Several land plots were allocated for the construction of a 52-storey tower at once on one of the main and most prestigious streets of the city - Reform Avenue. The first floors are used for public functions and offices, above are the apartments, and at the very top - the hotel.
Through the first floor of the skyscraper there is a pedestrian street connecting the streets of Manchester and Tokyo, from where there is easy access to an extensive shopping center: shops and restaurants are located from 1 to 3 levels.
The entrance area to the residential area on the 1st floor is separated from the entrance to the offices, hotel and retail area. The latter is connected to the mezzanine floor, where the corresponding lobbies and lifts are located. There are 7 levels of office space above the shopping area. From the 10th there are 4 technical floors, which also function as recreational areas for residents - with a gym, swimming pool, etc. Between the 11th and 40th floors there are apartments with associated infrastructure. And finally, the 11-floor skyscraper of the hotel and an open green terrace are crowned.
The architecture of the tower with its ribbed broken facades contains the features of Gothic and Futurism at the same time: as if a standard glass prism was somehow incredibly deformed, “folding” the facades into an accordion or cutting them into ribbons, which were then crumpled. As a result, rooms with unique plans are arranged inside. A module of 70 m2 is taken as a unit in the interior, but it can be combined with other similar ones both horizontally and vertically.
When designing, Michel Rochkind was inspired by the works of the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, more precisely by his theory of the psychoanalytic meaning of images of the classical "material elements" for the human imagination. As a result, zones appeared in the inner space of the tower, dedicated to specific themes of Bachelard's work, such as earth, metal, crystal, and water.
N. K.
