Achinsk railway station neighbourhood master plan
Project year
2015 — 2016
Team
Urbanica
Project role
Urban design, urban mobility, data science
Clients
Achinsk administration, RUSAL's center for social programmes
Challenge
A goal of the whole project was to find the vector of development for Achinsk, considering socio-economic climate, current condition of environment and infrastructure, and points of growth.

Apart from that we needed to craft a guidebook for design of public spaces, residential areas, transportation infrastructure and work out mechanics for implementation so that the projects enhance the quality of life and urban environment. This clearly had to be done by constructing a map of interactions between citizens, administrations, businesses and upgrading regulatory and legal framework.

Aside from working on the whole project in terms of providing urban mobility and urban design solutions, I was assigned to manage the vision/master plan for the area around main railway station of Achinsk.
Workflow
My assignment was to create a vision/master-plan for the area around town's major railway station. I have used field trip materials from my collegues, did my own distant research, and used my own previously done data analysis work to understand the area better. As a result of research I saw that the territory lacked even basic infrastructure like sidewalks and pedestrian crossings, street lights, had chaotic car/bus circulation, no clear wayfinding whatsoever (even though people have to change between 3 modes of transport here: rail, town bus and coach) and is not a pleasant place to be overall, even though most people come to Achinsk by rail, so it is a front yard for the town in a sense.

First and foremost I have proposed to equip the area with all basic elements of pedestrian infrastructure, such as sidewalks, pedestrian crossings with direct illumination in right places. Secondly, one of the most important aspects to transforming the area is changing geometry of streets and other areas around the railway stations for safety puposes and intuitive and visually appealing functional zoning. There are quite a few scenarios of flows around Achinsk railway station: people switching from rail to coach, from coach to town bus, from rail going into town on foot, from rail to town bus and some others. That is why intuitive functional zoning is crucial for navigating flows of people, cars and buses safely to the right places.

I've also added to my proposal a transportation hub part: to create actual platforms with a roof for coaches, electronic timetables, benches to sit and standing benches, plus a roof straight from railway hall to coaches so that the switch of transportation modes will be "dry". There also have to be a proper platform/bus stop for town bus.

As for constructon of the block, which is already happening, I have proposed to make buildings lower close to water tower and railway and build up a bit higher to a level of current buildings (cascading). In cooperation with my collegues I have proposed to revitalize old water tower into infocenter and museum for tourists and locals (with exhibitions for Krasnoyars or all over the region for that purpose). In my opinion those functions are only natural here as the tower is visible from exits of the railway station and will serve both as attraction and time better spent, especially for those waiting here to switch from one train to another.

Below you can see the project cut into a number of stages for implementation: from crucial and tactical to strategic.
Outcome
The vision I've created was successfully integrated into the main project and became a guidebook for transforming areas around railway stations typical for Russian towns. The work I've produced as a leader of the sub-project was used by my collegues as an example on various presentations around the country and briefs for upcoming projects.

This summer city of Achinsk started making a project to reconstruct the territory I was working on, but for some reson they hired some architects that made a low-level project which took from my ideas, but lacks safety, comfort and seamless urban environment experience I had in my vision. Sadly, they have already started impementing it. Too bad for the city of Achinsk.
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