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Sokolniki Park: projects by five more finalists

In this issue, we continue publishing the projects submitted to the contest for the best development concept of Sokolniki Park: projects by the five finalists, from the fifth to the ninth place.

22 September 2014
Contest Results
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The four prize-winning proposals were featured at our website only recently; the first place was won by the consortium of the British "Groundlab", Moscow's "Wowhaus", and Saint Petersburg's "Urbanica". Totally, nine teams took part in the contest; now we are covering the proposals that took the six "non-prize" places. 

5 / Smart Park

Authors: Ilex Paysages et Urbanisme and Wagon Landscaping (France), Real Landscape (Russia). Consultants: Bernard Snudger, Elizabeth Esayan, Tatyana Gubskaya, Olga Barykina.


Fifth place. "Smart Park" Project. Authors: Ilex Paysages et Urbanisme and Wagon Landscaping (France), Real Landscape (Russia).

On top of the proverbial Sokolniki's radial rays, the architects apply a network of thirteen circular aisles of various sizes, one circle being one thematic route. The list of the themes includes the nature of forest reservoirs, deer trails, as well as a sport, a fairy-tale, one for experimental transport, and the elk and equestrian routes. 

To better integrate Sokolniki into the urban environment, the authors of this project propose to make yet another park entrance in the north, as well as organize and improve thirteen extra entrances and provide a sufficient number of parking lots. The main entrance, the one located at the Sokolniki Val Street will be connected to the new one by a mean line along the full length of which the visitors will be able to use various kinds of eco transport: from roller blades to segways. There are also going to be some fast food points here. Finding one's way around and learning about the current public events will be made easier by the specially developed mobile application. 


Fifth place. "Smart Park" Project. Authors: Ilex Paysages et Urbanisme and Wagon Landscaping (France), Real Landscape (Russia).


Fifth place. "Smart Park" Project. Authors: Ilex Paysages et Urbanisme and Wagon Landscaping (France), Real Landscape (Russia).


Fifth place. "Smart Park" Project. Authors: Ilex Paysages et Urbanisme and Wagon Landscaping (France), Real Landscape (Russia).


Fifth place. "Smart Park" Project. Authors: Ilex Paysages et Urbanisme and Wagon Landscaping (France), Real Landscape (Russia).


Fifth place. "Smart Park" Project. Authors: Ilex Paysages et Urbanisme and Wagon Landscaping (France), Real Landscape (Russia).


Fifth place. "Smart Park" Project. Authors: Ilex Paysages et Urbanisme and Wagon Landscaping (France), Real Landscape (Russia).


Fifth place. "Smart Park" Project. Authors: Ilex Paysages et Urbanisme and Wagon Landscaping (France), Real Landscape (Russia).

The authors propose a flexible implementation schedule designed to be done in three stages, and depending to a large extent on sponsors and investors who potentially could even develop equestrian sports or balneology in the park, even small-scale financial investments making a positive difference. At a minimum investment level it would be possible to make a dedicated horseback riding route, at a medium level - create a thematic "park within a park", and at a high one - build a full-scale racecourse. 

The contestants tried and made their proposal as much respectful as possible of the already existing place, sufficiently creative and attractive but at the same time quite practicable. According to them, the changes proposed will help to draw significantly larger crowds - while today the main bulk of the visitors predominantly consists of the people from the adjacent neighborhoods, in the future it will be possible to attach people from all over Moscow and Moscow area, as well as long-distance tourists. 


Fifth place. "Smart Park" Project. Authors: Ilex Paysages et Urbanisme and Wagon Landscaping (France), Real Landscape (Russia).


Fifth place. "Smart Park" Project. Authors: Ilex Paysages et Urbanisme and Wagon Landscaping (France), Real Landscape (Russia).


Fifth place. "Smart Park" Project. Authors: Ilex Paysages et Urbanisme and Wagon Landscaping (France), Real Landscape (Russia).

***

6 / Four parks, forty forests, one Sokolniki
Authors: MLA+ B.V. and OPENFABRIC Landscape for Contemporary City (Netherlands), OPAS Architecture and Urban Strategies (Netherlands). 


