The uniqueness of area

The experimental nature of the district is expressed not only by the scale of non-type buildings, but first of all by low construction density – only 7,000 sqm per 1 ha. Besides that, in Nurland there will be 18 sqm of green plants per 1 resident, taking the forest-park into account (the norm under Construction Codes and Regulations is 6 sqm). 

The entire territory of the district to be is conventionally separated into seven clusters: «M-7», «Forest-park», «Hill», «Center», «Slope», «Valley», «Buffer». Each sector is formed around an anchor idea that forms the town and determines certain deployment of buildings.

For instance, planning axis of the «Center» cluster is city boulevard, where public facilities and high-density alternate-height buildings will be concentrated. Also, health, leisure and education centers will be located here. The boulevard will serve as the main axis passing along the planned residential sub-districts of «Hill» and «Slope» clusters, and will provide their direct connection with infrastructure items. The boulevard will also perform as a transport artery as it provides good accessibility of the public area with «Forest-park» and «M-7» sectors. Commercial and public items placed along the boulevard will create harmonized and sound living environment. It will be a beautiful street with shops, restaurants, cafes, boutiques that creates calm but lively pace of living.

In the North the «Forest-park» is located whose primary functions are hosting sports and recreation areas and adjoining the neighboring residential quarters. It is a unique natural site with the area of 110 ha that will be the key value of the entire Project. The forest-park will be available for all the residents of Nurland due to convenient network of automobile roads, public walking and bicycle roads that can be used as skiing runs in the winter. The intact forest, a system of groves and creeks at the territory of the Central Park contributes to formation and maintenance of sound environmental frame of the whole territory of Nurland. The forest-park will be beautified and turned into a place for promenades and recreation for all the residents of the district. Open space of the park will be used as sports grounds and picnic spots.

In «Slope» and «Hill» clusters the relief plays the leading part and dictates the attributes of buildings: it is planned to build quiet residential areas and low-rise quarters here, mostly townhouses. Use of natural relief enables to form convenient plots for houses with terraces that will enjoy the beautiful panoramic view to the valley and surrounding forests. The plots in the «Valley» cluster spread along Solonka river are meant for low-density, mostly villa-like development. Many sports facilities are also located here. 

Cluster «M-7» is located along the federal motorway М-7 and has vividly linear looks. At the later stages of development express tram lines will connect the object with Kazan underground lines. Target group: representative offices of international and Russian companies increasing their presence in Russian regions; companies operating in airport-office-airport mode; retail enterprises; companies with production sites in Kazan and suburbs, etc. Functional usage: shopping malls; offices; hotels; motels; conference halls; business and techno-parks; showrooms and laboratories for hi-tech technologies implementation; recreation areas; subsidiary infrastructure complex: service enterprises, catering, trade and entertainment facilities.

Cluster «Buffer» will be located in the sanitary protective area of the existing cemetery. Communal, warehousing and infrastructure facilities of the district, ceremonial buildings, harmless and non-waste industry facilities, fire depot and militia department will be placed there.

ENVIRONMENT, BEAUTIFICATION AND LANDSCAPES

Tne of the main objectives of Noorland construction is creation of environment-friendly and comfortable urban surroundings.

The existing environment system is one of the main values of the Project and is used to establish a recreational system: parks, public gardens, playgrounds, sports and entertainment facilities. The environment-oriented development strategy provides for complex tree planting, preservation and enrichment of the existing natural wealth.

One of the main objectives of the nowadays investment and construction process is securing of environment-safe development of the city. Using methods of strategic planning for construction, profitable and permissible from environmental point of view development of city territory is carried out.

The elaborated methods of environmental reconstruction provide for environmentally balanced functioning of territories by means of innovative technologies and principles of ecological sufficiency of the environment. The Noorland district will be realized as an investment project taking into account the main principles of environmental reconstruction. 

For the first time in Kazan in case of realization of a large-scale complex development project, all the design works under it will be supervised from the point of view of environment protection with participation of research and design companies. The «Environmental and Town-development Reference Plan», will be elaborated where the unified environmental rules for design and development of Noorland will be determined. 

In Noorland, an integrated system of recreation area will be created. Within the district, the vertical landscaping works will be close to none, natural green areas, creeks (Solonka river) and ponds will be preserved as much as possible. The absolute levels of land surface within the district vary from 131.0 m (Western part) to 55.0 m (Eastern part), which means that the preserved natural elevation difference in Nurland will reach 76 meters. As a result of the project solutions realization, the green territories in Nurland will be connected into a whole system of parks, public gardens and boulevards that make uninterrupted "green corridors", in which functionally different city territories are combined. All the recreational facilities will be united with unified design which will highlight visual integrity of the district under development.

