Cheboksary agglomeration

Four areas, from a residential quarter to a green campus. Architectural and spatial proposals within the agglomeration masterplan.

2023–2024Concept masterplan

Pikhtulino: housing, public uses and landscape connections.

Brief: Develop spatial and architectural proposals for four priority areas within the agglomeration.
Our work: Within the Urban Pro consortium team, developed residential quarters, a waterfront park, dormitories, a green campus and landscape elements.
Result: Concept albums with masterplans, architecture and visualisations, connecting area-wide structures to individual buildings and public-space equipment.

Residential quarter

Within one urban quarter, we developed proposals for a large residential complex, parking and a small commercial component. The work focused on a specific city territory: how new functions and buildings could form a quarter and what architectural character that development would acquire.

Residential façades combine brick with white accents. The aerial view explains the composition of the complex within the surrounding buildings, while the courtyard view brings the scale closer, showing façades, planting and spaces beside the homes. The images complement one another, describing different levels of the same proposal.

Parking was developed as a building in its own right and part of the quarter's architecture. It therefore received a separate visualisation rather than remaining an abstract area on a diagram. Together with housing and commercial space, it completes the principal functions considered for this territory.

Brick façades with white accents: a street-level view.

The parking building within the quarter.

Novocheboksarsk: life by the water

In Novocheboksarsk, the work addressed an extensive waterfront. Its principal subject was a network of public spaces: a park by the water, a museum, running routes and sports areas. Student residences were considered alongside these as another part of the territory's development.

The aerial view shows buildings within the long green waterfront and their relationship to the river. A distinct architectural character was proposed for the museum. The residence views explore different approaches, including brick buildings with a character reminiscent of Brooklyn and a more restrained grey volume.

This part of the study needed to address a large area while also making its individual places tangible. Park and sports spaces establish an overall structure; the museum and residences give it specificity. The gallery therefore begins with the territory as a whole before moving to the architecture of individual buildings.

The waterfront: parkland and proposed buildings within the wider plan.

The museum and its entrance public space.

Brick architecture for the student residences.

Student residence: a grey-façade proposal.

Pikhtulino: a landscape along the water

Pikhtulino is the most developed example of a new residential environment within this work. Housing, a school and a commercial and business area occupy an extensive territory. Public spaces along the stream and river connect them, making water and green areas the basis of the overall spatial structure.

Proposals include residential buildings of two to seven storeys, townhouses and low-rise commercial space. We sought a human scale through restrained colours, lower volumes and space for planting.

The site plan makes the whole proposal readable: residential quarters, the school, business functions and green spaces by the water. Architectural views show the character of the environment at street level. The transition between scales matters, from organising a large territory to the design of homes, the school and commercial buildings.

Pikhtulino site plan: residential quarters, a school, a business area and green spaces along the water.

Pikhtulino: residential scale and planting at street level.

Low-rise buildings in the business area.

Zavolzhye: buildings within the landscape

In Zavolzhye, the starting setting was an extensive green landscape. An educational campus with a technical school, housing and recreational uses was introduced within it. The spatial task was to place the new buildings in the landscape and connect them to the development of the whole area.

Landscape design was developed in particular detail. A family of elements included lookout and birdwatching towers, rental pavilions, toilets, shelters, wayfinding and furniture. These are specific objects serving different ways of spending time in the landscape, rather than only an overall image of a park.

A shared architectural language connects the elements and principal buildings. The aerial view explains the campus within the green territory; separate images describe the technical school, housing and tower. The family axonometric shows how the larger development idea extends to smaller objects that visitors interact with directly.

Zavolzhye: buildings and routes within the green landscape.

Architectural concept for the technical school.

A lookout tower along a recreational route.

A family of landscape elements: towers, pavilions, shelters, wayfinding and furniture.

Project team and period

Masterplan client: DOM.RF. Consortium lead: Urban Pro. Alexander Gast: lead for architectural and spatial development of selected priority areas.

Work period referenced in the project correspondence: 2023–2024. Illustrated source albums issued in April 2024.

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