Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Big Italy

Russia just can't shake the planning thing, even if they have to outsource:
Italian architects are to build a new futuristic metropolis the size of Manhattan in the Volga region of Russia.

Milan-based firm Dante O. Benini won a tender earlier this month to build the urban complex across the river from Russia's third largest city, Nizhni Novgorod.

....Globe Town will replace the small, run-down town of Bor and will feature skyscrapers in glass, aluminium and steel arranged in ascending and descending order of height to create an undulating skyline.

....Globe Town will also have a public park four times bigger than New York's Central Park as well as stadiums, hotels, sports centres and a large river port on the banks of the Volga.

The regional government of Nizhni Novgorod hopes the new complex, which will provide housing for 500,000 people, will act as a spillover for the crowded industrial city.

Streets as wide as motorways will allow 250,000 cars to circulate in the city, which will be connected to Nizhni Novgorod by four bridges and an underground tunnel.

Snow covers the area where the city will be built for half of the year, and the site is also vulnerable to being swamped by the Volga river. ''To overcome the problem of flooding the water will be channelled into canals, while four million square metres of land where we're going to put the buildings will be raised eight metres above ground level,'' Gonzo explained.

An underground system will pump hot water to heat the houses in winter and will store cold water and ice to cool the city in summer.

To make the city eco-friendly, the architects will use 'smog eating' material - photocatalytic asphalt and cement that gobbles up pollution from the air - and will also build a gasifier to convert household rubbish into fuel.

Green spaces will cover around 15 million square metres, or around half of the city's total surface area.

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