"Embankment of Europe" is, in fact, a city block (or even a microdistrict), which should be built on the site of the withdrawn chemical "industrial zone" (RRC "Applied Chemistry"). The plot for recent years is typical, and even correct - to remove factories from the city and build housing and offices in their place. But the location of the hero is unique: the center of St. Petersburg, exactly between the Peter and Paul Fortress and Strelka. This is roughly speaking. More precisely: at the beginning of the Malaya Neva, in front of the Tuchkov brawler, in view of the Winter Palace. From this place you can clearly see the Palace Embankment and vice versa - the site fits into the most postcard panorama. But what can I say - it's just amazing in what places we have chemical (and other) enterprises.
The uniqueness of the project does not end there: the territory of the future multifunctional complex is very large - 9.3 hectares. For the center of a historic city, especially St. Petersburg, this is a lot. And finally, third - in our time of crisis, the investor undertakes to complete the project by the deadline (in 2016). So the "embankment" is a very large "live" project in our times. Moreover, he may be able to become the first of the St. Petersburg international competitions, the result of which will be realized. In any case, investors are determined at the moment, although they are already thinking about saving.
The customers did not immediately come to the idea of an international competition, which was so logical for this place. In July 2008, the St. Petersburg City Council criticized the project made for this place by the workshop of Yuri Zemtsov and Mikhail Kondiain, and the competition was announced a few months later, on November 18. It was attended by three foreign architects: Mario Botta, Rafael Moneo, David Chipperfield, Nikita Yavein from St. Petersburg and the joint team of Evgeny Gerasimov and Sergei Tchoban - whose victory was announced the other day, on March 10. Thus, now Evgeny Gerasimov and Sergei Tchoban have already become the authors of two significant projects of VTB - the first was the Nevskaya Ratusha, the competition for the concept of which the architects won in 2007. However, a lot has already been written about the competition. We will try to consider the winning project here.
First of all, it should be noted that the subject of the competition was an urban planning concept. This is a specific genre of architectural design.
In this case, the competition assignment was predetermined: functions, approximate number of square meters, i.e. building density, and such marketing details as the maximum number of beautiful views (fortunately, the place is more than a winning one). So, the main part of the complex should be housing, and the main cultural feature of the project should be the building of Boris Eifman's modern ballet theater. In the far part of the complex there are offices, in the most advantageous place overlooking the Neva and the Palace Embankment there is a hotel. All this was in the competition project and approximately (with amendments) corresponds to the parameters that were considered at the architectural council in the summer.
So, the architects did not determine the structure of functions, the density of the building of the complex and much more - they had only minor variations in their power.
On the other hand, they also do not determine the final appearance of the complex. It is planned to involve other architects in the design of individual buildings (within the parameters set by the authors of the concept), and also on a competitive basis. The competition for the project of the main part of the complex - for the building of the theater of modern ballet Boris Eifman - should be announced at the end of March. Therefore, none of the competitive projects, including the winning one, by definition does not allow judging the facades of the "Naberezhnaya". Unless - in very general terms. The project of Gerasimov and Tchoban defines only one feature of the facades of buildings facing the embankment - the presence of two projections at the edges. Therefore, it is more than premature to talk about the "Stalinist" feeling of the facades painted by the architects, which were actually decided in the spirit of the international art deco of the 1930s.
What does the urban planning concept allow to judge? About the plans and shape of buildings, or rather, about the plasticity of the created urban space. In the project of Evgeny Gerasimov and Sergei Tchoban, one can see the combination of two approaches to this space.
One is purely traditional for St. Petersburg. It is enough to look at the map to make sure: most of the buildings in the historical part of the city were built this way - surrounding their site along the perimeter and assuming, if possible, the shape of the site. Thus, in the city, in addition to the usual rectangular ones, there appeared trapezoidal, triangular, pentagonal, concave and curved houses, houses with sharp corners, of which sometimes five come to the intersection.
