Ilsur Metshin: “We will create a place from this visionary site that Kazan citizens will be proud of for the next decades”

Today, a presentation of the concept of complex development of the territory at Portovaya street was held at the Executive Committee of Kazan. Ilsiyar Tukhvatullina, chief architect of Kazan, told the owners of facilities, as well as the architectural community and potential investors about the plans to transform the old industrial zone into a well-developed and developed area of the city.

Plans for transformation the industrial zone: a 9-kilometer embankment, 30 ha of public space and a pier for boats

Opening the meeting, Kazan Mayor Ilsur Metshin noted that Kazan has a unique means - a fantastic beauty of water bodies. However, in this area, access to the water is blocked by the communal storage area: warehouses, garages, and utility facilities. The time has come to change that. According to the adopted General Plan of Kazan, this territory is one of the growth points.

According to Ilsiyar Tukhvatullina, the municipal territory with an area of 247 hectares on the picturesque bank of the Volga river has been used since Soviet times for warehouses, garages, utility facilities and berthing place for cargo ships, as well as the base of the elevator. A number of companies stand idle. As the result, the initial functional purpose of the territory has lost its relevance.

Several years ago, the city authorities announced that the territory near the river port should transfer from a depressed industrial zone into a growth point for Kazan, an urban oasis with unique views of the Volga.

In order to saturate this area with social and cultural functions, it is supposed to implement a multifunctional housing development. Along the entire coastal zone, it is planned to create a landscaped embankment. There will also be a real harbor for small boats, the so-called marina.

The elevator building, which has lost its status as a strategic facility, will be transformed for public needs: for example, a youth center may establish here. Other interesting proposed sites include the congress hall, the center for urban studies, the center for Muslim culture, and the pedestrian bridge between the coastlines.

Along with public buildings, residential housing will be built here, as well as new schools and kindergartens.

The concept emphasizes that it is necessary to preserve the authenticity of the district, the national identity of our culture, including at facade and even spatial solutions.

“We will talk to each owner and seek for common solutions”

During the work on the concept of integrated development of the territory of the River port, in the opinion of Mayor Ilsur Metshin, it is necessary to consider the best experience of foreign cities. “We need to solve a lot of issues that will determine the development of Kazan for centuries to come, - he said. -We approached this work having a good experience: we have achieved a lot in the development of the city. But also, in many of the issues that we face today, solutions already exist – the bicycle was invented before us. We should not hesitate to use the experience of the best international experts who have already travelled that road. Another thing is that our identity and national recognition should be used as much as possible, so that it is immediately clear that this is not Amsterdam, but Kazan”.

The discussion of the concept will take place weekly in the mode of the working sessions, the Mayor said. “We will talk to each owner, we will meet and seek for common solutions”, - I.Metshin summed up.