Approach to the outskirts
In no other city does peripheral development cause such irritation that a traveler involuntarily arises when entering St. Petersburg through new districts. The quality of construction and architecture on the actively developed outskirts of Russian cities is rarely at its best, but in contrast to the refined and spiritualized center of St. Petersburg, the chaotic and clumsy fields of economy / comfort / business housing seem especially outrageous. It is a pity that the strict requirements and heated battles of city councils for each new project in the historical center do not spread too much to the outskirts. All the more significant is each new project made for the outskirts of the city by the leading St. Petersburg bureaus that do not allow themselves to drop the bar of quality and strive to find expressive and original solutions even in non-elite class buildings. Perhaps this approach will allow the emergence of a long-awaited new architectural tradition or even a St. Petersburg school.
Vanity Fair
The new project "Studio 44" is located on Tipanova Street - a long, busy highway curved in a large arc. The street starts from the rear facade built in 1941
House of Soviets and in Soviet times were built up according to the microdistrict principle. Freely spaced multi-section houses were interspersed with panel towers and industrial plants. In recent years, the vacated industrial zones and land plots free from panels have begun to be occupied by commercial projects: network mega-malls and high-rise residential complexes. A very variegated set of stylistics and techniques of the latter is dictated by the desire of developers to guess the tastes of a wealthy buyer, but by no means by an attempt to streamline the urban development of chaotic buildings. At the corner of Tipanov and Kosmonavtov Avenue, the Dominanta residential complex has grown from four 25-storey towers on a common stylobate, closed by a horseshoe of a multi-section building in the style of “glory to blue glass”. Two more complexes have already been approved nearby: "Kremlin stars" (!) - in the best traditions of Luzhkov's time, and "On Tipanova, 21" - another glass 25-storey semicircle with four additional buildings-rays. In this colorful vanity fair, Studio 44 had a chance to speak up about contemporary residential architecture.
Back to the Future
Almost half of the territory of the Chesmenskaya electrical substation, bounded in the north by Tipanova Street, and in the west by Gagarin Avenue, in 2014 it was decided to build up housing. The project was implemented by Business City LLC, which is part of the Leader Group holding. The potential of the site, combining a large area (6.2 hectares) with the prestige of the location, made the developer reconsider his strategy and aim at a higher class of housing than usual. For the development of the project, Studio 44 was invited, which has recently made several large concepts of residential development for St. Petersburg and the surrounding suburbs.
In this case, it was not possible to move away from the context. Rather, a certain strong and, moreover, integral, self-sufficient solution was required, capable of resisting the chaos reigning around with its severity and clarity, internal system and clearly built composition. It is interesting that the palaces and famous apartment buildings of St. Petersburg were not the source of inspiration for the authors. The environment was too un-Petersburg around. Nikita Yavein himself comments on the course of his associations: “We tried to present such a hypothetical situation, as a Petersburg architect, who came to Moscow in the 1930s, who came to a different scale, a different dimension and other requirements, would reasoned and projected. After all, today's outskirts of St. Petersburg is a completely different city, a kind of New Moscow. " As a source of inspiration, the architects chose the works of Ivan Aleksandrovich Fomin: the house of the "Dynamo" society and the competition project of the People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry with its hypertrophied scale, giant arches and measured rhythm of horizontal and vertical divisions. Building on its figurative and compositional structure, Studio 44 proposed a composition that is unique for modern residential architecture, which makes maximum use of the theatrical or, if you like, the canonical principle of constructing a centric composition with a pronounced spatial development in depth, several additional axes and clearly traceable visual paintings …
Hierarchy of spaces and volumes
The plot intended for the construction of a residential complex is close to a square in proportion; on one side it adjoins Tipanova Street. The main axis is laid perpendicular to the street, on which the two parts of the complex are strung. The first one plays the role of ceremonial propyls: it is formed by four buildings (max elevation ± 79 m), two of which, at a height of 53 meters, are united by 6-storey bridges with a span of 36.6 meters. The second is a lowered body (max. Elevation ± 50.4 m), in the form of a regular square, with four narrow openings in the center of each side. Thanks to these openings, more precisely narrow rectangular arches, covered with thin bridges at the level of the cornice, along the central axis the complex is visible to its full depth. Additional axes, parallel to the main one, fix the centers of the giant arches. Another, this time perpendicular to them, axis passes through the middle of the inner passage between the two parts of the complex.
The rather complex organization of the residential complex is not limited to the game with axes and closed and open buildings. "Propylaea" and "square" are united by the stylobate, in which all the public functions necessary for the residential complex of business and comfort class are concentrated: shopping, entertainment and sports. The front facade forms a semblance of a living room with open galleries along the entire front. More private services: restaurants, fitness centers, are located in the depths of the stylobate, the entrance to which is through the front square, surrounded by a light openwork colonnade.
Thanks to an additional multi-level system of a stylobate, an exploited roof, underground parking lots, courtyards, driveways and passages, organizing through and targeted movement for residents, their guests, as well as visitors to shopping malls, a clear hierarchy of public (underground or located at ground level) and private (elevated above the ground) spaces. The streams are distributed in such a way as to minimize the intersection, guaranteeing residents a high level of safety.
