"All the projects are interesting and there are many unusual proposals"

A meeting of the jury of the open competition for the best architectural and artistic concept of the multifunctional urban center "Yekaterinburg City" was held. Competitive works were evaluated:

- Andrey Kozitsyn, General Director of UMMC-Holding LLC;
- Igor Kudryashkin, Commercial Director of UMMC-Holding LLC;
- Sergey Yerypalov, Director of Capital Construction and Investments, UMMC-Holding LLC;
- Arkady Chernetsky, First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Federal Structure, Regional Policy, Local Self-Government and Northern Affairs;
- Werner Zobek, German architect, engineer, author of the Iset Tower project;
- Andrey Bokov, President of the Union of Architects of Russia;
- Vladimir Veniaminov, Deputy Minister of Construction and Infrastructure Development of the Sverdlovsk Region - Chief Architect of the Sverdlovsk Region;
- Mikhail Vyatkin, Chairman of the Architectural and Urban Planning Council of the Yekaterinburg City Municipality;
- Alexey Belyshev, Deputy Head of the Yekaterinburg City Administration for Capital Construction and Land Use;
- Sergey Lekomtsev, coordinator of NOSTRA in the Ural Federal District, President of NP SRO "Guild of Builders of the Urals".

Among the 43 projects submitted for the competition, 36 belong to authors from Russia and 25 of them were awarded by the jury. Yekaterinburg architects sent 12 projects, eight came from Moscow, three from Tyumen, two each from Voronezh, Ulyanovsk, Novosibirsk, one each from Volgograd, Chelyabinsk, Samara, Irkutsk, Perm, Veliky Novgorod, Khabarovsk. The organizers of the competition received seven proposals from foreign architects, these are participants from Belarus, Ukraine, China, France and Japan.

The jury vote was held in two rounds. First, 15 projects were selected, then the top five were determined. Sergey Yerypalov emphasized: "All the projects are interesting and, what is especially important for the customer, we can see many unusual proposals here, it helps to understand how and where to develop the idea. Especially the suggestions of non-local architects, they are useful as an outside view."

The jury representatives noted that the 513251 project fully complies with the task of high-rise dominants and the park space is successfully designed in it. The 620079 project looks beautiful, but the possibility of building facades with complex plastics is questionable. The jury described the proposal number 623109 as the easiest to implement. The 631825 project attracted linear development along the perimeter of the block and was noted by Werner Zobek, the author of the Iset tower project. Most of the jury members drew attention to the work number 702918, which has a well–developed basic idea, and also positively characterized the stylishly executed project 712293 - simple, no frills, combining buildings with modern architectural forms and architectural monuments organically integrated into the overall structure. The idea closest to the original project from the Valode & Pistre bureau is shown in project 714919. The jury representatives drew attention to the projects 214206, 617913, 503101, 615911, 715814, 721617, 721718, 721901, 751022 and 714915. It should be noted that the participants of the 100+ Forum Russia business program presented two concepts for the competition: Japanese architect Kiyokazu Arai (founder of ARAI ARCHITECTS) and architect Carlos Gomez (CRG ARCHITECTS).

During the discussion, the top three projects were identified, but at the stage of awarding prizes, the jury's opinions differed and no final decision was made. The winners will be selected at the next meeting. The awarding ceremony will take place on October 6, 2016 at 4 p.m. at the Yekaterinburg – EXPO IEC at the 100+ Forum Russia.

We remind you that online voting for projects continues until September 30. The project with the highest number of votes will receive the audience Award.