The development concept for Kirovsk

Authors
AB Ostozhenka: A. Skokan, A. Gnezdilov, K. Gladkiy, O. Maksimova, S. Pomelov, Yu. Plokhov, D. Kodichev, M. Skorokhod, A. Kochurkin, A. Rednikova. Institute for Spatial Planning "Urbanica": M. Perov, A. Shchukin, O. Kalashnikova, G. Mustafin, A. Petrov, T. Terekhova, K. Titova

With the assistance of
A. V. Tomilov

Address
Kirovsk, Murmansk region,

Client
ANO "Khibiny Center for Business Development"

Start
2017

The development concept for Kirovsk proceeds from the specific features of this town situated on the Kola Peninsula beyond the polar circle and founded in the 1930s around mines and a dressing-and-processing works. It can be considered a typical example of a socialist township that was built and developed in the interests of production, which occupied the shores of a lake, the centre of the entire valley and therefore the most important part of the town. 

Now that production technology has changed a good deal of the industrial area and rail tracks leading there have been vacated in the heart of the town. As a result, it became possible to restore the natural landscape in the area and add a new tourist and recreation function. 

In addition to its main industrial function, Kirovsk has long been known as a popular mountain skiing and tourist centre owing to favourable natural conditions: low mountains with good slopes and a long skiing season lasting two thirds of the year from October through May. New slope development combined with the renovation of former industrial sites on the shores of the lake, as well as the natural “tongues” extending to the very heart of the town coupled with travel routes along the abandoned railway lines all offer a wonderful potential for turning the environmentally hamstrung industrial town beyond the polar circle into a promising multi-functional centre.