In 2007 Sir Nicholas Grimshaw won an international competition for the design of a new terminal at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg. The design of the project is based on an entertaining idea - the City of Islands. Three main zones - check-in, customs and the departure hall are almost urbanistically separated by open spaces, reminiscent of the canals of St. Petersburg, and connected by many bridges above the baggage compartment and the arrivals hall below. The roof of the airport is formed by a system of repeating 18-meter square compartments, each of which is supported by a central support in the form of a huge umbrella with an inverted pitched roof and gutters hidden inside the supports. In the folded design of the roof, the angular cones of the domes of Orthodox churches are guessed, but in Grimshaw they are abstracted on a huge scale into a soaring inverted landscape painted in a noble golden color.
Nicholas Grimshaw was born in 1939. After graduating from the Architectural Association (AA) in 1965, he formed a partnership with Terence Farrell in London. In 1980, Grimshaw opened his own office. He has won international acclaim in the field of technological design using nude and expressive designs. Grimshaw's projects skillfully and experimentally combine the grandeur of spaces, the elegance of designs, the attractiveness of surfaces and the intricacy of details. Grimshaw & Partners has offices in London, New York and Melbourne employing over 200 architects. It is known worldwide for projects such as the Waterloo railway station in London, the terminal at Zurich airport, the National Space Center in Leicester (England), the British Pavilion at EXPO '92 in Seville and the Museum of Steel in Monterrey (Mexico). His famous indoor botanical park, the Eden Project in Cornwall, England, is based on the segmented geometry of Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes. The unusual design of this complex allows you to recreate independent microclimates for growing different types of plants.
In 2002, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain knighted Nicholas Grimshaw for his services to the development of architecture, and in 2004 he became President of the Royal Academy of Arts.
We met with Nicholas Grimshaw at his futuristic studio in London. On the way to the master's office, transparent as an aquarium, I had to cross the glass bridge, sign a magazine, attach a fancy pass to myself and wait for an invitation in one of the guest cocoons with interactive multicolor lighting from several dozen variations.
Before heading to London, I visited your office in New York, where you are involved in a number of projects in North America. One of them is the new open-air concert arena at Asser Levy Coastal Park on Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, the center of the Russian diaspora. This park has long turned into one of the most popular places for concerts of Russian pop stars. Let me consider this project your debut in front of the Russian public
Perhaps. This project will be ready for construction very soon. We won the right to design and build it through the City's Design Excellence Program, initiated by the New York City Department of Design and Building. The main idea here is to integrate the stage and stands into the man-made landscape and, using the most modern audio technologies, reduce the noise level in the area. We also tried to attract residents of the nearest neighborhoods to the park by designing original playgrounds and walking alleys.
Let's talk about your winning project for the new terminal at Pulkovo. What, in your opinion, was the main advantage of the project over competitors, in particular, SOM?
It seems to me that the very fact that we are a European company and have implemented many projects in Europe played a big role. St. Petersburg is considered the window of Russia to Europe, isn't it? The city was built to forge new relationships with Europe. Therefore, the idea of our project was not only to solve a specific practical problem, but also to offer a very emotional vision of the airport.
Your architecture grows out of understanding the development of a particular program. What is the idea behind your project for Pulkovo?
At the first stages of the competition, we were criticized for insufficient attention to the peculiarities of the local climate and the character of the city. Therefore, in our final version, a folded roof, covered with a golden tone, appeared. Such a reception foreshadows a meeting with the beautiful spiers for which the skyline of St. Petersburg is famous. I think the main criticism of SOM was that their project could be built anywhere. You know, the British are very romantic in their attitude to the snow, which falls here quite rarely. Therefore, we see beauty in him. However, I realized that in St. Petersburg the snow does not cause such emotions and is a big inconvenience, especially in places like the airport. Therefore, for the airport to function, it would be desirable to eliminate snow completely. This is what dictates such a complex shape of the pitched roof, the folds of which will direct the melting snow or rainwater inside the supports and further into the sewer. Until the snow melts, it is appropriate to use it as a good insulation when heating airport halls. And of course, the main thing at any airport is the organized and natural movement of the passenger flow. Passengers need to have a sense of purpose, know where they are, and be easy to navigate. In addition to all the functional features of our project, we focused on the fact that it will be a real pleasure to be in the new building, there will be a spirit of enthusiastic expectation of departure or meeting.
It seems to me that this project celebrates structure with very unusual tricks for you - through accentuating surfaces, connections, centering lines and how structures are hidden rather than revealed. Were such decisions dictated by your personal observations during your trips to St. Petersburg, and what influence did Russian architecture have on you?
