LandLAB has won an international competition to develop an urban master plan and public realm concept for the 7.5km long Imeretinskaya Embankment adjacent the 2014 Olympic site in Sochi, Russia.
LandLAB’s Design Director Henry Crothers says this is a hugely exciting result. “To be competing against such such a high calibre of competion and to come out on top validates our approach to this and other design projects,” he says. “To have our work endorsed by a such high quality international jury is also extremely gratifying.” Henry says for LandLAB, this hopefully means the team will get to take part in more of these international opportunities. “We enjoy the challenge of working at a scale and degree of complexity that we don’t often see in Aotearoa’.
The LandLAB approach to the Imeretinskaya Embankment was founded on a reading of the tectonics of the existing landscape and an acknowledgement of the need to create places, identity, built form and experiences that expressed the specific qualities of Sirius. “With a series of dynamic locations and ecosystems of maximum activity, exchange and hybridisation, we see a transition in the way of understanding the existing waterfront from a linear ‘promenade’ to seeing it as a wider maritime interface. An expanded and re-imagined ‘front’ where the city can express its traditions, expand its uses and discover new potentials”.
“The winning concept is distinguished by an environmentally oriented approach, attention to the cultural and historical context of our territory and the functionality of the space. We are very pleased that the opinion of the jury members coincided with ours, and the concept that meets both of these criteria won.”
Elena Shmeleva, Chairman of the Council of the Federal Territory "Sirius"
“I would like to note the really high quality of the winner's work. Such a large and significant project should be developed by professionals, and LandLAB already has experience working with large-scale projects. The concept takes into account the geographical, historical and cultural context of the territory, as well as its landscape characteristics. This is the only concept that relied on the tectonics of the landscape, providing a variety of public spaces and access to the sea. This concept complies with the principles of sustainable development and allows the project to be implemented in accordance with ESG standards. The result of the project will be a place where it will be easy to live and work,”
Martin Rein Kano, jury member, co-founder and managing partner of Topotek 1.
Sixty-eight teams from 48 countries took part in the competition. LandLAB was named a finalist in October last year along with high profile international firms BIG (Denmark), !melk (USA), Michel Desvigne Paysagiste (France), LOLA (Netherlands) and AB Chvoya (Russia). The team led by BIG came second in the competition, with the LOLA team placing third.