The new approach to design of complex beautification items focused on establishment of unified recreational system, provides new quality for urban environment. When designing the complex beautification items for Noorland, the requirements will be taken into account that will condition the creation of a stable system of urban landscapes in the circumstances of the mega polis of Kazan.

In Noorland, separate «beautification layers» will be created: water and land beautification, children's recreation and quiet rest, pedestrian and bicycle routes. On picturesque valley slopes of Solonka river down-runs will be made for skiing in the winter and bicycle rides in the summer, etc. 

In beautification projects for Noorland, hydrogeodetical peculiarities of the land will be taken into account, such as high ground-water level. In public areas, artificial water pools fed by ground and surface water will be laid, and such pools can be used all year round, including winter, when skating rinks can be made of the. All the communications and roads within the district will also be places with consideration of ground-water level. To avoid land erosion and pollution of bottomland of Solonka river, drainage and treatment facilities will be developed with consideration of peculiarities of relief and ground-water level. The «excess» water will be derived from the surface, and the water that can be absorbed will moist the root layer.

The major design solutions for complex beautification of Noorland will provide:

• Vivid zoning of inner space of sub-districts with allocation within them of various design elements - gardens, boulevards, parks – that will make it possible to regulate use of territories and avoid additional transport load related to transit transport currents;
• When arranging road and path network within the sub-district, all the beautification items will have pavements of different color and finish that will make it possible to structure the currents of people moving at different speed and by different means;
• The structure of tree planting at road-side territories will be designed in such a way so as to minimize the adverse effect of automobiles and deicing substances on the vegetative cover.

The problem of treatment of polluted surface effluents will be solved in Noorland by means of biological water-treatment complex, on of the elements of which will be a hydrobiologicla plot or a bio-pond. (In this shallow-water pool air-water growth will be used as a biological filter to clear the water from pollutants.)

INDEPENDENT HEATING SOURCES

One of the priorities for complex construction of Noorland will be energy-efficiency as an integral part of environment-friendly construction and development and implementation of energy-saving innovations. 

Due to the above, two options for heating of Noorland district have been developed and proposed: 
   Option I – heating is carried out with detached, attached or overbuilt (roof) boilers with various thermal capacity. 
   Option II – heating of the district is carried out with a district heating station. 

(After a diligent analysis of the technical and economic performance of the two heating options, the State environment expertise of the State committee on environment protection for the city of Kazan made a conclusion that heating with independent sources affects the environment and natural resources, air pollution, living condition and health of the inhabitants in the least way, and besides, it is the most efficient in terms of economy.)

In Noorland, there will be 23 local boilers, 16 roof boilers and 1 catalytic boiler in operation.

Implementation of new technologies and solutions in Noorland will enable to:

Reduce:
• the total installed power of heating sources for 20%;
• annual heat yield and annual fuel consumption for 41%;
• adverse effect on environment more than 2 times.
• heating network length for 40 Km;
• investments into construction for 50%, including costs of heating networks – 3 time;
• amount of water to be added into heating network – more than 5 times.
• costs of consumed heat – 1.5 times.

ENERGY-SAVING «WARM» HOUSES

Another experimental development is energy-saving («warm») house with improved thermal and technical performance of external jacketing with heat-transfer resistance ration of about 6 KW/hr per sqm (in ordinary residential buildings the ratio is 2.5 KW/hr per sqm). Each apartment in such house is equipped with a fan with heat-exchanger (recuperator), which makes it possible to use the heat of the ventilated air, to achieve European norms in terms of air exchange (in ordinary construction this parameter is not controlled). 

The main advantages of the energy-saving house:
• low energy consumption for heating, up to 20-25 KW/hr per sqm during the heating period (instead of the norm of 160 KW/hr per sqm for year for similar buildings);
• the building consists of a load-bearing frame and thermal shell;
• durability of the frame is not les than 100-120 years;
• the service life of shell elements is 25-40 years, the shell elements can be repaired or replaces;
• no heating network, transition to local independent energy sources;
• significant reduction of heating costs (i.e., over 1,000 US Dollars for year in case of heated area of 200 sqm at the rate of 0.05 US Dollars per KW/hr);
• quick assembly, possibility of stage-by-stage construction.