Archi.ru:
Reconstruction of the ZIL industrial zone, the largest in Moscow - a long and sonorous story, is now being developed again. The Archcouncil recently discussed the master plan for the Dutch bureau KCAP, based on the Master Plan Institute's design, you spoke in this discussion. But we remember both the competition won by Yuri Grigoryan's AB Meganom, and the further development of the project. In the northern part of the territory, the ZILART residential complex is now growing; in a word, it's a big, long story with which you seem familiar from the very beginning. Help to restore the chronology, tell the history of the project, please. When did the institute start working on ZIL?
Vitaly Lutz, from 2005 to 2017 head of Project Association No. 15 of the General Planning Institute, currently Head of the Advanced Projects Department of the General Planning Institute:
It is difficult to name the date of the beginning, since this topic was already included in the current master plan. Somewhere in the early 2000s, when Vladimir Prokhorovich Korotaev was the director of the institute, studies were already being done for the territory of ZIL, when the plant began to gradually stop.
A specific task appeared in 2011 - we received an order from the Moskomarkhitektura for a project for the planning of the territory for the reorganization of ZIL. We started work, collected the initial data. Developed by Strategy Partners, the program focuses on economic issues in the field of urban planning. An element of this program in 2011 was a large science and education campus, Technopolis. Several technical universities were to form the core. The function of housing was auxiliary: mainly for students and teachers; housing then occupied about one quarter or a fifth of what is now planned on the territory. And in the southern part of ZIL, southeast of the MCC, which was then called the Moscow Railway, on the territory of the present ZIL-Yug, the function of assembling cars, together with Renault and Moskvich, was to remain. It was even planned to develop production there, to build workshops.
We worked on this assignment, and in the process of working on the PPP, we learned that at the initiative of another organization, the Department of Economic Policy of the city, the IRP Group company held a competition. Its results were announced in March 2012; then we learned that we are working in parallel.
Surprised?
Of course, there was surprise, but in the end everything turned out, in my opinion, very well. There is a competition, here is a planning project. The decision, which I consider to be correct, was made quickly: the idea of a technopolis was replaced by the idea of a large, unique development project. Sergei Kuznetsov, who just then became the new chief architect of Moscow, decided to combine the efforts of our teams, the General Planning Institute and AB Meganom. And we, working together, made a planning project, which was approved in 2013. He developed Meganom's competitive proposal, "planting on the ground" the ideology and providing all the necessary infrastructure, including the socio-economic part. It was necessary to determine the areas, boundaries, capacities of social facilities, weigh and distribute the parameters, density, characteristics of the road network, provide for infrastructure and engineering facilities. Make a comprehensive product.
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zooming 1/3 Planning project for the territory of the ZiL plant, 2013 © Zonal workshop No. 15 State Unitary Enterprise "Research and Development Institute of the General Plan of Moscow"
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zooming 2/3 Planning project for the territory of the ZIL plant. Draft proposal for zoning and development of the territory, 2013 © Zonal workshop No. 15 State Unitary Enterprise "Research and Development Institute of the General Plan of Moscow"
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zooming 3/3 Planning project for the territory of the ZiL plant, 2013. Fragment of aerial photography. © Zonal workshop No. 15 State Unitary Enterprise "Research and Development Institute of the General Plan of Moscow"
Was it a joint creation?
Exactly. We sat together, argued, drew. Ruben Arakelyan worked with us in the role of GAP from Meganom's side. Since then, we have been in good human and professional relations with Yuri Grigoryan.
Were the developers already known?
At the time of the PPT approval in 2013 - no. The project was just done in order to start the tender procedure for the right to conclude an investment contract.
Actually, then the competition for the northern part of the territory, which later became ZILART, was won by LSR?
By the way, I will note that this victory turned out to be quite unexpected for many. Having received the territory, the company's management first proposed to change all the approaches laid down in the PPT, to invite their architects, but Yuri Grigoryan managed to reasonably and successfully prove our common professional position, so that the result was the design code developed by Meganom for the development of residential areas.
