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​The Eastern Frontier

“The Eastern Arc” is one of the main land resources of Kazan’s development, concentrated in the hands of a single owner. The Genplan Institute of Moscow has developed a concept for the integrated development of this territory based on an analytical transport model that will create a comfortable living environment, new centers of attraction, and new workplaces as well.

09 March 2023
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In 2020, the Genplan Institute of Moscow came up with a master plan for developing the city of Kazan up until 2040. The republic’s capital opted for the path of polycentric development: along with the consolidation of a compact city, there is also the task of developing its peripheral areas, where there is still a lot of vacant land, not burdened by any restrictions. Until recently, this process went on, if not spontaneously, then quite freely for sure: for example, on the western outskirts of the city, on the side of the suburban town of Zelenodolsk, dense residential complexes, from 17 to 25 floors high, are shooting up into the sky, often with transport infrastructure lagging behind, and with a minimal social load in the form of standard schools and kindergartens. The housing complexes “Salavat Kupere”, “Zalesny City”, and others, are “blood brothers” of similar complexes of Saint Petersburg, seeing that the current population of Kazan is 1.3 million people.

On the east side, there are also undeveloped hectares of former agricultural land, the so-called “eastern arc”. It became part of the city after the approval of the 2007 master plan, after which Kazan in this part acquired the structure of a “puff pie”: dense historical buildings gradually merge with Soviet city blocks, which are then replaced by a belt of modern quarters, followed by a “lush” layer of townhouses and, finally, there is the “eastern arc”, which is destined to become the “crust” of the latest architecture.

The location plan
Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest


Today, the “arc” consists predominantly of undeveloped expanses of land with ravines, forests, brooks, and odd industrial facilities. The master plan does not stipulate any specific parameters or volumes of construction for this territory. At the same time, the 10,000 hectares of the “eastern arc” ended up staying in the hands of a single owner, the ASG Invest Group. This creates a chance of avoiding the fate of the western part of the city and creating instead a living environment worthy of Tatarstan’s capital, which in recent years does not cease to surprise us with breathtaking architectural projects and events.

The potential of the “Eastern Arc”
Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest


The Genplan Institute of Moscow was not the first to work with the “eastern arc”. However, its resources and expertise allowed the architects to make the most of their predecessors’ ideas and form an integrated proposal based on the principles of modern urbanism and substantiated by analytical calculations.

Maxim Vikulin, the head of architectural and planning office

The concept of integrated development of the “Eastern Arc” is one of the largest regional projects of the Institute in terms of both the scale of the territory and the detail of design solutions. This project is part of a continuous cycle of systematic and consistent work of the Institute with Kazan since 2014 – from the preparation of the master plan and developing land use and development rules to the development of documentation on the planning of the territory. This practice of complex interaction with the territory “from general to specific” allows the Institute to increase its competence in the region and act as one of the key urban planning experts evaluating and determining the directions of spatial development of the city.


The territory of the existing development in accordance with the general plan
Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest


Prerequisites for the development of the territory of the “Eastern Arc”
Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest


One of the key factors that determine the development of the future residential area is the transport infrastructure. The basis of its framework is formed by the already existing and freshly built city highways. One of the main ones is the Mamadyshsky Highway that connects this territory with the city and Highway M7. Due to the fact that today this highway is on constant overload, the Genplan Institute of Moscow proposes to modernize the junctions and tributaries, as well as to organize additional public transportation stops. Another one is the Voznesensky Highway (now in construction), which will give a lot of momentum to the development of the eastern part of the city. The third key solution is the new chord highway that will traverse the arc from north to south and ensure the connection between the forming residential areas and public centers.

The construction stages are strictly coordinated with the development of the transportation network: the Institute tested each stage with simulation software. The accessibility of the future residential area will also be ensured by a metro and a tram line, also included in the master plan.

