PROJECT IN FIGURES
In accordance with the integrated urban development (IUD) concept, Sunny Valley will offer its inhabitants a full range of real estate objects of various types and classes. They will be spread across the 6 sites assigned for development within the total site of the project. Site 4, the future centre of Sunny Valley, will accommodate the majority of commercial and social real estate objects.
LINEAR ACTIVITY CORRIDORS
The physical structure of the proposed development is best expressed through a spatial framework of mixed-use and integrated urban neighbourhoods as follows:
Create an Integrated Linear Movement and Activity Corridor Linear Activity Corridors are the most efficient spatial ordering device at the metropolitan city structure scale. A linear spread of activity enables more units of population to be within a walking accessibility of the same number of units of urban amenity or activity than an isolated island.
The wider city structure is usually an interrelated system of major activity corridors or spines. Development should be as compact as possible with regular open space relief to ensure efficient land use and safeguard natural and landscape assets.
Furthermore, more urban population densities will help render economically viable the provision of urban amenities and services such as bus routes and other public transit systems. The minimal threshold density to render a bus service feasible is about 60Du/ha.
A higher density and compact built environment will also create a more walkable environment to shared amenities which is more likely to reduce car use for daily trips, thereby creating a more sustainable environment.
A population of about 7,500 people within a 500m or 5min walking distance of daily amenities will
support a nursery, primary school, a doctor’s practice, and local retail and community facilities, as well as supporting a local bus service.
The key components of an integrated linear development corridor include:
1. Definition and control of a fixed urban edge
2. Co-ordinated rhythm of the following integrated movement modes that will reduce car use and create a hierarchy of accessibility:
• vehicular expressway (with junctions every 3km)
• public transport — light rail/metro (with junctions every 3 km)
• slow vehicular and pedestrian-oriented activity street (major centres every 3 km; minor centres every 1-2 km based on optimal 5 min walking catchments)
3. Hierarchy of interdependent and synergising activity centres along spines and corridors generated by a hierarchy of accessibility, core community institutions and optimal walking distances:
• town centre
• district centre
• local neighbourhood centre
4. Public space as structure
For Chelyabinsk Sun Valley, the nature of the site lends itself to developing a linear movement and activity corridor as a natural extension west of the city centre as outlined above. This corridor can loop around the site connecting the southern and northern motorway routes back into the existing city. Within the motorway grid surrounding the site, there is scope to introduce a major linear activity street supported by a light transit system which can also naturally extend from the city centre as currently proposed.
TYPES OF ACTIVITY CENTRES
A hierarchy of development area types will locate along the arterial road creating pulses of interconnected and synergising activity.
There will be a new town centre in the most exposed location directly off the major motorway link with the existing city. Further along this activity route through the site will be a series of district centres from which further activity spines can branch off to locate local centres. There is also potential for more employment-based industrial and commercial activity areas to be located along the northern east-west motorway corridor.
1x Town Centre
(high profile mixed-use development)
Average net residential density 200 DU/ha –
600 people per ha
1x District Centres
(residential and mixed-Use)
Average net residential density 100 DU/ha –
300 people per ha
14x Local Centres
(community facilities and amenities within a
500m/5min walk from residential catchment areas)
Average net residential density 50 DU/ha –
150 people per Ha
5x Mixed Centres
(a significant amount of employment land as well as
community facilities and amenities within a
500m/5min walk from residential catchment areas)
Average net residential density 50 DU/ha –
150 people per Ha
The longer-term development on the combined landholdings will complete the activity spine into a more efficient and continuous corridor of pulsing activitycentres. In the shorter term, the activity spine will go through the agricultural uses in the currently separate landholding and enhance the contrasting experience between the proposed town centre and the next district centre along the activity spine. The development corridor would then have an open parkland ‘in front’ to the east and a protected woodland nature reserves ‘behind’ to the west. The dense ‘town centre’ could have a net urban live-in density of up to 500 people per hectare, with an approximate stated area of 220 Ha (up to 100 Ha residential land) and this could generate a potential live in residential population of approximately 40,000 people.
This centre would be the focus of activities and would integrate higher density compact living and working as well as a selection of lower scale peripheral woodland and parkland residential areas with easy and close access to the countryside, parks and leisure, cultural, community and shopping facilities. The park residential communities would have a net residential density of up to 300 people per hectare in 1 distinct district centre and up to 19 distinct local neighbourhoods with a net residential density of 150 people per hectare. Both are defined by 500m or 5 minute walking distance catchments of 80 Ha (40Ha of residential land) potentially generating residential populations of 10,000 and 7,000 people in each respectively. Employment Centres are more work-based and will have a predominant landuse of employment land and supporting infrastructure. Land will be mainly safeguarded for light clean manufacturing and assembly, logistics and distribution, services and office parks. Residential development will be minor, but there will
be local retail and community facilities.
NATURE IN THE CITY
The proposed development should be seen as an opportunity to consolidate and enhance both the surrounding natural landscape and the green structure within the development.
Networks of green open space promote biodiversity and provide much needed relief and breathing space from intensive development that parks and gardens cannot alone satisfy. Less formal areas such as greens and commons, local nature reserves, small woods and coppices will be created. Landscape design plays a critical role in establishing a balance between nature, ecology and the needs of contemporary urban life. Cities and towns, and their extensions, should therefore be designed as networks that link together residential areas with public open spaces and natural green corridors with direct access to the countryside. These networks can also provide recreational amenity and help give a unique lifestyle selling point and sense of place to an area. A green lung in the heart of the site will form a central open space landscape feature which all the main activity areas along the activity corridor will relate to.
