Moscow Expansion Competition - Winning Entry by CCPG

Capital Cities Planning Group (CCPG), an Anglo-American team including Gillespies, John Thompson & Partners and Buro Happold, has won a prestigious competition to plan the future expansion of the City of Moscow, Russia. The international jury headed by Deputy Mayor Marat Khusnullin awarded two prizes; one to CCPG led by US-based Urban Design Associates for the design and planning of the new Federal District, and the second to Antoine Grumbach & Jean-Michel Wilmotte of Paris for the overall planning of Moscow.

Moscow Agglomeration Plan - Capital Cities Planning Group from JTP on Vimeo.

Project Description from the Architects:

CCPG’s winning proposal calls for a new ‘City in the Forest’ for 1.7 million people, providing 800,000 new jobs with a focus around the ‘Triple Helix of Government, Education and Business’. The new layout reconfigures the 155 km2 earmarked for the district and looks to create an integrated, properly-planned urban hierarchy served by a transit-orientated movement system.

The winning design by CCPG featured a new mixed-use capital district configured around a series of lakes designed by the UK Landscape Design Practice Gillespies. Brian Evans, partner in charge of Gillespies Glasgow Office, who led the British side of the team said: “We are all knocked out by this recognition for our work on the world stage. It seems that our design to use the natural topography of the site to create a series of lakes as the setting for the new Federal District was one of the key factors in the jury’s mind when they appraised the different proposals”.

John Thompson, Chair of John Thompson & Partners & Honorary President of the Academy of Urbanism, said: “We are delighted that our team has won the competition for the design of the new Federal District, bringing together international best practice to create a model for the further expansion of Moscow through the creation of a properly serviced, zero-carbon, transit orientated urban hierarchy set within a forest and lakeside landscape.”

Earlier this year the Russian Federal Government announced that it was doubling the territory of Moscow to enable it to grow into a competitive 21st century world capital. In February 2012, Sergey Sobyanin, the Mayor of Moscow announced an international competition and selected 10 teams from around the world to prepare plans for the Moscow Region, for the City overall and for the planning and design of a new federal capital for the ministries of the federal government.

The Government of Moscow set up a 6 month, 3-stage process with all the teams working and reporting to the Moscow Government on a monthly basis. The finished work of all the teams is currently on show at a public exhibition in Gorky Park.

The Capital Cities Planning Group are:

• Urban Design Associates, Pittsburgh USA
• Beasley & Associates, Vancouver Canada
• Gillespies, Glasgow, UK
• John Thompson & Partners, London UK
• Nelson Nygaard, San Francisco, USA
• Buro Happold, Glasgow UK,
• Group Ark, Moscow, Russia
• Prof Stuart Gulliver, University of Glasgow, UK

The jury was headed by Deputy Mayor of Moscow Marat Khusnullin. The panel also includes the president of the Union of Architects of Russia Andrey Bokov, Dean of the Graduate School of Urban University "Higher School of Economics" Alexander Vysokovsky, Spanish urbanist Alfonso Vegard, curator of the "Greater Paris" Maurice Leroy, Advisor to the Minister of Transportation and Vuk Vuchik member of the Berlin Chamber of Architects Hildebrand Mahlyaydt.

In late February 2012, the expert group selected 10 teams for the competition:

• Ostozhenka (Russia),
• Architectural design workshop Prof. AA Chernikhov "(Russia)
• Moscow Architectural Institute (State Academy) (Russia),
• TSNIIP urban (Russia),
• MARCHI (Russia)
• Antoine Grumbach et Associes/Jean-Michel Wilmotte et Associes (France),
• LAUC (France),
• OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture (Netherlands),
• Ricardo Bofill (Spain),
• Studio ASS SECCHI - VIGANO (Italy) and
• Capital Cities Planning Group - Urban Design Associates (US/UK).

Later, the number of participants was reduced to 9 - MARCHI team was eliminated from the competition.