This time the meeting of the Arch Council was very dynamic: the participants remember well
a lively discussion of the merits and demerits of the AQUATORIA residential complex, developed by the Metex Design group, in February.
To finalize the project according to the comments, the customer invited TPO "Reserve". At the defense, Vladimir Plotkin recalled the main problems that the bureau had to solve: to create a recognizable vivid image of the office block facing Leningradskoe highway, to change the facades of residential buildings from the "southern" type to more appropriate for our latitudes, to emphasize the improvement of the embankment and its connection with residential quarters.
Special requirements were imposed on the office block. In the previous project, it consisted of three towers, the appearance of which generally repeated the theme of residential buildings, while differing from them in their functional content.
It was necessary not only to create its own character of the business center, but also to emphasize the importance of the place at the entrance to the city, as well as to ensure its transparency and compactness so that the complex did not block the views of the river from the city.
During the design, several options for a volumetric-spatial solution were developed, taking into account these aspects, including using the theme of the three blocks from the previous proposal. Their displacement and unification by a powerful bridge from above made the composition more coherent.
The subsequent adjustment of the project took place as the customer expressed specific wishes, in particular, the desire to have a full-fledged office center with a floor area of at least 1000 meters. The long monoblock option, which took these new introductory TORs into account, was rejected as inconsistent with the principle of transparency. In general, in other proposals of TPO "Reserve", the idea of some kind of portal to the city was preserved.
The final version of the office complex, approved by the customer and presented at the architectural council, embodied all the sought-after qualities: two volumes on the stylobate are inscribed in a semicircular plan and form a kind of horseshoe with a gap in the center. This decision made it possible to make the complex more compact by a quarter.
The semicircle is emphasized by a lintel in the lower part of the building, which, on the one hand, enhances the uniform visual perception of the form, and on the other, organizes the space of the compact piazzetta of the courtyard. This "bridge" between the two volumes is supposed to accommodate a conference hall, a fitness center and a cafe.
Parking is located in the stylobate part.
The expressiveness of the complex from the side of the river is emphasized by cantilevers in the upper part of the volumes, which make the object recognizable. Much attention was paid to the views from the windows of the offices: the inner plane of the horseshoe has maximum glazing, and for the outer one, a crenellated facade system has been developed, which allows organizing the maximum possible number of rooms open to the river. The same technique creates a dynamic effect when driving along the Leningradskoe highway.
For the residential buildings, the architects came up with a new glass shell, leaving the terraces only at their very top.
In the improvement of the territory, special emphasis was placed on the connectivity of the embankment with neighboring areas, in particular, with the park on the other side of the bridge: a pedestrian walkway under the bridge connects the embankments into a single chain, and the arrangement of the pier revives the life of the coastal zone at the foot of the business center.
The discussion of the project by the members of the council was very short and concerned the most problematic corner section, where the office complex was located. Yulia Burdova, while approving the general space-planning solution, expressed a wish “to calm down the plastic of the facades a little”. Alexei Vorontsov made a proposal to strengthen ties with residential areas through the arrangement of an overhead passage on the Leningradskoe highway. “Given the scale of the complex and the emergence of a large number of jobs, it can be assumed that not everyone will travel from afar. Certainly some of the working people will prefer to live nearby."
Aleksey Vorontsov also made a bold remark about the possibility of changing the GPZU for the office block in order to make the extreme tower higher: "The 75-meter regulation is good for some ordinary district solution." Sergey Kuznetsov noted that “we have examples when, by the decision of the council, the height in the GPZU was raised, but this primarily depends on the wishes of the customer. For our part, we can provide such support and recommend making the necessary changes. " Other members of the Archcouncil also spoke about the significance of the proposed project and the creation of a real land mark, who in one way or another supported the idea of strengthening the high-rise accent.
The project was accepted. Now the only question remains, how the possible changes to the GPZU will affect the final version, which will be implemented.
