In this issue, we are covering the results of the competition for the architectural and town planning concept of “Rublevo-Arkhangelskoe”, which was once supposed to be turned into a “city of millionaires”. The competition took place in the fall of 2018, with three teams winning: Archea Associatii, Nikken Sekkei, and Zaha Hadid Architects, each one in collaboration with their respective Russian partner – ABD architects, UNK project, and TPO Pride Architects.
Written by: Julia Tarabarina Translated by: Anton Mizonov
12 September 2019
Contest Results
Last year in October, an international competition took place for the concept of developing one of the largest territories of Moscow’s west: a 460-hectare chunk of land, 4 million square meters of housing, and some 66 500 residents – Rublevo-Arkhangelskoe in the Zakharkovskaya Poima. The competition was held from May 22 till October 3; the results were announced on the 22nd of October.
Historical Background
This piece of land has been in the developers’ focus of attention for quite a long time: since 2004, word went round about the “city of millionaires” that was designed for 20 thousand people, and designed in the spirit of historicism by John Thompson. In 2007, the project was included in the “Accessible Housing” program, its population increasing up to 40 thousand; many reputed Russian architectural companies were invited: Pavel Andreev, Aleksey Vorontsov, Sergey Kiselev, “Ostozhenka”, and others (read the whole story at ec-a.ru).
In 2011, the development project of the Zakharkovskaya Poima was transferred into sole ownership of Sberbank; right about that time plans were announced for building here the International Financial Center. In 2012, Rublevo-Arkhangelskoe was officially proclaimed a part of New Moscow. In 2013-2014, they conducted a competition for the project of IFC, which was won by Team Moscow – Astoc / HPP, headed by the German company Astoc GmbH & Co. KG, and a contract was drawn up about the modification of the project together with Genplan Institute of Moscow.
In 2015, the expected technical and economic performance of the project was adopted, and public hearings conducted; in 2016, they adopted the site plan that was developed by Genplan Institute of Moscow. Compared to the period of 2004-2009, the area of the project expanded from 430 up to 460 hectares. In the end of 2017, they presented the “Smart City” concept, which “for certain reasons” came to replace the idea of IFC. The Smart City project is led by AO “Rublevo-Arkhangelskoe”, which is part of PAO Sberbank.
The territory of Rublevo-Arkhangelskoe on Google Maps:
***
Smart City and its parameters
The “Smart City” concept presupposes high-technology solutions, in which an important part is played by a single technological platform that serves to unite the city people; environmental concerns are also taken into account. It’s easy to see that this concept is very resonant with the idea of “city of innovation”, Skolkovo, situated ten kilometers south of Rublevo-Arkhangelskoe.
The company’s website describes this city as one that is meant to ensure efficient work, comfortable life, as well as active and meditative recreation. There are plans for building some 800 square meters of offices (possibly, a lot of them will be the headquarters of Sberbank), and three times as much (2.6 million square meters) of housing stock, most of it, more than 90% of the total amount, situated in multi-apartment buildings, prevalent being the elite business class, 53%, followed by comfort class, 37%, and finally, a little less than 10%, the low-rise housing – the latter will occupy the area closer to the border with the Arkhangelskoe Estate, where height restrictions apply. In accordance with the standards, there are plans for building 8 schools, 15 kindergartens, 2 health care centers, one fire station, and one police station; 64 890 square meters of hotels, 196 840 square meters of retail, as well as a 132 000-square-meter shopping mall.
1 / 4
The borders of the zones of capital construction facilities
Copyright: Site Plan of the “Roblevo-Arkhangelskoe” territory
2 / 4
The functional plan of the territory
Copyright: Site Plan of the “Roblevo-Arkhangelskoe” territory
3 / 4
The borders of the zones of engineering lines
Copyright: Site Plan of the “Roblevo-Arkhangelskoe” territory
4 / 4
Area demarcation
Copyright: Site Plan of the “Roblevo-Arkhangelskoe” territory
The parklands must occupy about a third of the entire area, plus 7 kilometers of the green waterfront of the Moskva River, and a 30-hectare lake. Vehicle-free yards, and 30 kilometers of bicycle roads. The Arkhangelskoe Estate heritage site is 2 kilometers away from here on a straight line; 4 kilometers away on a straight line are the buildings of the government of the Moscow Region, designed by Mikhail Khazanov. These are quite likely to be seen from at least half of the windows.
