"Design code is the key to urban environment development." Urbanist Daria Kovalenko on the design code of New Tashkent

"Design code is the key to spatial development." Urban planner Daria Kovalenko on the design code of New Tashkent

How to develop a design code for a city built from scratch? On October 28, urban planner and strategist at the Atlas bureau Daria Kovalenko (Russia) spoke about this during Tashkent Design Week. She presented the "Atlas of New Tashkent" — an illustrated guide and manual for the comprehensive development of the environment, consisting of five books. The expert explained which studies formed the basis of the team's work and why it is important to consider even bird flight paths during the design process.

According to Daria Kovalenko, a design code helps form a unified image of the city, coordinate the actions of planners, architects, and designers, and think ahead about how the created environment will function years later. Every participant in the process can offer their own solution, but without general rules, individual projects risk remaining disconnected elements.

The expert emphasized that the development of a design code must precede the design of a new city, rather than being an attempt to bring order to what has already been built.

This approach means that architects do not start from scratch every time, but rely on a shared system of requirements and ready-made solutions.

"It seems to me that only a master plan can surpass a design code in the number of interpretations. Various products can be hidden behind the term 'design code'. I would say that the key word here is 'code'. This is the key to spatial development," Kovalenko said.

The urban planner explained that in some cases the design code regulates landscaping, in others it determines development parameters, architectural solutions, and facade work, and in still others it sets requirements for signage and information structures.

The fact that New Tashkent is being created from scratch has both advantages and weaknesses. On the one hand, it is a blank canvas for creativity; on the other, there is a lack of an established urban lifestyle to rely on.

"Research and context play a big role because you cannot just place architectural objects across a territory. You need to understand the logic behind doing it and who it is for. Marketing research is necessary to understand the target audience: who will live in this city or new district, what they will do there, that is, to create a scenario for future life," Daria Kovalenko explained.

The bureau's specialists focused on Tashkent and analyzed which urban planning patterns shape its appearance and how residents use public spaces. The research covered issues of zoning, history of the site, economics, urban environment management, and the maintenance of public spaces.

"For example, we conduct digital anthropology, observing where people take photos. This shows us what places are interesting to visit, places that attract people. And we identify these patterns nearby, whether there are public spaces, how well-landscaped they are, to see the correlation between how the environment looks and how it actually works," the urban planner said.

The research made it possible to move from general observations to the classification of the urban environment. The specialists identified six key types of spaces that differ in morphology, principles of building organization, and the relative positioning of buildings. The distances between houses, building parameters, and how individual elements form a cohesive spatial structure were all taken into account.

For each type of environment, a datasheet was prepared describing the characteristics of the development and its organization on the territory. On this basis, the parameters for future streets, squares, parks, and other public spaces were determined. At the same time, the task was not a literal reproduction of historical forms, but a search for principles that would allow modern architecture to interact harmoniously with the existing city.

This is how the books that make up the atlas for the development of New Tashkent came to be.

The design code of New Tashkent consists of five parts. One of them was developed by specialists from the Cross Works bureau with the participation of Atlas, who worked on the city's master plan. The remaining four are dedicated to landscaping, architectural regulations, installation rules, and maintenance.

Daria Kovalenko noted that the book on landscaping sets the principles for organizing the urban environment and a set of elements from which planners can assemble solutions for streets, parks, and recreational spaces. The architectural regulations establish requirements for facades, materials, details, and the external appearance of buildings.

Special attention is paid to installation and maintenance. These sections may seem less noticeable compared to architectural concepts, but it is precisely these that determine how long the urban environment will be able to preserve its qualities.

"Quite often, when architects work on an environment, they forget about economic aspects. You can come up with the most exquisite architectural masterpiece, but if the city's management company does not have the funds to maintain it in the proper condition for years to come, then, unfortunately, it will lose its qualities," the expert noted.

According to her, incorrectly selected materials, errors during installation, or the lack of clear maintenance rules can gradually negate even successful architectural solutions.

"The maintenance book is important for management companies that will look after the environment. In fact, this is a large invisible part that is often overlooked by conceptualists in their projects, but which is very important for the economically sustainable future of any project," Kovalenko explained.

One of the stages of developing the design code was dedicated to coloristics.

Specialists studied the color characteristics of the urban environment, systematized the collected data, and formed palettes for different types of spaces.

The document includes recommendations on the use of sun protection systems and facade materials taking the climate into account. At the same time, specialists turned to historical architectural elements, considering how their principles could be rethought in modern development.

Environmental sustainability consultants participated in the work, helping to assess the suitability of materials for local conditions. When selecting solutions, not only their appearance and durability were taken into account, but also their impact on the environment.

Daria Kovalenko noted that the appearance of a large number of buildings changes the familiar habitat.

"By creating a massive new high-rise development, we disrupt certain natural processes one way or another. For us experts, and basically for city residents, it is a responsibility to preserve such corridors. That is why in the project we talked about light-reflecting characteristics that can maintain a mirror effect without interfering with bird flight corridors," the urban planner said.

Thus, international experience was used alongside research on Tashkent, but ready-made solutions were adapted to the climatic, cultural, and urban planning characteristics of Uzbekistan.

"When we understand the logic of the space, the landscaping rules are essentially a construction set for future design, where architects can take this book and simply overlay their creativity, assembling ready-made solutions that fit the specific Uzbekistani context from these individual elements, environmental fragments, and nodes," Kovalenko explained.

In total, the atlas developed by the bureau includes over 300 material datasheets, more than 80 detailed illustrations, as well as checklists and step-by-step instructions for design and application that can be used for the urban planning of New Tashkent.