Moscow: Forest Landscape

Red Square, onion-domed towers, the Moskwa River, prestigious metro stations, and an expanding city with glittering skyscrapers in Moscow City are some of the first associations people have of the Russian capital Moscow. Less well known is the fact that forests play an important role in shaping the environment of the metropolis.

The Moscow urban region is located in the hilly Moscow basin between upland-like ridges.  With 14 million residents, it is the most populated urban region in Europe and spreads out on both sides of the Moskva River in concentric circles with star shaped radial axes running far into the surrounding region. The urban agglomeration has a large infrastructure system, and numerous manufacturing plants and service centres are located between forests, floodplains, and agricultural areas.  On the periphery this has led to a patchwork-like, anthropogenic landscape with numerous land-intensive settlements.

A birch-filled headland extending into a lake was to be cleared of its numerous trees so that high-quality villas, a hotel, restaurants, and a convention centre at a marina could be built.  In order to avoid the removal of more of the forest, we developed a concept in which the interventions for intensive open-space activities would occur in existing clearings. Clearings (Lichtungen) therefore shape the content and the programme of this design; almost like inversely created oases that protect the forest.  Their use in these noble surroundings provides a natural and regionally typical sense of the landscape. Surrounded by mature trees, and in view of the tangible climate change in the Moscow area, the project allows for the conservation of resources by preserving this forest landscape.