Today the results of the competition of architectural solutions of the multifunctional hotel complex "Tsarev Sad" on Sofiyskaya embankment, the start of which was announced at the end of May, became known. The competition was initiated by the Moskomarkhitektura and organized by the Union of Architects of Russia, the owner of the site is Sberbank Capital LLC, the role of the technical customer is performed by Midland Development LLC. The expert commission, in addition to representatives of the customer, included Sergey Kuznetsov, Andrey Bokov, Vladimir Plotkin and Sergey Tchoban. The projects were submitted to the jury anonymously, under code numbers.
As a result of the discussion, the jury decided to return to the previous project (which you can get acquainted with in general terms here), motivating their position by the fact that their concept is best suited for this place. The project was developed by OOO MAO - Sreda (headed by Vycheslav Osipov), which, according to the terms of the competition, retained the status of a general designer. Vyacheslav Osipov's project will be taken as a basis.
However, out of seven works of the participants of the competition, three equal winners were chosen: projects by Evgeny Gerasimov, Nikita Yavein and Ilya Utkin. The concepts of the winners will be accepted as consulting - their authors will be invited to work with the general designer on the final appearance of the hotel complex.
To what has been said, it should be added that during the competition, the composition of its participants announced in May has changed somewhat: at first, ADM and the bureau Sergey Kiselev and Partners were on the list, at the finish line they were replaced by Nikita Yavein and Sergey Tumanin.
We publish projects of winners and other participants of the competition with author's descriptions.
Winner of competition. Gerasimov and partners
“Basic principles of the proposed competitive project:
- Creation of a project that assumes the maximum disclosure of the potential of the building site
- Maintaining the achieved and increasing the sold areas
- Maximum increase in areas with specific characteristics
- Disclosure (preservation) of the existing panoramas of the Sofiyskaya embankment
- Creation of interesting view perspectives both from the complex itself and the adjacent territory to St. Basil's Cathedral and the Kremlin, and from Vasilyevsky Spusk to the projected complex.
- Creation of a visual corridor from St. Basil's Cathedral through the projected complex to the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God "Joy to all who grieve"
- Organization of both a comfortable interior space - a closed courtyard of the complex, and a publicly accessible landscaped area of city-wide significance with a view of the Kremlin (by analogy with the "arrow" with a view of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior).
- The use of a facade technique that emphasizes the urban planning concept."
Winner of competition. Studio 44
As the PR director of Studio 44, Lyudmila Likhacheva, told us, while working on the Tsarev's Garden project, the architects relied on three thematic sources. The main idea was the recollection of the "riding gardens", which were popular in the royal and boyar mansions of Moscow in the 17th century - the architects named their project that way: "Horse gardens". Three small parks remind of the gardens of the Russian Middle Ages: a regular one on the roof of a shopping complex stretching along the Ustyinsky bridge; squares on the roofs of the residential building, intended for the inhabitants of penthouses, and a small picturesque park between the residential and commercial buildings, designed in the form of a ramp going down to the Moscow River. A stream flows meandering along the ramp. In order to better get used to the old Russian theme necessary for the Kremlin neighborhood, the architects studied several books on the history of gardens and learned in detail how the gardens were arranged in the 17th century mansions.
The second conceptual component of the project was the so-called “morphology of the place”: the trade building along the Ustyinsky bridge is equal in length to the warehouse building that once stood on this site, and the design of its facade repeats the facade of the neighboring building on Sofiysky embankment.
The third component is an ornament, a large geometric pattern on the front planes of the risalits of the residential building. The living rooms of the apartments are located in the projections of the risalits, and their front planes - this is important - are turned towards the Kremlin and the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed (kitchen zones are located in the ledges of the facade, designed in a neutral brownish tone). The drawing of the facades is inspired by the architecture of the Naryshkin style (late 17th century), the formal searches of early constructivism and Ivan Zholtovsky. The architects proposed to make the risalit lattices of light expensive stone.
Winner of competition. Utkin Studio
“This project proposal is based on the design documentation of MAO-Sreda LLC. The design proposal in figures and drawings was superimposed on the existing plans and sections. I tried to preserve as much as possible the existing functional scheme of internal connections. The planning is based on the historical plan of the Kokorev warehouses. And the axes of the historic walls show through in the architecture of the drawings. But they are all different and for the construction of facades, for convenience, I took the aligned module of the axes pitch equal to 6.250m.
The compositional solution is based on the traditional scheme of an expensive hotel from the beginning of the last century. It is an extended building with a central entrance, accented by symmetrical facades of the side wings. In front of the main facade there is a long courtyard flanked by three-storey buildings.
