The plot for the construction of a residential building in question is located in the industrial zone of the Petrogradskaya side, near the old tram depot No. 3. panel Soviet houses and purely utilitarian structures. Such places are now attracting the natural attention of developers, which is manifested in the growing number of inclusions of modern architecture and an even greater number of project proposals.
One of them is the project of a residential complex of Anatoly Stolyarchuk's workshop, which is supposed to be implemented at the intersection of Mira and Kotovskogo streets. Its fate turned out to be very difficult: firstly, due to the need to demolish (with the subsequent reconstruction of the facade) the historical building of the architect Dmitry Kryzhanovsky. And although the former apartment building, recognized as being in danger, was resettled long ago, city rights activists have repeatedly tried to challenge the demolition decision in court. Secondly, the relationship with the customer was not going smoothly either.
But first about the project itself. Its authors were faced with the responsible task of "tying" the new building to the historical volume - a modest example of St. Petersburg apartment buildings with the characteristic features of Art Nouveau. In the urban planning sense, the architects had to visually fix the corner of the intersection, which was not yet structured in any way, and give the amorphous building a more regular character. The disappearing green courtyard, opened onto Kotovskogo Street, is supposed to be compensated for by the demolition of a two-story courtyard outbuilding.
The project of Stolyarchuk's workshop included a recreated historical volume as part of a balanced, almost symmetrical composition in the form of a letter P stretched in breadth, assigning it the role of one of the projections. The first floor has a public purpose, the same function of the two floors of the building on Kotovskogo street. Above are typical residential floors. At a mark of 23 m, the wall makes an indent: there is a view terrace for residents of the attic (cornice height 28 m). The compact enclosed courtyard formed by the risalits has two arched passages: along Mira Street and along Kotovskogo Street.
If the building plan was largely dictated by the shape of the site, then the choice of the style of the new building was free and presented the greatest difficulty due to the presence of the Art Nouveau facade. The technique of historical stylization, taking into account the enlargement of the scale and the general change in the composition, was quickly rejected by the authors, giving way to a modern language, rather neutral, but not devoid of a genetic connection with Kryzhanovsky's architecture.
The main facade of the building, towering three floors above the old cornice, looks out onto Kotovskogo Street with a strict gray plane, lined with a dotted graphic pattern. The general symmetry of its axial composition is broken by the elongation of the end ledge adjacent to the firewall of the former apartment building. This corner joint of the two ends is decided on the contrast of simple geometric volumes, texture and color, which corresponds well to its accent city-planning role.
The theme of the apartment building passes through the corner cut of the side entrance to the main facade. Taking into account its enlarged dimensions in comparison with its historical neighbor, the authors tried to balance the overall impression with a neutral style and light tone of the cladding. The central arch with a modernized lunette and a brick-red figured loggia uniting the two upper floors play the role of percussive accents. With their color and axial arrangement, they correspond to the central bay window on the Kryzhanovsky house.
Out of the many existing methods of interaction with the historical context, the authors of the project chose the path of a respectful, but equal and open stylistic dialogue between modernity and history. However, it was the stylistics that became a stumbling block in the relationship with the customer, as a result of which the project, which received the silver diploma "Architecton-2013", was rejected by the customer, and another company was invited to design.
However, the story did not end there. The alternative project met with harsh criticism from the City Council: the new designer tried to follow the path that Stolyarchuk had initially rejected, i.e. embellishing new volumes with eclectic historicizing décor. After that, the customer was forced to turn to Anatoly Arkadievich again in search of a compromise. As a result, Stolyarchuk's workshop was left with the development of facades and their approval by the KGA and KGIOP.
The story, despite a somewhat softened ending, is rather sad and, unfortunately, not unique. There are a lot of cases when a customer, having received a concept from a well-known workshop with a long-term good reputation, transfers it for further design (“to be torn apart”) to another company with the task to reduce the cost of the project as much as possible. In this case, the situation is somewhat different, but it also illustrates well the vulnerability of the architect (and ultimately the consumer) and the general decline in demand for high-quality architecture.
The crisis has made its own adjustments to the work schedule, but let's hope that in the end, on the site of the demolished historical ruin, a new comfortable complex will appear, preserving the memory of the place and at the same time meeting modern ideas about the urban environment.
