The new pioneers

Across the Russian Federation, straddling Europe and Asia, a comprehensive new plan is transforming not just the physical and cultural landscape, but citizens’ relationship with place.

The Moscow Street programme blends minute attention to detail with big data to create a forward-looking, historically sensitive plan for the Russian capital’s future.

Urban consultancy Strelka KB led the project, which is now being rolled out across the country. Strelka KB’s origins lie in the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design.

Founded in 2009, the nongovernmental organisation’s aim is to change the cultural and physical landscapes of Russian cities by taking an experimental approach to education, developing human capital and applying research to real problems in Russian cities. The Institute founded urban consultancy Strelka KB in 2013. Its approach focuses on the city as an integrated system, developing Russian cities to meet the demands of the knowledge economy.

Dasha Paramonova is CEO of Strelka Architects, part of Strelka KB. She explains the background. “An analysis of 3,500 streets allowed us to extract a typology, based on parameters like the width of street or height of buildings, historical area, speed of traffic, number of lanes and amount of pedestrians. We extracted ten types of street – although there is a list of unique streets which don’t fit these types.

“We developed an approach with five main principles – safety, ecology, uniqueness, diversity and comfort, that each street should respond to. Soviet norms only responded to geometrical parameters, never taking into account ecology or diversity or identity.”

"Design updates run the risk of being “rather superficial,” she says. “Simply replacing pavements or lamp posts is not transforming or introducing new scenarios for visitors, or thinking about how this street will operate in the future and what it brings to the environment. It relies on the vision of a specific designer – it doesn’t take into account the city as one entity.”

Detailed research created a common strategy, says Paramonova. “When an official chooses a street to update, they pick precise solutions that should be implemented. The designer is only responsible for certain visual elements but the function of the street – its future operation mode – is already in the document.”

Moscow Streets’ criteria factor in historic and cultural sensitivities: “We developed a catalogue creating guidelines for the design of certain elements,” Paramonova says. “For some elements, like historic lamp posts, we developed the design with the Museum of Moscow Lights, matching them to streets according to their width and height.”

The project started with some of Moscow’s major thoroughfares, including Novy Arbat, Tverskaya Ulitsa and the Garden Ring. Because, she says, “it was important to show how it worked as a network. It wasn’t enough to redesign only one street, we needed to show how it works together as a complex integrated system.”

New cafés, shops and planting have brought pedestrians back to Garden Ring.

Strelka KB invited both professionals from all over the world and local young architects to pitch design ideas. “For the international group we operated as a client, providing detailed briefs. We chose unique streets that needed special design – it was important to introduce to authorities, clients and local designers high-quality street design. This is knowledge that we do not possess here and it’s something that we have to bring to raise the quality of local designers,” says Paramonova.

Design briefs were based on complex analysis. “We started with an analysis of data that each street produces – the most important part of this was anthropology. Firstly, observations and the results of surveys and interviews, with a deep reading of the user’s precise territory. Then digital anthropology – deeper and wider understanding of well-used streets – what people appreciate them for; what they care about and so on. Besides that we do field research – volunteers sketch out visual noise and disruptive elements – pedestrian flows and traffic flaws were counted and the diversity of commercial activities.”

Throughout, the project blazed a trail by introducing a new discipline to an emerging profession in Russia. “With local teams we gave the opportunity to young architects to try themselves in a new type of design, public space design,” says Paramonova. “But also an opportunity to do something significant in the city.” Under the guidance of the brief, “we controlled their work; trying to bring it to another level,” she says. “Strelka KB has its own architectural department, with many young architects around 25‐27 years old, who were taking part in designing large scale projects.”

There are now places for people to sit, meet and chat amongst the 3,000 new trees along the Garden Ring.

The Garden Ring is a ten-mile road encircling the centre of Moscow. Last replanned by Stalin in the 1930s, lime trees that had shaded the road made way for his socialist realism, accelerated industrialisation and the advent of the car. Strelka KB’s masterplan has seen a narrowing of the road to reintroduce trees. Banks and offices have given way to food, retail, and service businesses; 3,000 new trees minimise road dust and pollution, keep street-level temperatures cooler in the summer and generate oxygen.

“The increase of sidewalks is a consequence of decreasing the lane widths,” says Paramonova. Reducing lanes to 3.5m freed up 16% to expand pavements. “It’s not necessarily a decrease in the amount of lanes,” she insists. Creating space for public areas whilst reducing the overall speed limit has seen a 56% decrease in traffic accidents with injuries – alongside a 12% increase in the average speed of traffic flow.

Across the city, 7,000 new trees have been planted, with utility lines relocated underground by the Clear Skies element of the project. Pedestrian traffic has grown 23%, with 36% fewer undeveloped locations bringing cafés and restaurants.

“Supervising local architectural offices’ work during the execution of detailed documentation for construction was the most complicated part,” admits Paramonova. “It was commissioned by the client in offices which have a standard approach to design. They were really struggling with some of the new elements. You couldn’t plant a tree in the ground in Moscow – you could only put them in planters which are hard to maintain, especially in winter. It’s a breakthrough. With old pipes situated in the ground, even if an area was empty you couldn’t plant because there could be nearby communication.

“To avoid those limits we created the root barrier. One of the main achieve ments has been changing attitudes towards greenery across the whole city. It’s the best tool to introduce the achievement of public space design because everybody appreciates it.”

