The Union of Moscow Architects and Nizhny Novgorod Department of the Union of Architects of Russia, supported by the Administration of the Nizhny Novgorod region, is organizing an open architectural and urban competition in frames of the "Eco-Shore 2017" International Festival. The competition is open.

Called "The Spit in Nizhny Novgorod – a Town-planning Comprehension of the Important Urban Public Space", the aim of the competition is the development of innovative ideas for reorganization and reclamation of the city bank spaces including the solution of a whole number of particular tasks. Among them are the following objects:

- modern ecological, town-planning, architectural and designing development of the riverside territory at the confluence of the Volga and Oka rivers;

- creation of the full-fledged public cultural, sports and recreational environment;

- drawing attention of governmental, municipal and public institutions to  the development prospects of the Nizhny Novgorod Spit territory;

- all possible development of water tourism and creation of its infrastructure;

- promotion of the active life-style;

- promotion of innovative technologies in process of the riverside territories development;

- drawing attention of investors, planners, designers, building companies and producers of materials, goods and technologies to the prospects and new ideas for the riverside spaces development

In light of these tasks, the problems of leisure and entertainment in the vicinity of the coastal lines are the most acute and topical, because the riverside areas are the major and irreplaceable value of the city, its residents, tourists and business people. The Competition is organized in order to get in Nizhny Novgorod, on the territory limited by the Samarkandskaya and Betancourt Streets and the Volga and Oka rivers embankments, some conceptual town-planning proposals for creating  a  city recreation center with a developed recreational component and filled with social, cultural and sports functions by means of an equitable creative contest.

Eligibility: 

Professionally qualified (graduated) architects and authors’ teams (including architects, town-planners, restorers, designers of the architectural environment), who had accepted the Competition programme and terms for participation, paid the Registration Fee and were registered as Competitors .

The Competition participants get the right to take part in all events being held in frames of the "Eco-Shore 2017" Festival.

The aim of the competition:

The aim of the Competition is to provide architectural and town-planning ideas that meet the requirements of the Competition programme. The Competition is held with international participation. The main task formulated for the Competition participants is to suggest a conceptual solution demonstrating a contemporary approach to the complex development of the introduced site and to transformation of the former storehouse and public utilities areas of the Nizhny Novgorod spit into the new spaces with elements of public, tourist and recreational infrastructure integrated into the context of the already existing historical and cultural environment of the city. 

The competitors must offer a town-planning composition, functional zoning and principles of territory improvement intended for active public use and recreation. It is necessary to suggest an approximate nomenclature of buildings, which are supposed to be located in this territory, their functionality, to provide for an easy access to technical services and their maintenance, as well as to envisage a necessary number of parking spaces for both: motor cars and tourist buses.

The competition program: 

The competition is held according to unified terms and regulations developed by the Competition organizer. The terms and regulations are mandatory for all Competition participants.

Terms of Competition:

The project should fully disclose the author's intention and make the main idea clear. The Competition designs should be fulfilled in computer-graphics (raster file JPG or TIFF, 150 dpi, without compression) and delivered by e-mail fully configured and prepared for the printout on the panel with sizes: 140 cm (height) х 90 cm (width). 

All texts must be converted to curves. Number of panels for one application (design) is 2 pcs. The graphic and text information should be placed on the panels in accordance with the layout drawing (see the background data).

Regulations for the submission of Competition materials and their evaluation:

For the purposes of anonymity the projects should be submitted under the mottos (six-figured code, height 10 mm) placed in the right upper corner of all materials presented to the Competition.

The Competition materials must be accompanied by a motto envelope containing information about the author or group of authors (names of authors, telephone number, address, passport data and percentage distribution of the prize between the authors’ team members).

The Competition Organizers exclude from consideration the entries with following infringements:  

- discrepancy  with the Programme requirements and Competition terms;  

- deliberately broken anonymity.

The competition terms envisage the following awards: 

First Prize: 300 000 Rubles 

Second Prize: 200 000 Rubles

Two Third Prizes: 100 000 Rubles / each

The Competition Jury and Organizers have a right to adjudge Special Prizes for some individual achievements and felicitous solutions. The Competition Promoters have a right to adjudge their own prizes and awards. The awarded designs will be published in mass-media, which act as information partners of the "Eco-Shore" Festival.

Work of the Competition Jury 

In order to size up the Competition results, a Jury is being assembled, including leading Russian and foreign architects. The full list of the Jury will be published on August 15th, 2017. 

Chairman of the Jury will be elected at the first Jury meeting by a simple majority vote. 

Members of the Jury have no right to take part in the Competition. 

The Jury’s decisions are finalized in a Jury Meeting Protocol signed by all the Jury Members, who took part in the Jury meeting. In case of equal voting the Jury’s Chairman will have a casting vote.

Registration

Registration of the participants is conducted until July 15, 2017 by filling out the registration form and confirming the payment through this link.

The Competition Organizers will be responsible for presenting (type-out) the exhibition materials (panels) of the Competition projects. 

