Project

The Gromy district in Polotsk, covering 400 hectares, faces isolation due to railway barriers, flooding from blocked drainage canals, and a lack of centralized sewage. Despite these challenges, its proximity to the railway station and city center offers strong development potential. MLA+ proposes new transport and pedestrian links across the railway, repurposing underused industrial sites into dense urban blocks and light-industrial R&D facilities. Cultural heritage, including the nearby Saint Euphrosyne Monastery, will anchor a tourism network to revitalize the area.

In Novopolotsk’s 9th microdistrict — a late Soviet urban plan — challenges include monotonous housing, poor space management, and chaotic greenery. The strategy positions it as the core of a new Polotsk–Novopolotsk agglomeration, improving connectivity via a redesigned Molodezhnaya Street and a speed tram system. At the microdistrict scale, internal streets and pedestrian links are restructured, preserving valued community features such as a diagonal path and central football field. Solutions include multi-level parking, a hierarchy of private/public spaces, and diverse building heights to create distinctive local places.

In Novogrudok, the site’s central location and heritage are offset by inefficient land use and low environmental quality. The masterplan adopts an irregular, medieval-inspired layout aligned with existing transit corridors, enhancing the historic character. Public spaces are organized along two main axes, with “Student Square” — framed by new buildings around historic Polish-era houses — as the centerpiece, hosting a skate park, amphitheater, and outdoor café. Ecological sustainability is promoted by categorizing land by naturalness and integrating urban gardening to bridge lifestyle differences between private-plot residents and apartment dwellers.

Together, these strategies transform underperforming urban areas into connected, vibrant, and sustainable districts that honor local context while enabling future growth.

Client

"Green Cities" project financed by GEF and implemented by UNDP in Belarus

Program

Three transformation test projects to illustrate the principles of Green Cities
Toolbox that can be applied in other cities of Belarus
Methodology of participatory processes

Stages

2019 Concept design, public participation

Team

MLA+: Yulia Drozd, Yana Golubeva, Gavriil Malyshev, Pavel Nishchanka, Gulnaz Nizamutdinova, Evgenia Pavlenko, MiKhail Stepura, Nadezhda Tsarenok, Daniil Veretennikov, Veronika Yamilova