I visited the city twice during the competition and was there again after the competition. I also visited neighboring Stockholm and Helsinki, which is important for understanding the climate of those latitudes. As for Russian architecture, I highly appreciate the craftsmanship that marks traditional wooden buildings. The details of the connections are very interesting. I have also always loved the designs of Berthold Lubetkin, a Russian émigré and pioneer of modernist design in the UK in the 1930s.
What are some of the lessons you have learned elsewhere that you would like to take advantage of in Russia?
I believe that climate is one of the main generators of design, and therefore every city is different at least for this reason. We have just finished building a train station in Melbourne. Its roof has been designed with very specific local climates in mind. It is clad in metal and its shape resembles sand dunes. The idea is that the wind rushes in from all directions to lift the waste exhaust gases and exhaust them through special gaps located at equal distances from each other. As you can see, this project is subject to completely different laws than the one in St. Petersburg.
You think as if it is the engineering aspects that define the look of your architecture
What I love is that aesthetic principles are evidence-based.
Let's go back to architecture in Russia. Do you think it is important for foreigners to build in Russia?
It seems to me that Russian architects should try to find new landmarks after the long slumber of the concrete period that has dominated there for so many years. In this respect, our work there can be considered useful.
It seems to me that the period you are talking about dominated not only in Russia, right?
You are right, but still, not up to such extreme. We also built quite a few ugly concrete blocks, and of course they are now being demolished safely.
Don't you think that some of them deserve to be preserved as monuments?
Very few, because they were designed with no human concern. Many were built only in order to save money and achieve maximum mass. And from the point of view of ecology, these are not finds. For example, there was practically no isolation in them. I have visited many of these buildings in East Berlin. You could quite realistically place your fist in the cracks between some of the panels. Curiously, the concrete panels of the demolished buildings were used in the construction of roads. It seems to me that foreign architects in Russia could play the role of a catalyst, projecting their ideas and principles. It would be very interesting to know how the new generation of Russian architects will react to our current projects.
You inherited an interest in engineering from your great-grandfathers - one led the construction of sewers in Dublin, and the other built dams in Egypt. Tell us about your family and who introduced you to architecture?
One of my great-grandfathers lived in Alexandria, where he spent almost his entire life. He designed and built dams and irrigation systems. His son, my grandfather, grew up in Egypt, then moved to Ireland and died very young at the front during the First World War. My father was born in Ireland and worked as an aircraft designer, and my mother was an artist. Therefore, it would not be an exaggeration to say that an architect is a combination of engineering and art. My grandmother was a very good portrait painter. My older sister is a famous photographer and my younger sister is an artist. No wonder I have always been interested in art. But the important moment for me was a visit to an architectural office, which I found myself in when I was 17 years old. I suddenly realized that what they were doing was very close to me. My brother-in-law taught at the University of Edinburgh. He introduced me to a young professor of architecture who told me, "Why don't you take up architecture?" And I must say that as soon as I crossed the threshold of the design studio, I felt happy. So I followed his advice. It was a very traditional school. We drew shadows, perspectives, drew from life, did calligraphy, built scale models and spent a lot of time studying designs. We tried to use local materials such as pine and slate in our projects, and we drew the structural details at full size.
Was your architecture influenced by Buckminster Fuller, and how closely did you know him?
My sister-photographer introduced me to him. Fuller came to England in 1967 to deliver a series of lectures. He was famous for his ability to speak for hours without interruption. He once gave such a marathon lecture at the London School of Economics. Students came, left, dined, returned, and he kept talking and talking. He was distinguished by the rarest charisma and the gift of an orator. He came to see my first completed project. Then we went to a restaurant for lunch, and suddenly he says: "I'm sorry, I need to sleep." He rested his head on his hands and fell asleep. He remained motionless for exactly 15 minutes, after which we continued the conversation as if nothing had happened. Fuller's influence cannot be overemphasized, especially from a philosophical point of view. He expressed very bold judgments about the need for a careful attitude to natural resources. He divided people into those who had everything and those who had nothing, and one of the main tasks of his life was to redistribute wealth. He had an amazing ability to see the world as a whole and he was able to predict many of our current concerns about the use of energy resources and the state of the environment.
What was this project that you showed Fuller?
It was a freestanding bathroom tower. It was moved several meters outside a converted 175 student residence in Sussex Gardens near Paddington Station. The core of this tower consisted of a steel structure, on which toilet stalls were strung in a spiral along with a ramp corridor. There were a total of 18 bathrooms, 12 showers and 12 booths with washbasins. Fuller was considered the pioneer of such structures, he saw in them the basis of mass residential construction.
Does this tower still exist?
Unfortunately not. The hostel has been converted into a hotel with all the comforts in every room.
This is an interesting project. How did you manage to find such a brave customer?
