Architectural company - AREP (France) was recognized as the winner of a competition for the best town-planning concept for the Skolkovo Innovation Center. The President of Skolkovo Foundation, Viktor Vekselberg, made this announcement.Twenty-seven offers were initially submitted. Two finalists of the competition on developing the best town-planning concept for the innovation center were chosen at a meeting of the Town-Planning Council of the Foundation on December 20, 2010. Along with AREP, a Dutch company - OMA also became a finalist. Later the discussions of both concepts were submitted to a wider audience, in particular, to online voting on the official website of the Foundation. In addition, the two concepts were presented to the largest global companies in January of this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“The choice was not easy to make,” noted the City-Manager of the Foundation, Victor Maslakov. “Why AREP? This project won for two reasons. First, it best corresponds to the culture of the city of science. Second, the city is not a frozen substance, it is developing, growing. AREP’s project allows us to master the new territory stage by stage and to introduce new technologies.”The building program of the innovation center in the Moscow Region is estimated to last five years, during this time new approaches and technologies may appear, for example, in the sphere of power efficiency, the City-Manager has noted, having added, that the AREP project will allow them to experiment without having any “points of no return”.The AREP concept, according to its founders, means the creation of an “urban village”, combining conveniences of a modern city with elements of a rural life. The authors of the project propose to divide the territory of the innovation center into five villages, according to five priority areas of work of the innovation center. Thus the general zone will be created within the city center, where the guest part, research university and necessary general purpose objects will be located.Previously Maslakov announced that the realization of the town-planning concept will take five years and will require 100-120 billion rubles, thus the joint financing of the construction will be made in equal shares by the state and private business.
“The Skolkovo Foundation budget for 2011 is 750 million dollars,” the President of the Foundation Viktor Vekselberg has told to journalists on Friday. “This money will be spent for the construction of the ‘physical Skolkovo’, creation of the Skolkovo Technological University and for support of innovative projects of the Foundation,” he announced.
This year the Foundation will spend 300 million dollars for financing of innovative projects, to be realized in Skolkovo, Mr. Vekselberg added.
The Skolkovo Innovation Center in the Moscow suburbs should become the largest testing ground of the new economic policy of Russia. On the specially designated territory, will be created special conditions for research and development, including for the creation of power and energy efficient technologies, nuclear, space, biomedical and computer technologies.