Previously, Atrium worked with offices only in the format of interiors and reconstructions, and the completed retail building is the very first of its kind, not to mention the mixed function. In addition, this is the first such high-rise and large-scale object in the studio's portfolio of realizations - a twenty-six-story cloudy sky rises one hundred and six meters above the ground. The place for the architects was not exactly inspiring: on Kronstadt Boulevard, near the Vodny Stadium metro station. All around, within walking distance, there are many scattered sections of the industrial zone No. 44 "Bratsevo" (which includes, among other things, a cemetery) and only a few residential quarters. The latter are so few that no special public buildings are attached to them, except for the hotel. The title attraction of the "high style" - the dilapidated water stadium "Dynamo" by the architect Movchan - is far away, a 20-minute walk from the metro, on the other side of the Leningradskoe highway. But there is plenty of vanity. Many ground transport routes are oriented towards the Vodny Stadium: they take residents out of the depths of the vast region. Their large parking area is another factor of discomfort when exiting the metro. In a word, an ordinary "suitcase" of colorful panels, like most other metropolitan pre-terminal stations, could well have appeared here.
It is good that the MR Group, which owns the site, is too ambitious for banal decisions. It is not without reason that she has been awarded the title of Developer of the Year by the Urban Awards for several years now. By the way, Vodny also collected awards for the entire first year of its existence: as the best shopping center, and as the best office center, and even as an object with the best use of drywall in the interior.
For its surroundings, the building of "Water" is frankly radical, and this is the case when the inconsistency of the new building with the context is a great success. It seems especially important now, when it became clear that the complex is just the first sign of reclaiming territories from the old industrial area for modern urban life. A complex of apartments is already being completed on the neighboring site - as the second stage - and in the fall of 2015 the city approved the construction of a hotel and the reconstruction of the Mebel Rossii shopping center, also in the immediate vicinity of the metro. Now all this will have to focus on the work of the "Atrium".
The building turned out to be spectacular, with a clearly verified volume fraction, which makes it not trivial, but also not overloaded. From distant points, it is a dense, well-cut sculpture, as befits a high-rise dominant. Close up, despite its impressive volume, it turns out to be quite airy. The traditional literary template "due to the rich plasticity of the facades" is not applicable here, since we are talking about real interacting volumes with consoles of six to eight meters. In the design formal diagram, the authors presented the project as an assembly of several Tetris blocks; but the reality is a little more complicated. Firstly, the so-called blocks are devoid of tetris solidity - lamellar shells, covering the required piece of space, vibrate against the light, which is enhanced due to separate cutouts in their "fabric". Moreover, it works the same way from the street and from the inside of the office part, from where a wide panorama of the city opens. It is easy to imagine how such a shell could be drawn with a 3D pen. True, when the project was created, the gadget did not exist yet.
Secondly, the block of the office part penetrates into the shopping area, setting the main property of the store interior - saturation with air and light. The vertical of the tower is "stretched" through the roof of the trading plate. At the point of penetration is a skylight, and below it, logically, is the main atrium. The "cleft" of the lanterns diverges from the epicenter along the shopping galleries. It, which almost disappeared at one moment - due to the desire of investors to save money - was still defended. And now these lights have a beneficial effect on the demand for food outlets located directly below them: the illuminated space at the top turns out to be b about the greater sparseness of impressions, creates a kind of pause from the shopping fever. And I must say, this is a special feeling when you not only enjoy the natural light in the store, but the very structure of the space pushes you to look up at the sky, and at the same time at the stores on other floors.
It looks like, but in the opposite direction, down, the interior of the entrance lobby to the office, designed by the Atrium, works - the least stressful point of the workspace. Its double-height space is airy, the theme of external slats continues on the ceiling, only here they acquire unexpected flexibility. The softness of the interior solution is supported by the custom-made secretaries' desk. Developing the vertical volume of offices inside the retail interior and visualizing their interaction, architects destroy the tradition of perceiving retail space as horizontal. And this is just one of the unexpected and pleasant elements that form a rather unique user experience. The curvilinear shape, which appeared initially on the recommendation of trade consultants, who claim that shoppers float better between stores along smooth trajectories, were brought to the level of an artistic technique. The interior space turned out to be very sculptural - and from that solid, which successfully masks the traditional splattering of goods and styles of different stores.
It is also important to say that the penetration of an office skyscraper into a shopping block takes place not only at the formal level, but also functionally provides an opportunity for clerks to go down for flowers for a colleague, to a business lunch at a food court or go to the cinema after work. The point of entry of office workers into the world of commerce and entertainment is played with a portal of the same color as the entrance to them from the street. Moreover, leaving the car in the multi-level parking lot, the office employees must pass through the shopping center, improving its performance.
In a word, the more you study this building in more detail, the more you realize that the classic modernist pair “plate + vertical” still has great potential for comprehension and modernization. And in the hands of professionals, two heavyweight "cubes" of functions can turn into a real urban sculpture.
