A couple of months ago, Moskomarkhitektury showed a project for the improvement of Sokolnicheskaya Square - the path from the exit from the Sokolniki metro station to the entrance to the park of the same name. He showed it and hid it, because we saw only a few very attractive renders, and the architects almost answered the questions, they couldn't. And now it is possible: Megabudka published a detailed story on their fb page and a little less detailed on the site. So now everyone can find out everything. Well, let's consider.
First of all, new landscaping was needed not on the basis of the abstract smoothly in the decoration of the city, but because the Sokolniki station of the Big Ring of the Moscow metro is being built on the square. Its working title is "Stromynka"
the project that won the competition and is being implemented now is developed by MAParchitects. They are being built in an open way right under Sokolnicheskaya Square, in other words, the square, which the architects prefer to call the boulevard, does not exist for the time being, everything has been excavated. The builders took away from there and promised to keep 221 one linden tree; The architects do not believe in the possibility of replanting trees of "such a venerable age", but they consider lindens an important part of the identity of the place, and in any case, they propose to restore four alleys by planting as many trees as possible 5-7 meters high, i.e. rather large, one must think about the kind that Strelka planted on the Garden Ring, maybe a little less, but not thin seedlings.
It turned out to be not easy to plan the avenues: part of the space was occupied by ventilation kiosks, the normative indent from which - 25 m - we can overcome through special technical conditions, but the basic indent from the foundations with a width of 5 m still remains. Approximately in the middle of the boulevard, the new metro station, due to its shallow bedding, comes so close to the surface that trees cannot be planted in this place either - as a result, gaps formed in several places in linden alleys. But even their architects were able to reduce somewhat by raising, where it was required, the trees half a meter above the paving.
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zooming 1/7 Ventilation kiosks and toilets location and necessary indents. Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 2/7 Project of planting a tree in the paving level and in a raised lawn. Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 3/7 Plan taking into account the underground structures of the metro. Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 4/7 Underground communications. Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 5/7 Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 6/7 Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 7/7 Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
In order to accommodate four rows of trees and arrange additional walkways that widened the pedestrian part of the boulevard from 16 to 22 meters, the architects proposed a raised stepped lawn-hill with a wavy edge and benches at the base for the extreme side rows. It should be conducive to rest and walks: if you can run along the central alley in the right direction, then here you can wander, looking at the plants (their composition has not yet been determined) and sitting down on benches.
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zooming 1/7 Benches and stepped beds. Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 2/7 Distribution of the central pedestrian flow and landscaping at the edges. Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 3/7 Additional alleys. Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 4/7 Benches. Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 5/7 The shape of the flower beds-benches of the outer contour. Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 6/7 Benches in the outer contour flower beds. Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 7/7 Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
In the side alleys, indeed, a kind of "park" space is formed, saturated and conducive to measured contemplation.
The lanterns were chosen similar to those that were not squares in the post-war period, but they were supplemented with "spreading" arched, which should successfully complement the trees, hanging between the crowns when they grow enough.
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Image 
zooming 1/5 Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 2/5 Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 3/5 Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 4/5 Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 5/5 Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
But, undoubtedly, the main, the most plastic element of the project, what makes it noticeable and bright, and that in no case you want to lose in the process of Moscow implementation is red clinker paving.
The architects of "Megabudka" threw it on the square as a kind of carpet, enveloping with bricks not only the ground underfoot, but also the booths of the ventilation chambers and the volume of the toilet. On the ground there will be a large full-bodied clinker, on vertical surfaces similar to clinker tiles, but it is only important that they should look uniform - as if the surface had swollen and the trunks of the required volumes had grown like mushrooms from under the asphalt, the only difference is that “carpet "is very loyal to the forms, fits them neatly, without any sweetness or breakage. A very interesting effect, the space promises to be quite futuristic, a kind of brick sculpture, warm, due to the brick in its own way, conservative, but attractive first of all by the freshness of the form, based on the flow of the pavement into the walls.
This is the main plot, the authors approached it as carefully as possible. We drew options for laying bricks, making a reservation that it would not be motley, because the tone is a single red. They cited as an example herringbone brick paving dating back to the 19th century and found on Moscow streets in the course of renovation work. They listed the famous red brick buildings, there are many of them in the district, a hundred years ago it was industrial, starting with the famous watchtower. We signed an agreement with the authors of the Stromynka station project, MAParchitects, in which they recognized the integral solution of the boulevard and gave the form of ventilation kiosks to the discretion of colleagues from Megabudka. And finally, the main symbolic justification was presented - the “red” metro line.
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Image 
zooming 1/4 Examples of 19th century brick paving in Moscow found during renovation Courtesy of Megabudka
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zooming 2/4 Form of additional volumes: ventilation kiosks and public toilet. Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 3/4 Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
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zooming 4/4 Paving pattern. Sokolnicheskaya Square © Megabudka
They listed the advantages of clinker: it does not break, they themselves pricked in the workshop, they split it with difficulty, unlike concrete tiles; moisture resistant, beautiful. We painted a spectacular view of the wide main alley, where bricks glisten underfoot, shimmering like a sunset sky.
Why am I repeating here twice about “I don’t want to lose”.
The fact is that on the "Active Citizen"
a vote that offers to choose between brick paving and three options for "beige tiles" drawn down to the option where the ventilation kiosks are not decorated at all. The superiority of the first version seems to be obvious, but already under the architects' Facebook article, where everything is described in even more detail than here, a serious battle unfolded - there are Sokolniki residents who prefer “to do everything as it was”, right up to the green fences on the sides. So, I would like to urge readers to vote for the first option. Honestly, it is much better and only it will give an interesting area - a work of art - instead of the standard landscaping, which is already a lot in the city.
Alas, the project has already lost something in the process of revision. For example, a fountain at the exit from the metro pavilion.
Or a swing. I don’t know which snob doesn’t like the swing on Triumphalnaya, but let me tell you, they’re busy all the time. Why no swing? No answer.
Now, apparently, there is also a discussion of a transport scheme: its earlier version assumed fewer parking lots and stops for public transport on the inner contour of the square, which is safer.
And finally, the project lost some of its functions, the original program was richer.
For some reason, even the initially proposed external urinals, a convenient element of urban landscaping, anti-vandal, allowing to keep the city clean, were canceled. Here I already want to say something in the words of Professor Preobrazhensky, but we will not.
Better to show a couple more views of the "brick" square and recall where in Moscow you can find red clinker pavements - around the houses of Sergei Skuratov on Burdenko Street and in Tessinsky Lane. There you can walk and feel how it feels under your feet.