From the side of Sofiyskaya embankment, I am also restoring the historical perimeter buildings. The courtyard spaces are connected by front walkways through double-height arched openings. The three ground levels are occupied by mixed function rooms. Residential apartments are located above the third level. It is possible to see the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed from the window of each apartment using the classic bay window facade scheme or extended windows. Our proposal is based on a triangular bay window protruding 1.5 m from the wall plane.
The specification, quantity, composition of the area of the apartments has remained practically unchanged. The area has been added to the perimeter buildings of more than 1 thousand square meters. It is planned to use brick, stone, ceramics, metal in the decoration of the facades. The color scheme of the facades at this stage, I think, is premature."
Other participants in the competition:
Sergey Skuratov ARCHITECTS
“The authors of the project decided to design the object, starting work ab ovo (from the very beginning). It is obvious to us that this position is the most correct from all points of view: ethical, economic, technical. It is enough to understand and feel the spirit of the place, its town-planning significance, status, typology and social burden, visibility from Red Square, Vasilyevsky Spusk, from the embankments (Kremlin, Moskvoretskaya, Raushskaya, Kadashevskaya, Ovchinnikovskaya), from the territory of the new Zaryadye park, from the most important points of Zamoskvorechye. All this requires a different, absolutely independent volumetric planning and urban planning solution, corresponding to the challenges of our time. A vivid dynamic image is needed here, adequate to the powerful energy of the surrounding space.
The previous project clearly demonstrated the futility of attempts to solve the set architectural problem by imitating historical buildings, especially in circumstances when the old district is already saturated with secondary architecture and often more than controversial pseudo-historical buildings.
Despite the fact that we started designing from scratch, in the new project we propose to keep and take into account the following factors:
- plot boundaries;
- technical and economic indicators (with distribution by function and with clarifying recommendations from Kalinka specialists);
- maximum allowable vertical marks;
- existing slurry wall and foundation slab;
- partially - conclusions and recommendations of landscape-visual analysis;
- recommendations of the chief architect of the city, the leadership of the Moscow Heritage Committee and the Kremlin museums."
Tsimailo, Lyashenko & Partners
“The main points of perception of the design site are the Kremlin embankment, the territory of the Zaryadye park, Vasilievsky descent. To a lesser extent, from the point of view of human traffic activity, Ordynka Street is. The location of the building along the red line parallel to the bridge creates a symmetrical urban silhouette of the Sofiyskaya Embankment. The creation of a public space near the water from the side of the main entrance to the building corresponds to the scale of the open space in front of the Balchug hotel.
The projected building adjoins the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge and closes the perimeter development of the quarter, typical for the historical part of the city. The absence of a multi-storey superstructure over the existing farm building allows preserving the historical appearance of the Kokorevsky courtyard. The creation of a public space in front of the main building - a garden, gardens on the facade and on the roof of the building, correlate with the historical use of the territory."
Creative workshop of S. L. Tumanin
“The main idea of the project of the complex is that, in our opinion, it is possible to unfold the apartments in front of the panorama of the Kremlin, Vasilyevsky Spusk and St. Basil's Cathedral without prejudice to the layouts and privacy of the apartments.
The analysis of the urban planning situation and the visual perception of the object showed that the main unfavorable (problematic) parameter in the designed space-planning model is the L-shaped end of the main volume of the building, facing the street. Swamp and covering the panorama with its height marks at the exit from the street. B. Ordynka to the Small Moskvoretsky Bridge. At the same time, the heights of the "boutiques" do not have, in our opinion, such a strong influence on the disclosure of the panorama of the Kremlin from the Kadashevskaya embankment and when moving along the Maly Moskvoretsky bridge to the Bolshoi. Therefore, we considered it possible and necessary to remove the L-shaped volume completely, but at the same time build three risalit rising from 2 to 4 floors from Sofiyskaya embankment to the volume of the fitness block, and increased the angle of the facade of the main block without increasing the depth of the building for more full disclosure of the facade to the panorama of the Kremlin.
Rizalits or "bridges", spreading from the main building to a 2-storey gallery running along the large Moskvoretsky bridge, as mentioned earlier, increase in height from 2 storeys closer to Sofiyskaya embankment to 4 - in the depths of the site. In these risalit bridges, apartments with 2-level double-height living rooms with a personal view of the Kremlin are organized for almost every apartment.
The courtyard area of the complex is divided into 3 parts by bridges-risalits and marks of terraces-courtyards. From the depths of the courtyard, the terraces go down to the marks of the Sofia embankment, expanding the field of view vertically. Each bridge house has its own small courtyard at the entrance with a playground for children. Instead of retaining walls separating the private courtyards, stained-glass windows have been installed to illuminate the parking lot.
