The competition for the concept of building a new microdistrict in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk managed to attract the attention of not only Far Eastern bureaus, but also architects from Moscow, St. Petersburg and even London: among the participants and finalists - Zaha Hadid Architects bureau.
Today 26 hectares near the Khomutovo electrical substation are covered by a forest. The city administration had its own view on the functional content of the area, but since the selected site is located at the entrance to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and can serve as its "face", they decided to pay special attention to architecture.
“It seems to me that in this project it is necessary to move away from inertia, which prevents us from experimenting, doing something new. We need to get away from Soviet stamps, some kind of square houses, gray roofs. We need to somehow decorate our life and start not tomorrow, but yesterday,”says Nikolai Artyomenko, deputy of the City Duma, sharing his expectations.
In total, ten teams applied for the competition, and eight submitted projects: the consortium Zaha Hadid Architects (Great Britain) and the architectural bureau Kapitel (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Urban Design Solutions (Moscow), Urbanika (St. Petersburg), Offer Dialogue”(Vladivostok),“Mosproekt-2”(Moscow),“Atrium-Partner”(Khabarovsk),“Initiative Inzhproekt”(Moscow).
All participants made presentations to the jury. Views on the number of storeys of residential buildings, apartment design, building density, number of parking lots, infrastructure and, of course, the architecture of the area in some cases varied greatly. As a result, three finalists were chosen, but not the winner. It was decided to submit the best projects for discussion to the regional town-planning council. Most likely, the concept that will form the basis for the further design of the microdistrict will be chosen in February. But the winner's project could hardly be implemented without adjustments - some of the proposed solutions seemed economically disadvantageous to the jury, while others, for example, did not take into account the climatic features of the city.
The head of the UNK project design bureau Yuliy Borisov, vice-president of the Union of Architects of Russia Dmitry Narinsky and general director of the RTDA bureau Marina Lepeshkina took part in the work of the jury as independent experts.
Yuliy Borisov: “I would like to note the high level of the participants' work. An important plus for the regional competition was, of course, that it was able to attract the attention of the world architectural bureau Zaha Hadid Architects. The development of the urban environment requires a new perspective along with effective approaches, and it is great that the regions are beginning to adopt best practices."
The customer of the competition was the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. You can view the tender documentation here.
Below are all three projects claiming victory.
Zaha Hadid Architects
The microdistrict grows up around the pedestrian square. It is a safe, functional, car-free green space that will allow residents to meet, communicate, create neighborhood communities - essential, as the architects themselves say, elements of any healthy residential education. Caring for the existing landscape and the desire to harmonize the relationship of the new area with nature runs through the whole project.
Atrium-Partner (Khabarovsk)
To give the microdistrict a memorable look, the architects introduced a system of vertical (residential buildings) and horizontal (low-rise buildings along the avenue) dominants there. The pitched roofs of most buildings are a solution dictated not only by aesthetics, but also by the specifics of the region's climate (an angle of inclination from 45 to 50 degrees reduces the likelihood of precipitation delay, including during heavy snowfalls). As in other projects, great attention is paid to creating a sufficient number of parking spaces and at the same time preserving the maximum "pedestrian freedom".
Offer Dialogue (Vladivostok)
The principles that guided the architects: respect for the natural environment and the preservation of significant elements of the landscape; creating flexible land use systems for changes; organization of a well-thought-out transport system; providing residents with safe, attractive and diverse public spaces and centers of activity. A variety of planning solutions allows you to find a suitable option for yourself, depending on income and family composition.
