Reconstruction of the LETI hostel
St. Petersburg, Torzhkovskaya street, 15, letter A
Designer: LLC "Stroy-Expert"
Customer: ETU "LETI"
Discussed: architectural and town-planning appearance
Torzhkovskaya street not far from the metro station "Chernaya Rechka" is built up with residential buildings from the 60s and 70s, and standard projects alternate with author's projects, and new buildings, for example, from
Maria Lapshina or Mikhail Mamoshin, one way or another agree with their predecessors. It is noteworthy that it was Torzhkovskaya that was once chosen for the construction of an experimental "individual house-Khrushchev", which, unfortunately, has not survived.
House number 15 - the dormitory of the Electrotechnical University - like several others along this street, was built according to the project of Nikolai Nazaryin. As Mikhail Sarri later noted, the building "has all the characteristic features of the time: the low quality of materials and construction, while the brilliant work of the architect, in which the proportions and ratio of the masses come to the fore."
The house is already dilapidated enough, LETI's educational programs are expanding, the number of students is growing, so there is a need for reconstruction.
The chief architect of the project, Igor Pankovsky, said that the reconstruction will take place in two stages. Since it would be “tactless” to change the number of storeys and volumetric solutions, they decided to build a new building in the courtyard with an underground parking and a green roof, and the second stage was to insulate the existing building and revet it with modern materials: panels for brick and plaster, possibly add metal inserts. According to Igor Pankovskiy, “it was easy to change the facade, because the building has pronounced tectonics and plasticity”.
The dormitory will be able to accommodate 1,124 students, a single entrance zone will appear, which can be accessed, including from the underground parking, the courtyard will be raised to the level of the second floor.
Mikhail Sarri, head of workshop No. 6 of LENNIIPROEKT, spoke for an unusually long time for the reviewer. He called the work interesting, the problematic was broader than a specific address, and the architecture of the 1970s was underestimated and underestimated: architects to develop aesthetics of minimalism and even asceticism, to focus on proportions. And if the reviewer did not doubt the new case, the “put on facade” is the opposite. Mikhail Sarri expressed a wish “to reveal more quotes in the original volume and to moderate the color scheme”.
Most of the experts supported the reviewer: reconstruction is necessary, but more delicate. Vladimir Linov proposed to completely preserve the tectonics of the building. Felix Buyanov urged "to speak more modestly everywhere." Anatoly Stolyarchuk, from whom one can rarely hear the words of criticism, spoke harshly this time: “it is impossible, unacceptable, the KGIOP's omission that such houses are not taken under protection. It is not difficult to spoil a good building: why this Sabbath, the madness of color, alien elements? Leave Nazaryin alone."
Sergey Oreshkin noted that in this case it is necessary to preserve the "traditions of monochrome architecture", and in general it will be cheaper and easier to insulate the facade. Evgeny Podgornov was surprised at the appearance of "rotunda" on the new building within the framework of minimalism. Alexander Karpov managed to think that there are too many parking spaces - they can save an entire underground floor, but bicycle spaces, of which there should be 70, are, on the contrary, too few. Also, questions were raised by the illumination of the lower floors and the fire evacuation.
Vladimir Grigoriev could not imagine Torzhkovskaya Street without Nazaryin's house. He compared working with color to attempts to paint black-and-white films, and urged the customer to think: is it necessary to turn a good and comfortable building into something else? The result is that the project “without Nazaryin” is not bad in itself and could exist in any area of new buildings, but in the existing context it is impossible to accept it.
