On 25 of April an open meeting-discussion on the topic of improving the quality of the urban environment was held at the ITMO University.

Following the meeting, an agreement was signed on cooperation between the ITMO University and the Group of companies "RosStroyInvest".  Vladimir Vasiliev, the rector of the ITMO University, and Fedor Turkin, the chairman of the board of directors of "RosStroyInvest" have  set their signatures to the agreement.

The parties agreed on a strategic partnership, which aim is formation mechanisms to improve social, environmental and technological environment in Russia and as a result, the joint creation of models of "smart cities" and the introduction of their elements in the Russian regions.

"Properly shaped the urban environment should not only contribute to a comfortable life for citizens, but also create the conditions for creative self-realization and disclosure the potential of human. Signing of the agreement  is the first step towards the creation of such an environment. We are willing to consider different possibilities of our cooperation with the business community, as we believe that the university is an important partner for companies that are ready to become pioneers in the development of a comfortable urban space", Vladimir Vasilyev said.

In the first part of the discussion on the problems of urban development, Anton Finogenov, the CEO "Urbanik", told about quality criteria of the urban environment. According to him, in terms of extensive growth of large Russian cities building companies tend to take every free meter of living space. Such massive construction was actively conducted in the postwar period, when it was required to overcome the housing crisis. Now this model of the development of new spaces is outdated. The speaker noted that it is necessary to move towards human oriented design of city sites, and mentioned the main issues that arise when creating a residential environment and common areas.

Vladimir Linov, the main architect of office "Studio 17" told guests of the meeting  about the optimal relation  of normative population density and high-rise of the buildings, calling for a reduction in the number of storeys of modern residential buildings. "The man who lives above the 6th floor, is sick on average one and a half to two times more often. Living on the top floors of skyscrapers is also dangerous for the psychological state of the inhabitants of megacities", Vladimir Linov stressed.

Participants concluded that the absence of generally accepted standards in Russian cities, as well as current economic factors affecting the density of residential development, are the main challenges to the creation of the modern city, convenient and comfortable for human life.

The staff of laboratory «Housing +» of ITMO University were Initiators of this meeting. The «Housing +» deals with research questions of the quality of housing and ways of organizing urban space for several years. "Defining the necessary criteria for comfortable urban environment allows building of the right trajectory of living spaces and adjusting the established rules by showing the reality of these tasks", Mikhail Klimovskii, the director of the Master's program "Design urban ecosystems" of the ITMO University said.

During the year several similar discussions will be held at the ITMO University. According to their results a detailed plan for the development objectives of the urban space will be formed. In 2015, it will be presented at the International Forum on Urbanism, which is planned to be organized by the ITMO University, together with representatives of business and media community. Roman Romaniuk, the chief editor of "Expert North- West", has already expressed the willingness to support the project.

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