Modernist Disguise

2024 Author: David Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 02:26

Volkov plaza appeared in the historical center of Yaroslavl, on the square in front of the theater named after Fyodor Volkov, a luxurious neo-empire building, heir to the "comedy horomina" of Catherine's time, which is considered the first Russian theater. The theater itself and the square are located on the site of the walls of the Zemlyanoy city of Yaroslavl, which were destroyed and turned into boulevards at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, and the new public center, it turns out, was built right outside its historical border. This is a landmark place on the border of the tourist city, from the pedestrian street Kirov with shops and cafes, as well as from the Znamenskaya tower, the only one remaining from the walls, here it is 3 minutes on foot. So a community center with its mixed function: shops on the first floor, a restaurant on the second, fitness on the third and only on the fourth, in the back, offices should be in demand. But the responsibility for the integrity of the environment, which here consists mainly of the 19th century interspersed with the 20th, is significant.

However, Volkov plaza is perhaps the perfect example of environmental contextual modernism. It does not violate anything, no panoramas, since it is hidden even in plain sight, but very well. The building adjoins the L-shaped volume of the former Soviet hotel "Yaroslavl", built in 1941 on the site of the 17th century Vlasiy church that was demolished in 1933. The hotel now serves as a business center. Her approach to the environment is post-constructivist stylistic; Tuscan columns and massive balconies help her to integrate into the historical context. However, after Yaroslavl was thoroughly destroyed by artillery in 1918, when the Bolsheviks suppressed one of the most powerful "White Guard uprisings" here, a lot of similar buildings were built in the very center of the city, it consists of if not half, then probably a third.

To the right, north of the business center, is the Vlasyevsky garden, densely overgrown with trees, a reminder of the disappeared church, with a monument to Fyodor Volkov, the head of the legendary troupe of the 18th century, from the side of the square.

Общественный центр Volkov Plaza Фотография © Антон Севастьянов

The narrow and long Volkov plaza squeezed in between the square and the business center, partly going south into the courtyard of the latter and a little more stepping into it with a spot of one-tier underground parking.

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1/8 General plan. Volkov Plaza Community Center © DK architects
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2/8 Plan of the 1st floor. Volkov Plaza Community Center © DK architects
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3/8 Plan of the 2nd floor. Volkov Plaza Community Center © DK architects
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4/8 Plan of the 3rd floor. Volkov Plaza Community Center © DK architects
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5/8 Plan of the 4th floor. Volkov Plaza Community Center © DK architects
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6/8 Section 4-4. Volkov Plaza Community Center © DK architects
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7/8 Detail of the facade. Volkov Plaza Community Center © DK architects
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8/8 Underground floor plan. Volkov Plaza Community Center © DK architects

The volume of the community center is rather complicated. Firstly, it retreats from the red line of the street by about 7 meters, but even here comes out only a small "nose", two stories high, but with a stained glass window, reflecting the Znamenskaya Tower in some angles, in a deep thin frame (decoration - dark gray fiber concrete).

Further, the building rises gradually: the third floor of the fitness center grows only where the thickness of the former hotel ends, that is, after another 9 meters. The third floor recedes from the right edge, from the park, leaving a landscaped terrace with plants in front of it. The fourth floor, if you count from the street, starts in the same place, but from the northern edge it recedes even more - in front of it, now on the roof of the fitness center, another terrace appears, also equipped with a micro garden.

Фасад со стороны сквера. Общественный центр Volkov Plaza © DK architects

So if you look from the rear south-west corner, the building's “tail” turning into the courtyard looks like a group of boxes or containers stacked on top of each other, moreover, with a shift - this common technique of modern architecture helps to emphasize the multi-composition of the building and the “sculptural” of its volume - both by turning the planes and by the difference in textures; the office part made of frosted glass is especially good.

The stepped device, which the architects define as "terraced", is becoming a successful variant of a well-known technique of recent decades - attempts to hide the building, especially its upper floors, by making them glass and moving them away from the edge. Only often this technique looks like the pose of an ostrich - but in this case it turned out, the building was truly “hidden”, or, more precisely, delicately built into the environment. As a result, we see how much it is necessary to retreat and how to operate with volumes, if you want to really subtly fit a new building into the historical center.

In general, the building develops precisely in the depths - and only stretches towards the street with a long "nose". On the end western facade, the walls begin to slope, indicating the turn of the volume into the courtyard and its "stratification" into floors. The restaurant console is facing the Vlasyevsky garden, energetic and far, more than 4 meters, a parallelepiped brought out to the trees with an excellent view of the trees, glowing in the dark like an orange eye.

Along the long eastern facade along the Vlasyevsky garden, the building seems to "gather itself" towards the street, becoming more solid. The wall of two floors, which just overlook the square, is glass, it offers excellent views of the garden and is only slightly covered with thin slats, whose rhythm varies slightly, responding to the thickening of trees.

Glass behind vertical slats is also a "classic" technique, but not as cutting-edge as the floors, grouped at different angles in the courtyard, but referring to post-war modernism, slightly refreshed by asymmetry. So the building can not only be recognized as an example of good contextual architecture - "no fools" is not noticeable from anywhere, does not overshadow anything, although in its own way, if you look closely, bright and interesting - it also continues the history of Yaroslavl modernism, the phenomenon is not that very large-scale, but noticeable.