Yesterday evening, September 11, the winner of the competition was announced to adapt the Small Marble Palace in St. Petersburg to the needs of a modern educational institution. It was the French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte. In his speech, the architect called the competition project “a huge challenge”.
The competition, initiated by the European University at St. Petersburg in the spring of 2013, was attended by four "stars": Jean-Michel Wilmotte (Wilmotte & Associés), Eric van Egeraat (Designed Erick van Egeraat), Rem Koolhaas (OMA) and Sergey Tchoban (SPEECH).
The Small Marble Palace of St. Petersburg is to create a modern international educational space and a new center for urban activity: an important city platform for scientific and cultural events. Among the tasks set for the contestants was a careful attitude to the historical monument and the urban context, the harmonious coexistence of the new with the old.
We publish the project of the winner of the competition, Jean-Michel Wilmotte, as well as projects of three other participants.
Jean-Michel Wilmotte. Winner of competition
“There is an opportunity here to bring something new while working in a historic building. And this is a huge challenge! It is very important to make the space clearer while preserving and respecting the history of the building."
In his project, Jean-Michel Wilmotte proposes to return the green spaces and territories to the building, in particular, the garden, which was located here until 1910. The inner courtyard of the university is overlapped in the project by a glass roof and serves as a kind of buffer, storage space for five large classrooms, also located on the ground floor.
Another distinctive feature of the French architect's project was the decision to remove the later Soviet superstructures and add glass elements to the roof for better illumination. On the top floor, there will be a library with a reading room, into which natural light will enter through the glass roof structure.
A hanging garden, a classroom in the former chapel and a research center are planned to be located on the second floor. And on the third - classrooms and classrooms of professors.
According to Wilmott, his main goal was to make as few changes as possible to the historic building.
Eric Van Egeraat
"Preservation of historical spaces while using all the achievements of modern architecture."
According to Erik van Egeraat, the less you do with the historical environment, the better. Therefore, in his project, he limited himself to a minimalist approach: the facades, for example, remain practically unchanged. The main task was to "open up the space", to avoid, if possible, small rooms, ladders and passages. But at the same time, Egeraat plans not only to preserve the historical interiors as much as possible, but also to completely restore them.
The project provides for green roofs and terraces, as well as a series of courtyards - all this will, in the author's opinion, make the space on the ground floor more attractive. The main courtyard is covered, the other two remain open.
Egeraat says it is possible to adapt the building to the needs of the university without resorting to serious interference by creating more public spaces, such as a library that will surround the open courtyard space. The top floor is planned to house a cafe, computer center and auditoriums.
In his project, Erik van Egeraat uses energy-saving heating and ventilation technologies, which will reduce energy consumption by a third.
Rem Koolhaas
"The challenge was to transform one of the important historical buildings in St. Petersburg from a former monarchical palace into a modern educational institution."
Rem Koolhaas shifts the focus to organizing spacious public spaces within the university. According to the OMA project, the building consists of five levels. To the existing situation, the architects added additional spaces, which in turn fold into horizontal and vertical structures.
The horizontal structure is at 3.5 meters. In particular, it will house an auditorium with a glass roof. The vertical structure, which unites all levels of horizontal spaces as a single common element, includes 80% of flights of stairs.
On the ground floor it is planned to place sports facilities, and above - premises for exhibitions. All faculties are proposed to be combined into a single block, for which it is necessary to demolish several partitions, to make a number of changes in the arrangement of windows.
Sergey Choban
"There should not be a feeling that the external volume has been preserved, and that the building has been gutted from the inside, it is necessary to preserve the volumes that create the silhouette that makes the building an established ensemble."
In his proposal for the adaptation of the Small Marble Palace, Sergei Tchoban tried to preserve the atmosphere of the old St. Petersburg mansion, and he called the use of the idea of St. Petersburg courtyards-wells as the "core" of the project. According to Sergei Tchoban, the components of the success of the new project should be the openness of the space and the concentration of activity around the courtyard, which will improve communication between the various departments of the university.
The architect also proposed introducing new elements, fixing them inside the old building with metal structures that do not touch the walls. Such a constructive solution will increase the space by 2 thousand square meters and place cafes, halls and an atrium here.
compiled by Nastya Mavrina
