100% Block City
Type: 157 ha / 1.3 million m2 for residential use Location: Moscow Russia Client: Masshtab Development Company Team: Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers, Bart Reuser with Daniel Aw, Jurrian Knijtijzer, Joost Lemmens and Paulo Borlido (NEXT architects) and Ruurd Gietema, Han van den Born with Michael Trinkner (projectleader), Kristina Knauf, Javier Inigo Moreno-Ventas, Sofia Fernandes, Isabel Granados Mesa, Vincent Hector, Matteo Bettoni, Nadya Nilina, Alexandra Merkulova (all KCAP) Collaborator / associate: KCAP architects & Planners Competition: Invited Competition / 2nd prize Status: concept
2011-02-02 invited competition
The design concept of KCAP/NEXT - ‘100% Block City’- proposes a lively alternative to the monotonous drudgery of the late socialist housing style. It creates an attractive, high-quality and comfortable everyday environment in which individual elements effortlessly add up to the harmony of the whole. As hybrid environment 100% Block City brings together and combines the best qualities of various urban typologies - the standard perimeter block, the housing slab and towers. It gives privilege to the pedestrian, promotes urban density and offers best orientation, attractive views and proximity to the green.
100% Block City, refers to the character of the site which is strongly influenced by its landscape surroundings. It embraces these site-specific qualities with a superimposed generic grid. The concept envisions both, the city and the landscape, as a series of blocks within the grid, whether as built or green blocks. Within the logic of the block city grid green ‘rooms’ are created as integral elements. This also contributes to the larger urban structure which connects the competition area with its surrounding context.
The masterplan demonstrates a flexible approach that is able to react to the demographic and economic developments. The infrastructural system and the equilibrium between urban and green blocks guaranty that the city is \'complete\' at every stage of its development. This makes 100% Block City a malleable strategy that can adapt to the uncertainty of the future.