Project of a parking and office complex with a restaurant on Krasnopresnenskaya embankment
The design site, which has an almost regular rectangular shape, is located on one of the central embankments of the Moskva River, not far from such dominants as the White House and the skyscraper on Kudrinskaya Square. From the side of the river, the new building, the project of which is being developed by TPO "Reserve", is supposed to be built into the existing niche between the modern complex and the Stalinist residential building. This neighborhood, together with the importance of the new building in terms of forming the front of the embankment, determined its compositional and facade solutions.
The parcel boundaries clearly follow the red lines. However, the authors decided to deviate somewhat from them, tying the building to the lines of the existing building. The height of the projected complex does not exceed 30 m, its height corresponds to the elevation of the eaves of the Stalinist house and the roof of the CHP building located on the right.
Many options were made to solve the facades, but in the end the authors settled on, perhaps, the quietest, where surfaces made of natural Jurassic stone are broken by vertical glazing strips. A special accent is the conditional diagonal on the main façade, which looks like a staircase made up of three large glass square steps. In one of these squares there is a niche for the central entrance.
Most of the area of the complex is supposed to be used for car parking. In addition, it provides for the placement of offices, a restaurant and a cafe. The authors also thought out in detail the concept of landscaping the courtyard facing the residential building located on the second line of the development, and the pedestrian area along the embankment.
The allowed height of the building is 50 m by the GPZU. The authors have reduced the height of the building to 30 m in order to avoid shading of the residential building located behind it. However, most of the council members agreed that the complex was sorely lacking in mass. Yuri Grigoryan suggested adding at least 6-7 meters: “It's a pity that all places significant for the city are filled under the influence of various restrictions: observing the requirements of insolation, we deprive the embankment of a beautiful silhouette and mass”.
Grigoryan also drew attention to the fact that, despite the rather interesting garage function, the building looks like a simple office center. Andrei Gnezdilov agreed with this statement, but nevertheless stressed that he fully supports the project and respects the position of the author. Sergei Kuznetsov retorted that in such a place it is not worth emphasizing the function of the garage, moreover, at one of the preliminary reviews at the MCA, such a recommendation to the authors of the project had already been received. As a solution to the problem of insufficient height of the complex, Kuznetsov suggested considering the possibility of making a fence on the roof or a glass parapet, which would not significantly affect the illumination of a neighboring residential building, but slightly stretch the proportions of the complex. Kuznetsov also supported the investor's initiative to improve the adjacent territory beyond the boundaries of the site, and asked the city prefectures to actively support this idea.
Nikolai Shumakov developed the theme of the height of the building, voicing the idea to shift the entire volume to the red line. In his opinion, this will make it possible to add another floor without violating the insolation requirements. This idea did not find approval among the members of the council, since in this case the overall urban planning solution will suffer.
Hans Stimmann agreed with the opinion of his colleagues, calling the project a compromise between the need to comply with the norms and support the embankment line. He also asked the authors to concentrate on the solution of the building's roof, because due to its low height, it is very clearly visible from the windows of neighboring houses. The roof could be greened or a restaurant terrace could be arranged on it.
The result of the discussion was a unanimous opinion to support the project, taking into account all the necessary adjustments.
DSC modernization
Sergey Kuznetsov and Evgenia Murinets presented a report on the modernization program for the series of reusable residential buildings. Today, the share of panel housing construction is almost half of all housing under construction in the capital. At the same time, most of the houses are being built according to outdated standards and using old, rather primitive production technologies. In this regard, the question of what mass development should be like today is especially acute. The answer to it, in the opinion of the speakers, should be a clear program for the modernization of the DSK. Sergey Kuznetsov stressed that it is necessary to preserve all the advantages of panel housing construction - and this is a high speed of work, and relatively inexpensive production, and the ability to provide a large number of people with affordable housing in the shortest possible time. But at the same time, it is worth considering the introduction of new requirements for residential development. These basic requirements and criteria were brought up for discussion by the Architectural Council.
