GSOM is by no means an ordinary educational institution. It defines its mission as “training the national elite of management personnel and the creation of a world-class Russian business school” and includes bachelor's, master's, postgraduate and MBA programs. The scale of ambitions and their, shall we say, obvious federal significance, anticipated the scope of the project. In fact, a whole educational and scientific town will be created on the basis of Mikhailovka - an all-Russian forge of managers, where more than one and a half thousand people will be able to study at the same time.
The construction program of the GSOM suburban campus was drawn up not only taking into account the highest requirements for the infrastructure of the world's leading training centers for professional managers, but even, to put it mildly, with some maximalism. Studying this project, you very quickly understand that it is easier to say what will not be at the disposal of future managers than vice versa. In particular, the campus will include: educational and administrative buildings, student dormitories, a cafe, a club and a library, hotel and educational complexes for students of postgraduate courses, a multifunctional sports complex with a swimming pool, outdoor sports grounds and parking lots. Of course, it is not possible to place such a number of objects within the walls of historical buildings, so the project was wisely divided into two stages independent of each other: "restoration and adaptation" will be carried out in the eastern part of the complex, "new construction" - in the western one.
Special mention should be made of the East-West division in this project. The eastern part of the territory was interpreted by the authors of the project as the most representative and in many respects elite zone of the GSOM complex. Employees of the research institute will work in the lush palace interiors, world-famous scientists will stay, apartments and auditoriums for students of postgraduate courses will also be located here. The western part of the territory is less interesting from a historical point of view: once the village of Korkuli, vegetable gardens and outbuildings were located there, and therefore now it is there that new construction will be concentrated.
In total, six historical buildings have survived on the territory of the Mikhailovskaya dacha, in the creation of which architects A. I. Shtakenshneider, I. I. Charlemagne, G. E. Bosse took part. The Studio 44 project provides for the restoration of each of them. But although the historical appearance of the buildings will be preserved, their total area will almost double. The necessary space reserves are being sought through the use of attics and basements (Palace of the Grand Duke, Kitchen Building), overlapping courtyards (Kitchen Building), developing underground spaces (Stables Building) and new construction in the patch of lost buildings (Greenhouse Complex).
Modern volumes will invade this territory twice. Nikita Yavein proposes to add two new buildings to the Greenhouses, from which only two historical fragments have survived - the Flower Greenhouse and the Gardener's House. They will be fully glazed and made strictly within the dimensions of historical buildings, which will allow them to be “dissolved” in the park landscape. And to the Konyushenny building, which is to become the Main Academic Building, from the side of the Peterhof highway, a semi-recessed volume is attached under a translucent ellipsoid dome of gentle outlines. It will house the main lecture hall with 450 seats, an amphitheater going down to a depth of three meters, as well as computer rooms.
The main area of the new construction will be entirely formed by objects made of visually light modern materials. Nikita Yavein thus strove to get away from any stylization of historical buildings and at the same time to emphasize the "utility" of modern objects, likening them to park pavilions. Sloping fully glazed walls, wood paneling, and emphasized geometry of buildings are actively working on this image. So, dormitories for bachelors (9 buildings) are squat trapeziums with glass consoles of the side facades, overhanging staircases turned inside out over the ground. MBA dormitories are also trapeziums, but strongly elongated in plan, and the "steps" of the side facades here are closed by a single inclined glass shield. A more privileged class of managers - masters - will live in a circular building (84 meters in diameter), divided into three sectors by through two-story arches, and a three-story cafe-club - the focus of public life on the campus - will be housed in a pentagonal volume.
The most controversial element of the project is the building of a sports and recreation complex, which the architects themselves compare to an airship that has landed in a hollow. The dome, which in its configuration really resembles a balloon most of all, covers a cascade of three terraces, precisely inscribed in the existing relief. On the bottom there is a pool with 25-meter lanes, on the middle - a platform with exercise equipment, and the upper one is occupied by a universal playing field with stands for spectators. From the point of view of planning, the solution is simply brilliant, but the egg-shaped shape of the dome looks too futuristic even against the background of a pentagonal cafe and a round house of masters. So much so that when the project was discussed at the Council for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage under the Government of St. Petersburg, experts jointly tried to find a place for the sports and recreation center more remote from the monument. However, this initiative was not crowned with success: the "airship" cannot be moved because of the need to arrange an autonomous passage into it for possible outsiders.
The reconstruction of the Mikhailovskaya dacha is doomed to be compared with the Konstantinovsky Palace. First, the neighborhood. Secondly, until 2006, the former estate of the Grand Duke was also under the jurisdiction of the Administrative Department of the President of the Russian Federation, and it was given for educational needs not least because this department needs managers forged according to the best world standards. But there is one significant difference in the reconstruction projects of these two objects. The educational process, fortunately, is inherently much more democratic than international congresses and receptions of the head of state, therefore, where representative functions demanded luxury and pathos, the forge of managerial personnel was limited to the convenience of layouts and ease of construction.
