Background: the concept of spatial urban development
Speaking about this project, which won the competition this spring, it is impossible to do without a background. First of all: the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the largest on the island of Sakhalin, the capital of the region of the same name, has begun to develop intensively in recent years. This is connected, in short, with tax revenues to the local budget from the production of hydrocarbons from offshore fields. Architects of JSB "Ostozhenka" began to design for Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in 2015, they were invited to work with PPT in several quarters of the city, including the central, seventh and eighth. Soon, in the process of researching the sites and communicating with the city administration, it became clear that the city is in dire need of a spatial development plan that would define the strategy as a whole. In 2016, a competition was held for such a plan, and the Ostozhenka project won it.
The essence of the concept adopted by the city administration is “in changing the type of city planning from linear to compact”. In other words, the authors propose to restore in the center of the existing city a frequent orthogonal grid of streets in the Japanese city of Toyohara, which has partially dissolved in the microdistrict enlargement. Streets should become more frequent, the city more permeable, there should be a division into courtyards and public spaces - many old-new urban values. Linear microdistrict buildings are replaced by quarter buildings. On my own behalf, I note that such an approach, built not at all on the imposition of new values, but on finding sprouts of positive development in the history of the place, is generally characteristic of the architects of Ostozhenka, one might say that this is their "feature" since the 1990s and into They display the old grid of a compact city in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the same way as they once searched for the boundaries of pre-revolutionary possessions in Moscow's Ostozhenka, trying to instill in the district a healthy, small-scale parceling.
Other important initiatives: the withdrawal of industrial zones from the station area and the creation of a central city park in their place, which should unite the western and eastern parts of the city instead of dividing them, as industrial territories are doing now (by the way, an Internet platform for collecting opinions of residents of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on the development of public spaces in the city).
The architects of Ostozhenka also proposed to pay more attention to the rivers that descend from the mountains into the occupied Susui River valley, and to create linear parks on their basis - which would allow better revealing the views of the surrounding mountains - which are definitely very beautiful.
“My aunt lived in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk for some time after the war, and I remember her stories. Then it was a wooden city, or even "with houses made of paper", and, moreover, with very frequent parcels, with an almost perfect orthogonal grid of streets. Subsequently, it changed a lot, began to develop linearly, stretching from south to north, in the center appeared "blind spots" of industrial zones. Our proposal is to change the vector of development, tighten the grid, connect parts of the city, make it more permeable inside and at the same time reveal stunning views of the surroundings, to which it is rather indifferent. The places around are wonderful, lots of interesting and beautiful things, and besides, the food is great. The city has excellent tourism potential, but its development is rather dull so far”.
Among other things, the concept assumes the appearance near Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, which at the moment is regrettably monotonous due to panel development, a unique "facade" consisting of new author's buildings, primarily from the eastern side,where the actively developing ski resort of the advanced development area (TOP) "Mountain Air" is located, consisting of many slopes of varying degrees of difficulty and already attracting both local and Japanese athletes, and is included, in particular, in the top ten in the country. The mountains on this side are higher and come closer to the city, so the lift starts right at its border.
Microdistricts 7 and 8
The new project, which won the competition in spring 2019, is dedicated to microdistricts 7 and 8, located near the beginning of the mountain air lift, on the eastern border of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and at the same time near the center, a half-hour walk from the administration buildings and the railway station. The microdistricts are built in the spirit of the 1960s and occupy two rectangles with an area of 23 and 37 hectares; they have almost no internal streets, only courtyard driveways with many dead ends. Panel houses, four- and five-story, in the center of 8 microdistrict. - several wooden two-story buildings. To the north, at the border of the 7th microdistrict, begins a large city park, the Central Park of Culture and Leisure named after Gagarin. To the east begins a natural area leading to the mountains, its function is hospital-sports-memorial. The border of the residential area is Gorky Street, it connects Victory Square, in front of which the WWII Museum was built in 2017, and Glory Square with an eternal flame and memorials. There are several sports complexes and a stadium right in front of the ski lift, and a little to the south in 2016 the Church of the Nativity of Christ was built.
All these are diverse, but dotted inclusions, and the Ostozhenka concept presupposes a comprehensive transformation of the area with the emergence of new accents and a significant increase in the connectivity of the space, which is now divided and fragmented.
Linear center: multifunctional ridge
The brightest and most intense part of the project is the Linear City Center. It consists of a number of buildings of various architecture, strung in the lower tiers on the axis of a shopping and restaurant public gallery with glass walls opened to the mountains and an exploited green roof. Here, along Gorky Street, a city promenade appears, combining a "warm" space enclosed by a glass wall and a "cold" one, but comfortable in front of it; they must be connected not only visually, but also by many inputs and outputs. Now the border between the urban, residential space of the districts, and the natural foothills is the automobile street “cutting” them - the authors of the project are trying in every possible way to overcome indifference, to merge two parts, urban and “external”: adding pedestrian crossings, landscaping the sidewalk, and, finally, opening the view from the comfortable public space behind the glass of the gallery to the mountains.
The Linear Center itself appears to be the embodiment of the idea of a new urban “facade”: its silhouette resembles both an uneven line of mountains and an imaginary city in which towers are adjacent to a long low horizontal line and bridges; especially good is the bridge-bridge over the Ankudinov boulevard, which separates the microdistricts. In the project, it looks like a kind of visual sum of city and mountains, bright, attractive, modern; the prevailing pink color is reminiscent of anime and Far Eastern sushi. Let us emphasize that the proposed image is not intended for direct implementation - the authors of the project also speak about this - it is only an illustration of an idea: a bright, new, silhouette expressive architecture. Then, says Andrei Gnezdilov, competitions should be held for individual buildings in search of suitable author's architecture.
