant for the city, of course, is the reconstruction of the territory of the ZIL plant (430 hectares, see a selection of articles on this topic). In early 2012, with the support of the Moscow Government, an international competition was held to determine the most effective scenario for the development of the AMO ZIL territory. A request for participation was sent to 27 leading architectural companies in Russia and the world, 17 of which expressed a desire to take part. Four teams were selected for the second round of the competition: Valode & Pistre (France), Mecanoo Architecten (Netherlands), Uberbau Architecture and Urbanism (Germany) and Project Meganom (Russia; see the story about the projects that won in the first round of the competition). The latter two were recognized as winners of the competition, offering, within the framework of their concepts, a variety of scenarios for integrating depressive ineffectively used territories into the economic, social and cultural life of Moscow. However, the competition did not end there - the finalists had to finalize their projects and submit them to the final jury, but its final meeting did not take place. In parallel with the competition, commissioned by the Moscow Committee for Architecture and Construction, the State Unitary Enterprise "NI and PI of the General Plan of Moscow" was developing the project. The joint work of the Meganom design bureau and the 15 zonal workshop of the State Unitary Enterprise “NI and PI of the General Plan of Moscow” was carried out, as a result of which the concept for the development of the ZIL plant was presented to the mayor and approved.
The Big Moscow competition, held in the summer and autumn of 2012 with the support of the Research and Development Institute of the General Plan - in fact, not so much a competition as a series of seminars, a giant brainstorming session with the participation of many foreign celebrities and the most qualified Russian architects in urban planning - showed that the reconstruction of industrial zones remains one of the sick themes of the city. So far, little has been mastered, on the city map there are many "gray" industrial spots that interfere with life and car traffic. The competition for the concept of the Hammer and Sickle territory, initiated by the architectural council in the spring, may become one of the steps towards civilized work with industrial areas. By the end of the year, we will know how it will end.
