Novouralsk is a "closed" city an hour's drive from Yekaterinburg, one of the centers of the nuclear industry. It appeared after the war along with the country's first highly enriched uranium plant. One of the founders of the plant and the city is the experimental physicist Isaac Kikoin. A boulevard in a relatively new area in the southern part of the city is named after him. Now the boulevard is a pedestrian path with simple paving and lanterns, but a lot of people spend their time here: cyclists, mothers with strollers and just strollers - the views of the wooded mountains are beautiful. In 2019, the townspeople chose the boulevard as the site that will participate in the Small Towns competition.
Advice from the architect and co-founder of the bureau Anton Belov, which we ask all the winners of the competition to give to their future colleagues-participants:
"To win, you need to develop an original idea, take into account all the features of the territory, respond to the real demand of residents, apply cost-effective solutions and combine all this with the requirements of the competition."
The name of the boulevard suggested which direction to work in: architects from Veshch! the figurative concept was based on physics, uranium, the personality of Isaac Kikoin, as well as neoclassicism - a significant part of the development of Novouralsk is precisely the Stalinist Empire style. Actually, the identity of the entire city, which is not yet a hundred years old, is built around this.
The shape of objects for the boulevard comes from several archetypes. For example, the U is the sign of uranium, and the inverted U is the arch, a characteristic of Art Deco. These two elements are easy to read in structures or decor: on the walls of a cafe, in a swing rack, in the outline of a pump track or in a bench pattern. Some of the facilities also resemble plant centrifuges for uranium enrichment.
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zooming 1/3 Revealing the identity of the territory. Boulevard of Academician Kikoin © AB "Vesh!"
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zooming 2/3 Small architectural forms. Boulevard of Academician Kikoin © AB "Vesh!"
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zooming 3/3 Art object. Portrait of Academician I. K. Kikoina. Boulevard of Academician Kikoin © AB "Vesh!"
The portrait of Isaac Kikoin turns into an optical illusion: close up it is a group of columns lined up in a parabola (again U), and from afar, thanks to perspective, the columns merge and the portrait of the academician "appears".
The playground is called Atoms: the U235 climbing device and the molecule-like slide will help children learn the first concepts from physics. The traditional sandbox and trampoline, however, also fit well into the concept.
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zooming 1/4 View frame. Portrait of Academician I. K. Kikoina. Boulevard of Academician Kikoin © AB "Vesh!"
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zooming 2/4 View frame. Children playground. Boulevard of Academician Kikoin © AB "Vesh!"
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zooming 3/4 View frame. Amphitheater. Boulevard of Academician Kikoin © AB "Vesh!"
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zooming 4/4 View frame. Relaxation area with swings. Boulevard of Academician Kikoin © AB "Vesh!"
As pedestrians move, the space of the boulevard, which will become barrier-free, will change: due to different types of landscaping, functional areas and small architectural forms. In the western part, stairs will be reconstructed and ramps will be installed. Sheds, benches, swings will appear along the entire boulevard, from which you can admire the beautiful views. In the eastern part, a looped bike path will be organized, and the descent into the underground passage will be turned into an amphitheater, which can be used both for recreation and for small events: lectures, performances, film screenings.
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zooming 1/3 Scheme of the design functional zoning. Boulevard of Academician Kikoin © AB "Vesh!"
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zooming 2/3 Children's play area. Axonometry. Boulevard of Academician Kikoin © AB "Vesh!"
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zooming 3/3 Amphitheater. Axonometry. Boulevard of Academician Kikoin © AB "Vesh!"
After the reconstruction, Kikoina Boulevard is likely to become the main public space of Novouralsk. The concept takes into account the history of the city and the interests of different categories of residents, looks easy to implement, is full of functions and points of attraction. These, in fact, are the main requirements of the competition.