Last year, the International Economic Forum was held at the Expoforum site - a large-scale event, under which, in fact, the complex was built to replace the morally and physically obsolete Lenexpo. In the current Expoforum it is difficult to find out the initial design of the complex, with which Evgeny Gerasimov and Sergey Tchoban once won an international competition, and in comparison with the version approved and passed the examination, something has changed. However, at the moment, only the first stage of construction has been completed.
The location for the center was chosen very well - at the intersection of major transport arteries, in the immediate vicinity of the international airport, moreover, on one of the hills that are rare for the St. Petersburg relief - the Pulkovo Heights. It is clear that good transport accessibility for the venue of international exhibitions and conferences is one of the key advantages. Equally important are the comfort of stay, the convenience of internal traffic, intuitive navigation, flexibility and variability of volumes, reliable technical support - and, last but not least, the brightness of the aesthetic solution: for many thousands of guests arriving at salons and forums, these complexes play the role of a face cities, and even countries. It is not without reason that the most famous architects are engaged in the construction of exhibition centers all over the world. Without twisting my heart, we can say: in the architecture of Expoforum, all these key points have been taken into account and successfully implemented.
The face of the complex is five buildings lined up in a smooth arc along the Petersburg highway: two business centers, Hilton and Hampton by Hilton hotels and a congress center, from which a long passage leading to the pavilions begins. “The location almost outside the city, near the airport, dictated the need to create bright recognizable facades that would be well perceived from distant points,” explains one of the authors of the project, head of the SPEECH bureau Sergey Tchoban. Visually, all five facades are united into one smooth line, although in reality they are separate, independently functioning objects. The feeling of unity is created primarily by color: all the facades of the complex are designed in a golden hue, which evokes textbook associations with both the Amber Room and golden autumn - by the way, the city of Pushkin is very close. The enclosures are lined with three-dimensional ceramic panels made of extruded ceramics. “All panels were made specifically for this object, including unique curved elements that allowed to give the cases a characteristic soft shape,” explains the project manager Andrey Perlich (SPEECH).
This line is broken only by the all-glass façade of the congress center. According to the project, it was covered with a 30-meter-high golden canopy-sail, which was supposed to become the main architectural accent of the entire complex. It was decided not to build a visor for the opening of Expoforum, but, according to Evgeny Gerasimov, there is hope that this spectacular element will take its intended place within the second stage of construction.
All five buildings also have the same height, although both hotels are eight-storey, and the congress and business centers have seven floors. Given the uniformity of color and shape, there was essentially only one possibility for the external individualization of the buildings - playing with window openings. Each building has its own rhythm, its own principle, according to which windows are collected in groups or, on the contrary, scattered along the facade. So, in one of the business centers, they are united into large extended groups of two floors, reminiscent of the TASS building, in another, vertical and horizontal pairs alternate.
The front of the Hampton by Hilton hotel - it is in the center - is cut with round, like portholes, holes, which gather in more and more extended "snakes" as you move away from the convention center.
The correct orthogonal grid of the Hilton's windows is enlivened by golden staircases that traced the facade from top to bottom.
The glass façade of the congress center, in the absence of the "golden sail", is only revived by plastic: against the background of the glass surface, three gentle horizontal "waves" boil up - at the level of the second, fourth and sixth floors.
From the congress center deep into the complex there is a 500-meter passage, on which, as on the main axis, three exhibition pavilions are “strung”. Andriy Perlich calls this transition - seemingly exclusively functional, even for service purposes - “the most spectacular and difficult to implement part of the exhibition complex”. The height of its facades reaches 16 meters, and they are completely glass - especially for Expoforum double-glazed windows up to 5.5 m high were made. To heat such a huge volume, it took two rows of convectors located on the lower and middle levels. The unique undulating roof with skylights, into which LED-lamps are built, deprives the grandiose space of the monotony characteristic of most crossings in similar complexes.
As for the pavilions themselves, each of which is more than 13,000 square meters, here too the architects set themselves and solved a number of complex technical problems. Huge assembly gates, unsupported 90-meter spans of trusses, sliding partitions allowing, if necessary, to divide the space into sections - the complex is really at the peak of the latest exhibition technologies. The external facades of the pavilions, designed in the same golden color, are decorated with images of the symbols of St. Petersburg: the most famous buildings and monuments, ships, palaces and estates. Famous engravings by Mikhail Makhaev were used in the design. The images were photoprinted on large-sized three-millimeter ceramic panels, and the prints were made on porcelain stoneware before it was baked in an oven - a unique solution for Russia that ensures the durability of surfaces.
Now there are three pavilions; construction of three more, on the other side of the passage, has been postponed for the time being. If they are nevertheless erected, the gigantic parking lot, which now occupies all the free space, will go underground.
During the construction on the territory of the complex, the remains of the foundations of the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, built in the 18th century by Giacomo Quarenghi and destroyed during the Great Patriotic War, were discovered. The church was completely restored according to old drawings and now adorns the front facade of the complex, overlooking the Petersburg highway.
Panorama of Expoforum from Petersburg highway
with the reconstructed Church of Our Lady of Smolensk:
Milan, Frankfurt, Cologne, Guangzhou - it is well known what an important role in the life of these cities is played by the international exhibitions held there almost all year round. Now it is difficult to say what is primary - the need to hold exhibitions has entailed the construction of the largest exhibition centers in these cities, or, on the contrary, the almost unlimited possibilities of Fiera Milano, Messe Frankfurt, KoelnMesse or Pazhou attract the organizers of world salons. With the advent of Expoforum, St. Petersburg can claim to host no less large-scale events. Time will tell whether it will succeed or not, but the architects have done their job: the city has a platform worthy of hosting international congresses and exhibitions.
