The site on which it is planned to create a new residential cluster is located between Oktyabrskaya embankment and the territory of ZAO Plastics. From the north it is bounded by Telman street, from the south - by Novoselov street, which serve as a kind of border between industrial buildings and residential buildings. Now the city intends to close the living tissue by removing production from the Nevsky bank, and preserving the objects of industrial architecture and integrating them into the new complex. This task was the basis of the TOR of the recently held competition - Studio 44 won it with the Ideal City concept.
Nikita Yavein's team began work on this project with an analysis of the desired TEPs voiced by the customer. Actually, the idea of likening a new residential formation to a self-sufficient city was born from numbers: the total area of real estate is about half a million square meters and a population of at least 13.5 thousand inhabitants - this is a small city, after all. The architects suggested replacing the loose and chaotic planning structure of the former industrial zone with a classic orthogonal lattice, on the basis of which the "ideal city" is being built.
The model, which inspired many generations of architects, had the most significant impact on the planning organization not only of St. Petersburg, but also of a number of European capitals - Rome, Paris, Barcelona - and Nikita Yavein is convinced of its relevance today. The dimensions of the quarters adopted in the project - 95 x 100 m, in his opinion, are capable of returning to the city dweller the feeling of a living environment commensurate with a person (for comparison: quarters in the center of Barcelona - 113 x 113 m).
However, such a planning module, along with a clear grid of streets, was chosen not only as a sign of respect for historical prototypes, but, above all, for its town-planning merits - it is such a layout that can guarantee the future district a clear logic of movement and ease of orientation in space. The meridian roads, connecting Novoselov and Telman streets, will serve for transport, and the pedestrian boulevards perpendicular to them will connect the Dalnevostochny prospect and the Neva embankment.
The compositional nucleus of the Ideal City is a square with a green square - Studio 44 conceives it as a green space completely free from building. “It will be a kind of park in the center of the new city,” Nikita Yavein explains the author's idea. - People are tired of artificial, greenhouse spaces of shopping malls, so the format of London squares is much more necessary and attractive today. And retail space can be scattered over the first floors of residential buildings. " The "green" theme of the central square will be supported by several 25 m wide pedestrian boulevards, courtyards of residential buildings, green areas of schools and kindergartens and a park along Oktyabrskaya embankment in the northwestern part of the site.
The dimensions of the planning module predetermine the type of development in which each separate quarter is occupied by one residential complex. This not only promises to make the structure of the entire district as clear as possible, but also is the optimal scheme in terms of the sequence of construction and subsequent operation of buildings.
In the "cells" of their mathematically verified lattice, the architects inscribe two types of complexes, alternating them in a checkerboard pattern - for families and for young couples. The first is a house-quarter with a closed perimeter and a courtyard, the second - 4 “point” volumes that fix the corners of the quarter and are united by a common podium. “They are completely different in character,” explains Nikita Yavein."A home for families is an introvert, while a home intended for young couples and students is actually four volumes independent of each other, which emphasizes both the individuality of its inhabitants and their openness to the outside world."
However, architecturally, both types of the complex are solved in almost the same way: brick prevails here and there (somewhere red, somewhere almost beige), additional tectonics are given to the facades by numerous bay windows, and to the silhouettes in general - by the upper floors, which are made attic and decorated characteristic rectangular brackets of window openings. It is clear that this very style "a la loft" was not chosen by chance - the authors strive to emphasize the industrial "origin" of the site and create a worthy framing for the objects of industrial architecture preserved here. The latter, by the way, are many: at least 6 buildings are planned to be restored and adapted for new functions, including the main factory building with a water tower, a rubble storage room, a fire shed and the former production building of the Thornton Wool Partnership.
Most of the new buildings are deliberately designed by architects less high than the zonal regulations allow (9-13 floors instead of the allowed 17). The exception is two residential towers with a height of about 70 meters on the southern border of the site: picking up the high-rise structure of the neighboring buildings, they play the role of spatial landmarks and a kind of entrance "propylaea".
Along the southern front of the building, parallel to Novoselov Street, the architects place eight buildings stretched out in a line. United by a common pergola and a "case" of thin columns, they form a kind of fence of a new area, both quite permeable and quite tangible at the same time. And in front of them are "outposts" - two high-rise towers with youth studio apartments, flanking the entrance to the quarter. And if the influence of industrial architecture can be easily guessed in the appearance of the main array of buildings, then the towers with their vertical division and rather massive foundations refer rather to the modernist buildings prevailing in the adjacent areas, and the "buffer" enclosed in the palisade of supports outwardly plays the role of transitional a structure that visually separates the expressive mid-rise buildings of solid brick from the rather dull and monotonous environment of the Soviet city of the 1970s. However, the architects deliberately make this border more than conventional - they see their Ideal City as an integral part of modern St. Petersburg and hope that the implementation of this project will entail positive changes in the appearance of the adjacent districts.
