Moscow Zaryadye Park Plan
Core idea
New central park after hotel demolition
Why it matters
Reintroduced large public landscape next to Kremlin
Description
Zaryadye Park, planned from 2013 and opened in 2017, created a large public park on a prominent site beside the Kremlin and Red Square in central Moscow, Russia, previously occupied by the demolished Hotel Rossiya. The winning competition design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Hargreaves Associates and Citymakers, delivered by the City of Moscow, introduced the concept of 'wild urbanism', layering four artificial Russian landscape zones over concealed cultural buildings, a philharmonic hall and a cantilevered 'floating bridge' over the Moskva River. It was the first major new park in central Moscow in decades.
Significance
Zaryadye is significant as the flagship of Moscow's 2010s programme of public-space renewal and as a rare case of prime central land being given to landscape rather than commercial development. Internationally it is discussed as a landmark of landscape urbanism and of the global competition-driven signature park, while critics have debated its cost, its curated version of 'wildness' and its role in the image politics of the Russian state. It remains one of the most prominent post-Soviet public-space projects.
What shaped it
- Landscape urbanism (Waldheim) (1997-2006)
- The public park (1843–1858)
- The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (Whyte) (1980)
Plans it influenced
- Moscow My Street Program (2015–)
Sources
- https://www.archdaily.com/447637/diller-scofidio-renfro-win-zaryadye-park-competition
- https://www.designboom.com/architecture/diller-scofidio-renfro-green-moscow-with-zaryadye-park-1