I believe that ZILART is now giving a canonical example of using a design code as a tool for forming a large fragment of a newly created urban fabric. Very gentle, neat, but at the same time clear, accented design rules were set in it. The heights of the first floors, the nature of the exit to the building line, the level of development of the front of the quarters, the emphasis on certain tiers, materials
And then the Etalon group received the southern part of the territory?
No, Etalon started working on the project later. In 2013, the southeastern part, adjacent to the Nagatinskiy Peninsula, was taken over by AFK Sistema. And to manage the territory between them - what we now call ZIL-Yug, LSR and AFK have formed a joint company. For these developers, we have developed three new TPPs, re-covering the entire territory, with new TPPs with a greater share of housing. Then they completely abandoned the idea of maintaining the production of cars on the territory.
Did you also work on projects for 2014–2017 together with Yuri Grigoryan?
Yes, but now the planning proposal has been developed almost entirely by us. The Meganom bureau specialists advised and worked with us on the distribution of retail and building density in residential areas.
Have two boulevards converging to a pedestrian bridge at the bend of the Moskva River appeared in these new PPTs?
Zilovsky Boulevard, which starts from the monument to Likhachev at the Third Transport Ring and turns into the Boulevard of the Vesnin brothers, by that time was already part of ZILART, and the ZIL-Yuga boulevard and the pedestrian bridge on the other side of the river appeared in our projects 2014-2017 … This is the idea of our team, we can say that the second diagonal of the ZIL-South is our author's. She was not born immediately, before her there were more conservative planning options. But in the end, Diagonal won - the management of LSR liked it very much, they called it the Champs Elysees and offered to turn it into a wide boulevard, but in the end we agreed on a slightly smaller width than that of Champs Élysées, for the sake of a more comfortable urban spaces, greater connectivity between retail on two sides.
Where does the footbridge lead in your project?
Towards TPU Nagatino, to the Nataginskaya metro station and the Paveletskaya railway station. If this idea holds, I think there will be an energetic spatial gesture and a new urban connection.
Pedestrian bridges across the old bed of the Moskva River have also been laid, and one road bridges along the embankment.
After 2017, the General Planning Institute was no longer occupied with the territory of ZIL?
After 2017, we mainly watched the development of events.
But now the Institute is making two PPTs for metro stations, which should open here: the Kommunarskaya line from the station Sevastopolsky Prospekt comes from the southwest, and the Biryulevskaya line from the southeast. We turned out to be visionaries - at one time our specialists laid this opportunity: they left zones for stations in the lines of urban planning regulation back in 2014. Then the MCC had not yet been launched, no one thought that it would turn out to be such a successful and advanced project, many seemed like bold dreams. And here you are - the city is already pulling two metro lines here.
Let's go back to the specifics of your final PPA. As far as I understand, he was very important for the city as an example of a new approach to development?
The project was significant for Sergei Kuznetsov at the start of his work as chief architect. This was one of the pilot projects of the new city policy. Quarters, dense road network, public ground floors, courtyards closed to cars, pedestrian streets, targeting, individuality, versatility, 15-minute pedestrian accessibility of various functions. In fact, it is a “city within a city”, self-sufficient, but at the same time connected with a large city, as far as possible when located on a peninsula.
In general, on the ZIL project, we formulated and perfected, for the city and for ourselves, the concept of “centrality” of the nature of the building and the environment, suitable according to the criteria for the city center. In addition to the above, these are: permeability, dense neighborhoods, a wide palette of environmental elements - not just some public areas, but clearly articulated streets of different meanings, squares, promenades, parks, squares, boulevards, and so on. The more types of urban spaces there are, the more the environment looks like a full-fledged urban environment.
