Rural and Urban at the Same Time Moscow's population is growing almost as fast as the Russian economy. The pressure to develop potential new locations for inhabitants is increasing at the same pace. In this context, over the next 20 years »Kommunarka«, the former state agricultural combine, will be given a new, decidedly urban lease on life. The inter­national competition for an expert report on the planning, to which AS+P submitted an entry, was won by the Rotterdam-based Maxwan offer. It proposed a master plan that took its cue from the Soviet tradition of town planning with the definition of four sub-centers in the form of four quadrants. In the subsequent planning phase, AS+P was commissioned to revise the specifications for one of the quadrants and develop realizable plans. Located directly next to one of the main traffic axes in metropolitan Moscow, the brief was to develop a polycentric city for more than 60,000 inhabitants and offering about 40,000 jobs. This Western Quadrant is made up of individual districts, each with a character of its own. The goal AS+P has championed in the competition - of an urban settlement structure with strong links to nature - is now coming into its own as the underlying planning principle, fostering a high-quality symbiosis of the new city and the surrounding countryside.