A new “Rublevo-Arkhangelskaya” metro line will be also build here, 19 kilometers long; its construction will be financed jointly by Sberbank, and it will run from “Shelepikha” station, linking the “Smart City” to the “Moscow City” business cluster. The “Arkhangelskaya” station will be the last but one in it; it will be located between the lake and the river, next to the center of the area. There will be also an “Ilinskoe” station, the terminal one for the time being.
The Smart City project is due to be implemented in four stages, the construction beginning in 2021 and ending in 2030.
***
According to the chairman of the judging panel of the competition, Stanislav Kuznetsov, the participants and the experts were to “grope for something that would stay unique not just for years, but for decades to come <...> We must use the world’s best practices and the most advanced ideas to make this city not only technology-based but shaping up the people’s lifestyle as well”.
Thus, the competing companies proceeded from the site plan, developed on the basis of the project that won in 2014 and was approved in 2016. They worked with pre-approved demarcation, redlines, borders of capital facilities construction, and the announced Smart City concept – the original “givens” defined quite a lot of things. In the central part, closer to the north, east of the lake shore, the site plan includes the office buildings with residential houses surrounding them, like they would around the “city” in its own right, very much like the old townships that were built around a Kremlin or a monastery. Therefore, the composition with a high-rise office center was pre-defined for all of the contestants. Meanwhile, one should assume that on an area of 461 hectares any preset parameters would still leave enough room for the architects’ creative freedom.
According to the task of the competition 2018, its participants were to “develop the vision of the project, activity scenarios, the functional content program, and the principles of forming the unique attractiveness of the urban environment and living in this area, as well as present their “smart” ideas”. The contestants themselves chose what was going to be the first stage of construction, and came up with the sketches for building on this territory with detailed elaboration of architectural and planning solutions for all the main types of buildings in the first stage.
Totally, the competition involved seven architectural teams, each with a foreign leader and a Russian local partner. Four collaborations did not reach the finals:
MADMA (Maxwan) / Netherlands
Mecanoo / Netherlands
AREP / France
Aecom / USA
The project was one by three consortiums:
The Italian Archea Associati in collaboration with the Russian ABD architects,
The Japanese Nikken Sekkei in collaboration with the Russian UNK project,
The British Zaha Hadid Architects in consortium with TPO Pride Architects
The three finalists are named in an alphabetical order, not in the order of priority. It is expected that they will be working together; possibly, the best ideas will be combined and improved. As AO “Rublevo-Arkhangelskoe” emphasizes, the end project will not be identical to any of the three winning proposals. In addition, the organizers say, there are also plans for inviting to work on this project “the top architectural companies from different countries for developing headquarters of the office residents, new housing standards, comfortable public spaces, and high-profile cultural projects”.
A brief review of the concepts has been posted on the company’s website, the project by Zaha Hadid Architects getting a slightly more detailed coverage at Archdaily. We asked the organizers for a little bit more detailed information.
Incidentally, we will note here that the Russian architectural market is witnessing the appearance of a few steady collaborations: Nikken Sekkei and UNK project, just as Zaha Hadid Architects and TPO Pride Architects, were involved in the competition for the best pilot venues for Moscow renovation.
“A City for Every Generation”
Archea Associati / ABD architects
Rublevo-Arkhangelskoe, architectural and town planning concept. The competition winning project
The central office part looks noticeably similar to the Moscow City: the arc-shaped glass façades are reminiscent of the Federation Tower, while the smooth chamfers of their tops look very much like Sergey Kiselev’s Mirax Plaza. The silhouette of the central towers is pyramid-like, while on the plan they are placed along the contour of the triangular plaza before the eastern lake shore.
