The shortlist was formed by an expert council led by Vladimir Plotkin, which included several foreign "stars" at once, such as Eric van Egeraat, Hani Rashid and others. The 12 leading buildings were selected from 40 nominees: this long list, in turn, was drawn up by the public council of the award, and it included about 70 objects. Soon Internet users will be able to connect to the voting in order, along with professional judges, to choose their winner from a dozen of the best.
The geography of applicants for this year's award is very diverse. And, perhaps, it is the full-fledged presence in the short-list of regional objects that gives the award intrigue and freshness: it is nice that the status of Best Building can be received by houses that have not yet been showered from head to toe with medals and laurels. It is also curious that buildings designed by foreigners were also shortlisted: perhaps this can be considered evidence that the prize is striving for inclusiveness and objectivity, especially if we ignore the fact that the author of one of them is the already mentioned Erik van Egeraat.
There are four Moscow buildings on the list. These are the headquarters of Novatek by SPEECH Choban / Kuznetsov, an office building in Butikovsky, 9 of Ostozhenka JSB, as well as two facilities of the American company NBBJ, implemented together with a long-liver of the Moscow construction market, Turkish contractor Enka - multifunctional complexes Empire Tower "as part of" Moscow City "and" Legend of Tsvetnoy ".
The presence of Novatek among the leaders is undeniable: this is actually the first Russian house that meets European standards for green design. His spectacular stone and glass robe is the upper, cold layer of the double façade, behind which there are double-glazed windows that open inward, automatically closing blinds in sunny weather. This gave the architects the opportunity to use a cold ceiling for air conditioning the complex, and the building itself was LEED certified.
The elegant building on the corner of Butikovsky and Korobeinikov lanes of Alexander Skokan's bureau is an extension of the UniCredit Bank building, which Ostozhenka was one of the first to build on the Golden Mile. The new building is another modest masterpiece that does not need additional praise: red ceramic lamellas on the facades unite it with the red brick wall of the bank, and the glass body visible under them echoes its “neighbor” on Butikovsky Lane.
The 60-storey "Empire Tower", containing offices, a hotel, apartments and a water park, is the only one in the City to have its own dock for pleasure boats. In addition to the expensive design, the tower has a rather non-trivial shape.
The second object of NBBJ is the Legend of Tsvetnoy multifunctional complex, built just one and a half kilometers from the Kremlin, at the intersection of Tsvetnoy and Rozhdestvensky boulevards. The building, which occupies an entire block and is visible from afar with its fully glazed facades, is distinguished by a good quality of construction, which has already been repeatedly recognized by experts.
St. Petersburg is represented in the Best Building shortlist by two buildings designed by the architect Evgeny Gerasimov - a business center with the head office of Bank Saint Petersburg OJSC (jointly with SPEECH Choban / Kuznetsov), which recently became a laureate of the Glass in architecture , and
apartment hotel in Zelenogorsk.
The hotel is located in a resort town and organically blended with the environment set by the modernist sanatoriums of the 1970s. The complex consists of three buildings, united by a common stylobate, on the roof of which, at a height of two meters above ground level, an inner courtyard is arranged.
Kazan is represented among the nominees for Best Building by the residential complex "Crystal" by architects D. Velichkin and N. Golovanov, which was included in the catalog "High-quality architecture" for 2010. The apartment building is located on the high bank of the Kazanka River and has a complex, super-dynamic silhouette.
The business center on Oktyabrskaya Magistral Street in Novosibirsk, nicknamed Cocoon (architects V. Filippov, T. Nasyrov, D. Gerasimov and K. Frolenok), has become one of the most recognizable modern buildings in the city. The glass wave protruding from the row of the classic buildings of the center successfully reflects its neighbors and seems to fill the gap that has formed between two ordinary houses.
What can not be said about another Novosibirsk nominee - the high-rise business center "Cobra" (architects V. Borodkin, E. Ignatovich, etc.) although at the level of the three lower floors, according to the authors, it is trying to become attached to a nearby monument - the October Revolution Club.
The reconstructed pipe-rolling plant in Chelyabinsk (a team of authors led by architects Sergei Ilyshev and Vladimir Yudanov) can literally be called an architectural discovery of the current city. The project has repeatedly appeared at festivals, was nominated for both "Zodchestvo" and "Golden Section". The mega-positive environment created by the architects overturns the usual ideas about the factory as a gloomy hulk, where there is no place for rest and a smile.
And the building of the Belgorod State Philharmonic, which the architect Irina Chechel designed on the site of the former Zheleznodorozhnik House of Culture, is perhaps one of the most unexpected buildings of the year. During the reconstruction, the recreation center was transformed due to the original extension and an additional upper floor. In the deconstructivist volume, decorated with two inverted glass cones, it is absolutely impossible to recognize the Soviet Palace of Culture.
A dozen of applicants for the Best Building are completed by the cultural and leisure center "Chess Club" in Khanty-Mansiysk, which was designed by the Dutch architect Erik van Egeraat, who still has not lost faith in the possibility of building in Russia. The building has a timber frame and an expressive zinc outer shell. With a rather small area of 5000 sq. m. the club is able to host the participants of the world chess championship.
A nationwide online vote on the shortlist at www.madeinfuture.net will start in September 2011.