The main feature of the layout is still a dense and rigid block grid, which is probably unprecedented for large urban development projects in Moscow. The average size of a residential area on ZIL is 85x115 m. The width of the quarters is dictated by the dimensions of the industrial buildings of the plant, which stood along the central boulevard, from which our planning grid originates. In the southern part (ZIL-Yug), we use the same module for the continuity and integrity of the development of the entire peninsula. Such a module is larger, but still comparable with the average European quarter - 75x75 m, determined from the analysis of modern residential buildings.
The design density of the network of streets and driveways on the ZIL Peninsula is 8.1 km / m2, while the average density of the road traffic network in Moscow is 4.2 km / km2. Compared to the “largest cities in the world”, the density of the street and road network of “old” Moscow is 2-3 times lower. Already now, the network density at ZIL is striking in the red line scheme, and after implementation it will be visible on the satellite as well. It should be noted that the high density of streets was designed not so much for the needs of car traffic, but primarily to increase the pedestrian permeability of the territory and increase the area of pedestrian spaces. Every second street in residential areas is pedestrianized with a passage only for servicing buildings and special equipment.
Streets of a truly "urban" character are formed in the project, when the profile space is directly connected with buildings and objects on the ground floors. Then this attitude was still a novelty, although it was already actively promoted by the Moscow Committee for Architecture and Construction.
The typology of spaces also includes a varied green frame
Yes. Structured, not "smeared", consisting of different elements and interconnected. Our MCC is "squeezed" between two park zones: the already implemented
Tyuffle grove and the park of the ZIL-Yug territory on the other side. It turned out even romantic: a modern, quiet and in its own way beautiful train will ride through the park as a kind of attraction. Two parks, from the northwest and southeast of the MCC, form a single green space. Through green streets, the central park is connected to the park along the embankment.
What makes it one? Transitions? Now in the project More KCAP overhead crossings. How many overpasses and how many underpasses were in your project?
In total, the project includes five connections: two ground connections (along the embankment and boulevard), two underground through "punctures" in the embankment of the MCC tracks and one aboveground, part of the southern vestibule of the ZIL station, integrated into the TPU with the two new metro stations mentioned above. … The step between the transitions is approximately 250-270 meters, which is quite convenient. In the KCAP materials, we did not see an increase in the number of links, but in overcoming delimiters, the "the more, the better" rule works very well.
What happened to Yuri Grigoryan's idea to lower the six-lane automobile section below the zero mark, throwing many bridges to the water?
There were such elaborations. As a result, the carriageway was left on the ground. Partly to reduce the cost, partly - so as not to detach public transport stops from the general urban space. Today, this highway is implemented in a fairly compact profile with a good frequency of ground crossings - "zebras" (every quarter), so that a comfortable connection between the residential area and the river bank and the park is provided.
As far as I remember, you planned to preserve the monuments and factory buildings. Then there were problems with the demolition of buildings in 1911 along the Third Transport Ring, which was covered by Arhnadzor …
There is one monument with the official status of OKN at ZIL, the building of the plant management in 1916-1920. We tried to save more, but the northern part of the territory, which adjoins the TTC, is complex, there are many owners, it is quite difficult to keep track of the situation and, in my opinion, some things have appeared there that can be called random. The fate of some of the buildings along the Third Transport Ring still worries us. One of the two buildings that form propylaeons on the sides of the factory entrance, where the monument to Likhachev is now, was reconstructed for the Avilon center by the project of Kleinewelt Architekten - generally not bad, but the building has changed, and now does not look very much like a pair of the western building, the symmetry, which there was, somewhat violated.
I consider this historic entrance, checkpoint and propylaea to be important. This is an ensemble that is clearly visible in the perspectives of the 1930s.
By the way, for some time now I have been a member of the city commission on the names of territorial units, and I am glad that I managed to defend some of the names associated with the history of the plant: Likhachev Avenue and Zilovsky Boulevard.
