The discussion program of the St. Petersburg Biennale was varied, but in many discussions, one way or another, topics of modern residential development surfaced. The maximum number of parties was involved in the discussion: not only architects, but also developers, builders, lawyers, press and marketing specialists. We have summarized the views expressed.
The perimeter of the city began to be built up with residential areas of the same type in the early 2000s. It is customary to scold them: "shoeboxes put on the priest", "anthills", "ghettos for those who are unlucky in life." Now they have spilled out outside the city into the nearest districts of the Leningrad region, where different legislation and regulations are in force, and have taken on an even more horrifying scale. According to the architects, they are taken aback when they have to drive past such districts as Kudrovo or Murino. There is no comfortable environment here; instead of public spaces, there are car parks. Against their background, the five-story Khrushchev buildings seem to be a luxury.
It is customary to blame the problem on greedy developers or dimwitted developers, to reduce everything to economic benefits. But during the discussion, it turned out that everything is not so simple.
Urban planning policy
First of all, experts suggest not comparing Petersburg, with its climate and population, with European cities: all of Finland, towards which we often glance enviously, will fit in Petersburg. The growth of the city and the number of its inhabitants cannot be canceled. But it is simply necessary to regulate this process.
According to the architect Mikhail Kondiain, if you do not think about the consequences and allow the city to develop in a monocentric system, then the metropolis, connecting with its agglomerations, will eat recreational sites, forest parks, summer cottages and cottage buildings, and turn into a stone jungle. The permissiveness of developers, the laws of this stone jungle, which are just beginning to creep, according to the architect's conviction, should be opposed by the state ideology, which will allow choosing the right direction and adhering to it. Alternatively, you can change environmental standards so that businesses can be close to housing, make buffer green zones.
Architect Sergei Bobylev also believes that "the answer lies in broad urban planning concepts." Urban planning policy cannot be effective without the participation of the state; it cannot balance a megapolis. Now, instead of urban planning, land management is taking place, all discontent stems from this base. It is necessary to create research centers, a national school of urban planning, and license urban planning activities.
Of course, some steps are being taken in this direction. At a minimum, there is a master plan and rules for land use and development. Since January 1, 2017, a new tool has been entrenched in the town planning code - integrated sustainable development of the territory (KURT).
According to Dmitry Karpushin, chairman of the board of directors of Lenstroytrest, "you can forbid building badly, but you cannot force building well." However, some are doing well today. How is it?
Good developer
It cannot be denied that decent housing is also obtained. There are more developers who are ready to dive deeply into projects, listen to the architect, and look for their "chips". All as one talk about closed yards, separation of pedestrians and vehicles, planning non-residential premises and their tenants, maintaining their facilities after commissioning. Representatives of development companies believe that living space is now being sold, not square meters. Beauty is spoken about less often, and only in more expensive projects.
One of the affordable and inexpensive tools that helps developers create really high-quality projects is internal architectural competitions, which have recently increased. Nikolay Pashkov, General Director of Knight Frank St Petersburg, gave a number of advantages that they provide:
- The ability to compare architecture options and technical and economic indicators of the project. It's about the quantity and quality of square meters that the studio can squeeze out of the site. The choice is made here primarily economic, then aesthetic.
- Possibility to simplify project approval.
- Ability to choose a trusted trusted architect.
- The ability to choose a solution that suits the tastes of the customer.
- Additional PR for the project and the developer.
According to representatives of developers, the competition somehow leaves all three sides of the architectural process in the black: the developer makes a more meaningful choice of partner and object, the architect raises the bar in a competitive environment, society gets better architecture. In addition, young architects also have a chance. Although many developers admit that they prefer to work with experienced studios: young ones can “get creative”, but it is not known whether they have enough professionalism to bring ideas to fruition. At the mercy of young people are given small forms and accomplishment. Foreign architects are less often invited to participate in competitions: their services are much more expensive, and often their projects need to be adapted to our standards.
