“Hockey is my element, a happy hobby; this sparkling temperamental game is inexhaustible, like an inexhaustible thirst for rivalry and self-affirmation in a person”- Valery Kharlamov.
The decision to build a large hockey arena on the left bank of the Ob River, in front of the Oktyabrsky Bridge in Novosibirsk, is part of the state program for the development of youth sports, which has grown after the Sochi Olympics. The site is 31 hectares on an overgrown and swampy sloping river bank, which is wide here: about a kilometer across; the area is partly wild, but at the same time it is already a resort, since a ski resort has already been equipped beyond the southwestern border of the territory, and to the south there is a park, boat stations, a shooting range and an equestrian base. There is a beach behind the bridge. It is not surprising that new buildings are growing around with might and main. In addition, a 15-minute walk away is the "thaw" campus of NSTU, surrounded by several smaller universities, and the Studencheskaya metro station - in fact, this is the second center of the city after the historical one. Transport accessibility is also good: in addition to the metro, the Sportivnaya metro station will be built on the border of the territory, the bridge is one of the main city routes. The place is so successful that it was not built up, apparently, precisely because of the difficult hydrological conditions.
Study of the territory in the project "Archstroydesign":
It is planned to place the arena practically on the shore and turn it into a semantic dominant of the area. However, the untouched territory is huge, and the picturesque panoramas from the coast are unique. To select the optimal solution, a competition was announced for the concept of building the entire site. It is planned to build a residential area, a hotel, a business center and a shopping complex around the arena. Seven concepts were submitted for the competition, and Aleksey Ivanov was invited out of the competition by a customer familiar with the Archstroydesign bureau for work on the project of the Grafskie Prudy cottage community, which became the third International Property Awards for the workshop. After attending the award ceremony, the customer again decided to contact the bureau to work on the concept of building the area around the hockey arena in Novosibirsk.
“I must say that at first we even refused to participate in the competition, when we realized what the terms were - only three weeks to develop a complete concept. But then the customer convinced us that the topic was interesting and that we shouldn't be indifferent to it,”says Aleksey Ivanov.
To work on the concepts of the main building - the hockey arena itself, Aleksey Ivanov immediately invited the Arena design institute.
Arena project:
Archstroydesign, however, focused on the urban planning and architectural part of the development of the territory as a whole: the planning and distribution of large-scale residential buildings, which should occupy the southern part of the territory. “It was necessary to find planning solutions in the general plan so that it itself“spoke”about architecture without detailed elaboration." The contours of the riverine territory to be built up are close to a trapezoid with two "appendixes": one of them is the reconstructed embankment with a pedestrian promenade, the second is the area around the quarry with a school and a continuation of the existing snowboard park. Of course, the center of the composition is the arena, and all buildings should have been organized around it. In addition, climatic features should be taken into account: the wind rose is a significant factor in Siberia, and even on the banks of a large river.
Hockey set an architectural and planning theme for the project. Ivanov quotes the Canadian proverb "Hockey is figure skating in a war zone." Therefore, the photograph of the ice field proposed by A. Khomyakov became an epigraph to his own sketch, where all the buildings are located along elliptical lines, starting from the image of arcs cut by the blades of the skates. This determined the plans of buildings, paths for walking trails and the location of recreational areas. The main part of the building - 25-storey plates of sectional houses - also bent in an arcuate manner, turning into the likeness of giant sails. This form should provide the largest number of apartments with picturesque river views. The hull, placed with its end to the water, for the same purpose is lowered by steps of terraces, from which views of the river should also open; the same terraces are conceived on the main facade of a residential building, deployed along the Ob. In order to solve the problem with the wind rose, the hulls are cut through with high arches.
The curves of houses and roads are in tune with the smooth contours of the arena's metal roof. It is placed on a high, semicircular stylobate in which it is proposed to place cafes, shops and other retail. The roof of the stylobate is exploited, it will be possible to exit directly from the arena, and then the elliptical line of the stylobate is continued by a pedestrian bridge overlooking the embankment with a seasonal park, a skating rink in winter and bicycle paths in summer.
Traffic and pedestrian routes in the territory are organized along the same elliptical trajectories. In the center of the complex, a small, also arched, artificial canal is conceived, which in Siberian winter should turn into a skating rink. A large number of entrances are located along the entire perimeter of the trapezoid; the project also includes two public transport stops - from the embankment side and from the main highway near the metro bridge. The parking lots are located in the stylobates of the buildings, the relief of the site and the need for a dam is being played up. Along the metro bridge, the authors propose to make an open parking for visitors to the arena.
Whether the concept will be finalized and whether it will reach the implementation stage is still unknown. According to Aleksey Ivanov, the concept of the winner of the competition also seems to him to be successful and worthy of development (recall that the proposal of "Archstroydesign" is out of competition). One way or another, if interest in the topic of winter sports does not fade away and a hockey arena really appears on the left bank of the Ob, the space around it, so advantageous in terms of location and so complex in engineering terms, will somehow be transformed.
