Among the many large and small gardens and squares of St. Petersburg, there are several of those whose main value is not regular planning or age-old trees, but emptiness. In dense urban fabric, open flat spaces with lawns and rare clumps of bushes and trees make a strong impression. Field of Mars, Senate and Troitskaya squares attract many people. Which is not surprising. The surprise of the panorama opening from the green lawn carpet, allowing you to see the very "sky line", is comparable to the canonical panorama of the banks of the Neva. Being there, somehow you begin to feel especially acutely the harmony of the city, orchestrated by generations of brilliant architects who felt where to stop and leave the space open. Until recently, it seemed that this kind of self-restraint had disappeared from our architectural practice, but the opening of a park on New Holland Island creates a new precedent, which may be developed in the wake of the total enthusiasm for public spaces. And I want to believe that the reason for this important architectural gesture was an understanding, a feeling of the spirit of the city, and not a banal lack of funds from the developer.
A bird's eye view of New Holland from fontanka.ru:
The inauguration of New Holland Island on 27 and 28 August completed the first stage of adapting the island to new social functions within the framework of the New Holland: Cultural Urbanization program. For three years, landscaping, landscaping and zoning of the territory were carried out on the island according to the project of the Dutch (which is typical!) Bureau West 8 Adrian Göse. The project, which involved an extremely delicate, jewelry work with space, was selected in 2014 based on the results of an international competition organized by Daria Zhukova's non-profit foundation "IRIS" and commissioned by Millhouse.
The architects worked with a difficult territory and a unique urban planning ensemble, the complex, if not to say tragic history of which is now so clearly read in the preserved buildings and in that gaping void in the place of the lost objects, which the Dutch designers made the main environmental accent.
"New Holland" was built in 1765-1789 according to the project of Savva Chevakinsky and Jean-Baptiste Wallen-Delamot (facades of the buildings and a brick arch with columns) as a shipyard and a warehouse for ship timber. At the end of the 18th century, a military garrison was located here, for the needs of which in 1828 a round prisoner tower ("Bottle") was built. In the middle of the 19th century, a forge was built according to the project of the engineer Pasypkin. He also designed the final block of the perimeter building - its construction was not completed.
After the revolution, the military was found here. Only in the 90s of the last century, the Ministry of Defense withdrew the garrison from New Holland, leaving the ensemble in a ruined state. The haphazard garbage development, the lack of repair and restoration of historical buildings, the cluttered canal and the Havanese, and everything else, the consequences of the fire - all this went to the city. A new stage of the island's existence began: the government of St. Petersburg has been looking for a worthy tenant and a worthy program for its development for almost twenty years. We held several auctions for the right to develop the territory, the winners of which then organized architectural and urban planning competitions for the concept of reconstruction of New Holland. The competitions were resounding, leading world and the best St. Petersburg architects took part in them. Investors came to the island with commercial goals, so development projects involved a fairly active construction and reconstruction of existing buildings for hotel and office centers, art galleries and artists' workshops, concert halls and apartments. There were enough good projects, but they all turned the island into a giant thicket, from which new filling literally spilled out. It seemed that this was the path prepared for "New Holland" in the new Russian reality.
The situation changed in 2011. A year before, the next tender for the right to manage the island was won by Roman Abramovich's Millhouse, which invited Daria Zhukova, a non-profit foundation "IRIS" as a creative contractor. The result of a year of analysts' work was the project "New Holland: Cultural Urbanization", which started in the summer of 2011 with a program of open events on the territory of "New Holland". In three months, more than 700 thousand people visited the island and based on their opinion included in the study, Millhouse refused to build up and decided to create a park in New Holland with a modern infrastructure focused on cultural events and art events. The task to propose the concept of such a park was set in 2014 for the participants of the next competition.
The winning and implemented project of Adrian Göse included a residual limited list of restoration and reorganization work on the island. The park has been laid out, large-sized trees planted along the Admiralty Canal have formed a living green analogue of the previous ideas of the perimeter building of the island; the canal embankment was strengthened and greened; a herb garden was created next to the Kuznya and a playground was set up, the main exhibit of which was a smaller model of the frigate Peter and Pavel. Several temporary pavilions were built: kiosks, an information center, a stage, toilets and an entrance lobby - in the style of pavilion architecture of the late 19th century, typical of the resort suburbs of St. Petersburg. The pavilions were designed by St. Petersburg architects Sergei Bukin and Lyubov Leontyeva. The restoration and adaptation of the former smithy, the commandant's house and the naval prison are planned to be completed in 2017.
The park's opening celebration lasted two days and included concerts, an exhibition organized by the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, master classes, fireworks, and more. In two days, the island was visited by almost 50 thousand people. The organizers even had to impose a restriction on entry, since the public area, on which the improvement and reconstruction work has already been completed, is hardly half of the area of the island itself. There is a lot of work ahead, but we can already say that the “closed” part of the history of the island “New Holland” is left behind. The IRIS Foundation plans new cultural programs and large city projects. The restored buildings will house cultural and educational centers, scientific laboratories and exhibition spaces. The island is open and will receive guests all year round.
