The recently completed competition for the congress center in Strelna is probably the most respectable of all the international competitions held in St. Petersburg in recent years. Its level is very high, the client is the Presidential Property Management Department, so it is not surprising that foreign "stars" of the first magnitude were invited to participate in this important competition, each of which presented in his own way a wonderful, European-level version of the architectural solution of the congress center.
The level is exactly European, as indicated by the selection of invited architects. All are of the first magnitude, all Europeans: Austrian, Swiss, Dutch, Italian, French and Spaniard. There are no British and Americans. There are also no Russians - but we have already touched on this topic.
In addition, it is interesting that all projects seem to consist of several parts - namely, they differ not only in forms, but also in ideas that the authors consider to be paramount. The ideas and positions of architects are very different, and the author's rhetoric for explaining projects is just as varied.
The Austrian workshop Coop Himmelb (l) au (now renamed Coop Himmelb (l) au, Prix, Dreibholz & Partner) focused on professional motivation without resorting to additional arguments. They took the main content of the congress center - the conference room - most seriously. It can transform itself from a conference room with a semblance of a restaurant for gala receptions and into a stage for theatrical performances. By themselves, such transformations are already familiar to large public buildings, but the charm of Prix's project lies in the plot associated with lighting.
The volume of the hall is higher than the rest of the building, and its rounded (almost oval) ceiling is cut by windows of various streamlined configurations, close to a triangle, in order to provide natural light. When it is not needed, the windows are covered with acoustic panels of similar shapes, similar to large scales cut from the ceiling and sometimes returned to their place. The same panels can sink lower and turn into lamps at night - all this adds up to something in between clouds and controlled leaf fall.
From the outside, the Prix building should be reminiscent of Venice, it is surrounded by water, and the strongly inclined glass facades reflect it. Everything together is fluid, streamlined and delicate, although the overall outline of the building is a little reminiscent of Prix's new work for China. Maybe projects were born in parallel.
The project of the Swiss Mario Botta is a composition of simple geometric shapes characteristic of the architect. True, their walls consist of a rather ephemeral, albeit dull, translucent mesh - due to which the inner spaces of the complex are filled with sunlight. Strict parallelepipeds are folded into six identical large accordions and built into a strict symmetrical composition, surrounded by a large pond of complex curvilinear shape and designed in the form of artificial peninsulas on thin isthmuses. Botta actively uses water - but does not try to catch its reflection, like Prix, but, on the contrary, reflects his building in her mirror. At first glance, the approaches are similar, in fact, they are opposite.
The rhetoric, with the help of which Botta submits his project, must be recognized as the most, so to speak, humanistic-liberal. The Palace of Congresses for him is a meeting place between people, made so that there will be no more wars, peace and communication reign there.
Dutch architect Erik van Egeraat tried to emphasize the fact that he has been working in Russia for a long time, however, more in Siberia (although now also in Kazan). He proposes to erect a structure of organic forms near the Constantine Palace, similar to an open oyster: its glass walls are covered with a network of thin vertical supports and completed with a white disk-like ceiling. Around the building, the architect plans to arrange a square: a public space for the guests of the congress center. Egeraat's project is contrasting - white and subtly biological on the outside, it has one "highlight" inside - the blood-burgundy interior of a small conference hall overloaded with plastic, which most of all resembles the stomach of a fabulous whale. However, the architect considers it to be inspired by classical prototypes - the rich baroque interiors of the classic Italian theater. Note that, referring to the Baroque, the architect is contextually right - the neighboring monument, the Constantine Palace, was built in this style.
The same baroque theme was used by Massimiliano Fuksas, one of the most distinguished architects of modern Italy, who, probably on his own account, submitted two versions of the project to the competition at once. One of them is a rectangular cover - a "covered area", inside which are placed different curved "baroque" volumes, each with its own function. Another project uses a theme close to the heart of an Italian who came to St. Petersburg (Fuksas always remembers his relatives of the 18th century), the theme of the terrible cold that frozen everything around. An artificial reservoir (it is also found in Prix and Bott) is depicted here as ice, and the building looks like a whale frozen into the ice. Inside are the concrete organic forms of the separate halls of the congress center; in general, this solution is reminiscent of the Fuksas project for the conference center in the EUR region of Rome.
