Zaha Hadid Architects to build 460-hectare Russian smart city

Euan Black

First published 16 November 2018, 12:21pm

The smart city will house 66,500 residents, alongside schools, medical clinics, cultural institutions and 800,000 square metres of office space. Picture supplied

Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) and TPO Pride Architects have been selected by a competition jury to build Rublyovo-Arkhangelskoye, a new smart city west of Moscow.

The winning design incorporates electric mobility and other smart technologies into a 460-hectare neighbourhood that will house 66,500 residents, alongside schools, medical clinics, cultural institutions and 800,000 square metres of office space.

A new 19km metro line – scheduled to begin construction in 2020 – will connect residents to the Shelepikha interchange station of Moscow’s Metro system.

The smart city will span 460 hectares. Picture supplied

According to ZHA, the project was informed by the belief that people’s wellbeing and happiness can be improved through “greater interaction with their local community”. As a result, the design includes plenty of public spaces, and reserves one third of the neighbourhood’s space for parklands and forests bordering the Moscow River.

“We developed a people-centric design for a smart interconnected city that brings people together not only through innovative technology but also through organising the public realm,” ZHA project director Christos Passas said in a statement.

The integration of smart technologies into the neighbourhood will be guided by an EDF Group-designed computer program that simulates the project’s development policy over the long-term.

Zaha Hadid Architects said they will build the city in stages, to give residents time to adjust to the technologies. Picture supplied

According to EDF, the program will help to optimise “the consumption and local production of energy, supporting the development of electric mobility and rolling out new technologies and services to ensure the quality of life of the future residents”.

The project, which will also be developed by Nikken Sekkei, UNK Project, Archea Associati and ABD Architects, has been designed to ease the burden of Moscow’s rapid population growth. The city’s population has grown by more than 3 million people in 20 years, and its public services are struggling to keep up.