Skolkovo is an international innovation cluster near Moscow, conceived as a new city for science and technology and often described as «Russia’s Silicon Valley». The Technopark D2 district became the first residential area of Skolkovo to be developed through an open international architectural competition. The competition brought together more than 500 teams from Russia and abroad and was held in two stages. After an initial selection of 30 finalists, participants developed detailed proposals for specific residential quarters. Our proposal was selected for the second stage and awarded 1st place for Residential Quarter #11, becoming one of the 10 overall winners of the competition.
The core conceptual idea of our proposal was a deliberate shift between public and private functions across different levels. Public, technical, and infrastructural programs are concentrated on the lower level and integrated into the landscape, while residential spaces are lifted above, forming a more private and protected living environment. This vertical stratification allowed the residential fabric to remain open and continuous, while clearly organizing degrees of privacy without rigid physical separation. Landscaped internal avenues, pedestrian paths, and shared spaces flow through the lower level, supporting everyday movement and social interaction. Housing units are composed of a solid ground-level stylobate and lighter overhanging residential volumes above. Living spaces are organized on the upper floors, with access to private terraces and green roofs, emphasizing environmental performance and a restrained material palette of wood, stone, plaster, and recycled façade panels. The project was presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012 as part of the Russian Pavilion exhibition «i-City / i-Land». It was displayed within an immersive installation formed as a dome entirely composed of QR codes, where visitors explored Skolkovo through interactive digital layers, encountering individual projects — including ours — as part of a larger speculative vision of a future innovation city.
Competition, concept stage Authors, architects: Evgeniy Shchetinkin, Vladimir Garanin, Uliy Borisov 3d visualization: Bogdan Vitkov, Spartak Chinennikov Engineer: Sergey Orionov Project Manager: Vyacheslav Ibragimov In collaboration with UNK Project Competition consultant: Strelka Institute Curator of region: Valode and Pistre