The authors played on this classic theme for St. Petersburg, forming the main part of the building. On the outer contour, all buildings are neatly inscribed in the contours of the territory. Inside they are "cut" by passages, the direction of which is largely determined by the specific points. The most beautiful of them (which has already been noticed) is the street directed from the Prince Vladimir Cathedral towards the "Pushkin House" on Vasilievsky Island. The rest "look" from inside the quarter at the Malaya Neva. Two streets are parallel, hinting at the regularity of the plan, two diverge at a strict angle (hinting at the "radial" layout). But the plans of houses as a result are completely different - a triangle, a trapezoid, a concave wall, a curved wall. Accordingly, the courtyards are also different - this is one of the "highlights" of the project: in the slight differences between houses and courtyards that determine their individuality. Everything seems to be according to the same standard - but it varies. Apparently, from the subsequent participation of different architects in the design of individual buildings, the variability should not only increase (now it is only outlined), but also acquire the quality of "authenticity" - after all, imitation of diversity made by one author is one thing, the real cooperation of architects building neighboring houses.
This part of the planning is the most contextual, it is needed to form a kind of "urban matter" similar to the material of the environment. This is facilitated by both the general principle (house around the yard) and a hint of diversity. By the way, the principle of “house around the yard”, which by definition entails another (also quite St. Petersburg) principle - building up the embankment with a “solid facade” - was one of the main themes of the competition. It was used by four out of five participants (all except Nikita Yavein, who built a plan according to the scheme shown by Zemtsov this summer - with houses in the form of "fingers" stretched out to the river). True, only Gerasimov and Tchoban had a "lumbago" between the Pushkin House and the church, and only they combine the tradition of building houses with diversity.
But the houses built around the perimeter of the courtyards are too self-contained. To overcome this, Gerasimov and Tchoban cut through the buildings with many openings, forming footpaths that run deep in the block along the Malaya Neva, and “arches” (wide openings with a straight lintel) leading to the main square. In the apartment buildings of old Petersburg, such openings and driveways were also used, but here there are three times more of them.
If the “urban matter” of the main part of the complex uses the most widespread technique of the St. Petersburg building of the 19th century, then the second component of the concept is a bright urban planning accent, “pulling” all the main lines to itself.
In the northern part, adjacent to Dobrolyubova Avenue, the quarter is "cut" by a large oval, more precisely pointed-ovoid area. On the square there is a theater building, the same oval one. The theater and the square are similar figures, they resonate and accentuate each other. By the way, the press has repeatedly noticed that the oval building of the theater looks like the "Nevsky Town Hall"; however, in the "town hall" the shape of the oval is simpler and is not surrounded by curved contours of the square. So here we are not dealing with duplication, but rather with the development of an idea.
If you look at the plan, it may seem that the square appeared as a result of some kind of geometric action - it was carved out not just for the theater building, but for the theater building, which, having finished its work, "landed" in its orbit (the theater is not in the middle, and not on the edge, but rather on the line that forms the area). There is something cosmic about this, probably inspired by the name of the square in honor of the ballet stars. A small detail in addition - Gerasimov and Tchoban suggested putting stars glowing at night on the square and signing them something like in Hollywood. It turns out that the stars will dance in the “heavenly body” of the theater, and then “scatter” across the space of the square.
Architects, however, accompany their design with a completely contextual explanation. Many squares in St. Petersburg are made this way - in the form of a circumference. Post-Baroque architecture loved such spatial effects. With one of them - the most famous, Dvortsovaya, the square of ballet stars even to some extent "looks at each other" across the Neva. This is noticeable, however, only from space, so the comparison is purely figurative, but it definitely takes place.
Generally speaking, the historical city is just built on a similar combination: "matter", penetrated obliquely by the rays of the streets, and spatial accents - solemn squares. Therefore, the main urban planning intrigue of the project must also be recognized as borrowed from the context (or inspired by the context?).
The project has two more features, also aimed at connecting it more closely with the historic city. Firstly, it presupposes the preservation of the only interesting historical building on this territory - the red-brick tower of the Wine Exchange of the late 19th century. The tower, which turns out to be the only old inclusion in the new complex, is planned to be transformed into a luxurious multi-storey loft for one (!) Family.
Another peculiarity concerns not the project itself, but the submission of tender lists. Stylized under the graphics of Ostroumova-Lebedeva, which has long become one of the "iconic" images of St. Petersburg. This can be treated in different ways - someone will say that the architects stylized the presentation of the project so that it looked better in the eyes of the jury. And he will consider this behavior of the authors embellishment, designed to blur the impression of the real concept. But it is possible to evaluate this gesture of the architects in another way - as an attempt to invest in the project a real commitment to the Petersburg images and convey this feeling to subsequent designers.
