The newly built microdistrict "Universitetsky", to which the projected MFC belongs, is the periphery of Vtuzgorodok, an interlayer between the historical part of Yekaterinburg and its outskirts. The campus of the Ural Federal University, institutes of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and other scientific and educational institutions are located here. Not far from the microdistrict there is the Shartash railway station and an interchange with an exit to the Siberian tract backup, residential buildings of different years of construction and height, a number of industrial zones.
The Pervostroitel company began to develop a vast area bounded by Komsomolskaya, Pedagogicheskaya, Bibliotechnaya and Mira streets in 2005 - since then, several multi-storey complexes of more or less typical appearance and related infrastructure have grown here. The last undeveloped plot in the form of a truncated rectangle went to the St. Petersburg bureau "A. Len". With a grain of healthy snobbery, we can assume that when the complex is built, the contrast "provincial / metropolitan" will turn out to be quite pronounced. But it is more accurate, of course, to talk about the contrast between the typical and the author's, since there are plenty of impersonal buildings on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, deaf to the context.
MFC "Universitetsky" is somewhat estranged from its neighbors. This is evidenced, among other things, by one of the first names: if the already built residential complexes are called "Copernicus", "Mendeleev" and "Lomonosov", then our hero was originally called "Prospect Mira compound". We rarely use this term, which is strange, since it reflects a large layer of reality. According to the definition of the Cambridge Dictionary, compound is something multi-part, as well as an area fenced off by walls or a fence, on which there are several buildings.
According to the name-concept, the composition of the complex is also built: several buildings with a height of 5 to 23 floors are placed along the perimeter of the site, and in the center, on the stylobate, a space accessible only to residents is formed. Considering that Universitetsky will include shopping and entertainment and fitness centers, sports and playgrounds, retail, it can be called a city within a city.
A. Len is one of the few Russian bureaus that are not alien to the ideas of bionic architecture. In this project, the architects were inspired and imitated the Ural megaliths, which helped to achieve an expressive silhouette and visually “unload” the rather large planes of the facades.
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zooming 1/3 Rock mass in the vicinity of Yekaterinburg Courtesy of "A. Len"
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zooming 2/3 Rocky massif in the vicinity of Yekaterinburg Courtesy of "A. Len"
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zooming 3/3 Rock mass in the vicinity of Yekaterinburg Courtesy of "A. Len"
Along the streets of Mira and Bibliotechnaya - where the complex faces the railway station - are the highest buildings, with "peaks" of 25 floors and "lows" of only five. Sharp and moderate changes give air, allow the eye to move, exploring the "negative space". Two towers at the crossroads, almost menhirs, are turned 45 degrees: thanks to this, a more rounded and, therefore, organic contour is obtained, and also two small triangular squares are formed, one of which, due to the peculiarities of the relief, received an amphitheater staircase, accentuating the entrance to the mall …
Lower buildings are located on the side of the rebuilt high-rise buildings, here is the entrance to the fitness center, which continues on the territory of a closed courtyard with a two-story structure with a tennis court on the roof.
Another high-rise plate enters the courtyard space, twisting it into a spiral and dividing it into two parts: a chamber and a more spacious one. If we continue the analogy with megalithic structures, we get a structure resembling a cromlech, in which several stones of the inner circle have not survived. In this interpretation, the courtyard receives a special role - a sacred open-air space where various streams of people converge. Architects free it from cars, make different playgrounds for people: children's, sports, “quiet” and active, they connect everything with a network of pedestrian routes.
There are four main entrances to the stylobate - one for each street. Entrance lobbies are mostly located in the courtyard of the complex, along the outer perimeter, the first floor is occupied by retail premises. There are two entrances to the underground two-level parking: next to the fitness center and in the northern part of the complex, here, if necessary, special vehicles can enter the stylobate.
Playing with heights and masses creates the basis for transforming TEPs into architecture, completing the work with the plastic of the facades. In "Universitetsky" "A. Len" uses two modular grids of windows and with their help divides the facades into large blocks. A denser mesh with a pitch of 1650 mm creates a feeling of a powerful base, a more rarefied one - 3300 mm, enhances the "harmony" and sets the movement upward, decorative parapets on the roof serve the same purpose.
The "boundary" becomes even more pronounced due to the contrasting golden color. By the way, color is an important part of the bureau's creative method. Splashes of bright red complement the rhythmic pattern. In several places, the facades are "cut through" by strips of solid glazing, which resemble sections of rocks hewn by wind or water.
The bottom line is important: a large-scale complex with a living area of more than one hundred thousand square meters is organized in such a way that it is interesting to look at it. In 2018, the project received a gold diploma of the ARCHITECTON review competition.
