100% Block City
Press release:
The A101 urban development is a new town for approximately 320.000 inhabitants and 13 million m2 of residential space located south of Moscow. The brief of the Block City Masterplan Competition, asked for the detailed design of the first large part of the development, comprising of 157 ha and 1.3 million m2 for residential use.
The base for all competitors is the Block City concept by the competition’s curator Bart Goldhoorn with Alexander Severdlov which ‘aims at combining the advantages of standard design with the qualities embedded in site-specific design. At least 80% of the blocks in the A101 project will consist of blocks with a given standard dimensions’.
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. ‘Our 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 we create green ‘rooms’ as integral elements. This also contributes to the larger urban structure which connects the competition area with its surrounding context,’ says Ruurd Gietema, urban planner and partner of KCAP.
‘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,’ says Marijn Schenk, architect and partner of NEXT architects.
About KCAP
KCAP Architects&Planners is an internationally operating design firm specialised in architecture and urbanism. KCAP holds offices in Rotterdam (NL), Zurich (CH) and Shanghai (CN) works with a staff of 90 professionals.
KCAP is led by four partners: Han van den Born, Kees Christiaanse, Ruurd Gietema and Irma van Oort, and two directors: Markus Appenzeller and Ute Schneider.
Since its founding in 1989 by Kees Christiaanse, KCAP has grown to be one of the leading offices for architecture and urban planning in Europe and Asia.
About NEXT
NEXT architects is an Amsterdam and Beijing based practice that covers the full spectrum of the architectural field. Since its earliest projects, ‘Holland – Layer by Layer’ and ‘The Image of Metropolis’, NEXT has explored the boundaries of its own discipline, and searched for areas that overlap with other disciplines. This exploratory attitude has resulted in a highly diverse portfolio that ranges from design products to urban plans.
NEXT architects is led by Marijn Schenk, Michel Schreinemachers and Bart Reuser, who currently holds a position of visiting professor at the University of Seoul. NEXT architects China in Beijing is guided by John van de Water. The four architects are trained at Delft University of Technology and teach at a number of educational institutes.
Via: www.KCAP.eu and NEXTarchitects.com
