Tall & Urban News

An international competition to revitalize a 23-acre (9-hectare) site in Moscow was won by New York City-based ODA-Architecture. Moscow has more than 12 million people, a number that is expected to grow in the coming years, even as Russia’s overall population declines. The city is maximizing its urban potential by developing former industrial sites on its outskirts for residential, commercial, and public use. As part of these new urbanization efforts, ODA has designed a master plan for Magistralnaya Ulitsa, or the MAZD Territory, located within the west sector of the city’s Third Ring Road.

“Moscow’s center is predominantly dedicated to office, commerce, hospitality, cultural, and governmental buildings. Most people live around the second and third rings in large-scale formulated housing complexes, while industries are concentrated mostly along the third ring,” says Eran Chen, a founding principal of ODA.

“City life is a constant movement from the outer rings to the city center and back through systems of highways and public transport. MAZD is one of the city’s first attempts to creating a real mixed-used neighborhood in the outer rings. Its aim is to address the growing desire of millennials to live in a self-sustained, walkable neighborhood where the lines between live, work and play are blurred,” he added.

While not located in the core of Moscow, the revitalization plan is aimed to draw locals and tourists alike into an otherwise unused part of the city.

For the site, ODA has envisioned a unified plan defined by sprawling a structure and prominent roofline that mimics the topography of a hill, plus a series of towers whose forms extend the undulating silhouette of the complex. As a mixed-use project, it will be home to a series of villa-like residences as well as condominiums, retail and dining, urban green spaces, and offices, all interconnected with pedestrian walkways in a manner that blends landscape with architecture.

“The master plan promotes the idea of connectivity and flexibility while formally creating a city-scale composition that forms a strong visual identity,” says Chen.

However, designing such an immense project is not without its challenges. “There is very little relevant context in the immediate surrounding areas, and it was clear that our plan will impact the future development of a much greater territory. We had to expand our research far beyond the site to get a better understanding of the behavioral patterns, local cultural forces, and rising ambitions of the city’s urban plan,” Chen said.

“It required us to ask more fundamental questions about what constitutes a neighborhood or a community and adapt to new terms, psychologies, and typologies that will guide the next half-century of design,” he added.

The plan’s goal is to redefine what a neighborhood means within the context of developing global cities with increasing densities, focusing on creating civic entities that engage residents and visitors through activity.

For more on this story, go to Architectural Digest.