The site intended for the construction of the "Olympic" is located near the village of Yuzhny. Officially, this territory is located outside the city limits, however, the general development plan of Krasnodar provides for the inclusion of the village in the megalopolis, as well as the laying of a new ring road along its outer border. Of course, such prospects significantly increase the investment attractiveness of the entire projected area, especially taking into account the fact that, unlike the still spontaneously developing city, the project provides for a comprehensive, well-thought-out development with a developed infrastructure. The upcoming 2014 Games, of course, also spurred the excitement on the Kuban land market. In particular, when the Atrium workshop received an order to design this village, it was already called Olympic: the customer hoped that the new district would become one of the recreation centers for athletes, and after the Games it would be used as a comfortable low-rise housing, provided with all the necessary related services. Unfortunately, the economic crisis has made its own adjustments to these plans: the implementation of the project has been postponed for an indefinite period, but the investor does not intend to abandon it at all.
Vera Butko says that the customer himself, an experienced developer and builder, played a very important role in the work on this project, who “… found our workshop after seeing one of our completed projects. At the same time, he was well aware of what exactly he wants to build. This led to the fact that there were no intermediaries between us, which contributed to complete mutual understanding. From the very beginning, the customer emphasized that he was concerned not only with the number of square meters, but also with the quality of the created habitat, which, combined with the developed infrastructure, should have become the main advantage of the projected area and attract potential buyers.
So, at the beginning of last year, Anton Nadtochiy and Vera Butko received an order to create an ecological village with different types of buildings and highly developed infrastructure. Having given their consent to this work, the architects began to study the documentation and the site itself. At this stage, several discoveries awaited them, which ultimately radically influenced the final result of the work. First of all, a few words should be said about the urban planning structure of Krasnodar and its immediate suburbs. These are mostly low-rise buildings with rare high-rise accents. As you move away from the center, these accents become less and less, and numerous areas of private houses are interspersed with windbreaks, giving the endless blanket of development a distinct resemblance to a chessboard. In the process of studying the initial documentation and the site itself, it turned out that the 300 hectares that the investor acquired for the construction of the Olympic, which according to the documents was listed as a single site, in practice turned out to be two different "cells" of the chess field, and located relative to each other at a distance of about 300 meters and separated not only by landings, but also by power lines. In other words, Butko and Nadtochem had to design a settlement on two plots, between which there are no common boundaries (except for the corner "point of contact"), and besides, one plot is twice as large as the other (210 and 90 hectares). As a result, a smaller plot, as more private, was almost entirely given over to individual low-rise buildings, and on a larger plot, in addition to housing, the architects placed basic public functions: kindergartens and schools, an art school, a multifunctional center, shops, hospitals and other facilities. which can work not only for the residents of the area, but also for the entire city.
The architects saw the main goal of their decisions as a departure from the monotonous nature of buildings and an attempt to create urban planning and architectural diversity in a single territory. That is why urban planning approaches exploring homogeneous ornamental structures were rejected. The district was supposed to have the widest possible range of urban spaces, a variety of typologies of residential and public facilities, a clear hierarchy and its own system of visual connections and accents. As a result, a lively urban-planning structure with curved streets was born, where the center of the composition was a park with a system of artificial lakes (occupying almost half of the territory), in which the public center (City) is located and to which other public functions gravitate, as well as multi-apartment, three-five-storey residential buildings. Then there are blocked residential buildings with private courtyards, and behind them are private houses, for which their own public centers, squares and squares are designed.
