In 2014, the competition for "Urban Development of the Territories Adjacent to the Moscow River" was won by a consortium led by Project Meganom. The competition was loud - then it seemed that the river was about to be transformed, and beyond it, and a significant part of the city. “We received a colossal base of ideas, invaluable for the further development of the city,” commented Sergei Kuznetsov on the results of the Moscow River competition. But the scale of the task is gigantic, it requires a large amount of serious, often routine work. The work has begun and is under way, but there is not much talk about it now.
Then, in 2015, the Research and Development Institute of the General Plan, together with the architects of Meganoma, developed on the basis of the winning tender proposal the next, more detailed version of the concept for the development of coastal territories with a perspective until 2035. In 2016, the operator of the implementation of the concept of urban development of coastal areas was the Research and Development Institute of Urban Planning of the city of Moscow. We talked with its director Dina Sattarova about the results of 2017.
Dina Sattarova, Director of the Institute
Urban planning of the city of Moscow
– The competition for the urban development of the Moskva River was one of the first competitions of the Moscow Architecture Committee, along with Zaryadye Park and new metro stations. However, unlike the mentioned contests, we never saw the continuation of the topic, and somehow everyone forgot about it
- The scale of the Moskva River project cannot be compared with point objects, even such grandiose ones as Zaryadye Park, not to mention metro stations. It is important here not only to develop architectural and planning solutions for individual sections, but also to present the picture as a whole. At the same time, in sufficient detail, since the Moskva River flows through the entire city and connects territories completely different in character into a single whole, and at the same time - planning - separates them. Our task is in deep analysis of various aspects and, to some extent, coordination of designers and developers, the work of various organizations responsible for certain areas - transport, water, treatment facilities. It should also be noted that after the competition, the day-to-day and routine, in fact, work began, the stages of which do not need constant coverage. The city has already begun to receive the results of the work of urban planners in the coastal zones - these are landscaped embankments under the My Street program, and the current implementation of major urban planning initiatives along the embankment, including development, engineering and transport infrastructure, and improvement elements.
What work on the development of coastal areas does your institute perform?
- The Institute has updated and brought to a new level of elaboration of urban planning and architectural-spatial development of territories the conceptual plan proposed by the winners of the competition. We have made an assessment of the urban development potential of the coastal areas of about three and a half thousand hectares.
A draft strategy for their development has been developed; this is a complex work. On the one hand, we offer strategic planning, on the other, we “descend” to the level of elaboration of architectural and planning solutions for individual sections. The result of the strategy will be a complex scenario of urban development of the territories adjacent to the Moskva River, aimed at creating a single, coherent urban space that provides an effective socio-economic,ecological, transport and spatial development. The goal of the strategy is to intensify the urban life scenario, increase business activity and investment attractiveness of the territories. We also carry out architectural concepts for individual fragments of territories.
Such large-scale projects are designed for the long term. Is the experience of foreign projects taken into account, first of all, those already implemented?
- There are many foreign examples, and we are constantly researching successful examples of the reorganization of coastal territories in different cities of the world. We dwelt in most detail on studying the experience of New York, where, in our opinion, the most complete hierarchy of necessary documents has been developed - from the level of strategic planning for the development of the entire coastal area of the city with a deep analysis of social, environmental and economic aspects, reflected in New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Development Plan - Vision 2020, to the level of selected fragments of coastal areas. An example of the latter is the Transforming the East River Waterfront project, where the formation and activation of links between adjacent areas and the river is seen as a determining factor in the successful development of territories: these links should be strengthened by open public spaces on the approaches to the river and on the river itself. It is this principle that we took as a basis when developing architectural concepts for sections of coastal areas, forming and activating both longitudinal links along the river and cross links providing access to the river.
Obviously, the strategy is designed to influence various aspects of the life of the townspeople. How are the interests of the urban community taken into account?
- By our order, a team of sociologists led by Professor Viktor Vakhstein carried out a sociological study of the requests of the main groups of users of the Moskva River coastal areas to determine the corresponding development scenarios. On the basis of a survey of residents of coastal areas and visitors to the embankments, investors and developers, travel companies and experts, the formats for the improvement of embankments for comfortable leisure were determined; services, services, events and economic activities. Proposals from the expert community were received; the expectations of the business community from participation in investment projects for the development of coastal areas along the Moskva River were identified and the level of solvency and purchasing activity on the embankments was determined. Scenarios for the development of coastal areas were developed depending on their location.
The Institute also assessed the urban planning potential of coastal areas from the Mnevnikovskaya floodplain to the western part of the Nagatinskaya floodplain of Moscow - for the coordinated development of its optimal functional planning structure, sectoral, infrastructural and economic development. We analyzed the existing situation and determined the parameters of the urban development of the territory, formulated proposals for the planning organization, architectural and urban planning solutions, the development of engineering, transport and social infrastructure; performed an aggregated cost estimate.
- How the winning concept is reflected in your work
competition in 2014 and is Meganom participating in the development of the project now?
