Construction of a new city district in Bratislava’s Petržalka has begun – launched with the ceremonial tapping of the foundation stone along with the representatives of the City of Bratislava, and the Bratislava-Petržalka district, the general contractor and other partners. Nesto is in close proximity to the Austrian border, and will not only create a space for living and working, but also a wide range of leisure, sports and cultural activities. An area of approximately 47 ha is to be created with the emphasis on the quality of the environment, architecture and civic amenities, where approximately 15,000 inhabitants will live. The first inhabitants should be moving into Nesto as early as in 2024.
The area in which the Nesto district is located has a significant history. This is highlighted by several preserved former military defence system buildings, and the Iron Curtain used to lead there. Due to its location, this future district has the opportunity today to become the centre of events for the entire cross-border region, and to make the area more attractive – not only for its future inhabitants, but also in terms of improving mutual cross-border cooperation. The construction of the Nesto project was ceremoniously opened on Thursday, October the 14th, 2021 by the First Deputy Mayor of Bratislava –Tatiana Kratochvílová, alongside with the Mayor of Bratislava-Petržalka – Ján Hrček, Lucron Chairman of the Board – Zoltán Müller and Alojz Šrob, Director of L-Construction, the general contractor. Alexander Zavacký from Slovak Rail, Roman Talaš, co-founder and co-owner of the SIEBERT + TALAŠ architectural studio, which is the Nesto project’s design studio, and Michal Brúsil, one of the Nesto project Development Managers, also took part in the laying of the foundation stone.
“This area experienced a period when people on both sides of the border were not united, but divided. Today, fortunately, the potential of this place is different – and after decades of standing empty, it now has a huge opportunity to start connecting people. We believe that Nesto will be of benefit to the Petržalka district and that community events such as Christmas markets, city days, concerts, and exhibitions will find a permanent place in it.” added Zoltán Müller.
An international competition will result in the urban concept
During the ceremonial tapping of the foundation stone, we also announced an international competition for a comprehensive urban concept for the Nesto North area. The main goal of the competition is to bring a comprehensive urban-architectural design that takes into account all the functions of the area – housing, work and commercial space, and in particular the high-quality public space and the required services – such as education or sports. The assignment is to provide a vision for the area for the next 40-50 years, with the emphasis on quality of life and the creation of sustainable solutions.
“The question of what the city of the future should look like has been relevant for a long time, and a new challenge has recently been added: what should a city look like after a pandemic? It’s not only we developers and architects who are looking for an answer to this question, but also local governments. Bratislava itself has also experienced many changes in terms of mobility and the shared economy. Our common challenge today is how to build a high-quality environment that will meet the challenges of the future and enable a high-quality and sustainable life for its users” explains Zoltán Müller.
We invited 10 foreign and Slovak studios with the experience and competence for a development of this scale to take part in the competition. The competition proposals will be evaluated by an independent 9-member expert jury featuring representatives of the city of Bratislava, as well as experts from abroad, and we believe that we will be able to present them to you in the near future.
New housing concepts and necessary services for a full-fledged neighbourhood
In the first phase of construction, we are starting to build residential buildings in the southern part of the project towards Kopčianská Street – which will feature more than 160 apartments upon completion. This will then be followed by the construction of another part of the project which will provide administrative premises, apartments for rent, a medical centre, gastronomic and commercial facilities, a supermarket and a nursery. It will also include a large town square, which will connect all the mentioned features. “Our intention is for residents and visitors to feel comfortable here, and not to be afraid to use the space. The greenery should not only be for decoration, but should encourage people to work on blankets, have picnics, and to take their children sledging in the winter.” explained Zoltán Müller.
Nesto will provide all the features of a fully-fledged neighbourhood: housing, civic amenities, and work and leisure facilities. “We are creating a living space for people in which they can create, develop and spend their free time. We want people not only to go to Nesto to sleep, but to take advantage of all the possibilities that this new city neighbourhood will offer” concluded Michal Brúsil.
Emphasis on greenery and renewable energies
An important element will be measures to capture water in the area such as rain gardens and the use of water-permeable materials – which are important in terms of preparing cities for climate change. The project envisages significant use of renewable energy sources, to the greatest extent to date within development in Slovakia. With Nesto, we plan to produce and consume energy on site, in particular thanks to solar panels which will be featured to the maximum extent on every single building.
Priority for ecological forms of transport
In the summer of this year, we completed the accompanying work related to the construction of the infrastructure in the area – during which we raised Kopčianska Street. In addition to the 850 meters of the new road on the street, almost a kilometre of high-quality separated cycle paths has been added which seamlessly connects the area from Austrian Kittsee to Bratislava city centre. By bike, Bratislava city centre can be reached from Nesto in 16 minutes, and by car within 6 minutes. But we want to support forms other than individual motorized transport in the area. “We place great emphasis on areas for pedestrians and cyclists. The philosophy of people being dictated to by cars should be a thing of the past today – which is why at Nesto, we prioritize greener forms of transport. There will be car-free zones and several alternative transport solutions, such as electric bicycles and car sharing. We also see the improvement of train connections in future of the area” explained Michal Brúsil. We plan to build a railway station on the Nesto border in cooperation with Slovak Rail, which when completed would provide a connection to Petržalka railway station, as well as to the Austrian border, and to Vienna itself.