Sixth place. "4 Parks, 40 forests, one Sokolniki". Authors: MLA+ B.V. и OPENFABRIC Landscape for Contemporary City  (Netherlands), OPAS Architecture and Urban Strategies  (Netherlands).

The Sokolniki Park has a huge potential to it: this is a huge piece if land that provides opportunities both for entertainment and for communicating with the nature. Today, however, these two identities rather stand out as two opposites. The authors thought it would be the right thing to do to make this system more balanced and develop simultaneously four parks within one: an amusement park, a city garden, a landscaped park, and a wild natural one. Each of them will have a unique flavor of its own and each of them will cater to different people's needs.

The three main entrances will be designed as thematic zones (a square of fountains, a square of sports and health, a forest square), great venues for large-scale public events. The main clearings will turn into areas of the "city garden" where all the commercial activities will be gathered. The central territories will become parts of the landscape park, while the more remote territories will become natural forest areas where one can go exploring the woods through different trails and routes. The rich variety of nature got reflected in the concept of "forty forests" - all the park territory can be divided into forty fragments, each with a unique flora and fauna of its own. 


Sixth place. "4 Parks, 40 forests, one Sokolniki". Authors: MLA+ B.V. и OPENFABRIC Landscape for Contemporary City  (Netherlands), OPAS Architecture and Urban Strategies  (Netherlands).


Sixth place. "4 Parks, 40 forests, one Sokolniki". Authors: MLA+ B.V. и OPENFABRIC Landscape for Contemporary City  (Netherlands), OPAS Architecture and Urban Strategies  (Netherlands).


Sixth place. "4 Parks, 40 forests, one Sokolniki". Authors: MLA+ B.V. и OPENFABRIC Landscape for Contemporary City  (Netherlands), OPAS Architecture and Urban Strategies  (Netherlands).


Sixth place. "4 Parks, 40 forests, one Sokolniki". Authors: MLA+ B.V. и OPENFABRIC Landscape for Contemporary City  (Netherlands), OPAS Architecture and Urban Strategies  (Netherlands).


Sixth place. "4 Parks, 40 forests, one Sokolniki". Authors: MLA+ B.V. и OPENFABRIC Landscape for Contemporary City  (Netherlands), OPAS Architecture and Urban Strategies  (Netherlands).


Sixth place. "4 Parks, 40 forests, one Sokolniki". Authors: MLA+ B.V. и OPENFABRIC Landscape for Contemporary City  (Netherlands), OPAS Architecture and Urban Strategies  (Netherlands).

The authors claim that Sokolniki must be integrated into Moscow's "green belt" connecting it to the Ostankino Park and the Izmailovo Park by a green band running along the Yauza River. Strengthening this connection will be made possible by laying a network of bicycle and pedestrian trails. The size of Sokolniki allows for as much as tripling the current visitor turnout without causing any considerable harm to nature, while the thought-out zoning and event content will lead to a more even distribution of people's activities within the park. 

Among other things, the authors came up with the criteria for the selection of the event content on the park as well as the all-season calendar of the events together with the new administrative structure and financial model. 


Sixth place. "4 Parks, 40 forests, one Sokolniki". Authors: MLA+ B.V. и OPENFABRIC Landscape for Contemporary City  (Netherlands), OPAS Architecture and Urban Strategies  (Netherlands).


Sixth place. "4 Parks, 40 forests, one Sokolniki". Authors: MLA+ B.V. и OPENFABRIC Landscape for Contemporary City  (Netherlands), OPAS Architecture and Urban Strategies  (Netherlands).

***

7 / Retro Development 
Authors: Institute of ecological planning and survey Liga-Alef (Russia)


Seventh place. Authors: Institute of ecological planning and survey Liga-Alef (Russia)

Inspired by the rich and interesting past of the park's territory, the authors proceeded from the idea of traveling through time. It is planned to restore not only the lost material objects of various epochs (dachas, cafés, pavilions, and labyrinths) but also less tangible images of the past: songs and shadows of the events long forgotten. 

In this project, the famous Sokolniki "ray paths" are revised theoretically. In the "ray" of literature and fine arts, for example, one will be able to see a video installation of the Tolstoy's duel between Pierre Bezukhov and Theodor Dolokhov. At the History Ray, there will be the “Falconry” pavilion, and the laser light effects named "Shadows of the Past", a cafe street, and a tea -party meadow. Other territories: "Dachas" camping, a zone for active recreation, an innovation zone with "green" architecture, as well as the New Axis - the former transit corridor meant exclusively for eco transport. 

