As part of ‘Towns and Historic Settlements’ contest, initiated by the Ministry of Landscape Architecture of the Moscow Region, we worked out a landscape architecture design for a site on Kolomenka riverfront. Our design won in 2018 and the studio received a grant to implement it. The site totals about 30 ha and includes several stages of implementation. The first stage for a 5 ha plot foresees a comprehensive redevelopment of activity area, which includes modern beach infrastructure: a food court, a beach, a playground, piers for SUP boards and wakeboards, cycle paths, an amphitheater, beach volleyball courts and areas for quiet rest.

The concept relies on the historically existing structure of land. There are documents showing that the land was mostly used for agriculture – here you could find fields, meadows, orchards and vegetable gardens. In our project, we divided the land into several functionality areas. Each area layout is based on the structure characteristic of the historically existing functionality. Each area reflects the principles of shaping the agricultural typology of the land. For example, the activity area of the first stage of construction is laid out against regular clearly constructed orthogonal grid, which matches a vegetable garden typology.

When working on the project, we drew inspiration from the silhouettes of Kolomna pieces of architecture – the proportions of historic architecture, characteristic façade solutions and pops of color. We based the concept on the untouched nature of the riverbank and the field, the multitude of flowers and grasses characteristic of this area. We also took into account the characteristics of the structure plan and its closeness to the cultural heritage site - Kolomna Kremlin – and opted to blend our design organically into the urban environment. Pops of red and the proportions of the main pavilion draw references to Kolomna main landmark.

An important task was to preserve the current land functionality taking into account the needs of the locals and to expand it. The beach area actively used by wakeboarding and beach volleyball lovers received particular attention in the development.
At the waterfront, the food court consisting of a few amenities, including a café, sport equipment rentals, a boat station and beach infrastructure pavilions located on the same boardwalk became the main point of attraction. The proportions of each building reflect the Kolomna architecture shapes, Kremlin, in particular. In the middle of the food court, we placed a cozy garden with flowerbeds, around which recreation areas with bar counters and tables appeared.
Piers became an important part of the riverfront. We designed them to be in two variants: for active sports and for quiet rest. The street furniture is mostly made from wood to copy the style and to simplify the shapes of traditional Russian furniture. For example, some chairs and benches adopt tilting backrests that allow the users to choose the side for the view they want. For the signage, we used light-colored wood and the cut using special woodworking machines, which refer to Russian wooden architecture. Our team designed the shape of the lampposts specifically for Kolomna. The lampposts are made of natural wood, which is rare for public spaces. For paving, we used a rare option of wooden blocks. During our work, we developed a solution that allowed us to place wooden blocks at the same distance from each other, so that the pavement would have clear geometry.

The project is done together with the Ministry of Landscape Architecture of the Moscow Region.