Projects

Research objective

• to identify the ways, in which the street is used on weekdays and weekends;
• to find out what the pedestrians think about the trade activities carried out here;
• what commercial properties will be in demand at Novy Arbat;
• what development scenario will enable to improve quality of services at these Trading Centers and will be more economically profitable for their owners.

Research Structure

• marketing research across local markets for commercial real estate;
• sociology: current scenarios for the facility usage and queries from target audiences;
• analysis into the cultural codes at the site;
• "reconcept", program and events scheduling for the site.
• Historical and cultural codes for the site

"Houses in the form of Books", designed by Architect Mikhail Posokhin at the end of the 1960s as the residential buildings of the new type, immediately changed their usage, they became the cabinets for the Soviet Ministries. In the 1990s, they housed the department of the Moscow government and private offices. The first floors have always been used to deliver servicing functions. In the 1970s, the Russia's first self-service store was created here, in the 1990s they housed antiquity shops, in 2000s the space started to look similar to the "market". Smaller kiosks with tobacco, souvenirs, phone accessories, ethnic goods could not meet the demand for the first-need goods from the offices employees of the "book-houses", needs of tourists and city-dwellers, who would traditionally come to the center to find unique goods.

Novy Arbat was designed as Moscow's Broadway. The functional usages of the first floors at the street changed and the street lost its original audience.

New concept

The research showed that the biggest potential would be provided — in terms of the redevelopment of Novoarbatsky and Valday Trading Centers — by the two lines of functional usage of the facility — trading and accommodation.

3 scenarios for the building transformation were proposed:

• Medium-Level Trading Center: clear floor plans, dividing the area between individual lessees (mainly, major international brands, leasing large-scale areas).
• Universal store: open floor plans, with no separation, enabling to lease corners, smaller areas. This will impact the increase of lease rates and help increase the pool of potential lessees.
• Boutique Hotel: a smaller number of rooms; quality modern design.