Apart from that, the authors propose to create a "Park of Highlights and Shadows" - the lighting installations will not only lighten up some parts of the park and accentuate the walking trails but also create interesting effects: a "light" rain and snow in summer, green meadows and golden leaves in winter, and "shadowy" pictures from the history of the park. For the implementation of their numerous ideas and insights, the authors formed an investment program and highlighted the key financial figures. 


Seventh place. Authors: Institute of ecological planning and survey Liga-Alef (Russia)


Seventh place. Authors: Institute of ecological planning and survey Liga-Alef (Russia)


Seventh place. Authors: Institute of ecological planning and survey Liga-Alef (Russia)

***

8 / (In)visible Paths
Authors: OKRA (Netherlands), City architectural bureau PR (Russia).

Eighth place. "(In)visible Paths" Project. Authors: OKRA (Netherlands), City architectural bureau PR (Russia)


The authors of this project concentrated on solving the park's most basic problems: reuniting it with the surrounding green territories and the Yauza River, restoring its historical connections, developing new routes, rearranging the activity all over the park's territory and creating a system of eco transportation. The "jewel" of the project is the unique system of a pavilion family, "trigger points" providing the evenness of the visitor turnout all over the territory of the park. 


Eighth place. "(In)visible Paths" Project. Authors: OKRA (Netherlands), City architectural bureau PR (Russia)


Eighth place. "(In)visible Paths" Project. Authors: OKRA (Netherlands), City architectural bureau PR (Russia)


Eighth place. "(In)visible Paths" Project. Authors: OKRA (Netherlands), City architectural bureau PR (Russia)


Eighth place. "(In)visible Paths" Project. Authors: OKRA (Netherlands), City architectural bureau PR (Russia)


Eighth place. "(In)visible Paths" Project. Authors: OKRA (Netherlands), City architectural bureau PR (Russia)


Eighth place. "(In)visible Paths" Project. Authors: OKRA (Netherlands), City architectural bureau PR (Russia)


Eighth place. "(In)visible Paths" Project. Authors: OKRA (Netherlands), City architectural bureau PR (Russia)


***

9 / Fifty Gardens of Sokolniki
Authors: Ove Arup & Partners International Limited 


Ninth place. "50 Gardens of Sokolniki - the Pride of Russia". Authors: Ove Arup & Partners International Limited

The starting point and the momentum factor for the development of the park could be a large international expo event - for example, a landscape biennale, meant to celebrate Russian nature and Russian culture. The authors of the project propose to divide the territory of the park into fifty plots that will be every two years, within the framework of the biennale, handled by landscape architects and designers from all over the world. Thus, for the development of the park it is necessary to make four major steps: protect the forest and the historical planning, create a full-scale international expo event, think out the infrastructure, and expand the "mobility" of the park and its "bio-variety" by making a large-scale reservoir.


Ninth place. "50 Gardens of Sokolniki - the Pride of Russia". Authors: Ove Arup & Partners International Limited


Ninth place. "50 Gardens of Sokolniki - the Pride of Russia". Authors: Ove Arup & Partners International Limited


Ninth place. "50 Gardens of Sokolniki - the Pride of Russia". Authors: Ove Arup & Partners International Limited


Ninth place. "50 Gardens of Sokolniki - the Pride of Russia". Authors: Ove Arup & Partners International Limited


Ninth place. "50 Gardens of Sokolniki - the Pride of Russia". Authors: Ove Arup & Partners International Limited


Ninth place. "50 Gardens of Sokolniki - the Pride of Russia". Authors: Ove Arup & Partners International Limited
 