In total, five main positions were identified. In addition to the principles of quarters and the division of space into private (courtyard) and public (street), about which there has been a lot of talk recently, a proposal was made on the variable number of storeys of buildings within the quarter, as well as the possibility of placing sections with an offset relative to each other. Varying the number of storeys from 6 to 16 floors, according to the developers of the proposal, will create a more comfortable living environment. For the same purposes, it is proposed to make one of the main requirements for the variety of facades, which will allow us to get away from monotony and achieve targeting of each residential cell. One of the important requirements was the presence of a full-fledged corner section, as well as a free layout of apartments. Finally, public spaces are sorely needed for both the city and its inhabitants. For this, it is planned to provide a free layout of the first floors of buildings in order to accommodate objects of social and domestic infrastructure there.
All proposals are based on positive examples of world and domestic experience in the construction of panel houses. According to Sergei Kuznetsov, it would be correct to think about the quality of work with the "panel", to study examples of a successful scale of development at a fairly high density. From Russian undertakings, the chief architect singled out such projects as "Microcity in the forest", which carries all the signs of new industrial housing construction, and a residential complex on Bazovskaya Street - as an example of what can be achieved from panel housing construction in modern conditions and how it can be improved not only the environment, but the buildings themselves. However, Kuznetsov asked not to consider this project as a model for the future.
Yuri Grigoryan was the first to express his opinion on the results of the presentation of the DSK modernization program: “There is legislation in the world that prohibits the construction of standard projects. We set out to simply replace the old standard projects with new ones. And this is initially doomed to failure. Housing built according to the standard design is poor housing. I appreciate the nobility of intentions, but perhaps the step towards the modernization of prefabricated housing should be considered as a transitional period before the complete rejection of standard projects? In the world, industrial plants are implementing a variety of projects, they do not have their own series. In our country, low-quality panel housing is also much more expensive than monolithic housing, say, in Holland."
Sergei Kuznetsov agreed with Grigoryan, but noted that in our country it is impossible to immediately abandon panel production. Problems that have been accumulating for decades will not be solved immediately - it is necessary to develop a step-by-step strategy. For this purpose, a decision was made to create criteria aimed at modernizing the existing production.
Vladimir Plotkin expressed serious concerns about the idea of a free layout of apartments. According to him, the open plan is good when the whole complex of events is carried out in the building with the ability to connect plumbing and other equipment anywhere. However, it is always better to immediately make good layouts so that the house after commissioning does not turn into one large construction site with a whole heap of problems arising from this. Plotkin also drew the attention of those present to the fact that with the current capabilities of DSK it will not be possible to achieve a variety of facades. Manufacturing provides a very limited assortment of panels, and color is the only loophole to achieve variety. In addition, in addition to developing new technologies, it would be worth considering the development of new typologies.
A rather radical proposal was made by Nikolai Shumakov - to completely abandon the panels and replace them with blocks, which from an architectural point of view will open up a lot of new possibilities.
This proposal was followed by Yuri Grigoryan, whose speech was supported by applause from the audience: “First of all, we cannot talk about quarters: there are no quarter buildings higher than nine floors. It is known that 9-storey blocks give a higher density than micro-districts. But we come back to 16 floors. Do not deceive yourself and call the 16-storey linear development a quarter. In addition, there is a substitution of variegation, coloring, color for the decorative facades. If we look at Paris, then all the houses there are of the same color, and the variety is evident. There is a quarter, there are 7-storey houses, etc. We will not be able to repeat this, but when creating the rules, one must be very critical in this respect, otherwise all this diversity, hung on typical panel buildings, will turn into a terrible nightmare of our city. Even during the transition period, these decisions are not easily accepted”.
Sergei Kuznetsov again agreed with Yuri Grigoryan's arguments, but complained that today architects have very few tools. As for the number of storeys, given the current regulations, it is quite difficult to immediately lower the height to 6-9 floors, but, acting clearly and harmoniously, the city will gradually come to this.
“Before inventing criteria, we need to find tools for solving the assigned tasks,” Andrey Gnezdilov is sure. "Economic, legal and planning principles must be developed." In response to this comment, the chief architect assured those present that this initiative is fully supported by the city authorities, and there are all the levers to solve the task.
In conclusion, Evgenia Murinets spoke about the timeframe for the implementation of the program: in September, within the framework of the next Arch Council, preliminary proposals will be presented, which will later be sent to the mills for consideration. Then a whole series of public discussions is planned, and at the end of December the final versions will appear, which will be put into production. Thus, by the end of 2016, it is planned to start the implementation of new series.