Public engagement was very much a Strelka KB initiative, she says. “We tried to get locals to talk about the project to avoid misunderstandings when it came to construction, but it wasn’t easy. Now it’s absolutely common that you discuss the project. You have to.”

Hussein Bin Talal Park in Grozny is one of the first contemporary public spaces in the Russian Caucasus.

Yet battling bureaucracy remains an international standard. “All over the world, but in Moscow especially, each street has at least 40 city government departments, responsible for different parts; one’s responsible for this pipe; one for this tree. One is responsible for the street; one for the I-don’t-know... you have to negotiate with ten or more different representatives. And they all start from the fact that it’s against existing restrictions. It was important that at least one solution like the skate spot happened. When you have a precedent, you can say ‘it was done. It is successful. Let’s follow this.’ Negotiation, conversation and support and will of client; of the city,” she says, were vital.

Krymsky overpass is the site of the new skate spot, developed by Strelka KB with renowned Norwegian bureau Snøhetta. A former car park was transformed into a new social feature, reimagining the space as a two-level amphitheatre. Its floor is filled with special coloured concrete and the overpass shields skaters from the weather.

It is important, says Paramonova, to change the stereotype that things aren’t possible.“You create a little park, but it’s not clear whether people will use it. Although we based it on the analysis, there’s always a chance something was missing. But I believe it’s a simple and basic phenomenon that you observe. You bring the bench and you immediately have people sitting there. It does work like this… these parks did start appearing.”

The principles and processes of Moscow Street have been exported from the streets of the capital to the Russian regions. Russia has 656 industrial cities, of which just 17 are responsible for nearly 40% of the country’s GDP. The Future Cities programme uses existing regulations alongside strategic long-term planning and global standards, to create liveable cities and increase the country’s capacity for future economic development. The programme will address 223 public spaces, from streets and squares to embankments and parks, covering more than 1,200 hectares in 40 cities. With a combined population of 28 million, its scale is vast, creating public space across the country for the first time. It is the largest urban redevelopment project in post-Soviet Russia.

“We worked in more or less the same way,” says Paramonova. “We did a complex analysis, created a brief and invited design execution by a local architect, or via a competition, based on these parameters,” she says.

A reservoir, sports field and prayer rooms feature in Grozny’s Hussein Bin Talal Park. Businesses including cafés and a restaurant have sprung up.

Future Cities has transformed both opportunity and individual relationships with the city. Paramonova herself says “The experience of using public space is something I didn’t have before. I can imagine myself walking in Paris and being a tourist, but in Moscow I deliver myself from work to the office without actually living in this space. I never had a request for public space before I started to design it. You can’t create a request if you don’t have this experience. You bring the bicycle path or some exercise equipment and people understand that they can do it, even though they haven’t thought about it.”

It’s also notable for its approach to public engagement, as the first large-scale public engagement in the Russian/ post-Soviet era. Under Future Cities, 44,800 residents were polled, while creating partnerships with private and public institutions, ranging from city government to volunteers. Expedited by the arrival of the FIFA World Cup in summer 2018, it began with 15 cities, raising the bar in planning and developing public space.

Belgorod, in Eastern Russia, has a population of over 350,000. Largely rebuilt after World War II, its public spaces hark back to Soviet times. The abandoned Vezelka river embankment is an example of changing attitudes to space across the country. Polls designed to determine the public spaces were crowdsourced, and the resulting scheme created an embankment with zones, connected by promenades and cycle paths. The central zone is a plaza with a public meeting space, which became a Fan Zone during the World Cup.

In Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, Hussein Bin Talal Park is one of the first contemporary public spaces in the Russian Caucasus. Future Cities gave residents the opportunity to review plans before work started, a new experience in post-Soviet territory. Its adoption proved so enthusiastic that local youths cleared construction debris at the new skate park, eager to skate as soon as possible. A reservoir, sports field and prayer rooms feature; businesses including cafés and a restaurant sprang up. The area’s Ahmat Arena was used as a training base during the World Cup.

Strelka CA and Kosmos’ Nike Box in Moscow won the ‘sport’ category in the 2018 ARCHMARATHON Awards.

Strelka KB’s intervention has included design and construction supervision previously unheard of in the country. Ideas were communicated direct to the construction team, and overseen by architects, to make sure that design intentions were followed. Two years on, those first 15 cities – blending international design influences with local context – have given dozens of new architects a chance to work on large scale projects and millions of Russians a new perspective on the cities they live in.

“Design implementation should introduce people to new scenarios and experiences they might have as a citizen,” says Paramonova. “That’s why it’s important to get their response, but also do something they have never asked for. In Moscow, I was a car driver for 20 years, but now I walk and cycle and use Uber. I would never have imagined myself doing this. But I enjoy it and I’m happy that I have this diversity.

“Common space has the capacity to unite us, whether it’s shopping or sport or just walking. It gives people the opportunity to see each other. You understand you are actually part of the city – you’re a citizen. When you understand that there’s a space you are actually entitled to use – a high quality street or a nice park or pleasant territory – you have a right as a citizen. It’s important for your sense of dignity and modern citizenship. It’s the relationship between a city and the people that live there and I really appreciate that you are changing people’s relationship to what surrounds them.”

Paramonova is emphatic, “When people feel they are relevant; then can demand something,” she says. “They become engaged in the place that they live.”

Fiona Shaw is an award-winning business journalist and publisher of Ethos magazine.