UK firms win Moscow expansion job

A team led by architect Gillespies has won a contract to masterplan a huge expansion of Moscow city.

The team, also including engineer Buro Happold and architect John Thompson & Partners, won a competition to masterplan the 155Km² site to the south west of the city.

The “city in the forest” will house 1.7m people and create 800,000 jobs.

Brian Evans, partner at Gillespies, said: “We are all knocked out by this recognition for our work on the world stage. It seems that our design to use the natural topography of the site to create a series of lakes as the setting for the new Federal District was one of the key factors in the jury’s mind when they appraised the different proposals.”

The UK/US team also includes architects Urban Design Associates and Group Ark, environmental management consultant Beasley & Associates and transport consultant Nelson Nygaard.

The firms beat out competition from teams from Russia, France, Italy and Spain.