The concept of development of alluvial territories
St. Petersburg, quarters 10, 11, 12, 13 on the alluvial territories in the western part of Vasilievsky Island.
Designer: LLC "Architectural Bureau" Studio 44 ", customer LLC" LSR. Nedvizhimost - North-West"
This year, LSR Group acquired a 35 hectare land plot on the “first line” of reclaimed territories in the western part of Vasilievsky Island, and also invested in the continuation of reclamation and has literally begun to create new land for itself. After the comprehensive development of this territory, the city will receive 500,000 square meters of housing and a new park area. The company turned to Studio-44 for the project.
The main limitation was the land-surveying project approved by the same city council (and about the same composition) more than ten years ago on the basis of a development plan prepared by Gensler, which wanted to turn the future alluvium into a “city” with many high-rise dominants. Later, the city abandoned the idea of commercial development in favor of housing, but the inconvenient layout remained. After the London bureau, the Soyuz-55 workshop and the last, in 2016, the B-2 workshop, worked with the territory. But, apparently, it is the Studio-44 project that is destined to become a reality.
A significant difference from previous projects is a public park instead of a highway running along the coast. It is worth noting that the studio came to such a decision on the initiative of the customer. The concept of building is subordinated to the idea of free-standing houses in the park.
The elongated two-kilometer-long section is divided into four micro-districts, which can be conventionally called quarters, since high-rise buildings dotted lines close the perimeter. Inside the "perimeter" there are private spaces on the stylobates, as well as kindergartens and schools. If the building is disassembled "longitudinally", then four "layers" can be distinguished.
The first is a public park. It will occupy an area of 25 hectares, the width varies from 40 to 100 meters. Southwest orientation promises stunning sunsets.
The second layer is the "sea façade". These are houses standing in the park, not fenced off from it in any way. It was important to drown out or at least break the wind flow from the side of the bay, so the buildings were shaped like “lenses” and “checkmarks”. They are interspersed with "point" tower houses of a cruciform, octagonal or round shape. The first floors have been moved behind the gallery supports and are used to maintain the park. This solution artificially increases its area, and also discards the need to build additional pavilions.
The ends of the residential buildings open to the sea; the most expensive apartments are located here. "Point" towers are decorated with a "crown" of colonnades, it is assumed that the exit to the roof will be free for residents. By increasing the "crowns" gradually (from 56 to 62 meters), the height is gained towards the seaport and the residential complex
Golden City, the peaks of which reach one hundred meters. The highest points of the Studio-44 complex are two towers, 72 meters each. An important role is played by "breakthroughs" both between the "quarters" and between the buildings, which reveal the view of the bay from more distant points. According to Nikita Yavein, the result is "intermediate punctuation and major axes."
The third layer is an intra-quarter, "courtyard" area, closed to outsiders and safe for children. Thanks to the breaks, the park and the bay are visible from everywhere. Schools and preschool institutions, chamber spaces and kindergartens, as well as entrances to a two-level underground parking are located here.
The last, fourth layer is the boulevard front. 14-storey buildings with a length of 50-70 meters keep the "red line", but some of them have been pushed into the depth of the site. They want to make the boulevard façade as diverse as possible, and a competition will probably be held.
The reviewer Sergei Padalko noted that the building parameters in terms of height and area are lower than the specified ones by 5-7%. This became the starting point for criticism. Many suggested "playing" with the height, and each architect had his own opinion about what should be corrected: someone spoke in favor of increasing the towers, someone suggested lowering the number of storeys from the boulevard to the bay, someone thought that the height should increase in the opposite direction - from Golden City, so as not to block it. Many also agreed that the overall silhouette lacks accents and expressiveness (even the epithet "dull" was sounded). The chief architect of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Grigoriev, proposed to equalize the height of the buildings within one group and put “plates” instead of towers, which would make it possible to achieve a more coherent silhouette. He also encouraged architects to use specially designed
palette of traditional colors of St. Petersburg.
Also, the majority of council members believed that sooner or later residential buildings would be fenced off from the park, although this would not greatly reduce its area.
But most of the responses were positive and even enthusiastic. Everyone, including predecessors and colleagues in the alluvium, admitted that in the situation of the approved plan for the territory, Studio-44 found the best solution and formed the structure of the entire alluvium. The chief architect urged to approve the project and summed up: "These houses were not designed by the Martians, some of us."
