The complex is supposed to be built on a slope, smoothly descending from the hill on which the city is located, to the Dnieper floodplain. On the one hand, this is practically the center of Dnepropetrovsk, from here it is a stone's throw to its main thoroughfare - a wide avenue of Karl Marx cut along two ribbons of boulevards. On the other hand, a railway runs along the upper edge of the slope, which has always greatly complicated the connection between the two districts and, in fact, predetermined the separate development of the embankment territory. And although in recent years it has gradually begun to be built up (mainly in residential areas), it still lacks a well-thought-out system of pedestrian connections to be included in the active life of a big city. It is this difficult urban planning task that the architects of the studio "Sergei Kiselev & Partners" tried to solve in their project.
Of course, the site, located on the same axis with the main avenue of the city, has repeatedly been the focus of architects' attention. Tenders were announced for its development projects, several times the administration of Dnepropetrovsk considered proposals from various investors, but neither one nor the other was ultimately accepted for implementation. “I think the fact is that the authors of all the proposals were trying to extend the axis of Karl Marx Avenue and to decide the exit to the Dnieper, if not pompously, then as ceremoniously as possible,” says Andrey Nikiforov, chief architect of the project. - This axis is so dominant on the general plan of the city that it is really very difficult to refuse such a decision. But its implementation is hindered by both the prevailing surrounding buildings (very far from the idea of splendor, it must be admitted), and the conditions of land tenure on the site itself. The fact is that this territory does not belong to either the city or a single customer, but is fragmented into many "allotments" assigned to different legal entities. Therefore, the project, on the one hand, is designed to provide a connection between the two districts of the city and breathe new life into the embankment, and on the other, it is simply obliged to be implemented in stages, and so that each of its stages can exist completely autonomously."
Proceeding from these requirements, the architects conditionally divided the building site into two zones: the slope itself and its gently sloping part, facing Naberezhnaya Pobedy Street. All the main volumes of the complex are located on the slope, and the slope is completely set aside for the implementation of a complex urban planning scenario to create a connection between new buildings and the avenue. “We also rejected the idea of breaking through the continuation of the avenue to the very water because it would fundamentally distort the character of the existing relief,” explains Andrey Nikiforov. “In addition, the avenue and the embankment are not perpendicular to each other, which means that their intersection would inevitably entail the appearance of not the most convenient corners from the point of view of further development”.
The scenario of pedestrian traffic, developed by the authors of the project, is as follows. The avenue, as before, ends with a square decorated with a stele, from which a pedestrian bridge is thrown across the railway, which on the opposite "bank" develops into a whole system of ramps. One of its branches will connect the avenue and the projected complex with the Prospektnaya railway station, and its main part is laid on the slope in a zigzag, convenient for pedestrians.“Among ourselves, we call this construction a 'serpentine bridge' and at first really thought about the paths that resemble serpentine in their trajectory, but then came to the conclusion that its smooth numerous bends are more suitable for a road than for pedestrian traffic,” says Andrey Nikiforov.
Going down the ramp, people find themselves in a glazed shopping arcade, on both sides of which two shopping and entertainment centers are located one after the other. From the gallery, if you wish, you can go to any of them or go down directly to the street and go to the pedestrian square in front of the complex. The direction of this final part of the route with the avenue left behind is no longer connected in any way - the passage and the square in front of it are oriented towards Naberezhnaya Pobedy Street and are located perpendicular to it.
It is proposed to build a hotel building closest to the road. It faces the square with a rounded fully glazed façade, which creates a kind of visual funnel that "attracts" pedestrian flows to the portal, which marks the entrance to the passage. As already mentioned, the shopping complex itself consists of two buildings located on opposite sides of the gallery one after the other. The lower floors of both volumes are allocated for parking and technical premises, the upper floors are dedicated to retail, and the architects use the existing relief in such a way that the escalators and ramps of the through gallery pass through each of the levels. The architects propose to plant the roofs of the buildings - then, when looking at the complex from above, the retail volumes will merge with the slope.
The general composition of the complex also includes a high-rise residential building, however, it is not connected with any of its other buildings, except that the glazed facade facing the river has a clear visual resemblance to a hotel. As Andrei Nikiforov explains, the appearance of a residential tower on the site will have not only commercial significance (stunning views of the Dnieper will open from the windows of the apartments), but also strategic urban planning. Sooner or later, new residential quarters, being built on the southern side along the slope along the Victory Embankment, will come close to the site - it was to this approaching “wave” that the architects set the high-rise dominant, a kind of starting point.
