The sports and concert complex on Yuri Gagarin Avenue is one of the most famous and largest sports facilities in St. Petersburg. The majestic building of the SKK, which can simultaneously accommodate 25 thousand spectators, was built according to the project of architects N. V. Baranova and I. M. Chaiko for the 1980 Olympics and is a huge cylinder with a diameter of 160 meters, mounted on a round podium. The complex was built in the center of a large meadow, which is a continuation of the Moscow Victory Park, and closes the perspective of the Alley of Heroes. At the same time, in 1980, the project of the second stage of the SKK was developed, which provided for the construction of an indoor training hockey field, two swimming pools and a utility block in the neighborhood, as well as complex landscaping of the entire quarter. However, it was never implemented, and the territory around the NCC remained a giant wasteland for several decades. Already in the post-Soviet era, the city more than once tried to build up the former meadow with sports infrastructure, but something did not work out: either the legal registration of the land lasted for years, then the projects of the objects themselves turned out to be below any criticism. The last city council of St. Petersburg rejected twice, until, finally, a decision was made to change the architect. This is how Studio 44 joined the project. And although by that time the terms of reference provided for the development of a project for only one structure - an athletics complex to the south-west of the SKK - the architects began their work with an understanding of the urban planning prospects for the entire quarter.
“The SKK is such an iconic building for our city that it seems to me that the town-planning situation in which it has existed for many years is acutely unfair,” says architect Nikita Yavein. “But it's not even scary that the complex actually stands on a vacant lot, but that sooner or later this vacant lot can be cut into separate sections and built up without regard to the size of the SCC. By the way, part of this is already happening today. That is why we decided to develop a concept for the development of the entire territory around the complex and thereby “stake out” its functional and town-planning significance”.
The total area of the territory mentioned by Nikita Yavein is 36.7 hectares. The concept proposed by Studio 44 provides for the creation of a developed sports quarter here, thanks to which the Moskovsky district and the city as a whole will receive arenas for a variety of sports. The proximity of the avenue named after Yuri Gagarin, as well as the shape of the building of the SKK itself, prompted the architects to have a general imaginative idea of the ensemble being created: a whole system of round structures, smaller in diameter, is being built around the main architectural dominant. In terms of this, it most of all resembles a diagram of the solar system, and developing this image, the authors even inscribed the oval of the stadium into a building round in plan. They gave the same shape to multi-storey car parks, transparent domes over atrium spaces and open green courtyards. Colonnades in various variations become another architectural leitmotif of the ensemble being designed - they pick up and develop the plastic theme set by the 56 forty-meter pylons of the SKK building.
The architects proposed to combine all existing and newly erected objects into three groups using two-storey stylobates 9 meters high. All related functions (including shopping and entertainment centers) and sports facilities that do not require a great height of premises (for example, indoor tennis courts, volleyball, basketball, badminton, etc.) are hidden inside the stylobates, and their roofs are greened and turned into a kind of "upper parks" designed for outdoor walks and workouts.“This would not only greatly increase the efficiency of using this territory, but would also make it possible to create an interesting and memorable landscape on it, saturate the currently empty perimeter around the NCC with numerous additional focuses of attraction,” says Nikita Yavein.
The very same track and field complex was designed on an area of 6.42 hectares, located in the southwestern part of the quarter, at the corner of Yuri Gagarin Avenue and Basseinaya Street. Actually, this is the already mentioned stadium, built in a circle with a covered arena and stands and bordered by a colonnade. The latter, describing a circle with a diameter of 200 meters, also includes a part of the alley leading from the street. Basseynaya to the SKK. “We proposed to separate the sports core from it with a transparent screen, which would allow observing the competitions and activities of athletes,” explains Nikita Yavein. "And the upper belt of the colonnade was supposed to serve for the installation of lighting equipment."
A year ago, this concept of "Studio 44" was discussed at the City Planning Council of St. Petersburg and was almost unanimously approved. However, the city does not yet have funds for its implementation, so now only an athletics complex is being built, which, in fact, was ordered by the architects. And, as often happens, during the journey, the dog managed to grow a little: the original architectural concept was significantly adjusted in accordance with "real needs".
The most radical change affected the shape of the future structure: the customer found the trapezoid much more ergonomic and efficient. And if in the original concept the "orbit" of the stadium was emphasized by the colonnade, now the stadium itself has turned into an athletics arena with treadmills and sectors for various trainings, covered with an aluminum dome dotted with squares of windows, and the colonnade migrated to the facades of the main volume, turning into flat pylons. deployed towards the center of the metal-faced hemisphere. The stands and the necessary auxiliary rooms are arranged under a sloping green roof, and the façade wall behind the pylons is completely glazed. Of course, in its current form, the track and field complex no longer resembles that training "crater", which the architects of "Studio 44" invented a year ago, but something cosmic in its appearance is visible even now. And if the concept of the development of the sports quarter in the form of a "parade of planets" is nevertheless implemented, it will undoubtedly take its rightful place in it.