Planned development of the road network
Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest


The design territory is divided into nine sites of different sizes, for which the Institute developed overall concepts, and will later develop territory planning projects. Each of the future “micro-districts” is self-contained because it is filled with infrastructure, shopping malls and business centers, sports and cultural facilities, parks and boulevards, as well as engineering and transport infrastructure projects. Each district will receive a business core, as well as recreation zones. The density of construction will be slightly lower than in Kazan’s “mid-belt”, which was formed in the Soviet time, or comparable to it on some nod territories, and will be about one and a half times lower than in the post-Soviet areas.

The stages of development
Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest


The territories will mutually supplement each other, creating a polycentric system: one district may have a large sports facility in it, and another may have a cultural one. Since this part of the city arouses investment interest in logistics projects and production facilities, there are also plans for building a few industrial parks. In addition, on the other side of Highway M7, which serves as the border of the “arc” and the city, there is a brick plant and other production facilities and logistics centers already in operation. Thus, housing will be accompanied by jobs, which will reduce labor migration to the city center and the load on the roads.

Vitaly Lutz, the head of perspective project depeartment

One of the key ideas of our concept is the creation of a “necklace” of mini-cities that have not only functional saturation and specialization, but also spatial and environmental fullness. Each such mini-city has its own “main” place and a sufficient variety of public spaces: squares, boulevards, shopping streets, and so on. This approach is close to the one we tried to implement in the settlement of Voronovskoye.


The concept of the “Eastern Arc”
Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest


Yet another thing that makes the Eastern Arc different is a large share of greenery. The existing forests and individual parts of valuable natural terrain will be preserved and turned into parks. This is how the new areas will be different from the rest of Kazan that you cannot really call a green city. The eastern arc has all the prerequisites for creating a single green framework with diverse recreation zones and eco paths. There are challenges as well – for example, the yet-to-be-built “South Park” area (yes, so-called), there is a large landfill of solid household waste. In the future, however, this problem seems to be solved, since the city and the republic understand the need to transfer this facility and recultivate the existing landfill and are gradually working out various options for appropriate solutions to normalize the environmental situation in the eastern sector of the city as one of the key ones for long-term development. Considering the fact that last year Tatarstan was pronounced to be the most ecological region of Russia in accordance with the “sustainable development” index, you can believe in the positive outcome.

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    The “Samosyrovo” area, visualization
    Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest
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    The “Samosyrovo” area, visualization
    Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest
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    Architectural and planning organization of the “Samosyrovo” area
    Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest
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    Proposals for the development of a natural and recreational complex. The “Samosyrovo” area
    Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest
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    Proposals for the development of social infrastructure. The “Samosyrovo” area
    Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest
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    Proposals for the development of transport infrastructure. The “Samosyrovo” area
    Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest


Thanks to its all-rounded analytics and integrated approach, the Eastern Arc was recognized to be the best town-planning concept at the forum Kazanysh-2022. It is expected that the implementation of the project will start in 2023, and will take about 30-40 years. First of all, they will develop territories adjacent to the Mamadysh and Voznesensky Highways – “Quiet Haven” and “Samosyrovo”. Developing the land of the Eastern Arc will allow the city to put into operation from 150,000 to 300,000 square meters of housing annually.

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    The “Quiet Haven” area, visualization
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    The “Quiet Harbor” area, visualization
    Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest
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    Architectural and planning organization of the “Quiet Haven” area
    Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest
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    Proposals for the development of a natural and recreational complex. The “Quiet Haven” area
    Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest
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    Proposals for the development of social infrastructure. The “Quiet Haven” area
    Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest
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    Proposals for the development of transport infrastructure. The “Quiet Harbor”area
    Copyright: © Genplan Institute of Moscow, ASG Invest


09 March 2023

Headlines now
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.
​Skylights and Staircase
Photos from March show the nearly completed headquarters of FSK Group on Shenogina Street. The building’s exterior is calm and minimalist; the interior is engaging and multi-layered. The conical skylights of the executive office, cast in raw concrete, and the sweeping spiral staircase leading to it, are particularly striking. In fact, there’s more than one spiral staircase here, and the first two floors effectively form a small shopping center. More below.