Recently, on October 29, the Moscow government approved the planning project for the territory of the ZiL industrial zone, developed by the zonal workshop No. 15 of the NIiPI of the General Plan of Moscow. It is planned to build 4.5 million sq. meters of real estate, mainly housing and offices, retaining some of the old buildings, the factory boulevard, as well as the production of cars (on 65 hectares). The Tekhnopark metro station will appear nearby, and in the center of the territory there will be a new station on the Small Ring of the railway. A park will be laid out along the embankment of the Moskva River, and the motorway, which will run at some distance parallel to the river, is planned to be buried three meters into the ground, throwing bridges over it for residents to go to the river. The houses are planned to be 9-10-storey, with a quarterly layout.
ZiL is the largest industrial zone in Moscow, almost 400 hectares, and the project for its reorganization is, of course, an important topic. Its discussion has been going on for about two years, starting at the end of 2011 with a statement by Sergei Kapkov that a "cultural cluster" will appear at ZiL (see the selection
articles on the topic). In 2012, a high-profile international competition was held for the concept of reorganizing the ZiL industrial zone. Two winners, the Moscow bureau "Project Meganom" and the German Uberbau, were then offered to finalize their projects, but the competition was abruptly interrupted and the jury did not consider the final versions of the concepts.
Simultaneously, but without participating in the competition, the Moscow Institute of the General Plan developed its own concept; by the fall of 2012, it became the main one, however, by the decision of Sergei Sobyanin, the function of the technopark, which was the leading one in this project, was replaced by a residential one, more economically profitable. At the beginning of 2013, one of the winners of the competition, Project Meganom, was invited to participate in the finalization of the ZiL concept together with the Research and Development Institute of the General Plan (the story is detailed in the article by Alexei Shchukin, written in April; even then, many details of the project were known; along the way, ZiL was hit by the Foundry of 1916 was demolished, for more details see Yopolis and the Arkhnadzor website). Then, the zonal workshop No. 15 of the NIiPI, on the basis of the revised concept, but without the participation of Meganom, created its own planning project. Now the project has been approved.
About the details of the approved project and the prospects for its implementation, we asked one of its authors, the head of the zone workshop No. 15, Vitaly Lutz.
Vitaly Lutz:
“The design site is located in the Danilovsky district. In addition to the ZiLa itself, most of the production buildings of which have not been functioning for a long time, our planning project affects the communal and industrial enterprises located around the territory of the existing development, the Nagatino-Land business center and other objects. The plant itself occupies about 280 hectares, while the total area of the planning project territory is about 378 hectares.
Our project is focused on preserving the foundations of the 1936 master plan, developed for this area by the architect Popov. We considered it as a historical value, a monument of the planning structure, therefore we tried to preserve the main elements of the general plan: the monumental building front facing Avtomotornaya Street, the main axes of the territory: the boulevard and the highway crossing it at right angles.
The central element of the new layout is the boulevard with the facades of the workshops, which set the frequent step of the network of residential streets of intra-quarter driveways. It also connects the residential area with the main public and business complex "Planet ZiL" and together with the active recreation park near the TPU "ZiL" on the Small Ring of the railway acts as the main public space of the territory. The main six-lane highway runs in a semicircle along the water. This is not an easy decision, but we have not found any alternatives to it. The connection between the residential quarters and the embankment is also ensured by green platforms above the buried section of the highway. Trying to restore permeability to the isolated territory of the peninsula, we have developed a system of connections across the Moskva River: two road bridges along the MK MZhD and the Moskva River oxbow and two pedestrian bridges, one of which is located in the continuation of the boulevard. The planned construction of two transport hubs will be important for the development of transport infrastructure.
The volume of existing real estate on the site under consideration is 2 million square meters. m, it is supposed to demolish almost half, another 3 million sq. meters is the volume of the planned new construction, including the underground part. Our task was to preserve the objects of industrial heritage as much as possible. Of the oldest buildings, the plant management building, built in 1916-1917 according to the project of Konstantin Melnikov, will be preserved and restored. This is an architectural monument that is still completely different from Melnikov's constructivism, but is of great architectural and historical value. There are very few buildings of the early 20th century left, and even those are now in a deplorable state. The buildings along Avtozavodskaya street and along the intrafactory boulevard have been preserved in the main. The buildings located behind the small ring are already a post-war legacy, the buildings are capital and strong enough to adapt them for new production.
With regard to the functional content of the area, it provides for comprehensive development. But I must honestly say that the tasks before us were quite pragmatic, since the implementation of this project requires huge costs associated with the conservation of existing buildings, and with their re-profiling, and with all kinds of social payments, and most importantly - with the closure and withdrawal of production, not only main, but also adjacent, located in different regions of the country. In short, all these obligations dictated the need to create commercially attractive objects in this territory. We had to go along a narrow path, not turning into naked commercialization and not bankrupting the Moscow budget.
Naturally, residential real estate always works like a "float" capable of pulling any major urban development project. That is why large areas have been allocated for the construction of residential areas. It was important here to create a comfortable urban environment. For this purpose, a deliberately fine planning grid with a distinct articulation of external and internal saturation was specially chosen. Schools and kindergartens, attached to the ends of houses, are planned to be located inside the compact quarters. Residents have cozy courtyards and access to the coastline. Our solution is a classic in the development of residential areas.
In addition, the project provides for the formation of a large layer of rental housing, apartments and hotels. From an urban planning point of view, this is the right decision, since there is a shortage of funds for temporary residence in Moscow, which, ultimately, due to the constant migration of the population, affects the congestion of the transport network. In order to avoid new loads, we set ourselves the task of maintaining a balance between the number of residents and jobs in the area under consideration.
To the north of the residential area, along Avtozavodskaya Street, a multifunctional public zone has been created. Here are the Ice Hockey Legends Ice Palace and a large cultural and educational center with a museum of the ZiL plant, which occupies one of the largest surviving buildings built in the 1980s. This is a very brutal building as high as a nine-story building, located at the end of the boulevard axis.
An important condition was the need to maintain the production of cars on the basis of AMO "ZiL" (18 hectares) and the organization of assembly production of foreign brands on the territory of "MosAvtoZiL" (48 hectares). The factory halls occupy an imposing rectangle behind the railway ring, which is surrounded by a public parkland. Thus, we tried to connect the industrial space with the city, to avoid its isolation.
One of the main centers of attraction should be the Planet ZiL multifunctional complex. It is a central, iconic building surrounded by vast green areas.
If you look at the plan of the territory, you can see that the site is divided into two peninsulas by a branch of the Moskva River. Here, by the water, we propose to create a yacht club with boathouses for storing boats. A rather large medical center and various office and business facilities will appear closer to Andropov Avenue.
A separate part of the project is devoted to the formation of a green frame. The old channel of the Moskva River becomes a continuation of the park zone, and the entire development is somehow permeated with greenery. In general, we wanted to create the most comfortable urban space with narrow streets similar to European ones, with parks and squares and with a human scale of development. The average number of floors in residential areas is 9-10 floors, in public areas it is limited to 75 meters.
The Moscow government approved our planning project. Already today, serious work is underway to analyze and develop the ZiL territory, clean up the soil, and so on. Therefore, I have every reason to hope that in the near future the city will be able to attract investment and start implementing this large-scale and very important project for the city."
