DROM architects describe their work as follows:
“Our project to transform the main square in Naberezhnye Chelny, a Soviet city built in the late 1970s around the famous KamAZ truck factory, is a fresh look at the role of public space in a single-industry town. This project is a key stage in the Five Steps of Development, a program to improve life in Russian cities. It was carried out by us jointly with Strelka KB, DOM. RF and KMT Pro with the support of the Monocities Development Fund.
The old main square, originally conceived as an esplanade connecting the never-built Lenin Museum with the building of the City Council, has long lost its significance: a formal and devoid of any functions relic of the Soviet past. It was filled with people only a couple of times a year - during city holidays, remaining empty on other days.
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Image 
zooming 1/5 Azatlyk Square before reconstruction © DROM
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zooming 2/5 Azatlyk Square © DROM
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zooming 3/5 Azatlyk Square © DROM
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zooming 4/5 Azatlyk Square © DROM
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zooming 5/5 Azatlyk Square © DROM
We strategically moved the pedestrian axis from the center of the square to its edge, along which there was already a line of densely planted trees - lindens, red maples, blue spruces. Thus, movement around the square lost its former ideological pathos, became protected from the wind and sun, and acquired a connection with the surrounding buildings. We have filled the resulting Promenade with new functions - kiosks, observation and playgrounds, podium.
We have made the square an exciting, dynamic public space with a multifunctional environment that takes into account the desires of different segments and groups of the population.
We turned the central zone, freed from circulation, into the "City Carpet" - a suite of three squares, each with its own character: The Events Square - a large paved space for active youth and the arrangement of temporary markets; "Green Square" - a place to relax on the grass and large color compositions from Gorzelenhoz (city department for landscaping); Culture Square - an open-air space for performing artists around the transformed and expanded old fountain, the entrance to the cinema in the city hall. Enhancing the functional saturation of the space, we have located the main pavilions in the places where the Promenade meets the squares.
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Image 
zooming 1/6 Azatlyk Square Photo © Evgeny Evgrafov
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zooming 2/6 Azatlyk Square Photo © Dmitry Chebanenko
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zooming 3/6 Azatlyk Square Photo © Evgeny Evgrafov
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zooming 4/6 Azatlyk Square Photo © Evgeny Evgrafov
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zooming 5/6 Azatlyk Square Photo © Evgeny Evgrafov
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zooming 6/6 Azatlyk Square Photo © Evgeny Evgrafov
The nodal zones form new points of attraction: the triangular café-amphitheater and the Spiral observation deck, painted in the original orange color of the KamAZ cabins, in addition to their functions, give a new vertical dimension to the entire area; a giant round fountain that turns into a skating rink in winter and the site of the main New Year tree Chelny.
For each of the squares, we have developed a unique paving pattern, created recreation areas, sheltered from the wind and sun by green hills and trees of various local species.
Together with the pavilions, we have developed unique small architectural forms and lanterns that establish a connection with the aesthetics of the entire city with their simple geometric shapes. They were carried out by local industrial enterprises, specially re-profiling part of their capacities for our project, thus creating a new niche for the urban economy. For example, gas pipelines production technologies were used for the spiral platform, benches were made at a local factory of reinforced concrete products, lanterns were welded from standard steel profiles. An additional value to the project is given by the fact that it was implemented jointly with local specialists, and many improvement solutions were worked out in Naberezhnye Chelny for the first time.
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Image 
zooming 1/6 Azatlyk Square Photo © Evgeny Evgrafov
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zooming 2/6 Azatlyk Square Photo © Evgeny Evgrafov
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zooming 3/6 Azatlyk Square Photo © Evgeny Evgrafov
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zooming 4/6 Azatlyk Square Photo © Evgeny Evgrafov
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zooming 5/6 Azatlyk Square Photo © Evgeny Evgrafov
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zooming 6/6 Azatlyk Square Photo © Evgeny Evgrafov
The use of local materials and manpower, and careful attention to reuse, have reduced the negative impact on the environment and made the project sustainable, financially feasible and linked to the context. We paid attention to the greening of the area - we increased the area of soft surfaces, preserved almost all existing trees and added many new ones."
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Image 
zooming 1/4 Azatlyk Square © DROM
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zooming 2/4 Azatlyk Square © DROM
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zooming 3/4 Azatlyk Square © DROM
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zooming 4/4 Azatlyk Square © DROM
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Image 
zooming 1/3 Azatlyk Square. Summer © DROM
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zooming 2/3 Azatlyk Square. Autumn © DROM
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zooming 3/3 Azatlyk Square. Winter © DROM
