Skolkovo, Russia
We were commissioned to prepare a master plan for a 45Ha site adjacent to the MKAD motorway to the west of Moscow. The façade concept is designed to create a dynamic yet welcoming environment for the occupiers of the Business Park as well as generating a visually powerful landmark
Project Details
Collective Team
We led a team of international design consultants including highway engineering, landscape design and specialist residential and retail architects. We prepared a further concept design for the Phase 1 commercial office component. The master plan was designed for construction in four phases related to the primary land uses: Phase 1 – 100,000sqm NIA offices; Phase 2 – 50,00sqm NIA offices; Phase 3 – 58,000sqm apartments, and Phase 4 – 150,000sqm retail.
The master plan site is 1.6km long and the design takes as a primary influence the extensive landscape and ecological qualities of the site and included a central ‘Green Lung’ to provide high quality external spaces to the business park and residential components of the scheme; a quality unusual in an area close to the centre of Moscow.
A key aspect of the initial analysis was the appraisal of the traffic capacity generated by the development brief and its impact on the surrounding road network. Our recommendation included the redesign of the motorway junctions to improve connection to this vital artery. This reflects our normal approach to the master planning of large-scale site: understanding the infrastructure implications as well as defining buildings and public realm.
The buildings are divided horizontally to respond to two key parts of the local environment, firstly the immediate campus including the central green space (the Green Lung) and secondly the wider neighbourhood of Skolkovo. The design is simple, yet elegant and provides a unique working environment with wide market appeal. A variety of exquisite materials are set into a fluid façade, enabling each building to have its own distinguished identity.
The masterplan contains over 350,000sqm of commercial office, residential and retail space. We have completed the Concept Design for Phase 1 of the office component which comprises a total NLA of 100,000sqm of Grade A commercial office space, incorporating an unusually high parking ratio of one space per 25sqm of offices. The apparent ‘spin’ of the buildings’ orientation is a response to the location and the acoustic / solar protection of the internal landscaped spaces.
Office accommodation is distributed between six similar sized buildings, connected by a lower ground floor which creates a ‘promenade’ linking the different buildings. This promenade level plays an important role in providing free access and movement between the different facilities within the business park and forms an informal hub of activity to help animate the space.
The fragmentation of the building façades also helps to reduce the apparent mass of the office development and positively reinforces the intimacy of the relationship of the buildings with the landscaped public realm.
