An invited competitive proposal with John McAslan & Partners for the redevelopment of an 8.2 hectare site near the centre of Moscow, Russia. The client brief required commercial offices, retail, a large percentage of residential units, underground car parking, a primary school, and attractive public realm spaces.

The main scheme proposed the commercial office and retail buildings clustered at one end of the site near good connections to a main railway station and central Moscow. The residential requirements are met with a series of towers carefully arranged to avoid overlooking around a central park over underground parking. The towers step down across the length of the site from the tall commercial office buildings to a two storey primary school at the far end of the site.

P&S designed the building running alongside one of the main rail lines into Moscow centre: a zone that cannot be developed for residential use under local regulations. This curved linear block with regular bays clad with reclaimed distinctive red brickwork, steps along its length with roof gardens that benefit occupants and the view from above from the residential buildings, mediating the change in scale from one end of the site to the other. This 'protective screening wall' is further broken up by the facade towards the residential towers stepping in and out with a ground level arcade to provide a sheltered pavement in winter snowy conditions.

At ground floor the proposal provides a range of medium and small shop units while above the plan allows a variety of arrangements to give small, medium and larger creative workspaces. This type of flexible small scale office/workshop/small commercial business provision within a new building is not a form used much in Russia and would be an unusual addition to the commercial offering elsewhere in the scheme. It provides up to 18,600 msq of accommodation with units ranging from 50 to 700 msq which add a lively mixed community in flexible lower rental units, bringing vitality to the scheme and street.