- What is the idea behind the Efficient City project? Does it concern only megacities or all cities?
- The goal of the project "Spatial model of an efficient city" is to identify urban planning universals common to the development of all cities. The definition of such universals allows us to show the main components of a modern city and their parameters: economic factors, transport framework, built-up and built-up areas, engineering infrastructure, recreational areas, residents, government bodies.
The project is based on the idea of balance and sustainable development with the interaction of all components of the city. The formulation of a harmonious spatial model makes it possible to create an effective urban environment in space, economy, time. This allows the development and implementation of complex strategic urban planning projects, taking into account the interests of all participants in the process. In practice, it is not easy to achieve a balance: there is often a preponderance in the direction of improvement, then the economy, then beauty. Then the rest of the components necessarily begin to suffer, and they must be balanced.
The aim of the project is to find the key parameters, explain them and discuss the results of this study. As a result, we will receive "formulas": with their help, it will be possible to find out which parameters in this city are better and which ones are worse, and correlate them with the indicators of other cities. I repeat, this applies to all cities - not only megacities.
A metropolis is a complex organism formed when several cities grow together. The international strategy is to identify key growth points, district centers in megalopolises. A metropolis consists of cities, so the idea of an “Efficient City” is suitable for both small cities and “millionaires”.
How will the project be presented at Zodchestvo?
- The concept of the exposition "Spatial model of an effective city" is to demonstrate the work of an urban planning workshop. The space will be formed by several groups of objects. The first one is the “city planner's tables”, each of which will show one of the parameters of the “Effective city”. Also in the exposition there will be presented the model “New Moscow. New Lefortovo ". An abandoned area renovation project based on the Efficient City principles.
Some of the parameters of the efficient city model will be considered on the example of Krasnodar. The Zodchestvo festival is aimed at visitors from all over Russia, so Krasnodar will be considered as an example, not Moscow or St. Petersburg. The research and the exposition were carried out by the team of the Yauzaproekt representative office in Krasnodar under the leadership of Alexei Timofeev.
Discussions on the components of the "Efficient City" with leading experts are also planned.
One of the criteria of an “Efficient City” you declare “social efficiency”: how to define and evaluate it in relation to Russia?
- Social efficiency refers to the ability to solve or prevent social problems by means of urban planning. Since urban planning is aimed at ensuring safe and comfortable human life, the criteria should be constant - not for a year or two.
Today, developers are meeting the demand for affordable housing by building up fields and forests around cities with cheap "square meters". As a rule, these are low-quality multi-storey buildings, not provided in the proper volume with either transport, or engineering networks, or schools and kindergartens. The construction economics is such that it is simply impossible to create a complex development from scratch in an open field. Thus, belts of social tension are gradually forming around large Russian cities, simultaneously destroying the natural framework, creating a kind of "ghetto" in the fields. These are important words that I repeat all the time - it's time to stop building housing in the fields. City - urban, countryside - nature. You can't fill everything up with houses. In the fields, you need to develop agriculture or build low-rise buildings
Efficient City offers a solution to this problem by consolidating inefficient inner-city areas - former industrial zones. And also the return of rental housing, common in Russia before the revolution, to the real estate market. The development of inner-city territories will allow more rational use of existing schools and kindergartens. World experience shows that schools in new districts, on the outskirts, may turn out to be empty as a result of an unstable socio-demographic situation.
It is obvious that cities will continue to grow, that urbanization is inevitable, this is happening everywhere - in the East and in the West. It is necessary to create favorable conditions for development not only in Moscow, but also in other Russian cities. The more comfortable public spaces we create in Moscow, the more people from Barnaul will want to live here: it is better to provide the same level of comfort in Barnaul so that there is no desire to escape from there.
