Urban lakes as a rediscovered quality
Lakes Upgrading Masterplan
Location: Kazan, Russia
Client: Republic of Tatarstan Government, Government of Kazan City
Programme: 2 km2 comprehensive sustainable architectural and planning concept for the embankments of the Kaban lakes including 24 cultural heritage objects
Kaban is a lake system located within Kazan, the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, with just over 1 million inhabitants.
Our work really started with the amazement for the incredible dynamism, the youth, the belief in possible changes when we listened to Kazan people and authorities. We realized that Kaban lake deeply woven into the cultural codes of the city, and in the urban reality.
Our vision builds on the characteristics of local places areas along the banks and opens opportunities for the local people to engage. We sought not to create something entirely new, but to form a structure that grows from today’s situation and where the final end is shaped and influenced through an active development process.
Three key strategies form the basis of the concept:
- Connectivity strategy: Physical projects that bring lake an city together – the new hardware
- Activation strategy: Multiple initiatives to make the local people the driving force of the transformation process and the future use of the embankment – the essential software
- Identity strategy: A simple yet powerful symbol that directs hard- and software interventions into a common whole – “Treasures woven into a Golden Ribbon”
Stages:
2015 Concept
Team:
MLA+: Markus Appenzeller, Yana Golubeva, Viktor Korotych, Mikhail Stepura, Ruslan Sabirov, Polina Koryakina, Taisiya Khalikova
Invited specialists: Sergey Zhilin (IT)