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22 September 2014

Headlines now
Resort on the Kama River
Wowhaus has developed a project for the reconstruction of Korabelnaya Roshcha (“Mast Grove”), a wellness resort located on the banks of the Kama River.
Nests in Primorye
The eco-park project “Nests”, designed by Aleksey Polishchuk and the company Power Technologies, received first prize at the Eco-Coast 2025 festival, organized by the Union of Architects of Russia. For a glamping site in Filinskaya Bay, the authors proposed bird-shaped houses, treehouses, and a nest-shaped observation platform, topping it all with an entrance pavilion executed in the shape of an owl.
The Angle of String Tension
The House of Music, designed by Vladimir Plotkin and the architects of TPO Reserve, resembles a harp, and when seen from above, even a bass clef. But if only it were that simple! The architecture of the complex fuses two distinct expressive languages: the lattice-like, transparent, permeable vocabulary of “classical” modernism and the sculptural, ribbon-like volumes so beloved by today’s neo-modernism. How it all works – where the catharsis lies, which compositional axes underpin the design, where the project resembles Zaryadye Concert Hall and where it does not – read in the article below.
How Historic Tobolsk Becomes a Portal to the Future
Over the past decade, the architectural company Wowhaus has developed urban strategies for several Russian cities – Vyksa, Tula, and Nizhnekamsk, to name but a few. Against this backdrop, the Tobolsk master plan stands out both for its scale – the territory under transformation covers more than 220 square kilometers – and for its complexity.
St. Petersburg vs Rome
The center of St. Petersburg is, as we know, sacred – but few people can say with certainty where this “sacred place” actually begins and ends. It’s not about the formal boundaries, “from the Obvodny Canal to the Bolshaya Nevka”, but about the vibe that feels true to the city center. With the Nevskaya Ratusha complex – built to a design that won an international competition – Evgeny Gerasimov and Sergei Tchoban created an “image of the center” within its territory. And not so much the image of St. Petersburg itself, as that of a global metropolis. This is something new, something that hasn’t appeared in the city for a long time. In this article, we study the atmosphere, recall precedents, and even reflect on who and when first called St. Petersburg the “new Rome”. Clearly, the idea is alive for a reason.
On the Wave
The project of transforming the river port and embankment in the city of Cheboksary, developed by the ATRIUM Architects, involves one of the city’s key areas. The Volga embankment is to be turned into a riverside boulevard – a multifunctional, comfortable, and expressive space for work and leisure activities. The authors propose creating a new link with the city’s main Krasnaya (“Red”) Square, as well as erecting several residential towers inspired by the shape of the traditional national women’s headdress – these towers are likely to become striking accents on the Volga panorama.
Valery Kanyashin: “We Were Given a Free Hand”
The Headliner residential complex, the main part of which was recently completed just across from Moscow City, is a kind of neighbor to the MIBC that doesn’t “play along” with it. On the contrary, the new complex is entirely built on contrast: like a city of differently scaled buildings that seems to have emerged naturally over the past 20 years – which is a hugely popular trend nowadays! And yet here – perhaps only here – such a project has been realized to its full potential. Yes, high-rises dominate, but all these slender, delicate profiles, all these exciting perspectives! And most importantly – how everything is mixed and composed together... We spoke with the project’s leader Valery Kanyashin.
​The Keystone
Until quite recently, premium residential and office complexes in Moscow were seen as the exclusive privilege of the city center. Today the situation is changing: high-quality architecture is moving beyond the confines of the Third Ring Road and appearing on the outskirts. The STONE Kaluzhskaya business center is one such example. Projects like this help decentralize the megalopolis, making life and work prestigious in any part of the city.
Perpetuum Mobile
The interior of the headquarters of Natsproektstroy, created by the IND studio team, vividly and effectively reflects the client’s field of activity – it is one of Russia’s largest infrastructure companies, responsible for logistics and transport communications of every kind you can possibly think of.
Water and Light
Church art is full of symbolism, and part of it is truly canonical, while another part is shaped by tradition and is perceived by some as obligatory. Because of this kind of “false conservatism”, contemporary church architecture develops slowly compared to other genres, and rarely looks contemporary. Nevertheless, there are enthusiasts in this field out there: the cemetery church of Archangel Michael in Apatity, designed by Dmitry Ostroumov and Prokhram bureau, combines tradition and experiment. This is not an experiment for its own sake, however – rather, the considered work of a contemporary architect with the symbolism of space, volume, and, above all, light.
