The Architectural Biennale is being held in St. Petersburg for the sixth time, as always - in the solemn Marble Hall of the Ethnographic Museum. The organizers say that this year's peculiarity is the maximum concentration on St. Petersburg: it is planned to discuss trends, a new style and vector of the city's development, as well as analyze mistakes. At the stands, there are almost no projects of foreign masters for St. Petersburg, and there are also few works of local architects for other cities and countries. Participants are members of the Association of Architectural Workshops, thirteen in total. For the first time in the history of the Biennale, the Russian Guild of Managers and Developers is among the partners.
The exhibition of projects of architectural workshops is restrained and rather compact. In the center of the hall there is a double-sided stand "Studio-44", to the right and to the left of it there are cell rooms with tablets from other workshops, decorated approximately the same. Bureau "Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners" presented only one project - the business complex "Nevskaya Ratusha", but with a layout. The Intercolomnium bureau supplemented the stands with postcards with stylized images of their objects, and after a couple of hours these souvenirs were gone. The rest of the workshops were limited to traditional visualization with explanatory texts.
About half of all projects exhibited are residential buildings, and with a predominance of a large scale. The suffocating ring of monotonous new buildings on the outskirts is one of the acute problems of the city, so I want to believe that the examples shown will someday become not isolated successes, but a ubiquitous reality. "Studio-44" showed a permeable and multi-layered residential complex on Tipanova Street, as well as the residential complex "Lights of the Bay" on Heroev Avenue, in which the facade pattern is constantly changing due to lamellas moving within the same apartment. A whole scattering of apartment buildings for different cities of Russia was presented by the A. Len bureau, which manages to lighten large volumes with a play of colors and textures. The concept of the B2 workshop for building on the territory of the Ruchyi enterprise seemed interesting; it presents houses with an equal-height silhouette and monumental arches, which, according to the idea, should evoke associations with eroded rocks.
The next big group is restoration projects. Traditionally for St. Petersburg, restoration causes more interest and excitement than new architecture, which is still considered mainly from the point of view of its influence on the prevailing environment. In this sense, the questions that the audience asked the chief architects of the city on the second day of the Biennale are indicative: the public is still keenly concerned about the impact of the Gazprom tower on the skyline, the fate of Apraksin Dvor and the number of future high-rise landmarks. At the exhibition, architects show projects for the restoration and adaptation of the most important monuments of the city: Bolshoy Gostiny Dvor, Nikolsky Market, Apraksin Dvor, Ethnographic Museum. It is also worth mentioning the projects of the Liteinaya Chast-91 bureau for the buildings of the Mon Repos park and the fortress in Vyborg, as well as the chamber museum of the history of ballet in the former Y. K. Dobbert mansion, which was developed by Studio-44.
The exhibition provides an opportunity to compare the work of architects on the same sites. Thus, A. Len bureau (in partnership with the Dutch consortium KCAP Holding B. V. & Orange), B2 workshop and Zemtsov, Kondiain and Partners bureau presented their concepts for the development of alluvial territories on Vasilievsky Island. The latter also celebrates its work on the concept of transforming the territory of the "French bucket" in the gray belt of the city. Another pilot territory of this zone, Volkovskaya, was operated by Studios-44.
The A. Len bureau is mainly responsible for the theme of sports facilities at the Biennale, and the Mamoshin and Partners workshop is responsible for the temple architecture.
The short press conference at the opening was held in an optimistic vein: words were heard about the successful St. Petersburg school of architecture, the right path and significant successes, which are becoming more and more obvious with each biennial. There was an increase in quality in terms of details, historic center and mass development. One of the events of the second day was a discussion with all the living chief architects of the city. It dashed through the successes and problems of the city. Among the successes, the speakers attributed the implementation of the Ring Road and WHSD projects, the introduction of a 3D computer model that shows the influence of new buildings on the skyline of the city, the growing role of the city planning council, and more recently: the limitation of the base height for mass development to 40 meters. The problems are the same: the greed of developers with "vertical ambitions".
The discussion program promises to be interesting. Each day is dedicated to a separate topic, they will discuss heritage, trends and mistakes, problems of new buildings and the “gray belt”, the “power-architect-developer” link, licensing of architects and copyright. Master classes and lectures by leading architects are planned.
The Biennale is accompanied by a retrospective exhibition of avant-garde architecture. Three hundred buildings, built from 1917 to 1991, were divided into three periods and densely and beautifully assembled on large stands, which perfectly fit into the gallery of the Marble Hall. Initially, these stands were part of a larger exhibition prepared for the visit of the Bureau of the International Union of Architects to St. Petersburg in August last year. The list of the exhibition's authors is impressive, including Svyatoslav Gaikovich, Boris Kirikov, Sophia Gonobleva, Vladimir Lisovsky and many others. In the future, they want to make the exposition permanent, if the issue with the premises is resolved. The result is a very strong background for modern projects, which itself looks relevant.
The Biennale leaves the impression of a city-friendly home event. There are no super-ambitious projects, complex cultural centers, even elite housing looks modest and dignified. Everything is close and understandable to an ordinary resident of the city, who, however, does not dream of seeing something like this on Parnassus or in Devyatkino.
The exhibition runs until April 24
