Studio 44 is not only one of the most famous and titled architectural firms in St. Petersburg, but also one of the most numerous. The company employs more than 100 people, including architects, designers, engineers and model workshop employees, and finding an office for such a large number of people was not an easy task. For a long time, Studio 44 was located at two addresses at once - on Mayakovsky Street and in Manezhny Lane. For those who are familiar with the geography of St. Petersburg, it is clear that this is a five-minute walk from each other, but it is also understandable that nothing complicates the daily work of the company as much as the need to constantly run from one division to another through the block. It was all the more offensive to be in the “shoemaker without boots” situation, and the bureau's management decided to build a full-fledged office. For the needs of the workshop, the building in Manezhny Lane was completely bought out - a three-story wing of a tenement house built in 1911. The apartments located on the first and second floors were resettled, but even at the same time, the small building was obviously cramped for a large team, so it was decided to add a two-level attic to the wing.
All this was done long before the crisis, and, strictly speaking, Studio 44 was going to celebrate housewarming back in 2007, but at the moment when the attic was already erected, a fire broke out on the construction site. The flames raged for several hours, and during this time, not only the superstructure, but also the third floor of the wing, where the staff of Studio 44 continued to work, despite the repairs, completely burned out. Fortunately, there was no too much damage - they managed to save both the hard drives with information and the models for the reconstruction project of the East Wing of the General Staff Building - but the reconstruction had to be started anew.
Manezhniy lane connects Preobrazhenskaya Square, famous for the Transfiguration Cathedral of Vasily Stasov, and Vosstaniya Street, and house number three is located literally a hundred meters from the Empire church. And this neighborhood influenced the appearance of the superstructure in the most direct way. Firstly, the architects had to comply with the existing high-rise regulations in this area of the city, and secondly, they wanted to express their respect for the majestic neighbor. A smooth curved outline was the best for these purposes - and visually conceals the height of the superstructure (6.5 meters), and unobtrusively echoes the silhouette of the cathedral. Due to the fact that the "wave" of the roof strongly recedes from the edge, the superstructure is practically invisible from Manezhny Lane itself. From the side of Preobrazhenskaya Square, the smooth bend is perfectly readable, but due to the softness of its outlines, it is not perceived as foreign or too modern.
However, the observant public of St. Petersburg did not leave the attic unnoticed - critics managed to compare it with a whale, and with a sperm whale, and with a yacht's galley. The ship's associations are reinforced by the presence of a large round porthole window on the side façade, and metal cables acting as fences in front of the upper level windows of the attic. Nikita Yavein himself, answering questions about the origin of the intricate shape of the superstructure, usually tells either about the boa constrictor who swallowed an elephant from Saint-Exupery's "Little Prince" an inverted rook.
If you wish, you can see the skeleton of an old boat in the interior of the attic with its open rafter structure, which looks like a strong, if not eternal skeleton against the background of white plastered walls. By the way, this is the first object in St. Petersburg, in which bent wood-glued structures (birch veneer) of Russian production were used. As they say, there is an ecological theme that is so fashionable today, and support of a domestic manufacturer, which is so urgent from an economic point of view.
The authors of the project did their best to leave the two-level attic space, if possible, unified. From the street, by the way, it is perceived as such: the huge porthole is clearly designed for two levels, and the tiny square windows located nearby, referring to the Ronshan Chapel, so beloved by Yavin Le Corbusier, seem rather decorative. And yet, at the very end of the upper level, the architects had to make two offices - alas, not all business processes, even in a very creative team, can take place in an open space. And in order not to neutralize the effect of the aforementioned square openings, the cabinets were completely made in glass partitions.
The working rooms of the lower floors, where the staff of the model workshop sit, designers and architects working on the workshop's largest projects - the reconstruction of the Eastern Wing of the General Staff Building and the creation of the GSOM SPbU campus on the basis of the Mikhailovskaya Dacha palace and park ensemble - have been solved in a completely different way. In contrast to the extremely democratic and light-filled attic, they are designed as classic enfilades of rooms, setting employees in a strict working mood and actually reproducing in miniature the future structure of the General Staff building. And if white reigns above, then here the walls are painted in bright saturated colors - blue, burgundy, green, more associated with the Empire style than the architecture of the XXI century. However, it is not for nothing that Studio 44 itself thinks that in the attic they come up with projects for new buildings and competition projects, while in the rooms, separated by massive double doors made of light wood, projects for the restoration and reconstruction of historic buildings.