An important feature of the line of buildings is functional diversity: the architects thought it over in sufficient detail and beautifully, but they emphasize that the composition of functions can change with the development of the project, the main thing is to preserve the principle of multifunctionality. There is no housing here, but there are hotels and apartments, which means temporary rental housing. The offices are adjacent to a fitness center and a shopping and entertainment center with an oceanarium, also strung along a long promenade. Other, more modern, rare and "subtle" elements of urban life also appear: for example, the NCCA filial with a media library, a food market, an amphitheater, coworking and workshops, a children's swimming school, and a climbing wall.
In the northern part of the line, closer to the park, the authors propose to place a Japanese center with a hotel, a spa center: a tribute to the close proximity and guests from this country. In other words, here various functions are densely packed in a wall, usually grouped quarterly in the city center. This is intended to make it rich and dynamic, not so much a border as a ridge between residential areas and Mountain Air.
In the southern part, the Linear Center extends beyond the boundaries of the 8th microdistrict: a building of a branch of the Far Eastern University with a library accessible to citizens and a university square is planned here, there is another square in front of the hotel, both form an ensemble with Victory Square, which now serves as a large automobile circle, but should become more friendly to pedestrians, become a link between the city and another landscaped square - in front of the war museum.
SPA and transition
If we consider the Linear Center as a “ridge”, then to the east of it stretches a “hand” - a hinged pedestrian crossing, about half a kilometer long, thin and transparent, on high and sweeping V-shaped metal support legs. It starts from the hotel tower, on its third floor, and leads to the start of the Mountain Air lift - past two buildings of the SPA center planned in the project between the existing volleyball complex and the youth wrestling school. In this way, skiers will be able to ply between the slopes and the pool with a sauna - this is at least, but in fact, the scale of the buildings suggests an impressive program. The transition is easy and even flying, the spa buildings are cosmic-bright, this part of the project is drawn especially effectively, reflecting the energy of the sports and recreational function.
Residential areas: renovation
The third part of the concept is the actual renovation of two residential neighborhoods of five-story buildings, visually solved in a deliberately calm, neutral key - we repeat, due to the peculiarities of the not supposed architecture, it is still unknown, and as a consequence of the concept: the architecture of residential areas, in contrast to the public, should be discreet, the authors tell us, deciding the facades as white and regular.
The architects of Ostozhenka strengthen the grid of the inner streets of the two micro-districts, make it coherent, and remove dead ends. The streets of the outer contour are reinforced with doublers, since the traffic load should increase, and in general, the transport scheme becomes more developed and logical, since it includes highways of different significance, speed and width. New landscaping of Ankudinov Boulevard and new landscaping have been proposed, both in the courtyards and along the outer contour of the houses. The entrance to the Central Park of Culture and Leisure is accentuated; in front of it, several squares are also outlined, forming a new boulevard perpendicular to the existing one.
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zooming 1/8 Concept of architectural and urban planning development of the territory of the urban district "City of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk". Principles of modern residential development at AB Ostozhenka
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zooming 2/8 Territory of consideration, current situation. Concept of architectural and urban planning development of the territory of the urban district "City of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk" AB Ostozhenka
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zooming 3/8 Concept of architectural and urban planning development of the territory of the urban district "City of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk". Layout of fragments of the improvement of the territory of AB Ostozhenka
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zooming 4/8 Concept of architectural and urban planning development of the territory of the urban district "City of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk". Master plan of AB Ostozhenka
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zooming 5/8 Concept of architectural and urban planning development of the territory of the urban district "City of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk". Transport scheme of AB Ostozhenka
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zooming 6/8 Concept of architectural and urban planning development of the territory of the urban district "City of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk". Traffic organization of AB Ostozhenka
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zooming 7/8 Concept of architectural and urban planning development of the territory of the urban district "City of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk". Design profiles of AB Ostozhenka streets
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zooming 8/8 Concept of architectural and urban planning development of the territory of the urban district "City of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk". Fragments of improvement: Glory Square and Ankudinov Boulevard, AB Ostozhenka
Buildings are becoming predominantly quarterly, with courtyards without cars. There are height restrictions, design code, galleries on the ground floors from the street side, fractional mixing of functions, through lobbies of entrances. The height grows to 7-11 floors. The buildings of schools and kindergartens are preserved, new community centers are added. The project affects parts of neighboring microdistricts 5 and 6, west of Komsomolskaya Street and closer to the city center: residential buildings are planned on the territory of the military unit, and a new cultural center on the site of the existing vacant lot and parking lot is located next to the local history museum.
And, of course, the proposed resettlement sequence does not go far beyond the districts.
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Thus, the plasticity and color proposed by Maria Dekhtyar reflect the essence of the approach to different parts of a large territory, with a total area of 120 hectares. The proposed imagery emphasizes the difference between different types of city, combined in the concept: calm, regular, quarterly and multi-height residential buildings; a dynamic, densely packed multifunctional public; and catchy, airy, flying like a skier on a "black" sports slope. In place of typical, ordinary micro-districts, a city should appear - a complex structure and consisting of parts with different functions and even different types of life, and yet closely related to each other. The architecture, even if it is given in this case "for example", shows a significant part of the message of the concept; in the end, the full name of the project includes the task of "forming an architectural and urban planning image of a distributed tourist and recreational cluster."
But architecture still lives and breathes, shimmers, charges with drive. Somehow you involuntarily admire it not only as an illustration, but also as a form. One can even imagine that the task of the architectural form in this concept is not only to illustrate a whole series of sound, well-connected urbanistic ideas, but also to fill the discourse with energy, not to give place to despondency, creating a kind of strong basis or background for further work.