Rublevo-Arkhangelskoe, architectural and town planning concept. The competition winning project
“In its concept of the new city, the team of Archea Associati, in consortium with ABD Architects, paid special attention to modern technologies, diversity of architectural forms, landscape design, and sophisticated automobile and pedestrian traffic schemes” – the press release says. The organizers also note the proposed by the authors “original multilevel solutions for all-season public spaces” – one of them, with an operated green roof and a “television” cantilevered structure that overlooks the lake, is situated on the plaza. The strong sides of the project also include “interesting locations for business residents” and full-fledged infrastructure in each district of the city, making the housing areas independent of the central part.
Rublevo-Arkhangelskoe, architectural and town planning concept. The competition winning project
The slogan of the project – Linked City – has many meanings: in addition to the Russian translation, proposed by the authors, which can be also interpreted as “interacting city”, the English name brings obvious associations with IT terminology, including the proverbial hyperlink. Meaning – it is linked in the sense of being interactive on different levels – a rather futuristic concept. In their proposal, the authors developed the two already mentioned key concepts of a “smart city” – environment and smart technologies. The large amount of public spaces must ensure the development of social interaction and foster a creative environment. The futuristic shapes of the office towers have been defined by the pattern of the prevailing winds and look as if they were “washed” by the steams of air. The flexible glass façades are dissected by thin ribs; the ledgy roof will have large operated terraces commanding the lake views.
Rublevo-Arkhangelskoe, architectural and town planning concept. The competition winning project
“The team of NikkenSekkei, in consortium with UNK project, has built its concept on the combination of advanced technologies applied for designing the engineering systems, creating a smart system of managing and developing the connections within communities, at the same time preserving the unique natural resource of this land and creating new green spaces” – the organizers explain.
Rublevo-Arkhangelskoe, architectural and town planning concept. The competition winning project
Zaha Hadid Architects traditionally placed their bets on nonlinear volumes. The glass façades are dissected by an “exoskeleton” of dense contours, in whose 3D outline one can see an arrested flight of the gymnast’s ribbon. On the other side, the houses, oval on the plan, bear a mark of retrofuturism with a nod to the 1960’s, which can be traced back to the multidimensional name of “Satellite City”, in which one can see the allusions to the romance of space exploration, and to the Soviet “science towns”, whose splendid galaxy is about to be augmented by the innovation town of Skolkovo and the currently designed Smart City.
Rublevo-Arkhangelskoe, architectural and town planning concept. The competition winning project
The Zaha Hadid project provides for a few “nuclei”, each of which features its own specialty of extra public spaces: “art residence” (the cultural nucleus), the laboratory of urban solutions (intellectual nucleus), all-year-round public spaces (space nucleus). According to the judging panel, this concept is different than the other projects by this “star” architectural firm because it is not about “pure architecture”, and proceeds from people’s needs.
Rublevo-Arkhangelskoe, architectural and town planning concept. The competition winning project
The Power of Lines
The building at the very beginning of New Arbat is the result of long deliberations over how to replace the former House of Communication. Contemporary, dynamic, and even somewhat zoomorphic in character, it is structured around a large diagonal grid. The building has become a striking accent both in the perspective of the former Kalinin Avenue and in the panorama of Arbat Square. Yet, unfortunately, the original concept was not fully realized. In 2020, the Moscow ArchCouncil approved a design featuring an exoskeleton – an external load-bearing structure, which eventually turned into a purely decorative element. Still, the power of the supergraphic “holds” the building, giving it the qualities of a new urban landmark with iconic potential. How this concept took shape, what unexpected associations might underlie the grid’s form, and why the exoskeleton was never built – all this is explored in our article.
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.
New Aeroflot Office: Lightness, Play, Comfort
Even if you have no plans to fly with Aeroflot anytime soon, their new office at 2A 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street is still worth a visit for its interior design alone.
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”.
