The hotel is supposed to be built not far from the sea, in Sochi Khost, between the Stalinist House of Artists' Creativity, the Church of the Transfiguration and the Golubaya Gorka sanatorium. According to the general plan of Greater Sochi, resort complexes should prevail in this development zone - according to this document, the city develops strictly in layers: near the sea, beaches, above recreation, acting as a soundproof buffer from the railway, then hotels, and even higher housing. There are a lot of Soviet sanatoriums in the "hotel strip", and new hotels, equipped according to modern standards, are gradually being built. The Architecturium workshop project was made for one of these new hotels; it includes a restaurant, sports club, spa, beauty salon and ample underground parking.
A small area (only 0.53 hectares) is surrounded by winding serpentines of two roads: Turenko and Shosseinaya streets, which, after looping along the slope, flows into the Novorossiysk highway below. It is located on a steep and densely overgrown slope, the elevation difference here is 18 meters, and it is by no means uniform: from Shosseinaya Street, a sharp rise begins, approximately in the middle the section turns into an almost perfectly flat area, and then rushes to the peaks again.
By the way, it was the relief difference that allowed the architects to place the required number of rooms on such a small plot, as well as all the variety of additional services, the premises of which will be partially dug into the slope; the apartment blocks rest on this multifunctional plinth like a terrace. The architects recall that the design of the complex began not with plans, but with sections: only by constructing the projection of the building, conditionally dissected by the plane of the slope, the architects were able to begin the layout of its premises.
In terms of the hotel, it resembles the Latin letter V with slightly curved "antennae" or, more precisely, a boomerang. This shape is entirely dictated by both the modest dimensions of the central platform and the need to orient the maximum number of rooms to the blue sea below. But, as already mentioned, the section in this case is no less important than the plan - the building goes down the slope, and at the same time is buried in it - in a word, it should be perceived in three dimensions. In the triangle between the blades of the "boomerang" - the two wings of the hotel, there is a courtyard open to the sea and protected by the body of the building from the wind from the mountains. In addition to the splendid sea view, there is an outdoor swimming pool, a bar and a “spa block”. The yard occupied the above-mentioned area between two slopes in the middle of the site. But, curiously, if you count the hotel floors, the recreation courtyard will be at minus four. Below, on the minus-fifth - underground parking. Above, there is a restaurant with a summer terrace and a fitness club, as well as several suites, each of which has its own patio on the roof of the lower floor. The main array of rooms is located from -2 to 3 floors. The only exception is the first floor, which is almost entirely dedicated to the entrance lobby and the reception area. This facade, facing Turenko Street and the mountains, is extremely laconic, and the only decorations on the white plane can be considered a single box of blinds, which encloses the windows of all administrative premises of the hotel, as well as a pergola - a tribute to the designers of the architecture of the sunny south.
But the facade facing the sea cannot be called laconic. The volumes descending along the slopes have been transformed into terraces, and in order to escape from the predictable cascades, the architects decided them in the form of deeply removed consoles. This allows you to create a natural visor in one case, and a platform in the other. All this (of course, remotely) resembles the ancient mountain towns - a group of houses adhered to the slope. The image of a mountain-city can also evoke one more analogy, a newer one - the famous Habitat Moshe Safdi. And the diagonally sloping walls provide a "modernity correction" and light, but mesmerizing, dance-like dynamics.
For the second, relatively speaking, "sea" theme, the balconies on the main facade are responsible. The greenish frosted glass, as if polished by the surf, and the smoothly curved shape of the fences make them look like waves. If the terraced ends of the ends are a sculpture on the theme of mountains, then the inner surface of the boomerang building is turned into a sculpture on the theme of the sea. This is logical and makes the building "talking": around the mountain, in front of the sea, and the architecture of the hotel absorbs both themes.
In addition to beauties, the arrangement of balconies hides a number of subtleties designed to make all hotel rooms as pleasant as possible for life. So, deep "telescopic" removal of the side balconies gives the inhabitants of these rooms a view of the sea. And at the junction of the two wings of the building, the architects alternate balconies turned at an angle to the side, glazed loggias and windows with thick blinds - in order to avoid looking "from window to window" towards neighbors.
The plans for the project of the hotel "Cypress" were adjusted by the upcoming 2014 Olympics - it was postponed indefinitely. However, no matter how prestigious these competitions are, they will be held, leaving behind (we hope) good roads and many sports and entertainment complexes. Perhaps then the construction of a small, but cozy and unusual hotel in terms of composition will again become relevant.
