TOPOGRAPHY
Topography/Aspect
The site is relatively flat, with higher ground to the south east dropping to the valley and water to the north and east, our determination is to build between these 2 paradigms. The south west of the site is the highest offering potential views over the site to the north east, down the valley, and also back towards the lake to the south west.

Wetland Habitat
The ground is characterised by a high water table, which is exposed in lakes that are connected by marshy drainage corridors. These low lying marshy areas form a wetland ecological corridor, which should be preserved and enhanced. We have allowed for a widening of this corridor by creating a publicly accessible linear park to protect the existing habitats
and give access to them.

Woodland habitat
The site is dominated by protected woodland habitat, punctuated by man made clearings. The clearings and the woodland create distinct areas that are suitable for creating communities. We have endeavoured to preserve as much as possible of this woodland. This will be accessible and integrated into the green public realm strategy with cycle ways, bridle and walking trails.

CLIMATE
The Chelyabinsk region is characterised by a ‘cool summer’ or ‘steppe’ climate. The temperatures are usually low, a low summer high and with very cold winters. There are low levels of precipitation and most of this is snow. The prevailing winds are from the West, over the countryside. However winds from the East and North East would bring pollution and reduce the air quality considerably. Our determination would be to take advantage of the Westerly winds and exclude the easterly
and northerly winds. We would also intend that the northerly winds would be filtered through specific planting types to ‘clean’ and fragrance the air.

The Chelyabinsk climate necessitates the following basic urban design responses:
• heating (passive and active);
• a mixture of open and enclosing forms;
• protected edges at winter windward sides (with
structures or trees);
• uniform building heights;
• medium dispersed open space;
• circumferential and intersecting tree zones.

To achieve access for citizens to green space all year round, there is potential for the introduction of a number of ‘indoor parks’ (large scale public green areas that would be internalised under openable glass roofs). These would be connected to the park structure and would range from small neighbourhood greens to the largest urban centre ‘indoor park’.

ACCESS
The Sunny Valley site is located to the west of Chelyabinsk, bordered to the north and south by easterly roads.

The regional collector road to the west forms the western boundary. These roads form a ‘highway box’ on three sides, giving good site access opportunities. In the future the access and traffic management strategy may benefit from a fourth connection to the east of the site, thus completing the ‘box’. With roads comes noise pollution so any residential areas would be better situated away from the edge of the site, and buffered to reduce the impact of noise from these potential high grade roads. The site is crisscrossed by a gas pipeline and a high voltage power line forming 2 linear no-build zones.