On January 20, at the “Garazh” Center of Contemporary Culture, representatives of the general public discussed urban planning concepts for Skolkovo.
The town planning discussions were attended by representatives of partner companies, members of the Skolkovo Innovation Center, representatives of development and construction companies, architects, designers, urban planners, city builders, residents of nearby areas, journalists and concerned members of the public.
The two finalist companies, AREP (France) and OMA (the Netherlands) made detailed presentations of their proposed urban development concepts and highlighted the key benefits of their respective projects.
In particular, a company representative of AREP, Étienne Tricaud, stressed that the main idea of their project – was the creation of an "urban village”. "Yes, this may sound like a paradox. But we like this idea, because it could well become a model for sustainable urban development of the 21st century. This city would be a place where a person can live close to other people, so communications are easier, thus contacts are easier to make and information is quickly shared. A person would have all the conditions needed to work, explore, and invent. At the same time nature is close by, and everyone lives harmoniously. That is actually living and working right next to nature."
The representative of OMA,Reinier de Graaf, said: ''OMA’s urban proposal for Skolkovo Innovation Centre is a flexible framework within which other architects are given the opportunity to design and execute individual buildings, plots, and spaces. But it is precisely the integration of these ideas that will add value to our plan. As such, we are looking forward to all forms of collaboration, both with International as well as Russian colleagues.”
The City Manager of the Skolkovo Fund, Viktor Maslakov said that a final decision on the choice of urban concept for the Skolkovo Innovation Center will be taken in late February at a meeting of the Board of the Fund.
He also said that discussions on the urban development concepts will also be held with foreign partners of the Fund, during an economic forum in Davos on January 26. "Then, on February 2, both concepts will be discussed at a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Fund," - he added.
"After holding discussions on both urban planning concepts, in a broad format, we will better understand what competitive advantages we may gain from each project. In fact, in the language of business, we are now conducting market research. Only this is rather socio-political research," said Victor Maslakov.
According to Mr. Maslakov, the people at the Skolkovo Fund were fully convinced that it was better to postpone a decision by another six weeks, and to use this time to gain a better understanding concerning which architectural design would be the better choice.