French "star" of world architecture, Jean Nouvel focused on the theme of the regular park - the national pride of French architects. This is not just a beautiful move, it is perfectly justified by the environment, even better than all the "baroque" hints of other participants - because nearby is the Lower Park of the Constantine Palace, a real (restored) French park of the 18th century.
Nouvel is quite radical - continuing the theme of the Parisian Museum of the Orient, he proposed to turn the congress center into a kind of sculpture garden, collected under one roof. Instead of the classic statues, the original plastic volumes of the main and small conference halls, the business club and the press center - very bright colors and bizarre configurations - will be placed in the area of the ensemble allocated for construction. Together they will be united by a glazed rectangular block of the congress center itself - it will resemble an exhibition pavilion or hangar, and will play the role of a foyer - a space for relaxation and communication, while not losing its direct connection with the park. On the roof was supposed to be a "hanging garden" - but the most interesting thing Nouvel did with the water - streams of water, artificial waterfalls should have flowed along the outer walls from the roof-terrace. The beautiful design of Jean Nouvel is in general outline similar to the first of the described proposals of M. Fuksas (although the Nouvelian version is ideologically more complex and brighter) - is it not this similarity that made the Italian architect make the second version?
The hybrid greenhouse with peripter, proposed by Riccardo Bofill and winning the competition, has already been seen by everyone. Note that in the 1970s, Bofill, who furnished the Parisian suburbs with the likeness of columns, became famous as almost "the main postmodernist" and had many followers and admirers. However, in recent years, his name has not featured so often in international news. And yet, what is now being designed by Riccardo Bofill's workshop is not at all as "classic" as the postmodern experiments of 30 years ago. The newest of his major projects, the international airport in Barcelona, although symmetrical, boasts quite a streamlined shape. This means that the famous Spanish architect, although he did not completely surrender himself to the latest digital trends, nevertheless allowed himself to experience some influence, maybe sincerely, or maybe to stay in line with new trends, which is also relevant, but the fact remains - Bofill 2007 is already completely different. In Spain.
However, for the competition for the congress center in Strelna, the architect decided to recall the heyday of his favorite movement. Now, however, the author calls its architecture "classical", there is no talk of postmodernism. Although if you look, then this is certainly him.
Before us is another Bofill variation on the theme of a giant order, in this case, these are large Doric columns that decorate the facades of a glass block spread out on the ground. The block is perfectly square in plan; it is crowned by a cruciform volume of either an attic or an attic with triangular pediments, and outside it outlines the perfect circle of the surrounding pavement; in addition, the building, just like Piglet's house, is located in the very middle of the site. Usually such a simple geometry is combined with idealized proportions, but here it is as if an Empire mansion was hit from above with a hammer and flattened, and after that it grew greatly in width.
But the point is not even the proportions, but the fact that at the Barcelona airport Bofill did not use the columns, and for Strelna he acted extremely postmodern; that is, before us are memories of bygone days. Why? At least two versions can be offered.
In the 16th century, architects of the Italian Renaissance came to Russia: they were perfectly familiar with the latest trends in European architecture at that time, but at the same time they had an idea of medieval architecture. And seeing here, in Russia, the Middle Ages, they built Romanesque and Gothic instead of the "pure" Renaissance, trying to please the customers. And then, already in the 17th century, English masters of the same Gothic forms came here, among whom strict Palladianism began to develop in their homeland at that moment - they assume that they became unclaimed and moved to Moscow. One would like to assume that now the eminent Spaniard, in turn, considered Russia the most correct place for the "rebirth" of his beloved style, which had gone into the past.
Even more interesting is the rhetoric Bofill used to describe the project. According to him, "the classical architecture of the new palace expresses the strength, power and democracy of the Russian state." It turned out somewhat ambiguous, in an American way - power and democracy at once. But the main thing is obvious - Bofill made a bet on the state theme. And he won.
