UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 24, 2010. ‘We can now see that the development strategy we’ve chosen for Yekaterinburg is the right one. Our main challenge is to promote the city as a brand. This ProEstate contest is an important part of the city’s image. Investors hear that Yekaterinburg wins, and this shapes their idea of the place. Nine years ago, Yekaterinburg was generally referred to as the city of smoke-filled chimney-stocks; these days, a large-scale re-branding campaign is being launched on a grand scale,’ says Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg Viktor Konteev.
Now Yekaterinburg’s newest Academic district, designed and developed by Renova-StroyGroup, was among the winners of ProEstate, the 4th International Investment Contest. ProEstate was actually the first, country-wide stage of FIABCI Prix d'Excellence. The Academic Project won in the Master Plan category, so Renova-StroyGroup will soon be representing Russia in the world-wide competition.
Renova-StroyGroup’s General Director Mikhail Semenov reports that Academic district was designed as an ‘eco-polis’ from the start.
‘What mattered to us what that people should experience a different kind of environment; we wanted them to be able to go to work on foot and walk their kids to school. Cars could be kept in the underground parking lots rather than in front of the apartment blocks. The district’s unique concept was designed by one of the world’s most famous architectural agencies, the French Valode&Pistre. The Russian architects had to cope with quite a few problems adjusting the project to the Russian construction norms and regulations, but they did manage to do it,’ Semenov says.
Academic is expected to become a home for 325,000 people by 2025.