The future microdistrict will be located on the outskirts of Yekaterinburg, on an area similar to many large cities in Russia: between the MEGA store and the ring road, where islets of summer cottages, cottage settlements and high-rise buildings are scattered across wide spaces, which, strictly speaking, do not resemble a city.
The residential complex "Palniks" on both sides adjoins the cottage settlement "Karaseozersky" - a project of the same developer. The rest opens up to the park and landscape. Nearby is the Yekaterinburg-Perm highway, the Akademichesky district is being built not so far, with blocks of up to 17 floors, one of the blocks of which is also
designed the OSA.
The new microdistrict, as conceived by the architects, should become a transitional link from a cottage to a multi-storey building - a representative of a five-storey-scale housing that is not widespread in Yekaterinburg - and transform the "dacha" space into a suburbia.
The architects had to work within the previously established boundaries of land surveying: the previous project, from which these boundaries were inherited, involved the development of multi-section houses grouped into picturesque lines. This decision did not contribute to the fulfillment of one of the essential requirements of the customer - to divide the construction into small queues, and, moreover, did not allow to place a lot of flat parking lots on the street. The typology of small quarters, consisting of hotel houses, made it possible to find a balance between the boundaries of the survey and the customer's requirements.
In order to avoid the monotony of the quarter development chosen by the customer, the OSA architects proposed to expand the typological range - in particular, to supplement it with atrium, gallery houses and houses with attached staircase and elevator halls, which would expand the range of housing classes and lifestyles, and increase the diversity living environment in general. However, in the end, the customer settled on a more conservative combination of classic sectional houses with single-entry point houses.
The head of the team of authors Alexander Samarin says that he did not want to go to the rigid regular grid. “This concept is our reflections on how a quarter development without a closed perimeter can be solved. The result is open-ended quarters with a predominance of single-section houses opening onto the park."
A pine park with an active relief is the heart of the quarter, houses are organized around it. However, it is also an additional limitation, since architects have not yet been able to transform it. The improvement of the park, as well as the relocation of the drug treatment clinic located on its territory, is a matter of the city and an unclear perspective.
Fifteen blocks of two to five stories form a tough street front, but the closer you get to the park, the more they “split”, mixing with the trees. The linear street network gives a sense of the city, as opposed to the more freely spaced cottages. Several detached houses that stand out from the general "block" idea - social housing for large families, is another necessary condition on this site.
Facades in the concept are rather declarative in terms of plasticity, color and materials, since at the concept stage the task was primarily to determine the dimensions of buildings and their placement on the site. However, the architects offered a stylistic and color variety: some houses are neutral, others stand out in bright colors, wood trim or intricate arrangement of windows. The houses are placed "from a perspective" - that is, falling into one "view frame", they do not merge into a single mass. The facades will be adjusted and adjusted to the realities and capabilities of the customer, although, according to the authors of the project, quite cost-effective solutions were already laid at this initial stage.
Some of the roofs are pitched and terraced, while the majority are green and exploited. Alexander Samarin hopes that the customer will not abandon this solution, which in other countries, even with a similar climate, is already commonplace, but in our country it is still rare. Wasp already has
a similar concept project for the Atomstroykomlpex company in the satellite town of Sredneuralsk, where the client initially asked for open balconies and roof terraces.
The facades of the houses form bright and lively streets, and the inner part - cozy courtyards with front gardens, tall trees and playgrounds for children and adults. The concept provides for the planting of large trees, taking into account the future utilities. A network of pedestrian and bicycle paths has been laid through the courtyards and the park, forming a single route. Someday, perhaps, the nearby Nizhne-Isetsky pond will be improved, then it will not be difficult to extend the route to it.
Since they wanted to free the courtyards from cars, the emphasis was placed on open street parking. Also on the territory there are multi-storey ground garages, on the roof of one of them there is a sports ground. Several levels of parking are built into the shopping center - it forms the corner of the block. The first floors of some residential sections have been allocated for commerce, and not only from the street side, but also from the park side - a sports club, a center for creative development and a cafe will appear there.
The school for 450 places, combined with a kindergarten for 200 places, has so far been inherited from the previous project. But OSA architects are interested in working with a school of such a typology and capacity, and most likely they will still offer their solutions.
Residential complex "Palniks" is small - only 90 apartments, and the customer had no wishes to make them large in size. The architects have chosen a single planning step that determines the width of the room, which is 3.8 m. In this step, it is possible to implement ergonomic apartments of various classes with various layouts.
The Palniks quarter is a competitor and alternative to the high-rise Akademichesky, which is approximately the same distance from the city. Not in size, but in the lifestyle that it offers. If the project is implemented, then, according to the architects, it will become the first example of this type of housing in Yekaterinburg.
