Yulia Zubarik: Renovation is the future for building construction in Moscow

Concepts for the five experimental renovation sites will be presented in November, and now the finalists are open to share their ideas and philosophy related to participation in the competition and residential development design with Archcouncil. We present interview with Yulia Zubarik from Master’s Plan Architectural Bureau.

— What opportunities are open for you in this competition?

— First of all, I would like to note that the very fact that we got into the final and our experience has been valued by the reputable jury confirms that we are moving in the right direction and occupy the right niche in the market. Working in the consortium with Ricardo Bofill’s team is a great opportunity for us to exchange experience and views on the development of modern cities and the urban planning system in general with foreign architects.

Like many other architects and experts in the field of urban planning and architecture, we understand that renovation is the future for Moscow’s building construction. This program is the most important for the city for the next 10 years, and it will change many ideas about housing market. And those who are already directly involved in the development and implementation of the Program will be successful. And we want to be right here, right now!

— It is a large-scale and comprehensive project which includes not only residential development, but also social infrastructure facilities — can it be considered an advantage or additional challenge for the design?

— Of course, this implies additional conditions when working out the basic idea of ​​the concept. But we, as an organization that specializes mainly in area planning design, consider housing development only closely interrelated with development of social infrastructure facilities and services. Site designs should be as flexible as possible and provide all the necessary elements of social infrastructure along with the development of transport and engineering services. And that is exactly the goal we want to achieve in this competition.

— The experimental sites for design are all different having their own landscape and location features. What is the most interesting to design on your site? How do you intend to use these special aspects?

— We really like the immediate proximity of the site under design to MGIMO University, and the northern part of the territory offers the view of the main building of the Moscow State University. All of this suggests what other categories of visitors could spend their spare time in this area, public spaces and boulevards, except for the residents and guests of the neighborhood.

— Wave resettlement: is it a good or a bad thing? What should be taken into account for its implementation in terms of architectural design?

—Wave resettlement is a method which was formed more as an adaptive one in the existing closely interconnected structure of Moscow. So far, the city does not have the opportunity to resettle all residents at once, therefore we have to look for additional launching sites, and allocate separate queues for resettlement execution.

— Do you plan to provide parking spaces?

— Yes, of course. In many houses, we provide underground or earth-sheltered parking spaces. We are going to expand the street-road network to accommodate more guest parking lots along the road. We are looking for free areas to place isolated parking lots.

— Social infrastructure facilities. The technical design specification indicates that it is possible to build additional levels and reconstruct already existing objects in the quarter. How can this be done without prejudice to the facility functions?

— It is necessary to provide for the relevant measures in construction master plan; one of them is to use different operating modes for facility daily work and construction processes. As far as educational facilities are concerned, working days shall be after the educational process is finished, at the weekends and during days off.