SEXY BEAST: MKAD

HISTORY
Throughout history, Moscow pursued a concentric growth strategy. The Kremlin has always been at the core of these concentric rings. New concentric rings built upon former defensive walls expanded outward, connected by radial roads that led outside the city. This system continued to add land to the existing city and is a pattern that continues today.
MKAD (Moscow Automobile Ring Road) is the last and major ring road encircling the City of Moscow, the capital of Russia

PROBLEM STATEMENT
Until today, the MKAD ring road is the most important physical and mental border of the city. The ring is the key element that separates Muscovites from people living outside the city.* *Giulio Margheri/ Roel van Herpt

Our studio will be focus on the MKAD and the adjacent open spaces it dominates. We will view the MKAD as a new typology of “highway or perhaps, not a highway at all. Our studio will imagine the MKAD as the new GATEWAY into and out of Moscow which which will impact positively on its adjacent environment, perception, and bring definition to this important feature as it is incorporated into the growth of Moscow.

The degraded land around the MKAD will be re-purposed for environmental remediation through re-forestation and the sequestration of CO2 emissions. We will serve the environment through mass tree plantings that will also create new urban parks and heal the visual brutality of the MKAD. It will serve as a new image for Moscow.

The “Spaghetti Junctions” will be developed as living art installations to mark and distinguish the entrances into the city. We will speculate the future of the traffic organization of MKAD itself to support its eccentricities and serve its own needs.

This studio will study the nature of the highway, the nature of nature and the nature of the people who have created this naïve but immensely interesting social place. Our job is to create a balance between human use and endeavour and what the environment can support. At the same time, we will create a crossroads between culture and nature through the transformation of this exotic, sexy beast.

PROCESS
Module 1
· Create of base information for mapping and analysis of the existing territory of the MKAD and adjacent conditions
· Speculative traffic configuration for the MKAD
· Research and calculate the target number for tree plantations needed to offset existing carbon emission
· Design Strategies for tree plantations
· Potential site visit to Moscow (TBD)
Module 2
· Students will choose one “spaghetti junction” to design as an art installation marking an entry into the city of Moscow.