LandLAB has won an international competition to develop an urban master plan and public realm concept for the 7.5km long Sirius Waterfront in Sochi, Russia.

LandLAB’s Design Director Henry Crothers says this is a hugely exciting result. “To be competing against such a high calibre of competition and to come out on top validates our approach to this and other design projects,” he says. “To have our work endorsed by an international jury is also extremely gratifying.”

Henry says for LandLAB, this hopefully means the team will get to take part in more of these international opportunities. “We enjoy the challenge of working at a scale we don’t often see in Aotearoa and we look forward to real projects being actualised as a result of this masterplan.”

He says the LandLAB approach to the Imeretinskaya Embankment acknowledged the need to create places, identity and experiences that express Sirius. “With a series of dynamic locations and ecosystems of maximum activity, exchange and hybridisation, we see a transition in the way of understanding the existing waterfront from a linear ‘promenade’ to seeing it as a wider maritime interface. An expanded and re-imagined ‘front’ where the city can express its traditions, expand its uses and discover new potentials.

“This approach seeks to connect Sirius to its environment, improving quality of life and amenities for existing residents, driving tourism, and attracting new visitors and residents to this place. “

LandLAB was named a finalist in October last year along with BIG (Denmark), !melk (USA), L’AUC + Michel Desvigne Paysagiste (France), LOLA (Netherlands) and AB Chvoya (Russia).

The team led by BIG came second in the competition, with the LOLA team placing third.

The winning LandLAB proposal would increase the green area of the embankment from seven to 12 hectares, create more than 12 thousand square meters of new public spaces including concert venues, lecture halls, a sailing school, pavilions for events and other facilities.

The embankment currently connects several independent zones: the mouths of the rivers, the port, the Olympic Park and residential areas. LandLAB’s design will establish a relationship between them and will allow the user open sea views from the promenade. The protective breakwaters and the high retaining wall of the seawall mean at the moment only 3.9 km out of 7 km of the embankment have sea views.

The deputy Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Chernyshenko says the Sirius territory aims to provide innovative, educational and tourism development which must meet the safety, accessibility and comfort requirements.

“The winning concept, in our opinion, makes the most efficient use of this relatively small space. It's great that the New Zealand team has international experience and that our architects are working with them. The implementation of the project, which takes into account the unique features of the territory, the legacy of the Olympic Games, the climatic advantages of the subtropics, will create a harmonious frame for the entire federal territory. I am sure that this will help young people to study here, create, create solutions and standards in various fields. We will scale them to the whole country.”

According to the Chairman of the Council of the Federal Territory "Sirius" Elena Shmeleva, LandLAB’s winning concept not only contains the most modern design solutions, but also takes into account the needs of citizens who live here, come to relax, study or work.

“We understand these requests well, therefore, in fact, we represented the interests of our citizens in the competition jury. The main goal is not new for the sake of new, but to improve the quality of people's lives,” Shmeleva notes. – The second important criterion for us was continuity in the development of the territory. The winning concept is distinguished by an environmentally oriented approach, attention to the cultural and historical context of our territory and the functionality of the space. We are very pleased that the opinion of the jury members coincided with ours, and the concept that meets both of these criteria won.”

“Holding an open international competition for the development of the embankment allowed us to take a fresh look at the urban development potential of this unique coastal area. The finalist projects presented original concepts for creating a first-class urban environment. Now, as part of a large partnership, we have to implement the plan of the winner of the competition - in the interests of the students and teachers of Sirius, as well as all the guests of Sochi and the South of Russia, ”said Igor Shuvalov, Chairman of VEB.RF, the Russian State Development Corporation.

“I would like to note the really high quality of the winner's work. Such a large and significant project should be developed by professionals, and LandLAB already has experience working with large-scale projects. The concept takes into account the geographical, historical and cultural context of the territory, as well as its landscape characteristics. This is the only concept that relied on the tectonics of the landscape, providing a variety of public spaces and access to the sea. This concept complies with the principles of sustainable development and allows the project to be implemented in accordance with ESG standards. The result of the project will be a place where it will be easy to live and work,” Martin Rein Kano, jury member, co-founder and managing partner of Topotek 1, commented on the selection of the winner .

Sixty-eight teams from 48 countries took part in the competition.

The jury included:

• Dmitry Chernyshenko - Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation
• Igor Shuvalov - Chairman of the State Development Corporation VEB.RF
• Elena Shmeleva - Chairman of the Council of the Federal Territory "Sirius"
• Vladimir Silkin - Chairman of the Presidium of the All-Russian Sailing Federation
• Martin Rein Cano - landscape architect, co-founder and managing partner of Topotek 1
• Alain Philip - architect, former First Deputy Mayor of Nice
• Matthias Rudolf - Climate Resilience Specialist, Transsolar Partner
• Michel Larue-Charlus - Head of Bordeaux Métropole Mission 2050
• Doriana Mandreli Fuksas - architect, co-director of Fuksas studies.