The architectural bureau UNK project began working on the project of a large shopping and entertainment complex "Atlaspark" in Zhukovsky about a year ago. The site is located in a lowland near a steep loop of the small river Bykovka, the improvement of which has recently been undertaken by the city authorities. And if earlier the townspeople had to make their way to the water through fences and windbreak, now a long promenade is being formed here, landscaping work is underway, water purification in the river has begun, a new road is being built that will connect the coastal zone with residential areas. Add to this the neighborhood of the site with a new, recently built residential neighborhood, in dire need of any infrastructure facilities, and the position of the complex will be more advantageous than ever.
In their search for solutions, the architects proceeded precisely from the location of the building, which implies the creation of not just an entertainment facility, but a new urban center of activity with a large park and various places for recreation. The image of the curving river was the strongest here. This is how an airy, light natural form appeared, similar either to a bird soaring above the water with widely spread wings, or to a white ocean yacht sailing under sails. The main idea was the idea not only to fit the building into the green environment, but to make it a part and continuation of the park.
Having already come up with and finally formulated the concept of the complex, the authors faced a new, somewhat unexpected task: inspired by the resulting image, the customer proposed to solve another shopping center in the same style, on the outskirts of Odintsovo. The difficulty was that its frame-parallelepiped, in the plastic respect not that "flying", had already been built by that time and the architects were required to adapt the found image to a different basis.
Unlike the spacious site in Zhukovsky, the site in Odintsovo is closely sandwiched between the existing houses of a large microdistrict and the noisy Mozhaisk highway. Several years ago, a store was to be built here within walking distance for residents of the surrounding houses. A frame was erected, concealing a lot of design errors: incorrect landing, improperly organized entrance, irrationally constructed interior space, unreasonably large retail space for rental premises, reaching an average of 300-500 sq.m. All this made the store unviable in the realities of modern life.
And on such a basis, or rather, on such a frame, it was necessary to create a second no less striking "Atlas". The task at first seemed almost impossible. After all, it's one thing to design from scratch, on a spacious site, in the vicinity of an active natural landscape, and quite another thing to work with an already given concrete "box" of a completely different scale, namely ten times smaller than your "big brother", endowing it with recognizable features corporate identity.
By the time we started working on Odintsovo's project Atlaspark in Zhukovsky already had a completely finished appearance: a low streamlined building with three above-ground and two underground floors, repeating the complex outlines of the site and the relief. The cover of the flat canopy over the exploited roof, when viewed from above, looks like a shawl casually thrown and slightly knocked off by the wind. On the roof there are two tennis courts, jogging tracks, an open panoramic terrace of the restaurant and a summer pool, and in winter there is an ice rink. The canopy partially covers three main volumes, twisted around a common bypass gallery and light atrium spaces, the largest of which is located immediately behind the central entrance, and further downward.
In the plan, all three blocks, which, in addition to trade, contain an eight-hall cinema, a fitness club, a children's playroom, various cafes and restaurants, together with the central communication core, resemble water-cut stones - smooth and rounded, as if thrown ashore by a wave. The largest and heaviest one took up a position near the water, another, thinner and elongated, and therefore similar to a boat moored to the shore, is deployed to face the city and proudly bears the name and logo of the complex.
By the way, the entire coloristic solution of the complex - golden-violet - grew out of the Atlas logo. Saturated purple is always a bright accent, and in this case it is not just an accent, it is a splash of color against the background of shimmering white and gold panels with a 3D effect, associatively returning us to the image of the same water. Volumetric panels, together with large glass showcases, shimmer in the sun, enhancing the impression. The third, most "rough" stone-block, ending with a square volume on one side, is located perpendicular to the other two. Its rounded end faces the river. Its sharply defined façade overlooks residential buildings. Such a construction allows not just to accurately enter, but to "enclose" a large complex building exactly within the boundaries of the site, repeating the bend of the river channel, closing and balancing the overall composition.
In all three entrance zones, including from the river side, the canopy of the roof rests on a forest of thin columns. Tilted in different ways, they are very similar to young growth, still thin-stemmed, but already crowned with a lush crown of the roof.
In Odintsovo instead of water and greenery, there is an urban jungle, but even here the solution proposed in Zhukovsky looks quite appropriate, albeit more restrained. It was not so difficult to transfer the style and mood to a strict geometric frame: the same overhang of the soaring roof, which has now become strictly rectangular, but in the same way, only fragmentarily, covers the building. A far protruding canopy with the same forest of columnar trunks holding the roofing plate draws attention to the entrance groups. The decoration uses the same materials and corporate colors as in Zhukovsky. The relationship between the two projects is also emphasized by the visual division of the facade into several separate volumes with a well-thought-out concept for placing advertising banners and information boards. Everything is light, graceful and outwardly almost weightless.
Where b about The greatest difficulties arose when solving the internal problems of the building. First of all, the authors had to think about its "landing", given the significant difference in the relief on the site. Oddly enough, but in the previous project, the building had an entrance only from the side of the street, because of which residents of the microdistrict adjoining the complex from the opposite side, in order to get inside, would have to go around it, going up at the same time. Yulia Tryaskina suggested organizing an additional entrance for residents. Leaving the central entrance in the same place - from the side of Mozhaisk highway, a second, additional one was opened from the side of the microdistrict, adding an escalator for those wishing to enter from the front side.
Inside, the dead-end corridor was replaced by a bypass gallery. Small shops lined its outer border, and an atrium with an elevator group appeared in the center, giving an idea of the volume as a whole and literally encouraging visitors to climb higher. Island shops are located nearby. Having completely changed the planning scheme, all escalators, entrances and exits had to be moved, and the shape of the stairs had to be changed. As a result, nothing remained of the previous project except the outer walls, but the layout showed clear logic and ease of construction, without which no shopping center can be successful. The functional composition of the complex has also been enriched, which, of course, is inferior to the variety achieved in Zhukovsky, but can offer the entire necessary set of shops - from a supermarket to a children's world, as well as a gym, restaurants and cafes.
As for interior solutions, as in the case of facades, common recognizable features are easily read in both projects. In fact, only the scale is different. The theme of the park, invented in Zhukovsky, penetrating the interior, is being successfully implemented within the walls of the Odintsovo shopping center. Here there are quite park-like winding paths on the floor, marked with a bright purple color, and benches in the form of snow-white boulders, a lot of natural greenery and light. The glazed fragments of the ceiling, sewn up with wooden slats, refer us to the image of a garden pergola. In Zhukovsky, under the canopy of such symbolic pergolas, which let in a sufficient amount of natural light, they decided to plant living trees. The stretch ceiling with the effect of glare and spreading light has been transformed into a sky covered with fluffy clouds. The atrium zones, sometimes crossed by walkways, are penetrated by numerous round glass windows, but the real sky and rays of sunlight penetrate into the interior only through large glass domes.
It is interesting that traditional natural materials coexist here with the most modern ones, and natural restrained and close colors are replaced by almost flashy ones. The fantastic, or rather, futuristic, image of the park is especially clearly visible in the solution of one of the atriums of the Zhukovsky complex, where a picture of an unusual garden with giant fruits hanging from the ceiling was created. Because of these persistent inclusions, a mixed feeling arises: it is not clear whether you really found yourself in the park of the future, or miraculously ended up in an orbiting space station and wander somewhere in near-earth space - on the verge of delight and amazement.
The two buildings in Odintsovo and Zhukovsky are not the only ones of their kind - the UNK project workshop has already undertaken the design of a whole chain of shopping centers, trying to preserve the unity of the basic concept.
The construction of the first two is in full swing and after a while the futuristic spaces will be able to receive the first visitors.
