The territory of the future RC "Faina Town" is located on the western outskirts of Kiev, in the Nyvky microdistrict, located between a chain of parks in the valley of the Syrets River and the territory of the ANTK im. Antonov. The five-story buildings, built in the 1960s, are overgrown with trees, large fragments of a low-rise private sector have been preserved here, next to the Cherry Orchard park, so the choice of location must be considered successful. Transport accessibility is provided by the Nivki metro station, which is 10-20 minutes on foot, and the Brest-Litovsk highway, along which, in fact, the metro line runs, and which in this section is called Pobedy Avenue.
The residential complex is planned to be large - it should be located on about 40 hectares, which are now occupied by vegetable gardens and greenhouses of an agricultural landfill and buildings of the Kiev Expoplaz, which will also give way to a residential complex. It is here, in the northern part of the territory along Salyutnaya, that the construction of the first stage and the highest houses, from 9 to 19 floors, are planned.
In general, the complex outgrows its five-story surroundings quite a bit. From north to south, the altitude gradually decreases, at first to 6-9, then, on the site of the last in a row, the southern line, bordering on the private sector, to 4-5 floors. The low altitude of the residential complex is the subject of understandable pride of the authors: in our time, new buildings are infinitely growing upward, especially in capital cities, and Kiev is undoubtedly a capital city, they managed to convince the customer of the correct approach, which forms not just thousands of useful meters, but a comfortable urban environment, which becomes one of the market advantages of the complex. It is not the first time that ARCHIMATIKA has been working with the customer, KAN Development: the residential complex "Comfort-town" has already been built, which has revived the neighborhood context of the Left Bank with bright facades and silhouettes of pitched roofs. And also not too high-rise: from 2 to 14 floors.
The houses inside the complex follow the principles of modern quarterly planning: sections are grouped around car-free yards, driveways are located between quarters, spots of ground parking are planted on them (there are no underground parking lots, but two more buildings of a multi-storey overground parking are planned closer to Tupolev Street in the western part of the residential complex). But the quarters, according to the principle professed by ARCHIMATICS, are not closed - they are “half-open”. This allows, using the advantages of the quarter, first of all by creating a private courtyard, to avoid its disadvantages: excessive isolation, "pipe-well", shade. Therefore, the quarters are open mainly to the south. But somewhere a serpentine zigzag forms, somewhere between the two frames a plate appears.
The same diversity is observed in the silhouettes: at the corners of the blocks of the house 2-3 floors higher, moreover, often one section in the middle of the "lintel" also grows a little, in this case - enlivening the composition with a one-sided slope. “Such a technique is convenient for obtaining the maximum number of corner apartments, the most profitable and popular layout option,” the architects explain. “In an ordinary block there are only four corners, but we have a lot of them, up to 16-20 in one block."
The layouts of apartments in the residential complex are a separate topic. Already in five houses of the first stage, 40 options are offered: from 1-room and studios to 3-room two-story apartments. As we already
they said, ARCHIMATIKA has developed its own effective approach to planning, calling it PRO - it allows not to waste a single square meter, the architects are sure. So, if in LCD Time there are about 97% of them, then here in Fine Town - all 100%.
But back to the layout of the complex. The architects deliberately opened the quarters: their courtyards, closed from cars, are united into a pedestrian network, forming a kind of distributed park. While walking, it will be possible to move from one courtyard to another, and thus the residents will be provided with a change of impressions and acquaintances instead of the only closed private world. Frankly, this dignity has been transferred to the quarterly layout from the microdistrict - and, one must think, the right hybrid has turned out.
Having undertaken a pre-project study of the territory, approximately in the middle of the site, the authors found an alley of 50-year-old spruces, and decided to preserve the trees. The alley will become a boulevard, a transverse pedestrian axis. There will also be a 3-kilometer bike path along the boulevard, the central part of the territory, it serves as the axis of the pedestrian promenade and provides the interconnection of most of the pedestrian zones, turning them into an integral promenade. “Somewhere it is narrow, somewhere wide,” the architects say, “and in two places it passes over a motorway passage over a pedestrian and bicycle bridge.”
The infrastructure is planned to be developed: 2 private kindergartens and an elementary school, a supermarket, a fitness center, playgrounds for sports, recreation and, curiously, two barbecue areas (which is not yet available in any new residential complex in Kiev). Since the territory will be open, the infrastructure will be able to be used by residents of neighboring houses, which, in turn, will expand the client base of services operating in the territory of Comfort Town.
The buildings of the first stage, which are planned to be built in 2018, as we remember, will stretch out on the site of Exoplaza hangars along Salyutnaya Street, and at first they will build 3 houses in the eastern part. This is the only border of the complex adjacent to a busy bus route, so the architects' task was to develop its advantages as a city street - as opposed to the "quiet and family" area inside. The houses are higher here, the height difference is greater: on the street side there are 16-9 floors.
“We looked at Khreshchatyk, measured its pedestrian part and found out that its length is about 450 meters, almost the same as the length of our street part,” explains Dmitry Vasiliev. - And we decided to turn our section of Salyutnaya Street into a city promenade - with a dense row of cafes and shops. There will be a completely different environment, rich and lively. For this purpose, all the first floors along the street have been transformed to their full height into glass showcases, and the premises have been reserved for commercial lease.
Improvement is also envisaged: trees, benches, actual field grass in flower beds; summer café terraces are provided between the houses. However, not just landscaping, but, as in the case of apartment layouts here, its PRO version: it is based on the smart street concept proposed by ARCHIMATIK's creative partner Andrey Brazhnik from the company
A kullman workshop is a “smart” urban environment that responds to the presence of people - for example, making lighting brighter when there are many people and dimming it, saving electricity when no one is there. This also includes modern services, such as the ability to recharge your smartphone while sitting on a bench, or charging stations for electric vehicles. By the way, they are conceived not only on the city street, but also on the boulevard.
In the courtyards of the first-stage houses, however, a lot is also thought out: geoplastics, trees, galleries along the first floors and private terraces for their residents.
The facades of the first stage, as well as all the subsequent ones, are subordinated to the theme of strict modernism of vertical proportions. However, the textured plastic variety is of no less interest to the authors, especially in the case of two houses-accents in the northeast and northwest corners, which are assigned the role of "visiting cards"; one of them looks at the city, standing almost at the crossroads, the other is facing the ANTK, but serves as a pair of the first.
The towers are light, almost white. A horizontal block of dark crimson bricks will be stretched out to the honey, in scale and proportions - approximately like a five-story building, but in a plastic respect - a bright accent, I would say, in the spirit of MVRDV searches. Above is a strip of glass, above it is another horizontal line - beige, made up of shallow but noticeable projections - "TVs".
This is the most flexible, accentuated part of the complex. Further into the depth, the solutions become calmer and less embossed, although the depth of the facades, the variety of colors, the visual fragmentation of houses, consonant with the structure of the street of the 19th century, “when the territorial possessions were small,” is preserved everywhere as a principle. In this case, the color is chosen respectable, even conservative, in contrast to the rainbow Comfort Town: the range is made up of beige, white, light gray, brownish woody.
“We strive to create an architectural environment that is comfortable for everyone: old people, children, youth, pedestrians, cyclists and athletes, motorists, finally,” says Alexander Popov. "We are convinced that everyone, both residents and developers, benefits from this approach, since housing with a wide range of benefits sells better."
