Moscow To Get World’s Biggest Live-Work Space



Having visited the place last summer, PSFK would argue that Moscow might need a little sprucing up when it comes to architecture. Beyond Red Square and the Kremlin, you get the choice of Stalinist apartment block or Soviet-era apartment block, both styles nicely situated beside 12 lane ring roads. Luckily Norm Foster has designed a new piece of wunderarchitecture.

Crystal Island in Moscow will be 450m high and cover an area of almost half a million square meters. The building contain a total floor area of 2.5 million square meters. It will be a live-workplay environment and will offer theaters, exhibition spaces, retail, 3,000 hotel rooms, 900 serviced apartments and a school for 500 students. There will also be two public viewing platforms, one at 150m and another at 300m.

The press release reads:

Crystal Island will have a range of cultural, exhibition and performance facilities, approximately 3000 hotel rooms and 900 serviced apartments, as well as offices and shops, designed to maintain a dynamic and animated public realm throughout the day. Residents are able to work and live within a densely planned area where every amenity is within easy walking distance, including an international school for 500 students. Mixed-use also presents a strong case for energy balance, with individual components using energy at different times, while reinforcing the breadth of economic and social activity of the area.

Reminds us of the top answer of the Global Question we posed the Likemind folks back in October, which was:

Create The Right Mix To Create The Right Neighborhoods - Create neighborhoods with a communal feel by deterring the development of specific use zones and encourage the mixed use with offices, residential, social and education.

[via dezeen]