Accurate and clear spatial direction resembles the temples of Luxor and Karnak - this archaic note is not the first time found in the projects of Nikita Yavein. It is possible that on the day of the summer solstice, the rays of the sun, standing at its zenith, will fall on a special stone mounted in the roof of the stylobate, prompting young fans of adventure cinema to search for treasures in the spirit of Indiana Jones.
The viewer is offered clearly arranged pictures, and not only frontal ones, playing out the axial lumbago, but also taking into account the view from different angles, including from different sides along the wide Tipanova Street. In this case, the scale of the giant arches and gaps between the hulls works just as effectively and powerfully due to the aerial perspective, as well as the play of light and shadow. The spatiality of the complex, which is rare in modern architecture in general, and especially in residential architecture, is so strong that it makes a great impression at any viewing angle.
Differentiation of privileges
The two-part composition with ceremonial "propylaea" and functional "square" determined the class of the residential complex and the specifics of planning solutions at all levels: from the solution of entrances to the entrances to the composition and footage of apartments. In the first part, located along the highway, apartments of a higher level of comfort are concentrated, the best of them are in the "bridges" thrown between the main buildings. These "soaring" six floors at a height of 60 meters, actually forming the image of the complex, were made possible thanks to monolithic reinforced concrete structures and careful calculations. Separate staircase and elevator halls are provided for "bridge" apartments. The issue of combining the apartment on the top 22 floor into penthouses of 700 m is also being considered.2.
The buildings at the front of the complex are mostly filled with two- and three-room apartments arranged around a communication hub with four lifts and two staircases. The meridional orientation of these buildings with the front facade facing exactly to the north made it somewhat difficult for the architects to solve insolation issues, for the sake of which they even had to cut the inner southern corners of the paired buildings.
A wider range of apartments is presented in the 16-storey block "square". Two-room apartments remain the predominant standard size. In addition, in addition to "three rubles", buyers are offered "odnushki" about 45 m2 and studio apartments, popular with Petersburg yuppies. The courtyard "square", located above the semi-underground two-storey parking, will be free of personal vehicles.
For the first time in domestic practice, a 2-meter-thick soil layer is laid on the stylobate, which will make it possible to carry out a full-fledged landscaping of the courtyard. It is planned in a neoclassical regular style with parterres and bosquets, organically continuing the theme of the ceremonial passages through the colonnades under the propylaea with fountains and wide staircases leading to the courtyard.
Facade method
In the spirit of Fomin's "red dorica", the facades of the residential complex are dressed in a semblance of an order system, but not a classic or even modernized one, but as simplified as possible, reduced to its prototype - a post-beam system in the form of an external frame with clearly defined horizontal rods and knocked down from level to level with the rhythm of vertical stands. The horizontal levels vary in height. Some of them unite two floors, some three, the upper level - like a real attic - is airy and lightweight, so that four floors are combined here at once. The proportions of the outer round columns are found for each level. The tallest are marked by twin slender pillars, the lower ones are supported by squat pillars, as if crushed by the weight of the overlying structures. According to the height of the racks, their step was selected, so that there is a feeling that each level is counting its own rhythm. In fact, this is not the case, and at about half of the levels, the axes of the columns coincide. But hardly anyone in life will be able to carefully calculate the racks. So, the facade of the complex runs the risk of becoming the most frivolous in the context of the strict observance of order canons of St. Petersburg.
On the front façade overlooking Tipanova Street, the use of an external frame, removed from the wall like an order decoration, to make it three-dimensional, has been brought to its climax. Here the architects laid three outer layers: the first - an outer frame system with light bands of glass railing; the second is solid cold glazing and the third is a warm contour. All three layers work visually, giving the north-facing facade a special depth and plasticity. The total thickness of all three layers of the facade is three meters. This area is mainly used as loggias in offices, dining rooms and common areas. In addition, the system also works as noise protection, which is important, given the proximity of a busy highway.
Another facade solution goes back to historical prototypes. As in the 1930s, when the desire for splendor was still constrained by economic expediency, different materials will be used in the decoration of different levels of the facades, replacing each other as the height increases. From natural stone in arcades and the lower part of the "square" to terracotta tiles or high-quality large-sized slabs on the overlying levels and ending with porcelain stoneware in interior facades.
Development potential
The ideas and principles embodied in the project of the residential complex are designed for comprehension and further development. The authors themselves speak of two promising vectors.
The first vector is the search for a new Petersburg style that will combine the traditions and values of the rich architectural heritage of the Northern Capital and a new scale of urban areas under construction.
The second vector is more utilitarian or urban planning. It consists in a more meaningful and, at the same time, prudent approach to the formation of buildings through the use of axial compositions that order the fabric of the city, subjecting it to strict rules that can be followed by finding enough freedom for self-expression inside. The only thing that needs to be decided is the reference points for the axes. In classical urban planning, this role is assumed by the dominants of the city: bell towers, cathedrals or palaces. The modern city stretches upward with its entire mass, so it is not easy to find a worthy dominant.
With regard to the complex on Tipanova Street, "Studio 44" sees the prospect of further continuation of the started ensemble deep into the former industrial zone. Nikita Yavein comments on the potential of the proposed idea in the following way: “The axial scheme builds, streamlines the entire urban planning situation, as opposed to the“vanity fair”. We, in our own way, are even more vain, we are building not a dotted house, but a semantic axis that embodies a certain will in a sea of chaotic buildings that have multiple beginnings and ends. In this project we are showing a beginning that will never end in our work."