Green corridors will integrate the forest clusters on site through the activity corridor delineating the various districts and culminating in the green lung and major waterbodies which themselves will be connected to the wider green structure of Chelyabinsk. The sustainability of green structure underpins all the concepts and can include more specific energy focused concepts such as:
• Local combined heat and power generation (up to 70% of energy is lost in long-distance transmission)
• Renewable ecological fuel (tree-based) integrated into the landscape
• Wind turbines as ‘standard equipment’
• Geothermal heat generation
• Composting heat generation
• Solar heat collection
• Indoor urban park and regional greens
• Heat and power harvesting with thermo-collectors.
PUBLIC REALM
Create a Public Realm Framework and Anchor Individual Neighbourhoods with ‘Places’
A public realm framework of interconnected streets, squares and open spaces will create a spatial structure for the development. This will give a strong sense of order and orientation that acts as a series of reference points for people to find their way about. The public realm acts as the ‘vital glue’ between buildings and plays a crucial role in strengthening
communities. A key task is to configure public space so that all parts of the public realm contribute towards achieving a high quality environment.
Neighbourhoods can be generated by the density of housing and the elements that draw people together, such as shared community facilities and open spaces, which more importantly contribute to achieving a sense of community identity and place. An order of gathering or ‘places’ can be developed which recognises that there will likely be a variety of activity and neighbourhood scales - town centre, district centre, local centre - each activated by an hierarchical framework of core institutions and public facilities. In addition, a hierarchy of open spaces such as civic and local squares and courtyards defined by building edges that will help differentiate between public and private realms.
HOUSING TYPES
The suburban and urban sprawl that characterises many high growth areas is accepted as unsustainable development. However, counterproposals can be in conflict with individual aspirations.
In Chelyabinsk the existing housing typology is high density blocks with central communal areas of usually 10 storeys or more. In Sunny Valley numerous settlements of holiday villas are proliferating. The aspiration for new home owners is likely to be somewhere between the two.
A diversity of different housing types will therefore cater for the various market sectors and home owner needs, from high rise apartments, to individual villas on plots, including town houses and low/mid rise apartments in between. Furthermore, the range of housing types will help create a desirable sense of place enclosure and definition. Use of urban form and massing in key selective locations, such as the higher density areas at the heart of the town, district and local centres, can achieve spatial definition for each of the communities
according to their accessibility and amenity provision.
The following breakdown of residential and mixeduse development density and building forms can help offer more choice and community identity:
1. High Density Economy Class High-rise towers (up to 10 storeys) + low/ mid-rise perimeter blocks
2. Medium Density Business Class Low/mid-rise perimeter blocks (up to 5 storeys)
3. Low Density Luxury Class Detached Villas (up to 2 storeys)
DISTRIBUTION OF COMMUNAL FACILITIES
Cluster and Integrate
Community Facilities
The provision of good community facilities at all scales, from the city to local centre, provides for a total living environment in close proximity to residential and employment catchment areas. Higher profile public facilities that have a city-wide
catchment should be located within the town centre which will be the most accessible and exposed activity area in west Chelyabinsk directly off the major arterial city movement structure. The town centre, as a major new centre in metropolitan Chelyabinsk, can locate new regional conference and exhibition centres, tertiary education institutions, religious and cultural facilities, as well as higher end commercial and residential development.
The breakdown of community facilities within the residential communities could be as follows:
Local Centre
Mainly lower density residential and some mixed use development within a 500m/5min walking catchment of:
• Community Offices
• Community Centre / Religious Facility
• Local Public House
• Post office
• Nursery School / Creche
• Primary School (sometimes a secondary School as well)
• Doctor
• Corner shops
District Centre
As above, mainly medium density residential and some mixed use development within a 500m/5min walking
catchment, but with the following additions:
• Sports Centre
• District Centre with supermarket
• Library
• Health Centre / Small Hospital
• Secondary Schools
• Small Hotels
Town Centre
As above, mainly higher density residential and mixed use development within a 500m/5min walking catchment, but with the following higher order additions:
• Aquapark / Sports Centre
• Library
• Commercial and Government Offices
• Community / Religious Facilities
• Museums / Galleries
• Major Hospital
• Performing Arts Centres
• Conference / Exhibition Centres
• Hotels
• Tertiary Education Facilities
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
The development will comply with the current road hierarchies that regulate traffic flows for optimal vehicular movement efficiencies across the site from the faster speed arterial roads to the slower speed local residential access roads.
The provision of faster and wider raods will however be balanced against the need to provide safe pedestrian crossings at regular opportunities and creating an attractive landscape experience for all street users. To heighten the pedestrian experience and to promote walkability and reduce over-dependence on the car, there will be a safe and sheltered open and covered walkway system throughout the development integrated into the public realm. All roads will be treelined
for shade and shelter cover. Main pedestrian activity thoroughfares will be within a network of sheltered gallerias and atria or winter gardens. Busy roads will have dedicated pedestrian crossings or underpasses as appropriate.
To further reduce over-dependence on car use, there will be both a dedicated bus and tram service within the Sunny Valley development. A tram system will operate along the main activity arterial corridor with stops every 300m. Local buses will cover all areas of the development and be accessible with bus stops every 200m at least. The tram and bus services will also connect back to the Chelyabinsk city centre to make Sunny Valley accessible over a wider metropolitan catchment area.
PUBLIC UTILITIES NETWORKS
The existing national grid connections for power and gas provision will be complemented with a district model of energy provision where local power units or CHPs (Combined Heat and Power Plants) provide energy nearer to source for smaller neighbourhoods or districts, thereby reducing the huge amount of energy lost in transmission. Mixed-use development
enables energy sharing and heat generated can be reused and put back into the grid. CHPs will generate power from renewable energy sources.
Buildings will be designed to be energy-efficient. New developments in environmental design can help reduce energy consumption and create more sustainable urban neighbourhoods.
