On July 13, the Open International Competition for the creation of an architectural and planning concept for the renovation of the city of Norilsk until 2035 was launched
Norilsk was founded in 1935 and is located in the Russian Arctic at the 69th parallel, and therefore has an extremely harsh subarctic climate. Now Norilsk is developing both as a world-class center of non-ferrous metallurgy and as a center of competence, knowledge and research in the Arctic.
The renovation process is underway in Norilsk today. It is planned to liquidate emergency and dilapidated housing, build new ones and reconstruct existing ones. In an effort to move away from the concept of a monotown, the territory is being relaunched through entrepreneurship, creative industries and tourism.
An open international competition for the creation of an architectural and planning concept for the renovation was initiated by the Norilsk City Administration in partnership with the Norilsk Development Agency with the support of the Norilsk Nickel company. The operator of the competition was the international urban laboratory “CENTER Lab”.
“We took this step for a long time, ” said the mayor of the city, Dmitry Karasev . – “Since 2016, together with the Norilsk Nickel company, we have already discussed the need to create such a program for an integrated socio-economic city of Norilsk, which would provide for a qualitative renewal of its entire infrastructure. The last house that was built in the city was in 2002. For almost 20 years nothing has been built in Norilsk. The city needs new housing, the city needs to update its infrastructure ”.
On February 20, 2021, a quadripartite agreement was signed, which provides for a comprehensive social renewal of the infrastructure of the city of Norilsk – between the Government of the Russian Federation, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Norilsk Nickel and the City Administration.
“This agreement provides for total financing for the entire development program of 120 billion rubles, of which more than 80 billion are allocated by the company Norilsk Nickel. But in addition to this program, under a quadripartite agreement, Norilsk Nickel will provide the city with another 150 billion rubles until 2035 for the implementation of various other projects in Norilsk, “said the senior vice president, head of the HR, social policy and public relations department of the company. Norilsk Nickel Larisa Zelkova .
The competition has been declared international – the organizers explain this by the fact that other countries may have similar experience of working in extreme conditions and in permafrost, for example, in northern Europe, Scandinavia, or in northern China, where international bureaus work that offer solutions for unique territories.
“We are not looking for conceptologists here, we are not looking for people who will offer us just an exceptional idea. We are looking for practice-oriented teams who are then able to offer us an idea that can be implemented in the city, ”explained Sergey Georgievsky, founder of the Center group of companies . – “Our main goal is the development of an architectural and planning concept, renovation of the city until 2035. And we will accordingly produce it in several stages. Within the framework of the competition, the object is the entire city, and we also look at the context, that is, the adjacent territories, the relationship with them. “
Only professional organizations that have experience in the field of integrated development of the territory of urban planning, architecture, master planning, and design can become participants. Also, the team should include specialists in the field of economics and finance, marketing and content programming.
The journalists asked the organizers whether the Norilsk people should expect unexpected futuristic solutions, for example, the creation of a giant dome over the city.
“We will listen to those architects who have such experience, but, as far as I know, there is a similar experience in the world with the arrangement of certain galleries, transitions between houses in Canada, ” said Maxim Mironov, director of ANO Norilsk Development Agency . – “And the experience of use have come to believe that people, even in the North have to spend more time on the street, and that’s all locked under the dome, or in any gallery – this is not quite correct in relation to the citizens.”
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