The facades of the building are solved in stained-glass windows. The facade of the main building is decorated with a single print, which forms a volume fold on the flat facade. In addition, vertical movable elements of thin onyx slabs are made on the facade, which can open and close part of the stained-glass window in the apartment, thereby creating the privacy of the interior space.
The ends of the risalit bridges have deep vertical slats, deployed at different angles and faced with light stone, ensuring the privacy of the apartments. The boutique gallery is designed as a single solid volume, faced with stone, and ends with a cafe. A skylight for boutiques was installed on the operated roof of the gallery. The risalit bridges hang over the additional promenade area along the roof of the gallery.
Architectural workshop of M. Atayants
“The architectural and artistic style of the complex located in the immediate vicinity of the most important ensembles in the center of Moscow should, according to the authors, be based on the flexible use of the classical order, understood not as a set of decorative details, but as a structural basis of the composition.
The wall of the apartment building is interpreted as a large-scale stone arcade with stained glass filling, articulated with three-quarter Corinthian columns in two tiers. From distant points, the rhythm of the arched openings is clearly read; in the contraction, the jagged structure of the wall begins to be perceived. Its corners are accentuated by a sculpture that forms the top line of the façade.
The buildings of boutique shops, corresponding in size to historic city mansions, are designed in the forms of "exemplary houses" of Russian classicism; large simple details in combination with colored facade surfaces allow them not to get lost between the massive forms of the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge and the Corinthian arcade of the apartment building. The restaurant and office block completes the line of boutique stores and forms the corner of the complex overlooking Bolotnaya embankment. Its architecture is somewhat more solemn and includes a six-column Ionic portico.
The representative office of the management company plays an extremely important role in the architecture of the complex, completing the line of buildings on the Sofiyskaya Embankment in front of the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge. Its small size is compensated by the active large-scale Doric plastics of the semicircular facade, which maintains the proximity of bridge supports and arched spans.
On the other side of the executive office building is the entrance area of the apartment. The authors consider it necessary to push the stylobate forward up to the red line, with the organization of the entrance and entry directly through the portals in the front wall of the stylobate. This solution allows you to significantly increase the area of the garden, bringing it almost to the river itself. At the same time, the massive granite wall continues the development line of the Sofiyskaya Embankment.
The proposed facade solutions require minimal planning changes in the area of the outer contour of buildings and retain the views of St. Basil's Cathedral from all apartments facing the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge."
Compiled by Nastya Mavrina
After the publication of this material on Facebook, an interesting commentary by Yaroslav Kovalchuk about the urban planning problems of the TOR of the competition appeared. We reprint it here.
So, Yaroslav Kovalchuk:
“Tin and gloomy horror! (I'm talking about Tsarev's garden). And the horror is not in architecture (Osipov, of course, is horrible, but there are also good projects). The main nightmare in the urban planning solution, or rather in its absence. This was laid down at the stage of the TK and the competition program.
The main problem of the island is that there are very large neighborhoods, few streets and lanes. The area of a normal block is 1 - 1.5 hectares, rarely two. The block is longer than 200 meters, it is inconvenient, the connectivity and permeability of the territory decreases. US regulations mandate pedestrian walkways in blocks longer than 500 feet (152 meters). In Europe, blocks of one hectare are considered optimal.
On the island, the quarters are gigantic, some of them 5-7 hectares. There are few streets, and those that exist are poorly adapted for life. The territories inside large neighborhoods are degrading, there is no access to them, and real slums are formed there. There is no street access to the plots inside the neighborhoods, and as a result, easements appear. All this together reduces the quality of the urban environment and the value of real estate. That is, everyone loses, and the owners, and developers, and residents of the city.
Moreover, the island is the most central and expensive part of the city. This is a unique resource. He is alone in Moscow and could have become the best place in the city. But his main problem, no one sees and does not try to solve it. She is not seen in the Moscow Architectural Committee and the Moscow Heritage Committee. Architects and city planners do not see it. She was overlooked by Jan Gail in his research. She is not seen in Arhnadzor. Maybe, of course, they see it somewhere, but they stubbornly keep silent.
Almost all projects "plug" the block behind the complex, depriving these territories of development opportunities. The only good solution was offered by Skuratov. He leaves the alley behind the building. It would be even better to “cut” the building with one or two lanes. Better yet, it would be to make a master plan of the island or part of it, and only then hold an architectural competition.
Now, most projects for the island do not solve its main problems, but only exacerbate them. What difference does it make which turrets are painted on the house if it is impossible to drive up or approach it? New buildings, without new streets and lanes, increase the pressure on the territory and make it more and more inaccessible and uninhabitable."