In the northern part, we also superimposed spots of factory buildings on the outlines of new quarters - large ones, bounded by carriageways. There was even an idea to preserve valuable factory facades overlooking the main boulevard of ZILART, for example, in this quarter, which is being designed by Yuri Grigoryan himself … We have been working on this topic for a long time. But as far as I know, the idea of saving fragments had to be abandoned for technical reasons. The buildings are not monuments, there is no legal basis here, this is a matter of the developer's goodwill. But the grid echoes the old plant plan as a kind of planning projection.
What, apart from the buildings along the Third Transport Ring and the outline of the plan, can still be preserved from the old factory heritage?
The southern territory includes CHP ZIL, located to the north of ZIL-South behind Likhachev Boulevard and is quite intact. We really like this industrial heritage site, we hope that it will be able to be preserved and adapted. In our documents, it is referred to as an object of reconstruction. Functionally, we included an art cluster here following the example of Winzavod, Artplay or Flacon, CHP ZIL would fit well into this row: a unique building and a format that is relevant for our time.
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zooming 1/3 CHP ZIL, current state Photo courtesy of the Institute of the General Plan of Moscow
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zooming 2/3 CHP ZIL, current state Photo courtesy of the Institute of the General Plan of Moscow
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zooming 3/3 CHP ZIL, current state Photo courtesy of the Institute of the General Plan of Moscow
If you look at ZIL-Yug, your altitude decreases towards the center and grows along the edges. KCAP smoothed the elevation towards the water in the new master plan, but generally retained this feature. Why such a composition "saucers"?
Yes, the density "went to the perimeter", because the customers realized that it was here that the best, expensive species characteristics were collected. Although the rules of Soviet urban planning dictate the opposite - mitigation of anthropogenic load on the border with water. There is one interesting feature that partly leads to this result: the scale of the cost that the customer pays for changing the types of permitted uses increases to a density level of 40,000 m2/ ha, after which the growth ends. Change in use for a density of 40,000 m2/ ha and 100,000 m2/ ha costs the same, so it is more profitable for a developer to "step" far away at once, to sharply increase the density for some group of plots. Our silhouette is, among other things, a projection of this feature.
So, your project, it turns out, was a very large-scale example - the bearer of the pathos of a new approach to urban fabric, which began to develop with the arrival of Sergei Kuznetsov. A kind of benchmark for a new city policy focused on the city's fabric as more comfortable. This raises two questions, the first one - what prototypes were you guided by when forming your decision in 2012-2016?
First of all, on modern European practice. Plus, we tried to make an antithesis to micro-district development. The main message is to do it differently.
Then we reflected on this experience, in particular, when the renovation was unfolding, we did a study commissioned by the Moscow Committee for Architecture and Construction - a comparison with foreign examples of high-quality living environment, analyzed our favorite examples, Helsinki, Stockholm, we love northern Europe. Compared with renovation projects. Tried to show in this study that we are now in a phase shift towards a European approach.
An important indicator of the quality of the planning structure, we identified the balance of the area of public spaces and areas of various objects in the city. In Moscow, the percentage of public areas in residential areas of the middle belt (where the Renovation is currently being carried out) is 15-17% (not including large parks), while in the largest cities in Europe it is 45-50% (for the historical center and new construction).
At ZIL, within the boundaries of the three PPTs, the share of public spaces will be 47% (even without the central park), which is very close to the European indicator. These territories are a necessary resource for the development of a comfortable and diverse urban environment.
Another area in which balance is needed is related to planning the distribution of functions in the territory. We have done a lot for this, although we worked at a fairly generalized level. We have planned unique objects: an innovative school, Technopark Nagatino, a technopark next to the old plant management - there are several thousand jobs in it. The balance of residents and jobs for all 400 hectares in terms of calculated indicators - somewhere around 75,000 some and 66,500 others, give or take.
