Strelka KB Launches International Competition for City Centre Integrated Spatial Development

Published on July 31, 2020

Saratov, a Russian city on the Volga River, has launched an International Competition to determine the Best Integrated Spatial Development Concepts for the Development of the City Centre. Saratov is a city located in the southeastern European portion of Russia, a major cultural and economic centre of the Volga region. This open international competition will determine the best concept for integrated development of 5 sites in the central part of the city: the former Saratov-Tsentralny (Saratov-Central) Airport, the Park Pobedy (Victory Park) Memorial Complex on Sokolovaya Gora, Zeleny Island, Glebuchev Ovrag (Glebuchev Ravine) and the Pokrovskie Peski (Pokrovsky Sands) Island.

Founded as a fortress city at the end of the 16th century, Saratov became a key trading centre on the Volga in the 18th and 19th centuries. The flourishing merchant class was responsible for much of Saratov’s historical construction. With the development of the industrial sector in the 20th century, new residential districts were formed. At the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, new construction began to appear farther and farther from the centre of Saratov, creating an increasingly negative impact on public spaces in the historical centre. Solutions based on architectural and urban planning concepts will allow the city to expand its centre, develop public and business functionality, create new public spaces in the city centre and re-evaluate recreational areas in built-up areas.

Denis Leontiev, CEO of Strelka KB, remarked, “The competition’s goal is to choose a concept that can offer options for the use of this territory while accounting for the necessary environmental rehabilitation of green spaces and allowing for the creation of an exemplary residential district on the territory of the former airport. The competition will determine the approaches to the development of these sites for years to come. The project is also important for the historical centre, as the development of new territories will help reduce the usage load on the city’s historical centre.”

Teams from all around the world are invited to participate in the competition. Architects must develop architectural and urban planning concepts for integrated development, including documents that define the primary planning, landscape and transport solutions for a construction or development project. The competition will take place in three stages. In the first stage, a jury of experts will review all of the applications submitted and choose five competition participants. As part of the second stage, each of them must develop an architectural and urban planning concept of integrated spatial development based on the technical brief that they will receive. Based on the results of this stage, the jury will choose two finalists. During the third stage, an exhibit of the finalists’ work will be organised along with a popular vote that will ultimately help determine the winner of the competition. The winner will be chosen by the Government of the Saratov Region, based on the jury’s recommendations and the popular vote. The winner will be announced in Spring 2021.

The jury will be composed of Russian and international experts. Among them are Didier Vancutsem, member of the Board of Directors of the ISOCARP INSTITUTE; Adriaan Gueze, co-founder of West 8 and founder of the Surrealistic Landscape Architecture (SLA) foundation; Ingo Kanehl, managing director of ASTOC GmbH & Co. KG и ASTOC International GmbH; Nikolai Shumakov, president of the Union of Architects of Russia; Igor Sorokin, scholar of local lore and member of the Association of Art Historians (AAH LLC); and other specialists in the architecture and urban planning fields. The full list of jury members can be found on the competition website.

Each of the five competition participants will receive remuneration of 5,500,000 rubles (VAT included) for the creation of their architectural and urban planning concepts. The second-place finalist in the popular vote will receive an additional 2,000,000 rubles. Meanwhile, the competition winner will receive 4,000,000 rubles (VAT included), and will supervise any changes to be made to the urban planning documentation. The international competition is organised by the DOM.RF Foundation, together with the Administration of the Saratov Region. The competition operator is Strelka KB, a consulting company. The competition will be held with the support of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP).

DOM.RF — The DOM.RF Foundation was established by DOM.RF Joint Stock Corporation in 2016. One of the main focuses of the Foundation’s activities is collaboration in creating comfortable living conditions and the formation of a pleasant urban environment. In compliance with an order from Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, and as part of the national Housing and Urban Environment project, the Foundation developed the Integrated Guidelines for Urban Development, a methodological guideline with recommendations on the development and realisation of housing construction projects in redevelopment or new construction conditions, as well as under planned construction on new territories and the development of open public spaces. As part of the Guidelines' pilot programme, the Foundation already created urban redevelopment projects for public spaces in 46 cities, with an overall area of 1,500 hectares

Strelka KB is a leading Russian company offering strategic consulting services in the field of urban development. Since 2013, Strelka KB helps cities develop their spaces, economies, management and technologies based on the demands of their residents. The company develops comprehensive solutions for improving mobility, ecology and sustainability of the urban environment and the quality and accessibility of housing. An important field of the company’s work is the organisation of architectural competitions, which help put Russian cities on the international agenda. Strelka KB’s work has received international recognition and a series of awards, including the Urban Land Institute Awards 2019, ISOCARP Awards 2018, Qatar Sustainability Awards 2018 and LILA Awards 2018

Title
Strelka KB Launches International Competition for City Centre Integrated Spatial Development
Type
Competition Announcement (Ideas)
Organizers
Strelka KB
Submission Deadline
September 03, 2020 11:30 PM
Price
Free