A new point on the Russian map: the Agency CENTER and the Genplan Institute of Moscow to develop a model of a new city on Sakhalin
The Agency for Strategic Development CENTER in strategic partnership with the Genplan Institute of Moscow will develop a model of a new city in the Sakhalin Region. A project of creating a city from scratch is virtually unprecedented for the urban planning practice not only in modern Russia, but in the whole world. The future city is expected to provide additional momentum for the socio-economic development of the Sakhalin Region and the Far Eastern Federal District, increase the competitive advantage of the region’s economy, and contribute to strengthening a favorable investment climate.
The new city is planned to be created on the territory of the Korsakovsky Urban District of the Sakhalin Region. The Sakhalin Region is one of Russia’s easternmost territories and the only subject of the Russian Federation located entirely on islands. An especially important feature of the future city is its access to the year-round sea port of Korsakov – one of the largest and most strategically important ports in the region. The approximate area of the new city will be about 1.2 thousand hectares.
The new city will be created as part of a large-scale project carried out by the Sakhalin Region Development Corporation with support from the Sakhalin Region Government.
Valerii LimarenkoSakhalin Region Governor
It is important to us to create a new logistics-adjacent industry and develop the transport and logistics business. Coupled with a comfortable environment, that would make it so no one would want to leave the island – on the contrary, people from all over Russia would move there. That is what motivated the idea to build a new, modern, environmentally clean city with modern energy-saving technologies and unmanned transport near Korsakov.
As the design of the new city should incorporate the priorities of the territory’s development, its socio-economic realities, and spatial development problems, the project involves leading federal experts – a consortium consisting of the Agency for Strategic Development CENTER and the Genplan Institute of Moscow. They were chosen through an open request for proposals, part of the public procurement procedure initiated by the Sakhalin Region Development Corporation (for more information, see Background Information) in December 2020 The experts will conduct scientific research on the territory, assess its potential and possible limitations, and construct a model of the new city.
Sergei GeorgievskiiCEO of the Agency for Strategic Development CENTER
There is not much experience in creating new-type cites in Russia, which makes our current task – developing a model of a completely new city and setting its growth vector, immediately making it comfortable and livable, modern and safe – all the more interesting and ambitious. The project serves the goals of not only regional development, but also overall spatial development of the Russian Federation, due to the special geostrategic position of the region. We are inspired by the upcoming work and confident that the project of the new city will enrich the urban planning practice of our country.
The model developed by the consortium will include detailed functional planning solutions for key objects and territories. The experts will be tasked with determining optimal parameters and solutions for the development of the new city, identifying potential investment opportunities and their feasibility and efficiency, and increasing the investment attractiveness of the territory.
The experts will also define the boundaries of the new city, formulate general principles and approaches to its development, identify its potential, create a functional and spatial model, and conduct an anthropological study, which will include generating profiles of future residents of the city, predicting their number and life scenarios.
The first visit of the consortium delegation under the leadership of the Agency for Strategic Development CENTER will take place in early April. The experts will conduct a number of preliminary activities, including a report on the project at a meeting of the Architectural and Urban Planning Council under the Governor of the Sakhalin Region, which will be held on April 7.