My uncle worked for an organization that invested money in converting these dilapidated buildings into a hostel. These buildings were damaged during the Second World War and were empty for over twenty years. Therefore, they were bought for a pittance, and my uncle told the investors that his nephew had just graduated from an architectural university and could advise what colors to paint the walls and so on. They had no idea how seriously these buildings were in need of major repairs, and this project turned into a real construction site. Our office was still tiny - me, Terry Farrell, and a couple of assistants. You see, when you are young, you do not think about what is possible and what is not - you take it and do it as you know. It's a great feeling.
Probably, after such a project, you were ready for anything. What was your next project?
That project taught me everything. Our contractor had no experience and I myself had to deal with thirty-six suppliers and builders. So I learned practical things very quickly. The next project was an apartment building near Regent's Park. It was a cooperative home for artists. At the time, the government encouraged and funded these types of ownership. I found people who were interested in this project and designed it. When the house was built, my family and I moved into the penthouse. It was a wonderful experience, but of course, as soon as the elevators broke down, all the tenants ran upstairs to me and blamed the architect for everything.
How do you manage to combine your work in the bureau and the President of the Royal Academy of Arts? What participation did you take in organizing the sensational exhibition "From Russia"?
I devote two days a week to the affairs of the Academy, and the rest of the time I am here working on architectural projects. Of course, I was very involved in organizing the Russian exhibition and worked closely with Madame Antonova, the director of the Pushkin Museum. The situation was heated to the limit after Russia withdrew permission to exhibit its masterpieces for fear that they would be in demand by the descendants of Sergei Shchukin, one of the founders of the richest collection. Ultimately, the permit was obtained in response to the British government's maximum guarantees of the integrity of the collection in the UK. This is a magnificent exhibition, which includes one hundred and twenty paintings by Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse, Kandinsky, Tatlin and Malevich. On the very last evening, after the end of the exhibition, when everyone had dispersed, I took my wife by the arm and we once again walked around to admire these priceless canvases. This exhibition provided an opportunity to show how French art influenced Russian artists. Have you been to the exhibition?
Yes, just like you - on the very last day and also with my wife, and hundreds of visitors around us. Nevertheless, our impression is also enthusiastic
I really love painting, and also music. For some time now, I even organize the Norfolk Music Festival in Norfolk, where I have a home. The concerts have been going on there for the fourth year already.
How did this hobby begin?
My musician friends approached me with the idea of funding the festival. Every year I buy all the empty seats and now there are fewer and fewer empty seats. Concerts take place in two beautiful local churches. The festival lasts a week and attracts hundreds of people.
Are you going to build a concert venue for the festival?
Of course, I imagine it made of wood, in the shape of an inverted boat.
Your architecture stands out for its expressive structures, sense of rhythm, originality of details and flexibility of solutions. What other architectural qualities are you trying to highlight in your projects?
I think the main thing for me is the flow of people. I admit that some architects design buildings just for the sake of spatial effects. For example, when people visit David Chiperfield's heroic buildings, they say, "What a wonderful space!" But my spaces are the result of what happens in them and around them - they are determined by human flows. In addition, the interior spaces in my buildings are always connected with what is happening outside. I do not sculpt buildings like sculptures that I may or may not like.
You once described Frank Gehry's sculptural and expressionist architecture as hidden forests that hold indoor and outdoor surfaces. Do you think buildings should strive to honestly demonstrate how and from what they are constructed?
It's true. In Gehry's designs, there is no connection between his interiors and facades. And this is not part of his task. He will be the first to say that he absolutely does not care how and on what his facade weighs. He wants his facade to look exactly as he intended, because he works like a sculptor. And he manages to create magnificent buildings. Therefore, you are not at all obliged to expose and emphasize designs. But it seems to me that, ideally, people should be able to read buildings, how and from what they are built.
Elsewhere, you wrote that your buildings will need to renew their skin. What did you mean?
I believe that someday buildings will be able to grow organic translucent skin that resembles dragonfly wings. The constructions would remain, and the skin would breathe, forever transforming, changing the transparency and thickness of the insulation, adapting to various atmospheric conditions, like living beings. You see, in the future, buildings will look more like organic creations than conceptual art.
In your everyday life, you are probably surrounded by the most fashionable and technologically advanced things - a car of the latest brand, a multifunctional watch, a computer phone, a stylish frame of glasses …
Not at all. But I have a lot of fun with my Toyota Prius hybrid. It's a very smart car, especially in the way it redistributes the energy it uses between braking, lighting and air conditioning. I really like the interactive screen of my iphone. But I'm not crazy about computers. I prefer to draw by hand.
What will you draw if I ask you?
I will draw an umbrella support with a folded roof at Pulkovo - the way it looked initially, how it got more complicated over time, and how it looks today.
Grimshaw Architects London Office
57 Clerkenwell Road, Islington
April 21, 2008