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zooming 1/7 Concept "Zil-South" © Institute of the General Plan of Moscow
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zooming 2/7 Concept "Zil-South" © Institute of the General Plan of Moscow
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zooming 3/7 Concept "Zil-South" © Institute of the General Plan of Moscow
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zooming 4/7 Concept "Zil-South" © Institute of the General Plan of Moscow
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zooming 5/7 Concept "Zil-South" © Institute of the General Plan of Moscow
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zooming 6/7 Concept "Zil-South" © Institute of the General Plan of Moscow
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zooming 7/7 Concept "Zil-South" © Institute of the General Plan of Moscow
What is also important: on the ZIL project, due to the fact that architectural design was carried out in parallel, we were able, firstly, to observe everything with our own eyes, to constantly interact, and secondly, to get a more detailed basis and work in more detail. Typically, PPT is done on a two-thousandth scale, and we did it on a geo-base in the five hundredth, since the customer could have provided it to us. And this practice, to my joy, began - we are now doing renovation projects on a 500th scale. It was a technological innovation then.
Another positive practice was the interaction of everyone with everyone, organized "on the bridgehead" of the Moscow City Architecture Committee as a strong-willed project. Everyone was constantly discussing, everyone was in the know. For all projects of this scale, I would create a management company, a territorial development corporation - this is what they do all over the world. They include the municipality, developers, residents. Because a seamless environment can only be created in a seamless process. We have to do this by a strong-willed effort, by working groups, but such an approach can become the rule, and not the result of the action of one, albeit positive, will.
Second question: it turns out that you were one of the first. Now, on the field of comfortable urban space, there are many different players, all propagandize about the same thing … How would you define your specifics? What is the difference between your approach, of the General Planning Institute, to the formation of a "central urban type" development?
First of all, we are custodians of information, we understand the history of the issue, evolution. This gives us a vision for several steps forward, an example is, in particular, the above story with the metro at ZIL. When forming new structures, it is very important not only to form them correctly and beautifully today, but to think them over, taking into account the potential structure, including for the adjacent territory. Not to lose some important target, future connection. It's not there now, maybe even a five-story building is standing across. But all the other houses from the 1970s are already catching this corridor, and it goes to the park, to the pond or to the subway station.
Our creative method is as follows - we always start working from the distant future, we form a system on this basis. Therefore, the words seem to be the same, but the solutions are different. We work taking into account the promising potential structure: we identify the potential, we strive not to disrupt the possible connections of spatial systems. At the Institute, the process of forming the image of the main highways, metro, lines, railways and everything else is constantly going on - this is our tradition and our strong point. I must say that the legacy of the 1971 master plan helps a lot, if it were not for it, the city would not have endured the explosion of motorization. For 50 years already, many corridors have existed on the red lines for infrastructure facilities, roads and metro, they were already laid then.
Another feature of ours is that, on our own initiative, within the General Planning Institute, we are developing an algorithmic system for analyzing and assessing the characteristics of the urban environment. We are forming a list of categories that we want to track in a measurable plane. For example, a high-quality framework of public spaces should be logically oriented towards points of attraction, it should be holistic, territorially powerful, strong, with a large number of different types of social activity inside.
How do you rate the recently presented concept of the ZIL-South master plan from the Dutch bureau KCAP?
It is pleasant to see that the planning structure, laid down in the PPT, receives an evolutionary development: buildings and public spaces are concretized. The idea of a new transverse park overlooking the backwater and a number of prominent buildings along it seems to be successful. In general, everything has become more interesting, richer. It is interesting to see how the project develops further.
How do you overall assess the importance of this work for the Institute?
It's a difficult question, but the work is definitely significant, milestone, important. It clearly coincided with the new urban planning policy and we were engaged in it, let's say, being at the forefront. From the point of view of experience, it is very interesting: organizationally and structurally complex, multi-stage.
With so many different interests and specialists, with constant discussions that you are talking about, how did you manage to maintain a professional balance, not go into the field of competition?
Of course, there is always a clash of interests, one must understand this and take it calmly. If you take sound arguments, then you get a healthy synthesis.
