The work of the studio “New City. Coordination of Movements”under the leadership of Sergei Tchoban was devoted to the study of a harmonious urban environment. The academic year was divided into three stages. At the first, students explored, including through sketches, urban planning ensembles of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Hamburg and other cities. Then, analyzing the collected material in detail, they determined their personal preferences regarding the parameters and qualities of the urban environment.
At the second stage of the work, the students, divided into groups, worked on the creation of a master plan for one of the quarters of the D-1 Skolkovo district, consisting of twelve buildings. It was required to develop a functional program and develop a design code for the development of the quarter. As a result, each group proposed its own master plan, but only one was selected based on the results of an internal competition. It became the basis for the development of individual graduation projects. Here, at the third stage, the students worked out in detail the projects of individual buildings that form one urban ensemble as part of the approved master plan.
From the description of the course topic:
“Traditional cities are a system formed over a long history of their existence. Changes in the urban environment and structure occur under the influence of many different factors and phenomena: political, social, ideological and aesthetic. It would seem that the multiplicity of vectors should lead to chaos. But in practice, the multidirectional forces balance each other, leading to a result that is more or less perceived by us as harmonious. Natural restrictions in the choice of building materials, historically established architectural morphology (type and nature of buildings, including number of storeys and layouts), as well as local stylistic preferences guarantee the homogeneity of the building, in which single dominant objects are installed, as a rule, for religious or administrative purposes.
New times and new approaches to urbanism, starting from the middle of the 20th century, have given rise to a different methodology for the formation of the urban environment, in which large-scale education is created simultaneously, as a result of a unified political and creative will. The inevitable uniformity of approach to development and multiple replication of the same, even if successful, architectural solutions generate monotony, depersonalization of the urban environment, making it unfriendly and uncomfortable for humans.
How to make a modern city lively and diverse? One of the possible solutions to the problem may be the method of attracting several designers, architects and developers to work on the development. The combination of various approaches, stylistic techniques and forms will allow us to simulate the natural process of the formation of an urbanistic environment, the degree of harmony of which will directly depend on the balance of teamwork, which guarantees the variability of volumetric and facade solutions. ***
Sergey Choban, head of the studio, on the results of the work done:
“MARCH gathered very talented students within its walls. Our task, in addition to the development of architectural abilities, was an attempt to instill in them the necessary movement skills in the chosen profession, to show real situations that constantly arise in professional practice, and thereby prepare them for it, try to explain the rules of work in a group, the features of competitive processes, teach quickly to respond to the tasks set, to communicate with the customer and the approving authorities, to make high-quality presentations of your own project.
Our course was called “New City. Coordination of movements . The very title of the topic determined the main objectives of the course - to learn how to work both in a team and individually, obeying common, jointly developed rules. Work on graduation projects was carried out in stages: from a general understanding of the urban ensemble and the urban environment, the study of its density, the distance between houses, street parameters, etc. before creating your own master plan and an individual, unique project. We practiced the skills of analyzing examples of urban ensembles through sketches and detailed research. It was important to understand the very process of the formation of urban education. It was a rather difficult job, within which each student not only created a program for the buildings in the ensemble, but also constantly coordinated their actions with the rest of the students. The students saw what their colleagues were doing and correlated their actions with them. In my opinion, this was the key moment - to realize that an object is not designed in a vacuum, but in a completely real environment, and this environment, this environment is created in parallel with the projected object and each student has the opportunity to influence its formation. In addition, a design code was assigned to the winning site master plan that was followed by all graduation projects. However, there was no submission, on the contrary, it was comprehension, which required quick reaction and informed dialogue. The predetermined design code was constantly in motion due to constant mutual adaptation.
In my opinion, such collective work greatly increases the degree of responsibility, since the result of each individual work directly depends on the success of all studio projects. I can say with confidence that the students have grown a lot during this time, and largely thanks to the proposed training scheme. Of course, there were slightly more or a little less successful projects, but the general plan and all the programs that were quite competently built into it, and the ratio of buildings within the ensemble - all this was implemented at a very high level."
We publish three graduation projects. *** Natalia Bakaeva. Office building
Natalia Bakaeva designed an office building for a large company. The project is based on the idea of energy efficiency: the double façade creates a buffer zone, facilitates heating and ventilation. At the same time, the platform in front of the entrance to the building is a continuation of the urban space, a kind of portico, protected from rain and wind. Thus, the building is included in the city life of Skolkovo.
Julia Andreichenko. Startup building
The startup building has flexible floor layouts. Paradoxically, in a narrow building, it is possible to create a variety of spaces. The building's image ironically hints at traditional urban typologies while remaining poignantly modern.
Daniel Barenboim. Sports Complex
The sports center of the district is designed as a giant urban sculpture. The practically blind planes of the walls, nevertheless, give access to light through the "light pockets", creating unexpected effects in the interior.