Champions’ Cup
At first glance, the Bell skyscraper on 1st Yamskogo Polya Street, 12, appears strict and laconic – though by no means modest. Its economical stereometry is built on a form close to an oval, one of UNK architects’ favorite themes. The streamlined surface of the main volume, clad in metal louvers, is sliced twice with glass incisions that graphically reveal the essence of the original shape: both its simplicity and its complexity. At the same time, dozens of highly complex engineering puzzles have been solved here.
Semi-Digital Environment
In the town of Innopolis, a satellite of Kazan, the first 4-star hotel designed by MAD Architects has opened. The interiors of the hotel combine elegance with irony, and technology with comfort, evoking the atmosphere of a computer game or maybe a sci-fi movie about the near future.
History never ends
The old railway station in Kapan, a city in southern Armenia, has been given new life by the Paris-based design firm Normal Studio. Today, it serves as a TUMO center.
A Deep, Crystal Shine
A new luxury residential development by ADM architects is set to rise in the Patriarch’s Ponds district, not far from Novopushkinsky Square. It will replace three buildings erected in the early 1990s. The project authors, Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova, have placed their bets on the variety among the three volumes, modern design solutions, and attention to detail: one of the buildings will feature smoothly curved balconies with a ceramic sheen on their undersides, while another will be accented by glass “sculpture” columns.
Grigory Revzin: “What we should do with the architecture of the seventies”
Soviet modernism came in two flavors: the good, author-driven kind, and the bad, standardized kind. The good kind was “on the periphery”, while the bad kind was in the center – geographically, in terms of attention, scale, and everything else. Can we demolish it? “That would be destroying public consensus out of thin air”. So what should we do? Preserve it, but creatively: “Bring architecture into places where it hasn’t yet appeared”. Treat these buildings not as monuments, but as urban landscape. Read our interview with Grigory Revzin on the pressing topic of saving modernism – where he proposes a controversial, yet really intriguing, way of preserving 1970s buildings.
A Roadside Picnic of Urban Planning Theorists
Marina Egorova, head of Empate Architectural Bureau, brought together urban planning theorists – the successors of Alexey Gutnov and Vyacheslav Glazychev – to revive the substance and depth of professional discourse. At the first meeting, much ground was covered: the participants revisited the theoretical foundations, aligned their values, examined a cutting-edge case of the Kazan agglomeration, and concluded with the unfathomable intricacies of Russian land demarcation. Below, we present key takeaways from all the presentations.
Perspective View
CNTR Architects has designed a business center for a new district in Yekaterinburg, aiming to reduce the need for commuting and make the residential environment more diverse. The architectural solutions are equally focused on creating spatial flexibility, comfortable working conditions, and a memorable image that could allow the building to become a spatial landmark of the district.
Malevich and Bathhouses, Nature and High-Tech
The Malevich Bathhouse complex is scheduled to open in the fall of 2025 on the Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Highway. The project, designed by DBA-GROUP under the leadership of Vladislav Andreev, is an example of an unconventional approach to the image of a spa in general and of a bathhouse in particular. Deliberately avoiding any kind of allusion, the architects opted for streamlined forms with characteristic rounded corners, a combination of wood with bent glass, and restrained contemporary shapes – both inside and out. Let’s take a closer look at the project.
Rather, a Tablecloth and a Glass!
After many years, the long-abandoned Horse Guards Department building in St. Petersburg has finally received the attention it deserves: according to a design by Studio 44, the first restoration and adaptation works are scheduled to begin this year. Both the intended function and the general scope of works imply minimal alteration to the complex, which has preserved traces of its three-century history. All solutions are reversible and aimed, above all, at opening the monument to the city and immersing it in a lively social scene – hence the choice of a cultural center scenario with a strong gastronomic component.
​Materialization of Airflows
The Nikolai Kamov International Airport in Tomsk opened at the end of August last year. We have already written about the project – now we are taking a look at the completed building. Its functionality is reinforced by symbolic undertones: the architects at ASADOV sought to reflect local identity in the architecture as fully as possible.
The City as a Narrative
