The Mayor of Kazan was shown the development concept for the territory of Nizhny Kaban Lake – K. Taktash Street

(KZN.RU, May 30, Alena Miroshnichenko). The Mayor of Kazan was shown the development concept for the territory of Nizhny Kaban Lake – K. Taktash Street. Oleg Maklakov, the architect, the head of the project team for the concept designing for the sustainable development for the Kazan historical settlement, and Anna Novikova, the leading architect of the Nikolay Novikov creative workshop, told about the development of the territory of the Nizhny Kaban Lake. The meeting took place at the Kazan Executive Committee. The project is being implemented on the instructions of Rustam Minnikhanov, the President of the RT. The area of 2 thousand hectares will become a pilot site in the concept designing for the sustainable development of the historical settlement of the capital of the RT.

According to Oleg Maklakov, the experts developed a fundamentally new approach to solving problems based on the analysis of this territory and its features. Traditionally, only individual areas or the appearance of individual buildings were assessed during construction. “Such an approach is inefficient. The urban environment is a very complex system consisting of various hierarchical structures. Therefore, the first thing we did was take a systematic approach to work on this territory”, he noted. Thus, the experts of the working group presented the structure of the city in the form of 5 main layers: landscape, street network and block pattern, the principle of dividing blocks into households, direct development and its spatial characteristics, the design of the city.

Anna Novikova told in detail about the concept of the historical settlement itself. “The first level, the landscape, is often not given enough attention. But it gives the visual perception of the city, determining its identity. On the territory of Kazan, this is undoubtedly Nizhny Kaban Lake, which historically has always been an accessible place for recreation”, she said. In this regard, the working design group proposes to organize a central city park here, which is necessary in Kazan.

The second layer is the streets that form the neighborhoods. To date, the existing type of division to better stimulates road traffic, rather than pedestrian one. Although the territory of the Sukonnaya Sloboda and neighborhoods formed by Bauman and Profsoyuznaya streets have a comfortable size of streets. In this regard, A. Novikova and her team propose to reduce the scale of the block by creating pedestrian boulevards.

As for the division of blocks into households, as A. Novikova explained, private territories here were small and elongated along the lake. “In order to avoid scale afterward, we propose to limit the second development line to the size of private property”, explained the speaker. German Bakulin, the main architect of the projects “Tatinvestgrazhdanproekt”, supported this idea. He noted that the perpendicularly set objects give visual communication of the territory and internal spaces of the residential block

“As for direct development, we propose to increase the number of floors depend on water: from 4 to 7 floors. Accordingly, the park will have a four-storey front, and a new transport highway of 6-7 floors”, said A. Novikova.

At this stage, the vision of the members of the working group was divided. Thus, Sergey Sanachin, the chief architect of the projects of the Kazan General Plan, was critical of the decision of a stepped rise in the number of floors depending on the water. “I think it’s boring and too schematic. It seems to me that high-altitude bursts included in different parts of the block will be of greater interest”, he said. This opinion is shared by the Mayor of the city. “Why do we always fear that? The whole world uses it. We need some features”, he addressed the colleagues who are developing the project.

German Bakulin expressed his position on this issue. “It seems to me that this territory cannot be oversaturated with skyscrapers, since the overall trend of the urban landscape in this part of the city is to increase the height”, he said.

I. Metshin asked the architects to prepare the visualization of the designed area in various architectural solutions and from different angles for the next meeting.

Taking into account that there are no preserved historical objects in the territory under consideration, it is proposed to use red brick and green tile during construction. “Using the materials that are at the heart of the Zakabannaya Mosque and the Petzold plant, we can create an architectural ensemble”, concluded A. Novikova.

The Mayor of Kazan highly appreciated the idea of creating such an ensemble. He instructed Azat Nigmatzyanov, the first deputy head of the Executive Committee, and the working group to start developing a list of materials preferred for construction.

Summing up the discussion, Oleg Maklakov reminded his colleagues that today's presentation is only a demonstration of approaches and tasks that are designed to define the boundaries. First of all, it concerns the coastline, transverse aisles and permeability of buildings.

“We all like it, but as responsible people who make decisions, we should be absolutely certain about everything”, said I. Metshin.

The next step in developing the concept will be meetings and discussions with developers, landowners, and potential investors.

Azat Nigmatzyanov, the first deputy head of the Executive Committee, Radik Shafigullin, the deputy head of the Executive Committee, Svetlana Persovova, the deputy chairperson of the Committee for the Protection of Objects of Cultural Heritage, Irina Dyabilkina, the head of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Timur Kadyrov, the deputy chief architect of Kazan, Zhanna Belitskaya, the chief artist of Kazan, Alexander Dembich,  the head of the department of urban planning and planning of rural settlements of KSUAE, and others also attended the meeting.