http://sk.ru/en Skolkovo, Moscow 13.12.2010 Designed and planned by leading architects from Moscow and London, the D1 District will form the primary residential area of the ambitious plans for the new city of Skolkovo. Architecture firms SPEECH (Moscow) and David Chipperfield Architects (London), the latter winners of three Royal Institute of British Architecture awards in 2011, are combining their talents to create a new urban environment. The D1 District, covering over 478,000 m2, will comprise a mixed development of residential, office and retail space. Whilst strikingly urban in design the district is bordered by a woody river valley to the north thereby combining the benefits of modern city living with the advantages for health and well being of access to beautiful, natural surroundings. The area offers convenient transport links with easy access to the Minskoye highway to the West. Existing houses and holiday homes found to the south and east. The district will comprise both a northern urban area and to the south a more family orientated, greener area of townhouses, single family units and the Family Campus-- these two areas will join across a wide avenue. Public buildings essential to providing a high quality of life will be built; for instance, in the east, a new hospital. Buildings within the district share a distinctive arrangement; each is configured around a central courtyard garden. Those sited closest to the main street run parallel to it, but as one moves through the area the linear layout gives way to a more fluid arrangement of buildings. The repetition of the courtyard design provides continuity, whilst the changes in size and layout ensure the district has a distinctly human feel.