International Architects Will Participate in the Renovation Program

The Moscow authorities are going to invite foreign architects to design buildings and blocks under the renovation program. Foster + Partners, for example, has a colossal experience in urban environment.

Today Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin met with senior partner of the British architectural company Foster + Partners Luke Fox. Besides the British architects, a number of well-known international experts were invited. The focus of the meeting was the participation in the renovation program; in addition, the possibility of working on the metro and transport-transfer hubs in Moscow was also discussed.

Foster + Partners has a vast experience in creating an urban environment, starting from the master plan to developing blocks. The studio has had design projects in many countries including metro stations, airport terminals, bridges, stadiums, museums, administrative and university buildings, residential and commercial real estate.

Earlier, two international architectural studios: Zaha Hadid Architects and Herzog & de Meuron Architekten announced their interest in the competition for the development of the building concept under the renovation program. The Chief Architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov said that representatives of Zaha Hadid Architects had already come to Moscow and had met with the developers.

«The renovation program is an event of great interest: the world community knows about this project, — says Kuznetsov. — If you look at what architecture awards are given for these days, for example, why the Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena got the Pritzker Prize, it becomes obvious that the topic of renovation is on the cutting edge. The ideology promoted by Aravena is the creation of an environment that maximally raises this quality standard achieved even at the low-budget level.»

The Chief Architect emphasized that this competition is not the first to attract top-ranked world architects. A number of similar projects have already been built or are under construction in Moscow: for example, Zaryadye Park, the concept of the Moskva River development, the industrial area of the Moscow Metallurgical Plant Serp i Molot.