Of course, the general layouts of the sites were developed as a single urban structure, but in fact we have two districts strung on one transport axis, which, as you might guess, cuts the sites exactly diagonally. Along this axis, the architects placed the main public complexes: a multifunctional center, shops, kindergartens and schools, a city-wide art school. Parks with a system of artificial lakes became the center of the composition of each site, and reservoirs and green spaces occupy almost half of the entire building area. When designing reservoirs, the architects were faced with another surprise: the environmental legislation of the Krasnodar Territory prohibits the export of black soil extracted during construction outside the district - it must be somehow used for the benefit of the site so that the composition of the soil on it does not change dramatically. And since a considerable amount of land had to be dug under the foundations of the buildings and the lake, Atrium came up with a win-win option for its development right on the spot - picturesque hills were poured next to the lakes, and thus the initially flat areas acquired active relief. The hills also serve as a kind of noise buffer, protecting residential buildings from the hum of the transport highway. In the central part of a smaller allotment of land, it was decided to arrange an ordinary landscape park with lakes and hillocks - for walks with children, but in the second part of the district, which is larger in size, there is a park, generously saturated with functions - it creates conditions for classes more than 10 kinds of sports.
The transport scheme of the district deserves special mention, which the architects paid close attention to. The district is provided with entrances from different sides, and the main transport diagonal is supported by a developed network of bypass roads, allowing you to quickly find yourself in any desired microdistrict. In order to avoid amateur car races in cozy residential quarters, absolutely all intersections in the village are made circular. In addition, the interior of the area is literally dotted with bike paths that do not intersect with cars, as well as special routes for electric vehicles - it is assumed that they will constantly run here as public transport. However, the main means of dealing with future traffic jams is not roads, but the availability of a sufficient number of kindergartens, schools and jobs. It is assumed that at least 60 percent of the Olimpiyskiy population will not need to travel to and from the metropolis every day. And, perhaps, in the current conditions, this feature of the concept seems almost more advantageous than even its overdeveloped ecological component.
In terms of the structure of residential development, the plots also differ markedly from each other. The smaller of them is formed mainly by cottages, and only on the cape, oriented towards the neighbor, a small number of townhouses are being built in order to create a visual transition to the higher development of the second site, where cottages are actively interspersed with townhouses and 4-6-storey sectional houses. By the way, contrary to popular belief that the most expensive real estate should be located closest to the park and water, apartment buildings are being built here closer to the center. Vera Butko recalls that it was very difficult to convince Krasnodar officials and city planners of the correctness of this decision, but the architects understood that otherwise the line of private estates would close the park for “mere mortals”. It was possible to come to an agreement with the local authorities only by making a certain compromise: separate mini-parks were designed for cottage development, in which the most independent inhabitants of the village will be able to spend their leisure time without colliding with the rest of the population. If they nevertheless have such a desire, wide "punctures" have been prudently made for them in the multi-storey buildings, allowing them to go straight to the lakes and alleys.
The residential area designed by Atrium meets the concept of an ecological settlement not only with an abundance of water and greenery, but also with the external design of buildings. Stone and wood are generously used on the facades of cottages and townhouses, in the architecture of sectional houses there are also natural materials, panoramic glazing and plastered surfaces in soft pastel colors. Calling such a restrained in form and extremely comfortable for the eye European architecture, perhaps, has already become a commonplace, but "Olympic" is really associated with the best residential projects of Danish, Dutch and Italian colleagues Anton Nadtochy and Vera Butko.
What immediately recognizes the signature style of "Atrium" is in the solution of the multifunctional complex - the architectural and high-rise dominant of the village. Broken planes of roofs, a complex system of interconnected ramps, an inner courtyard as the center of the entire composition. Interestingly, the roof over the courtyard also has a polygonal cutout, making the complex of buildings appear to be pierced through by the needle of a flagpole. One would like to compare the building with a giant butterfly pinned by a caring entomologist so as not to damage the beautiful fragile wings. The multifunctionality of the complex was expressed in several volumes connected together, having different heights and different design. The tallest blocks, made mainly of glass and lined with the shingle from the ploughshare so beloved by Atrium, are the office and hotel parts, the smaller white blocks are the shopping and sports centers, and the kids club.
In this project, it is especially captivating that both at the level of the master plan (even two!), And at the level of each individual object, "Olympic" was created with the most careful care for the quality of the habitat. It seems that over these 300 hectares, the architects worked with a magnifying glass of multiple magnification, scrupulously ensuring that every even the smallest plot was as comfortable as possible for living and organically integrated into the overall concept of the settlement. It remains to be hoped that the project will go through the "implementation" stage just as successfully.