Sergey Skuratov’s approach to large urban plots could best be described as a “total design code”. The architect pays equal attention to the overall composition and the smallest of details, striving to ensure that every aspect is thoroughly thought out and subordinated to the original vision. It’s a Renaissance-like approach, really – a titanic effort demanding remarkable willpower and perseverance. The results are likewise grand – architecture that makes a statement. This article looks at the revived concept for the central section of the Seventh Heaven residential district in Kazan, a composition so thoroughly considered that even the “gradient of visual emphasis” (sic!) across the facades has been carefully worked out. It also touches on the narrative idea behind the project – and even the architect’s own doubts about it.
A Garden of Hope for Freedom
In October, at the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery in Suzdal, the Prison Yard Garden opened on the site that had served as a prison from the 18th century until the Khrushchev Thaw. The architectural concept was developed by NOῨD Short Film, and the landscape design by the MOX landscape bureau. In fact, there are two gardens here – very different ones. We try to understand whether they evoke the right emotions in visitors, while also showing the beauty of June’s ruderal plants in bloom.
A Laconic Image of Time
The Time Square residential complex, built on the northern edge of St. Petersburg, appears more concise and efficient than its neighbor and predecessor, the New Time complex. Nevertheless, the architect’s hand is clearly felt: themes of “black and white”, “inside and outside”, and most notably, the “lamellar” quality of the facades that seems to visibly “eat away” at the buildings’ mass – everything is played out like a well-written score. One is reminded of both classical modernism and the so-called “post-constructivism”.
The Flower of the Lake
The prototype for the building of the Kamal Theater in Kazan is an ice flower: a rare and fragile natural phenomenon of Lake Kaban “froze” in the large, soaring outlines of the glass screens enclosing the main volume, shaping its silhouette and shielding the stained-glass windows from the sun. The project, led by the Wowhaus consortium and including global architecture “star” Kengo Kuma, won the 2021/2022 competition and was realized close to the original concept in a short – very short – period of time. The theater opened in early 2025. It was Kengo Kuma who proposed the image of an ice flower and the contraposition of cold on the outside and warmth on the inside. Between 2022 and 2024, Wowhaus did everything possible to bring this vision to life, practically living on-site. Now we are taking a closer look at this landmark building and its captivating story.
Peaceful Integration on Mira Avenue
The MIRA residential complex (the word mir means “peace” in Russian), perched above the steep banks of the Yauza River and Mira Avenue, lives up to its name not only technically, but also visually and conceptually. Sleek, high-rise, and glass-clad, it responds both to Zholtovsky’s classicism and to the modernism of the nearby “House on Stilts”. Drawing on features from its neighbors, it reconciles them within a shared architectural language rooted in contemporary façade design. Let’s take a closer look at how this is done.
An Interior for a New Format of Education
The design of the new building for Tyumen State University (TyumSU) was initially developed before the pandemic but later revised to meet new educational requirements. The university has adopted a “2+2+2” system, which eliminates traditional divisions into groups and academic streams in favor of individualized study programs. These changes were implemented swiftly – right at the start of construction. Now that the building is complete, we are taking a closer look.
Penthouses and Kokoshniks
A new residential complex designed by ASADOV Architects for the Krasnaya Roza business district responds to its proximity to 17th-century landmarks – the chambers of the Hamovny Dvor and St. Nicholas Church – as well as to the need to preserve valuable façades of a historic rental house built in the Russian Revival style. The architects proposed a set of buildings of varying heights, whose façades reference ecclesiastical architecture. But we were also able to detect other associations.
Centipede Town
The new school campus designed by ATRIUM Architects, located on the shores of a protected lake in the Imeretian Lowland Ornithological Reserve, represents an important and ambitious undertaking for the team: this is not just a school, but a Presidential Lyceum for the comprehensive development of gifted children – 2,500 students from age 3 through high school. At the same time, it is also envisioned as a new civic hub for the entire Sirius territory. In this article, we unpack the structure and architecture of this “lyceum town”.
Warm Black and White
The second phase of “Quarter 31”, designed by KPLN and built in the Moscow suburb town of Pushkino, reveals a multifaceted character. At first glance, the complex appears to be defined by geometry and a monochrome palette. But a closer look reveals a number of “irregular” details: a gradient of glazing and flared window frames, a hierarchy of façades, volumetric brickwork, and even architectural references to natural phenomena. We explore all the rules – and exceptions – that we were able to discover here.