Moscow DNA: Patterns for a new Moscow

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s urban designers, we look to great cities to understand the many different qualities that contribute to the sense of place. Our vantage point is one that looks towards the future. We seek to understand the forces that shape the form and character of the city as it evolves.

The heightened awareness of preserving and repairing natural environments, conserving resources, and living in a more sustainable way guides much of our thinking about how to approach urban systems for the next generation.

This physical and cultural shift is leading to smarter and more holistic approaches to planning, design and management of cities.

The other aspect of our work as city planners, engineers, economists, and architects, is to understand what makes each city so distinct. How is it that global cities such as Moscow, London, Paris, Beijing, and New York are so different even today? Will cities continue to evolve in unique and with regionally distinct patterns?

Cities are dynamic. Much of what we all find compelling about cities is influenced by the people living in the neighborhoods, working in the offices and shops, learning in the universities and worshipping in churches, temples and mosques. They may be recent immigrants or from many generations who have grown up living there. Each generation leaves its mark, a trace of

a life lived with the city as home. The best cities have a distinct personality, one long remembered by visitors and citizens alike.

As designers, we pick up clues as we walk the streets, visit the markets, read the history, and talk to ordinary citizens about their place. We find that each city has a language, accumulated through the course of time and continuing to add complexity and diversity.

As we think about the expanded city we find patterns from Old Moscow that can serve as the beginning of a DNA for the New Moscow.

URBAN PATTERNS The historic city is a complex web of inter-connected neighborhoods and districts. Like many other capital cities, Moscow has been transformed by industrialization and later by visionary plans to create modern boulevards, new transit and transportation systems as well as more “modern” building types and systems.

This amalgam of different eras, from medieval to 19th to 20th century gives the city a rich and diverse pattern of districts, public spaces and building types. The lessons from the many neighborhoods arrayed around the Kremlin and Kitay-Gorod are instructive when we think about the inherited qualities of districts and neighborhoods in the New Moscow.

Two things stand out as important DNA principles for most urban neighborhoods.

There is a clear perimeter of city-scale addresses — typically the boulevards and major public spaces where districts come together and create larger scale, more public places. Internally there is a network of smaller, more intimate streets, courtyards, and public spaces that serve the population living and working within the district.

Like the Kremlin, these districts have a “wall” or public face, and then a much more private realm that supports neighborhood life. Each district is distinct with its own mix of uses and character. We have found a remarkable pattern of urban spaces that are found throughout the city.

MOSCOW DISTRICTS Streets, Courtyards, and Public Spaces

Building Types

Block Patterns

PROMENADES Muscovites and visitors to the city are drawn to the many parks and public spaces that feature broad walkways, lawns, and gardens designed for people to walk and talk with one another, meet friends, and enjoy the city as theater.

LAKES & PONDS In many of the parks throughout the city, small lakes and ponds create great public spaces and beautiful settings. This appeal of bringing water into the city is repeated in many different ways.

Sometimes in natural settings and sometimes as more formal civic spaces.

RIVERS & CANALS Moscow is at its core, a river city. Many visitors have a chance to see the city from the vantage point of the river. The radial form of the old city leads you from your neighborhood to the rivers edge. Each crossing becomes a celebration of the connection to nature and to places linked to one another.

BIG SQUARES & LITTLE SQUARES Civic Squares that celebrate artists, writers, musicians, educators, military and political leaders, historic events are the defining urban elements throughout the historic city. This remarkable collection of squares and spaces hold the history of the city for citizens and visitors to experience and appreciate.

GARDEN STREETS The city features a collection of primary and secondary garden streets that create park settings for many neighborhoods. The most prominent of these designed streets include the Boulevard Ring and the Garden Ring — intended to create a citywide address. Others are neighborhood streets designed as part of a garden and park to create a soft amenity for residents in the middle of a busy city.

Plan of a plaza in the Boulevard

Section of the Boulevard

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COURTYARDS Street edges in the center of Moscow are typically composed of building, sidewalk, and street with little interruption. Trees, gardens, and open spaces are typically celebrated in formal parks and public spaces. The great Moscow invention is the courtyard where in almost every block there is a network of park-like spaces with playgrounds, gardens, and woodlands hidden from the public hustle of the street.

PUBLIC ART & COMMEMORATIVE ART You cannot walk very far without stopping to read about someone who was important to the life of the city and the nation. The care and importance of remembering and celebrating the significant contributions of Russian people is a hallmark of the city. Equally important is the gift of art to the neighborhoods and public spaces, large and small.

MOSCOW BUILDINGS Throughout the city, buildings tell a story about time and place. While the historic city has a diverse collection of building types, architectural expressions, and use of materials, Moscow buildings speak to each other and to the public spaces they front. There are repeating traits that are found throughout the many different districts that are similar.

This shared language adds a layer that is uniquely Moscow.

PORTALS Many buildings in the city create portals to internal courtyards that signal a transition from public to more private spaces. These occur at all scales and in many different locations. This gesture repeats itself continuously along major boulevards and avenues of the city. There is always a kind of mystery about what is just beyond the portal.

ENTRANCES AS ART Many buildings celebrate the public entrances as expressive elements that feature sculpture, applied art and decorative tile and metalwork.

Each era expressed differently, yet in a cultural agreement on what is important to communicate about the beauty and significance of each entrance.

TOWERS A survey of the cityscape from almost any vantage point reveals a collection of towers in a variety of sizes, shapes, and materials. These create landmarks that sometimes define the city and other times mark an important intersection or place in the district.

CORNERS & BAYS Over the many generations of building in the old city, corners have offered the most expressive canvas for designers and builders. The variety of creative responses to important corners on Moscow blocks has generated a signature that is part of the city DNA. With this gesture comes another that crosses all generations and architectural expressions — the box bay window.

This desire to create light-filled rooms within offices and apartments is evident in every quarter of the city.

COLORS One of the most remarkable patterns is the use of color in the buildings. The sense of how light and seasons affect the mood in the city is captured by the careful attention of painters and architects. This palette gives us clues how to create harmony with the natural systems of gardens and parks, and the built networks of neighborhoods and public spaces.

Capital Cities Planning Group Urban Design Associates Beasley and Associates, Planning Inc. Gillespies John Thompson & Partners Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates Buro Happhold Ltd. Group Ark Solving Efesco

Book Design Susann Reimann

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