The business center "Optima-Plaza" was commissioned in 2016. It was rated ‘very good’ by the British company BRE Global's BREEAM method of calculating the environmental performance of buildings.
The complex is located in the southern part of Lviv, at the intersection of Nauchnaya Street with Knyagyni Olga Street. This part of the city is distinguished, on the one hand, by a developed urban infrastructure: only along Princess Street there are five shopping centers lined up in a row with an aqua park between them. “In addition, smart city technologies are being actively introduced here: they are installing Wi-Fi access masts, charging points for gadgets at public transport stops; a system of remuneration for sorting household waste and notification of free parking spaces has been introduced. - says Dmitry Vasiliev, co-founder of the architectural company Archimatika. On the other hand, the organization of space still hardly corresponds to the modern understanding of a friendly environment.
The developer turned to the architects with a request to comment on the already finished project of the corridor-type business center. “We analyzed the linear scheme proposed by our predecessors, showed the customer where the corridor would be and how ineffective it would be. Such a layout of an office building is morally outdated, no modern facades will save here. As a result, Archimatika undertook the creation of a qualitatively new project of a business center that meets the requirements of the time, not only in formal external signs, but also in essence.
The architects managed to move away from the outdated linear structure by dividing the single composition of the building into three risalit volumes, which give rhythm and smooth out the effect of the excessive length of the building. The front facades of each volume are covered with metal panels, the northern and southern facades, on the contrary, are given over to panoramic glazing, forming the current technique of “shape wrapping”, emphasizing the contrast of the longitudinal and transverse. Deep terraces with living trees were formed on the roof of the stylobate between the projections.
The continuous panoramic glazing of the southern façade is crossed out by the horizontal metal slats of the shading system - they allow linking aesthetics with energy efficiency, protecting office spaces from the heat in summer, and providing additional insolation in winter due to the parameters calculated by the architects. Similar slats are installed on the end facades: here they also protect windows from direct sunlight, but they form vertical rather than horizontal lines.
The main tone of the facades is green oxidized copper. “Initially, we considered a restrained, business-like, gray version of the color scheme. He suited the customer, but it seemed terribly boring to us. All the buildings that stand nearby are sullenly gray, finished with cement plaster. We wanted our building to be different from the Soviet heritage and look fresh, especially since birches grow in front of it, which set a good background. We decided to support the green color, but use a cool shade, which is more appropriate for the function of the business center,”says Dmitry Vasiliev.
One tier of underground parking is complemented by a parking on the ground floor level, on the side of the yard. Here the facade of the stylobate is covered with a metal mesh, which made it possible to provide natural ventilation and made it possible to reduce the cost of installing a smoke exhaust system.
The usable area of the premises on each of the floors is about 1,900 m2… This is the optimal area for the comfortable work of employees of a large company. The three-part division of the floor into blocks allows you to conveniently divide the space into small office units.
On the roof of Optima-Plaza, a system of solar collectors is installed, the capacity of which is sufficient to provide the entire business center with hot water. The water is heated by an air heat pump, which also heats the building, if the temperature does not drop below minus five. Archimatika has tried all these techniques for the first time in the design of Optima Plaza.
The architects also took care of public spaces: to the left and right of the lobby, in the stylobate, there is a place for cafes and shops, which will make Optima Plaza not only a comfortable place to work, but also a center of attraction for local residents. The development of the district's infrastructure is also served by the bicycle parking and charging stations for electric vehicles provided in front of the building of the business center. The authors are confident that the building sets a high standard for the development of office real estate not only in Lviv, but also in Ukraine as a whole, in line with the ideas of the "creative class" about a comfortable life in the city.
