Competition organizers Archpolis have announced an international shortlist of ten practices that will go on to compete for the chance to redesign Moscow's Sokolniki Park. The park, which at 515 Hectares is the largest park in Moscow, is an important part of Moscow's Heritage, having first been used for recreation as a site for falcon hunting in the 15th century.
During the 19th century, the park was officially established, and bestowed with a distinctive radial design.The winner of the competition will be expected to work within this framework, as in 1979 the park became a protected monument of garden-park design from the 17th through 19th centuries.
Read on after the break for the shortlist
The shortlist was decided based on the strength of the practices' portfolios, as well as an essay outlining their vision for the park. "Special attention in the participants’ works was paid not only to realized projects but, first of all, to the vision of the park’s problems, urbanistic solutions to strengthen the connection between the city and the park, as well as the ideas related to park integration into the everyday city life," said Sergei Georgievsky, partner at Archpolis and Head of the Competition Organizing Committee.
"We do not set the task of increasing the number of Sokolniki Park visitors, our aim is to redistribute the flows," added Marina Lyulchuk, Director of Mosgorpark. "Today the main load is concentrated in the central part of the park, and we want the competitors to put forward ideas related to optimal territory zoning and its rational use."
The Shortlisted Practices:
- Turenscape (China)
- Arup (UK)
- Debarre Duplantiers Associés (France)
- MLA+ B.V. (Netherlands);
- Wowhaus (Russia)
- Estudio Rubio & Álvarez-Sala (Spain)
- OKRA (Netherlands)
- ilex [Paysages-Urbanism] (France)
- Cruz y Ortiz arquitectos (Spain)
- LOLA landscape architects (Netherlands)
