Gillespies wins international competition to deliver an ‘eco-friendly, healthy’ landscape for Presnensky Val 27 in Moscow

Gillespies has won a competition, launched by leading Russian developer PIK Group, to deliver an innovative ‘post-covid’ landscape and urban vision for Presnensky Val 27, a new residential and business complex in Moscow’s Presnensky District, close to many of the city’s key landmarks.

The paid competition, which was launched in August 2020, sought innovative proposals to create a new sustainable, healthy and vibrant community, that would lead the way in delivering resilient and beautiful landscape solutions to help combat the challenges and uncertainties brought by the recent Covid -19 pandemic and the ongoing climate emergency.

Designed by Dutch firm MADMA with Apex/PIK (RU), Presnensky Val 27 will provide business and economy class residential accommodation together with underground parking, retail spaces, new kindergartens, and a series of reimagined historic buildings and around 8-hectares of open space.

Gillespies’ competition-winning landscape masterplan and strategy embeds nature into the heart of the development through the design of a large, natural and immersive parkland landscape that permeates through the site. The parkland is defined and characterised by a number of distinct ‘outdoor rooms’, establishing a platform for safe and healthy living. The proposals feature two bold community plazas at the eastern and western end of the site connected by a central tree-lined boulevard, as well as a series of smaller landscape interventions, which include open lawn areas for exercise, socialising and relaxation, densely planted pocket parks with seating areas, play hubs and sport pods, a network of green walking and cycle routes, and a trim trail with swathes of grasses and seasonal planting.

These landscape proposals were guided by the practice’s established ‘post-covid-19’ design principles: a robust landscape framework that responds to the health crisis without impinging on the underlying fabric and quality of our cities' spaces.

Eugenia Grilli, Partner at Gillespies, commented on the win:

“This is an important piece of work for Gillespies as it affords us an opportunity to put our new nature-led urbanism approach into practice in Russia, as well as test some of the principles we have developed within our Post Covid-19 Design Manuals, which we have recently delivered for some of our pioneering clients. Recent events have demonstrated that the relationship we have with our open spaces and buildings is changing forever, and establishing a connection with nature is now more important than ever. We’re delighted to be helping PIK Group continue to lead the way in the delivery of healthy and well-designed landscapes in Russia, that will improve citizens’ quality of life, restore and enhance ecosystems and, in turn, combat climate change.”