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The Future City Game took place on 26-27 February 2010 in the educational centre № 734 “School of Self-Determination” in Vostochnoe Izmailovo district. The participants (high-school students, graduates, young teachers, social entrepreneurs, Russian and European experts, representatives of local authorities) were working out a vision of development for Redoubts of Peter the Great – the historical monument of XVII century.
Vostochnoe Izmailovo where the redoubts of Peter the Great are located is a typical residential area on the outskirts of Moscow with some historical background and fuzzy identity. The well-preserved redoubts of 18th century are located in the middle of a large wild park which is used by the locals for leisure and sporting activities. Most of the walls and ditches are on the territory of a community farm that grows and sells flowers.
 video about the Future City Game
The Future City Game focused on The Redoubts of Peter the Great, a neglected historical area (18th century) with some great potential as a public space. The municipality initiated the game as one of the steps to attract public attention, gather professionals, students and locals to work together on developing a vision of the place and then take the ideas forward.
The Future City Game also facilitated multicultural dialogue between the participants, provided exchange of experience and created an environment of international and cross generation communication.
The task was to work out what can be done to develop the place as an innovative cultural platform which would use the historical background of Peter the Great redoubts as an inspiration and main content for the projects. Thus the territory should at the same time remain a green area and become a place of historical significance.
Green Team
The winning project considers both historical and environmental backgrounds of the area. The team suggested creating a flexible recreational zone that will on one hand demonstrate some common patterns of traditional gardens of 18th century, and on the other hand turn the redoubts into an open air interactive museum showing the fortification art of the given period such as redoubts, palisades, poling, trenches etc. One of the key components of the project is setting up a public physic garden with a wide range of possible scientific and entertaining activities for all ages.
The main advantages of the project are using the facilities of an already existing community farm for their benefit, creating a flexible space for fest, historical reconstruction and environmental events celebrating the innovations Peter implemented and low start-up budget.
The project has a strong focus on interactive activities for both children and adults such as a playground field for measuring human capabilities, sun dial and similar inventions that might be not only displayed but touched, played with and studied outdoor or indoor.
OTHER IDEAS
Orange Team
The team chose a concept of a complex platform for folk celebrations. The tree-shaped map of the project considers a number of possible solutions of gradually developing the area into a place with a strong reference to the time of Peter the Great. An action plan the team offered goes from very low-budget eco-trails and seasonal weekend sport and leisure folk activities for the local community and grows forward into a full scale location for historical role play, school theater festival stage and an interactive webpage which allows you to explore the historical period, listen to educational podcasts and find a schedule for offline activities on the location.
Violet Team
The concept idea is to provide the visitors with an opportunity to touch things and work using hands. The team put an emphasis on the need of attracting people to this place, promoting the area.
The team offered to create workshops for making handicrafts with the tools of 18th century and gardening. An interesting component of the project is a summer camping area as a part of seasonal handicraft village. This is especially innovative as Moscow seriously lacks cheap accommodation places and there are practically no camping areas for backpackers at all.
Blue Team
The team presented a project that focuses on creating an art workshop village where visitors can observe the procedures of traditional handicraft and try some with their own hands (and take what they’ve made home!). Among other activities it might be cooking, glass-blowing, weaving, joinering, forging, embroidery etc. all of which are possible to carry out inside tents or light pavilions which can be also historically stylized. The village will be surrounded by a walking and cycling circumferential path which might serve as a traditional sledge or horse riding route as well.
Probably the most futuristic and high tech idea of the game belongs to this team and it describes an open air virtual 3d labyrinth transmitted by a laser projector to the redoubts which are quite a maze themselves. The presentation of the team showed the idea of two worlds, the one underground demonstrating the archeological dig remains and the one above - an interactive simulation of the age.
Yellow Team
The team chose the military innovations and a famous story of Entertaining regiment in particular as inspiration. Peter was the first in Russia who developed a program of professional training for the army and it included both physical and intellectual exercise. The project suggests using the redoubts and surrounding territories as a field for simulation role play military training for schoolchildren and potentially for all ages. Beside the sporting events there might be seasonal interactive workshops with military-related activities such as founding, folk medicine, timbering, field-cooking etc. with an opportunity for visitors to take what they have made home as a souvenir. The main connecting event is one day team-based game modeling a military operation, a combination of paintball and historical reconstruction role play.
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Bridget McKenzie has 20 years experience in delivering cultural learning programmes in museums and heritage bodies, with posts including Head of Learning at the British Library and Education Officer for Tate in London. In 2006 she co-founded Flow Associates, a consultancy delivering digital and outreach strategies for cultural, heritage and science organisations. Their clients include English Heritage, Heritage Lottery Fund, ACE and national museums. Bridget has envisioned a new kind of cultural and environmental discovery centre in New Cross, London, to be incorporated into a new community building. She is also a keen photographer of places, especially of threatened coastal heritage. |
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Michael Taylor is Historic Areas Adviser for English Heritage in the West Midlands region. He is a town planner and conservation specialist with some thirty years’ experience mainly in local government. Prior to joining English Heritage in February 2000 he was conservation officer for Leicester City Council. |
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Fred Manson is an independent consultant in regeneration. As Director of Regeneration and Environment, London Borough of Southwark, with responsibility for land use planning and property, architecture, public protection, and environmental management, and leisure and community services, he was responsible for an annual budget up to Ј60M, from 1994 to 2001.. In 2000, he was awarded an honorary OBE and received the Stirling Prize for Best Building for the Peckham Library. Since 2004 he has worked with the Thomas Heatherwick Studios on public land private commissions in Hong Kong.` |
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Cany Ash is a founder partner of Ash Sakula Architects Ash Sakula has established a reputation for working in unpromising sites and creating strong identities for creative industries clusters, education and community projects, and affordable housing. Recent projects include Silvertown housing for the Peabody Trust, the UK Centre for Carnival Arts, Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff and Tibby’s Triangle in Southwold Suffolk. Currently the practice is helping to establish a digital media cluster in the docks of Cardiff and a creative industries quarter in Deptford South London. Currently Cany is working on a book for young people about public space, and is organising a conference in Leicester on supportive environments for the diverse working practices of Small and Medium Enterprises |
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- Gallery at Look at me - 1
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