Architect-educator
What role was assigned to the architect in all these processes? Judging by the statements he has heard, an architect must become an educator.
Tatiana Kopystyrinskaya, commercial director of the Pioneer Group of Companies, believes that the first duty of an architect is to present his idea in a high-quality manner so that the developer is imbued with it, and during the discussion he explained what needs to be done and what cannot be done. The architect and the developer must ultimately coincide in their vision of the project, and there can be compromises on both sides. According to Mikhail Kondiain, if an architect understands a developer from the point of view of his business, then he does not set himself the task of preserving the project in its original form. The main thing is "not to throw out the child with the water."
Dmitry Karpushin agrees: architects need to keep lecturing. According to him, “a developer is a profession that emerged this morning. We, the townsfolk with bulldozers and money, need to be educated. Architects are the elite, and the elite should talk to their people. It is necessary to create a fashion for an architectural educational program among developers.
Sergey Oreshkin outlined two ways: “burn out on the selection of cheap materials and come up with excellent layouts, or work in expensive architecture, where you can express your own“I”. Apparently, many are ready for the first option. According to the architect Evgeny Podgornov, “in the economy segment, everything depends on the architect's convictions and dialogue with the developer. Interesting layouts can be made without increasing the price. The architects propose the following solutions: organize the quarter as a whole, combine private and open spaces, separate transport and pedestrians, protect from noise and wind, make hidden parking lots, buildings of different heights with dominants, play with density, create analogs of apartment buildings, modular housing with open plans, regulate the percentage of maintenance of 1-2-3 room apartments.
Deus ex machina or consumer portrait
The dramaturgy of one of the most heated discussions was set by Irina Sadikova, urban planner of the Research Institute of the General Plan of St. Petersburg, expressing the opinion that not satisfying the basic needs, it is rather difficult to move on to more complex ones, and it is not correct. That is, first you need to make sure that everyone can get housing with a minimum infrastructure, and then "weave lace": pedestrian and bike paths, closed courtyards, and so on. If you comply with all those standards that are needed for an apartment (parking spaces, insolation, noise level), then you will get a normal housing, - says Irina Sadikova.
Developers, who research their target audience in great detail, have drawn this portrait of an apartment buyer in the economy class sector: he believes that the higher the house, the better it is; that when there are many neighbors, it is somehow calmer. It is good if housing is close to work, there is a kindergarten and playgrounds, transport hubs.
Those who are ready to pay more gravitate towards low-rise buildings, want a lower density, neighbors close in status, safety, and ecology. A separate category has become a dynamic youth who are interested in living at a height and who need twenty square meters to be happy. And only in the class of elite architecture there is a demand for architecture, beauty, emotional appeal.
According to studies cited by the journalist of the newspaper "Real Estate and Construction of Petersburg" Natalya Andropova, only 10-12% of new settlers in the residential areas of Parnas, Kudrovo and Murino were unhappy and would like to move. 63% would not like to change anything and would buy an apartment here. They care about the price, layouts, transport accessibility and the availability of social facilities, and do not care at all about the monotonous architecture, the lack of parks, churches, markets and public spaces.
According to Dmitry Karpushin, "people have been taught the idea that if you do not have a home in Nice, you can not count on decent architecture in St. Petersburg." Svetlana Denisova, head of the sales department of BFA-Development, agrees: the position of the average person is explained by the formula “if you don’t have what you love, love what you have”.
It turns out that there is a request to satisfy basic needs, and it is being fulfilled. And the request for "lace" is not even foreseen, because people have no idea what could be otherwise. Basic needs need to be changed, then they will become a market reality. So in the 70s, an air-conditioned car was a luxury, but today it is everyday life.
Dmitry Karpushin compared the situation with the consumption of surrogate alcohol: “the fact that it is bought well does not mean that it should not be banned at the state level”. Not a single consumer survey would have helped to come up with a telefax, because he simply could not imagine it. And only politics can change public perception, set a new system of market coordinates,”Karpushin said.
