Khodynka Park: Results

2024 Author: David Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 02:26

The construction of the Khodynskoye Pole park has been completed in Moscow. The park is open, athletes run and children play in it. The authors of the final project are Magly proekt.

The design of the Khodynka park is a rather long history. Let's take a little digression. The field has been built up since the first half of the 2000s, mainly according to the projects of Mosproekt-4 when Andrei Bokov was its director. The key building was the spiral-shaped Ice Sports Palace, which nowadays, among the giant buildings, began to seem almost like a toy. The most notable house is Parus; then there was the same order-bearing, that is, having received several architectural awards, the club of intelligence veterans, aka MFC "Linkor", whose serpentine-motley coloring, designed, presumably, to resemble the camouflage of a scout, is still striking. At the same time, the residential complex “Grand Park” was lined up in a circle around the field, both towers-pipes and stepped trapezoids. A large shopping and entertainment center Aviapark was lined up along the chord, a box with a box, except that shadows of trees are depicted on the facades with cut metal, on the sides there are two fresh residential buildings, 2017. Now the field is built up like the notorious "saucer", and maybe a bowl with high edges.

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1/8 Ice Sports Palace on Khodynskoe Pole © Mosproject-4
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2/8 Ice Sports Palace on Khodynskoe Pole © Mosproject-4
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3/8 Residential building "Parus". Photo © State Unitary Enterprise MNIIP "Mosproject-4"
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4/8 Residential building "Parus" © State Unitary Enterprise MNIIP "Mosproekt-4"
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5/8 Residential building "Parus" © State Unitary Enterprise MNIIP "Mosproject-4"
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6/8 Residential building "Parus". Project © State Unitary Enterprise MNIIP "Mosproekt-4"
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7/8 Foreign Intelligence Veterans Club. Photo from the site www.mniip.ru
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8/8 Foreign Intelligence Veterans Club. Photo from the site www.mniip.ru

Then, after the fence of residential buildings became an obvious reality, two subjects from the category of culture, or at least urbanism, arose here. In 2014, the site in front of the shopping and entertainment center was designated for the new building of the NCCA, which had previously been driven from Zoological Street and from the territory of the collapsed Bauman market. An international competition with ten finalists was won by architects heneghan peng. We suffered for 4 years and in the fall of 2018, the construction of the NCCA was completely canceled, in its place so far is a fenced area. And as it all started well, for more than ten years in Moscow they planned to build a tower for contemporary art.

The competition for the design of the park, in the same 2014, was also quite loud, with 10 finalists. In the ranking of the jury, the project of the German bureau ST raum was in the lead, BuroMoscow was in the lead in the final voting, and the project LAND Milano Srl was named the winner. In 2016, a project by the architects Kleinewelt appeared, which was an adjustment of the Italian. In 2017, we began the implementation of the Magly proekt project, completed about six months ago.

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1/5 Park "Khodynskoe Pole". Situational plan © Magly Proekt
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2/5 Park "Khodynskoe Pole". Functional zoning © Magly Proekt
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3/5 Park "Khodynskoe Pole". Master plan © Magly Proekt
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4/5 Park "Khodynskoe Pole". Central promenade © Magly Proekt
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5/5 Park "Khodynskoe Pole". Incision. Island pond and hill © Magly Proekt

So, the prehistory of the park is quite rich in itself, and the task is large-scale: it was required to set up the park in a field where there were no old trees, but there was an airfield taxiway, the concrete slabs of which were too expensive to disassemble, which caused the first correction from Kleinewelt. The area of the park is 25.5 hectares. For comparison, the territory of the Zaryadye park is 13 hectares, the Tyuffel grove in Zilart - 10 hectares. Here, at least twice as much. It should not be surprising that the legacy of the field - some excess space, is felt quite sharply. As for me, I would plant twice as many trees and, in an amicable way, would choose older and more expensive trees. But we know that with age, the price of trees in nurseries grows approximately exponentially, and it’s a shame when at least one of these trees doesn’t take root. Tyufeleva Grove is also a little thin for now. Well, let's hope that both parks will grow and turn green, while maples and lindens have blossomed on the Garden Ring.

The authors of the project have found other ways to partly fight the wind blowing here in almost any weather, which, in addition to whistling in the ears, also blows off the soil from the surface - not even take a mini-virgin land. The architects opposed the wind to geoplastics, several hills of different heights, from which, in addition, one can admire the surroundings, getting used to their appearance. The hills liven up the plain, children find it fun to climb on them, and adults do not bother to stretch their legs.

The undoubted advantage of the park is that there are a lot of paths of different types in it, in different directions. Perhaps there are enough benches, although there could be more.

But the authors did not even focus on them, but, having a huge territory, developed points of attraction in it. The main one is a large pond, divided into three parts by three bridges and with an island. There are two levels: an upper and a lower one, for communicating with the water, a small beach, and even if I understood correctly, there is an opportunity for children to run in shallow water and wet their feet in summer: all this makes the pond very attractive.

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1/4 Park "Khodynskoe Pole". View of the pond. Photo © Magly Proekt
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2/4 Park "Khodynskoe Pole". View of the platforms and hills. Photo © Magly Proekt
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3/4 Park "Khodynskoe Pole". Water. Photo © Magly Proekt
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4/4 Park "Khodynskoe Pole". View of the reservoir. Photo © Magly Proekt

Next - playgrounds, there are several of them, they are different, fashionable, a huge sandbox with strange white sand. Swings on the hill are called panoramic, both swings and belle vue, that is, more interesting than on Triumfalnaya and in Gorky Park, since they allow you to soar in the space above the park. There are also several sports grounds, and it is clear that many people come here to play sports.

The authors solved the problem of an undisclosed runway by building several pavilions with park functions on it, a kids club and a trampoline center are planned there, I hope, a cafe too (probably not yet opened). The problem is that the runway is wide, and the boulevard between the rows of pavilions is too wide and is also blown by the wind. But apparently those who are not ready to endure the wind should not settle on Khodynka. The pavilions themselves represent a dashed mirror gradient, they consist of frames of polished metal, whose thickness gradually thickens towards the center and thinns towards the edges - the solution is quite park-like, and entertains, and to some extent dissolves the volumes, turning them into a mirage of moving spots and contours.

It turned out to be more difficult with the metro, the pavilions for the entrance and exit of the CSKA station, and its dilapidated mines in the eastern part of the “lemon slice” of the park. They are heavy, and even a sensible idea to raise the park on the roof of one of the exits, having arranged a viewing platform there, does not quite save. The idea of a half-bridge, reminiscent of Zaryadye, is easy to read, although here it is more like a half-hill, to climb it high and along a steep hill, but the main thing is that the thickness and height of the handrails exceed imaginable limits and make you think only about safety, which is a pity. But behind the main pavilion there is a skate park, a delight for sports youth.

One way or another, and the park is now there, for some five years it was nevertheless built and opened, I must say, completely without fanfare. Someone might not have noticed. The typology can be defined as an urban park: let us compare it, for example, with the Soviet Polyustrovsky park in 1967: trees are planted there, unlike more often, although 50 years ago, one must think, there were thin seedlings in their place; and yet there is a park of trees and paths. Here is a park function, an urban structure. There are trees in it, but no matter how important, points of attraction are important, places where people can come to walk children, train and paddle with bare feet in the water. It looks like a city square that has grown in response to the scale of the field itself, clearly visible from space, or even more precisely a courtyard - for all the variegated surrounding houses. And yet I would like something deep green to rustle here. Well, maybe over 50 years and will grow.