The monographic issue of Tatlin magazine includes practically all of Studio 44's works - from conceptual projects and architectural graphics to numerous buildings. "Many architects are ashamed of what they did in the 1990s, I am not," said Nikita Yavein, showing one of his first buildings - the Central Branch of Sberbank of Russia in St. Petersburg, where new volumes are hidden behind a historical facade in the form of a system of courtyards like a Roman villa. Yavein is one of those who steadfastly endures the vicissitudes of the profession and does not claim that his biography is made up of nothing but good luck. Even such an accomplished project as the reconstruction of the General Staff building has its drawbacks - for example, the planned overlap of courtyards did not work out - on it, Yavein admits, they saved money as always. And the project of the hotel "New Peterhof" actually made the architect a hostage of the investor (the company "Inteko"). “It's a terrible story,” recalls Yavein, “from a modest hotel with 50 beds, the project has grown to an entire 1-hectare town. And, unfortunately, I could no longer refuse to participate in it!"
Impressed by the projects, the audience became interested in how the design process is organized in Yavein's workshop and where the architect gets his original ideas from. According to the architect, “the more information - about literature, history, the mythology of the place, the technical side of the issue - one manages to load before designing, the more detailed and accurate the project is. The main thing is to find a topic. " For example, in the same reconstruction of the General Staff building, this theme was the winter gardens that were present in the very first Catherine's Hermitage, as well as "enfilades of spaces comparable to the Great Clearances of the Winter Palace." This is where the idea of the “endless” perspective of the covered courtyards was born. The theme of the Museum of History in Astana is the traditional Kazakh kurgan-ziggurat, each ring of which is dedicated to a separate historical period, and at each turn of the spiral there are seven thematic sectors: "Ethnography", "Culture", "Science", "Religion", "Art", "Natural wealth", "Economy, politics, society". Thus, you can study the exposition both sequentially and within the selected sector, using the stairs connecting the levels. And the project of the Palace of Oil Workers in Surgut is based on the theme of the Roman Forum - the center of public life, uniting in a single impulse all the townspeople. True, since winter reigns in Surgut for most of the year, the forum space in this case has been moved inside the building.
Using the example of three stations designed by Studio 44 - Ladozhsky in St. Petersburg, Olympic in Sochi and a competition project in Astana - Nikita Yavein showed how his creative method depends on the context, landscape and history of the place. Thus, the image of the St. Petersburg station was based on the centuries-old traditions of designing European stations and the theme of Roman baths, which is characteristic of them. The station in Sochi resembles a bird with outstretched wings in plan - this expressive form is a projection of the trajectory of the movement of human flows, already set by the general plan of the Olympic Park. The competition project of the station in Astana appeals to the direct metaphors beloved by Kazakhs - in this case, it is “a rainbow over the steppe”.
True, it also happens that work on a project starts from existing limitations. “We build literally where possible, outlining the sites along the contour and thus getting a ready-made plan of the complex,” says the architect. This is how, for example, the office center on Borovaya Street in St. Petersburg was born. In due time, the concept of reconstruction of Apraksin Dvor grew out of the restrictions. In the narrow streets between the old warehouses and shops, it was required to inscribe a modern urban cluster, twice the area of existing buildings. “I proposed to form the city on three levels,” explains Yavein, “to place malls and parking lots on the -1 level, give the middle level to pedestrians, and the upper level to offices, hotels, etc.”.
Another example of design in a system of hard constraints is high-rise construction in St. Petersburg: Yavein designed an experimental cluster of skyscrapers in the area of Ladozhsky railway station. He outlined several free areas along the contour and grew out of them irregular "crystals". In general, the architect does not like modern skyscrapers and calls them ashtrays, but if they are to be built in St. Petersburg, then only in clusters, Yavein believes, otherwise individual skyscrapers "will challenge the sacredness of Isaac and other historical dominants." That is why Nikita Yavein, according to him, did not believe in the implementation of the Gazprom tower from the very beginning. True, in his opinion, the precedent itself harmed historical St. Petersburg no less: "The Okhta Center made a kind of breach in the ideology of construction in St. Petersburg, it showed that if it is impossible, but really want to, then everything is possible: now there are already half of the city such small skyscrapers."
Concluding his speech, Nikita Yavein admitted that in the projects and buildings of Studio 44, he completed almost all of his term papers. "There are two or three original ideas left, and then it's up to you!" - the architect punished the numerous students present in the audience, and they answered him with loud applause.
