Recently a conference “Eco-Sustainable Architecture. Green building. Russian and foreign experience”. It was opened by the president of the local union of architects, Oleg Romanov, with the words that “the topic is not new for a long time, but it is not developing in our country”. That was supported by the architect Vyacheslav Ukhov: "The topic is not understood either horizontally or vertically." These two theses, one way or another, were developed by all subsequent speakers.
Foreign experience - alien
The pictures and numbers that showed the overseas level of elaboration of the topic were like a storyboard for a movie about the future. China has 285 eco or smart cities planned, Norway
the airport sells surplus energy from renewable sources; in Paris, trees have rights, not to mention wooden stadiums, oasis parking lots and vertical farms.
The reason that "they" have not only energy-efficient buildings, but entire cities, is the comprehensive support at the state level. Alexander Remizov, Chairman of the Board of NP "Council for Green" Construction talked about some of the incentive mechanisms.
The majority of government programs are based on 17 principles of sustainable development formulated by the UN. In China, for example, there is now a 13th five-year plan, according to which the construction of "green" buildings should be increased by 50%, and their energy efficiency should be increased by 20%, 81 cities are participating in a program to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In the United States, there is an energy efficiency rating - the higher it is, the more a developer can receive grants, subsidies and lucrative proposals from banks for reconstruction. There is a similar “green building scanner” in the Netherlands, where a lot of attention is paid to informing citizens about modernization and sustainable development. In the UAE, the cost of eco-certification is borne by the state.
Coordinator of the public movement "Trees of Petersburg" Maria Tinika strengthened the impression of separation by preparing very visual photo pairs, in which she compared the recently commissioned residential complexes, public spaces, sports and infrastructure facilities of St. Petersburg with similar ones in other cities of the world. But if here one could still argue in the spirit of "Primorsky District is not Paris for you", then it is simply sad to look at the pictures of St. Petersburg "before / after": quite recently there were many times more trees, and tourists called the city green and blue.
What's green in St. Petersburg
Alexander Remizov said that in Russia there are two state programs in the field of sustainable construction: digitalization of the urban economy "Smart City" and "Comfortable urban environment", but there is no talk of financial support there. At the very least, we encourage energy efficiency, but we would like to see all green initiatives.
Igor Kokorev, Head of Consulting at Knight Frank cited the figures: in St. Petersburg there are 15 business centers, 12 residential complexes and one apartment complex with eco-certificates. Some of these objects were presented at the conference: for example,
BC Fort Tower and BC Tricolor, RC "Triumph-Park". Igor Kokorev also noted that private houses are built according to the principles of green development more often than multi-apartment ones, and in general there is no demand for energy efficiency on the market, although a certain trend is still emerging.
The performance was indicative General Director of PG "RIEDER" Denis Riederwho presented
adaptation project of the Seventh North Fort. According to Maria Tinika, in the project, which claims to be "green", everything is done the other way around: the hills are poured with concrete, a roll lawn is laid instead of plants, rainwater, solar panels or windmills are not considered at all - they plan to bring water, and extract energy using nuclear floating station.
However, with or without windmills, the Kronstadt forts may not live to see better times, judging by the report chief of the Department of Urban Ecological Substantiation of the Development of the Territories of St. Petersburg of the Research and Development Center of the General Plan of St. Petersburg Artem Pavlovsky. He made a forecast for climate change in St. Petersburg: by 2100 it will be like in Copenhagen or Toronto, that is, without pronounced summer, winter and snow cover. The level of the Gulf of Finland rises by 2 mm per year, and the city is only moving faster towards the threat of floods, actively developing coastal territories. Since 1980, the number of floods has been steadily increasing, the maximum now falls not in winter, but in autumn.
What prevents and how to be
In addition to the fact that there are no corresponding state programs in Russia, according to Alexander Remizov, the development of sustainable construction is also hampered by existing norms: “it is necessary to move from standardized design to parametric design, to assess the life cycle of a construction object, to include a section on sustainable urban development in territorial planning, to create national certification systems.
Svetlana Duving, editor-in-chief of the Green City media resource outlined another problem - of a passive society: “it is of paramount importance to change the consciousness of people, and the topic of sustainable development is able to unite”.
According to Maria Tinika, the problem is that “we perceive trees as an object of improvement, not a resource”. She said that it is not so difficult to get away from the "stone-lawn planes": you can make the environment more pleasant with the help of simple plants, because the picturesque wild grapes on Izmailovsky Prospekt were the initiative of the residents, not the city.
General Director of "ECOM" Alexander Karpov shared his thoughts on the concept of "paradise urban gardens". The main needs of a city dweller, a “tired man,” are in rest and health. They are given by "green spaces", which is confirmed by numerous studies. For example, following the contours of vegetation with your gaze relaxes and helps to build new neural connections. The need for socialization and consumption is also important.
Then the ideal scenario for a city dweller is to leave the house in slippers, get into the garden and start chatting with someone. The garden should be close to the house, rich in various vegetation and infrastructure that supports the "bustle" - sports, food, various zones.
If you translate all this into legal language, you get meters per person, accessibility. We have not yet learned how to calculate these parameters, - noted Aleksandar Karpov, - it took 10 years to collect information on green spaces in St. Petersburg.
That is, it is too early to think about solar panels and vertical farms - you need to start from the very basics.
