The Skolkovo innovation centre has been shortlisted as a Best Futura Mega Project at the MIPIM Awards 2017, a prestigious ceremony held as part of the MIPIM international property exhibition held annually in the French resort of Cannes.
The decision was taken in Paris this week by the MIPIM jury headed by John Forrester, CEO EMEA of Cushman & Wakefield commercial real estate brokers.
The innovative self-supporting Hypercube was the first building completed at the Skolkovo innovation centre. Photo: Sk.ru,
The winners will be announced at the MIPIM Awards Ceremony on Thursday, March 16 at the Palais de Festivals in Cannes. For three days prior to the ceremony, the finalists’ projects will be on show at the MIPIM exhibition. MIPIM delegates can vote for their favourite projects at the event, and their votes will represent 50 percent of the final results, while the other 50 percent is made up of the jury’s vote.
The Best Futura Mega Project category is for projects bigger than 150,000 square metres that offer “a preview into what the future may hold through distinct architectural, technical and environmental qualities,” according to the awards’ organisers.
The Skolkovo innovation centre is being built on a former greenfield site on the outskirts of Moscow. Its giant Technopark – the biggest in Eastern Europe, covering 96,228 square metres – opened its doors to resident startups at the beginning of this year. Skolkovo is also home to the Hypercube, an innovative, energy-efficient and ecologically friendly building whose only external connection is its electricity supply: in all other aspects, the building is self-supporting.
Other buildings are still under construction, including a striking state-of-the-art campus for the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) and a Sberbank technopark designed by the award-winning late British architect Zaha Hadid.
An aerial view of the Skolkovo innovation city as it should look when completed by 2020. Photo: Sk.ru.
Skolkovo was submitted as a unified project. AREP, the Paris-headquartered firm responsible for the master plan, is listed as the architect, followed by 13 other architects who have worked on individual buildings, including Japan’s Kazuyo Sejima, the U.K.’s David Chipperfield, Italy’s Stefano Boeri, France's Jean Pistre, Russia's Sergey Choban of the architectural bureau SPEECH, and Switzerland's Pierre de Meuron.
Anton Iakovenko, CEO for UDAS Skolkovo, the legal entity responsible for the construction of the Skolkovo innovation centre, said being included on the shortlist was an honour for the Skolkovo team.
“We first presented the Skolkovo innovation centre at MIPIM as a complex development of the urban environment five years ago, so it’s gratifying that we’ve been included in the shortlist of futura mega projects as the project nears completion and is taking shape before our eyes. For us, the 'futura' is not too far away: it’s now,” said Iakovenko, adding that the first residents of Skolkovo’s housing are moving into their new homes next week.
Work on the Skolkovo innovation centre is due to be completed by 2020. Its competitors in the Best Futura Mega Project category are Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City in Japan, the Liget Budapest Project in Hungary and Moinho Fluminense in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
MIPIM brings together representatives of real estate markets around the world for networking via four days of conferences, exhibitions and other events. This year’s event runs from March 14-17 at the Palais des Festivals.
The MIPIM Awards celebrate the most outstanding projects around the world: both completed ones and those that are yet to be built. In total, 214 entries were submitted for this year's MIPIM Awards from 46 countries.