- Yes, Meganom is developing architectural and planning solutions for some coastal areas. In particular, the territories of a part of the central embankments, which were not included in the program "My Street", fragments of uncomfortable descents to the water, for which reconstruction measures are required. The local solutions proposed by the architects are integrated by the specialists of our institute into a single functional planning structure of coastal areas in order to form a connected, open and accessible public environment along the embankments.
We cannot say that we are completely based on the Meganoma concept, but their proposal became the starting point for both the analysis of the territories and the solutions we propose. For example, we studied the possibility of water filtration in the Moscow River using artificial islands proposed by Meganom.
The ecologists and engineers of our institute investigated the current situation, and it turned out that for many reasons, including climatic and economic, in Moscow it is inexpedient and ineffective to use such a model of water purification, at least at the present stage: far from all surface rainfall runoff are cleaned before entering the Moskva River, while they are the source of the strongest pollution - so, first of all, in order to improve the ecology of the Moskva River, it is necessary to solve this problem. Thanks to the official data received, we identified the locations of the existing treatment facilities and proposed a layout for new ones. Some of them will be equipped with an exploitable roof, on which it is planned to equip a public space saturated with various functions: playgrounds, a pier, a cafe - and will become points of attraction.
Improved roofs of sewage treatment plants is an interesting move. What other new solutions, some new details of the large Moskva River project, would you name?
- In particular, we proposed to create "balconies" under the Shelepikhinsky and Dorogomilovsky bridges.
The balcony under the Dorogomilovsky Bridge is intended to become a new center of attraction for citizens - this is a public space, a multifunctional transformable platform: an open stage for performances, including staging by the Pyotr Fomenko theater, and at the same time - a viewing platform, a place of active recreation. The structure will protrude beyond the shore by no more than 20 meters. Such a solution will allow you to get as close to the water as possible, and thanks to the tiered construction of the site itself, up to 200 people can be on it.
Since we are talking about the river - are there any new bridges?
- Yes, and quite a lot. To date, urban development plans for the territories of the Moskva River in the central pool area include the creation of 17 new bridges, 9 of them are automobile and pedestrian, 8 are only pedestrian: two on the territory of the reconstructed ZIL, four pedestrian bridges over the Moskva River, several over railways that cut the fabric of the city no less radically than rivers. Six of these bridges have already been included in the PPT (Territory Planning Project), 8 were proposed in the NI and PI General Plan project. After analyzing this material and the transport situation, our institute proposed three more new pedestrian bridges: one to the west of the City, between the Botanical Garden of the First Moscow State Medical University on the left bank of the river and Kulneva Street on the right; the second - over the tracks of the Kiev railway, not far from the Studencheskaya metro station, this bridge should connect the area of Berezhkovskaya embankment with the area of Studencheskaya street and Kutuzovsky prospect, the third - for the future development of the territory of the Paveletsky cargo yard. In the development zone of the territory of the Paveletsky cargo yard, one automobile-pedestrian bridge has also been proposed to connect the 1st Paveletsky passage with Dubininskaya street.
You mentioned the coordination of the work of various departments. The area of the river and its banks are a difficult territory in this respect, not only local authorities are involved here, but also federal ones. How is this done in practice?
- Indeed, some of the measures we propose require active interdepartmental interaction at the regional and federal levels. In particular, our institute on behalf of the curator of our work - the chief architect of the city Sergey Kuznetsov - has developed the concept of passenger water routes along the Moscow River.
The Directorate of the Moscow Transport Hub, which has a triple departmental subordination - the Russian Federation, Moscow and the Moscow Region - helps to discuss the concept we have developed with colleagues from federal and regional departments.
We are greatly supported by Vladimir Ivkin, Head of the Department for the Development of Transport and Logistics Infrastructure and Inland Water Transport. We hope that thanks to his participation and the interest of colleagues from various departments, we will be able to gradually finalize the concept and bring the project to implementation.
In addition to the development of the coastal areas of the Moskva River, what other projects are being developed at the institute?
- Today, the research and development department of the Gradplan of the city of Moscow includes six production divisions: the architectural and planning department, the scientific and economic research department, the departments of engineering infrastructure, the assessment and development of social infrastructure, as well as the transport and environmental workshops.
The Institute was established relatively recently, in 2012, as an institution subordinate to the Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of the city of Moscow. We are actively involved in the development of territorial planning projects for the implementation of the Housing Renovation Program in the city of Moscow, as well as in the planning of transport hubs, we are working on general and master planning. In a short time of the institute's activity, an assessment of the urban planning potential of the territories of the city of Moscow with a total area of 60 thousand 500 hectares, including a number of industrial zones comprising thirty-one production territories, was carried out.
In 2017, the institute developed guidelines for assessing the economic efficiency of integrated development of territories - for designers.
Our research activities are also aimed at improving the methods of mathematical modeling of the city's transport system. Specialists of the transport workshop of the State Autonomous Institution "NI and PI Gradplan of the City of Moscow" have developed a software and hardware complex - a model of transport demand for the city of Moscow and the Moscow agglomeration. The model has a number of advantages and is used in the development of all urban planning documentation developed by the institute - but this, I think, is a topic for a separate conversation …