The files with Competition projects should be sent through any of the Internet share sites. To participate in the Competition, one should apply for participation and pay the registration fee. Individuals can pay the registration fee using a Timepad

Legal entities should send a request for official preparing an invoice for paying the registration fee to: [email protected] 

The Competitor’s registration fee is: 

- 5 000 (five thousand) Rubles (approximately 80 euro) for one Competition project (2 panels)

Deadlines for Competition projects delivery:

Publication of the Competition Programme and Terms – May 31, 2017

Deadline for the Competition Participants’ registration – July 15, 2017

Participants’ questions – up to July 25, 2017

Answers to Participants – up to July 30, 2017

Deadline for the Competition projects delivery – August 30, 2017

Opening of the Competition projects Exhibition – September 13, 2017

Jury meeting – September 13 - 14, 2017

Adjudication and announcement of the Competition results – September 16, 2017

Technical Requirements Specification

1. The project should take into account the existing town-planning situation, including  the transport network (taking into account the projectible one). See: background data. On the territory under consideration there are two iconic structures: an architectural monument (cultural heritage site of federal significance) – the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the Stadium for 45 thousand spectators for the World Football Championship of 2018. The Cathedral is located in the territory between Sovnarkomovskaya street and the Oka River embankment next to the territory of the former Nizhny Novgorod port, subject to urban development. The St. Alexander Nevsky’s Cathedral has a conservation zone. The Competition projects may contain proposals for introducing changes into the Cathedral protection regime but only as long as the mandatory dominant position of the monument in the Spit territory is preserved, while one looks from the main perception viewpoints situated in the Nizhny Novgorod and from water areas of the Volga and Oka rivers.

The Stadium is located at the site between Betancourt street and the extension of Dolzhanskaya street. Zone between the extension of Dolzhanskaya street and  Sovnarkomovskaya street is a buffer one intended for accommodation of temporary structures and parking places during the Championship. In competitive projects it is necessary to give proposaps on the possible future development of this site.

In the former port territory there are four warehouses: the two of them (along the Volga) have metal structures and the other two (along the Oka) use reinforced concrete structures. In the two warehouses located on the Volga bank the fragments of pavilions’ structures belonging to the All-Russian Industrial Exhibition of 1896 held in Nizhny Novgorod were used (see the historical information). The structures with the outer walls of the Soviet period were adapted for warehouse use. In order to solve the problem of adapting the metal warehouses to a modern use, as well as to determine the technical condition of the warehouses made of reinforced concrete, a commission and a working group were established. The results of their work will be later announced on the organizers' website. 

As a part of the Competition materials, it is necessary to propose the use of these structures, at the discretion of the authors, by appointing them a certain function (either separately or as a part of the complex) at the existing site, or in the given project area with their transferring to another location or to propose a removal of these structures to another territory of Nizhny Novgorod. It is not necessary to offer any specific place in the city for their location. In the Competition planning area a project for the transport infrastructure layout intended for the World Cup has been developed and is now in process of implementation. There are the land allotments existing according to the decisions of the Investment council of the Nizhny Novgorod region and the areas of economic entities. In the competitive proposals it is necessary to take them into account (see the background data).

2. Possible functions: 

In the territory from Betancourt street to Sovnarkomovskaya street: 

- sports facilities; 

- cultural and entertainment facilities; 

- office buildings with a height of no more than 5 floors and a total area of not more than 10 thousand m 2; 

 - infrastructure for public and private transport.

In the territory from Sovnaromovskaya street to the Oka river embankment:

Public spaces, cultural and leisure centers, office buildings (each with a total area of not more than 1000 m2), museums, recreation and entertainment places, small retail entities, cafes, restaurants, hotels, infrastructure for public and private transport, parks and street landscaping.

3.  The Competition project should include:

- Master Plan on a scale of 1: 1500

- Photo from the main viewpoint (with proposed facilities embeded into photo),

- Photos from mandatory viewpoints (with proposed facilities embeded into them),

 - TEP (technical and economic parameters), explanatory note (at the panel), explication of buildings, structures and sites, 

- Perspective views, fragments, conceptual schemes (at the author's discretion).

All text materials are submitted according to the Layout scheme in Russian or in English. The layout scheme of the project materials can be found in the background data.

4. Background data:

- Situational plan

- Topographic underlay, land allocations, building red lines, protection zones of cultural heritage sites

- Stadium design (general plan of the territory at the time of the World Cup)

- Draft planning and surveying of the territory indicating the sites provided according to the decision of the Investment council and of transport infrastructure

- Protection zones and building regulation zones for the cultural heritage site of federal significance – the A.Nevsky Cathedral

- Historical reference

- Photo fixing the Competition area

- Photos from basic and mandatory viewpoints for embedding the proposed facilities into in the existing situation

- Layout of the Competition project materials

- Order on the establishment of the Expert commission on the issue of adapting metal structures of exhibition pavilions of the All-Russian Industrial Exhibition of 1896 to modern use

- Minutes of the Town Planning Council of May 23, 2017 on the establishment of the Working group for the inspection of concrete warehouse structures

Top image courtesy of Eco-Shore 2017

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