New Yard

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

Last week the foresight “Nikolskiye Ryady - 2025”, organized by the Project Baltia magazine by the order of the companies Ales Capital Group and Miles & Yards, which are developing the complex, ended. After many years of neglect and lengthy reconstruction, Nikolsky Ryady opened for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the building houses the first Hard Rock Cafe in St. Petersburg, as well as the Holiday Inn Express and Menninger hotels, the latter later replaced the Teatralnaya Ploschad hotel. In July, a spacious courtyard with a basic set of landscaping was opened for everyone and quickly got into all the Instagram's of the city. The opening of the courtyard and the foresight are the first stage on the path of turning Nikolsky Ryadi into an analogue of New Holland.

The concepts that are designed to set the vector for the development of the future public space were developed by three teams. The young professionals who passed the competition chose mentors from the bureau ARKHATAK, Urbanika and KATARSIS Architects, then imbued with the spirit of Kolomna, listening to the lectures of Lev Lurie, Stepan Lipgart, Valentina Lelina and Oleg Panchenkov, and within two weeks developed a strategy for transforming the Nikolsky series and the territory around to a new point of attraction.

Now the area of the city near the seven-seat, where Nikolsky Ryady is located, is a surprisingly quiet place, despite the proximity of the center, the Mariinsky Theater, the synagogue and the cathedral. Reconstruction and development of public space in this case is a classic gentrification designed to attract profitable tenants to vacant retail space. The foresight participants were looking for ways to include Nikolskie Ryady in the routes of townspeople and tourists, while preserving the identity and spirit of the place.

The jury evaluated the projects based on criteria of architectural expressiveness, economic efficiency, compliance with current regulations and communication of three scales: micro- (building), meso- (quarter) and macro- (territory of influence). The proposal of the KATARSIS Architects team was recognized as the best. We show all three concepts.

Water Kolomna / KATARSIS Architects

Mentors: Peter Sovetnikov and Vera Stepanskaya

Team: Galina Voitenko (SPbGASU), Olga Ivlieva (HSE University), Svetlana Ilyicheva (MARCHI), Elena Nikolaeva (SPbGASU), Evgeny Tanaisov (ITMO, St. Petersburg).

KATARSIS Architects' concept is exuberant and festive, and fully reflects the desire to return to a time when crowds did not trigger anxiety attacks. The main attractor is the outdoor pool, which occupies the entire courtyard, similar to the baths of Budapest. St. Petersburg is famous for its bathing culture, and the theme of the thermal complex is in the air: the ARKHATAKA bureau, for example, drew something similar for the Sevkabel Porta competition. KATARSIS offers, as it seems, a completely realizable concept: a spa is a logical continuation for a hotel, moreover, such a typology will successfully compete with neighboring creative spaces for a visitor.

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1/5 Nikolskie Baths © Katarsis Architects
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2/5 Nikolskie Baths © Katarsis Architects
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3/5 Nikolskie Baths © Katarsis Architects
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4/5 Nikolskie Baths © Katarsis Architects
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5/5 Nikolskie Baths © Katarsis Architects

The Shchepyanye Dvors adjacent to the quarter are turning into a heterogeneous and permeable space with a piazza, under which an underground parking can be equipped. The team thoroughly worked on the topic of water, making it the main infrastructure: shops for fishermen, shops with seafood, fountains and drinking fountains, shops with marine cosmetics, water playgrounds, an exposition with items caught from the bottom of the Kryukov Canal, boat rental appear around Nikolsky Ryad., pop-up beach, etc.

Nikolsky Forum / "ARKHATAKA"

Mentors: Andrey Voronov and Innokenty Padalko

Team: Arina Zueva (SPbSU), Elena Blinova (SPbGAIZhSA named after I. E. Repin), Dmitry Mukhin (SPbGAIZhSA named after I. E. Repin), Anastasia Kholopova (MARSH), Ekaterina Pestryakova (SPbGASU).

The ARKHATAKA bureau team, taking this opportunity, visualize “complex issues that arise when the theory and practice of urban planning collide” - for St. Petersburg this is an eternal problem that has really become a part of its identity. The irony looks daring, given that the reconstruction of the Nikolsky rows themselves was far from flawless. The project seems much more utopian than the terms, but one cannot but admit the power of his artistic expression, echoing the "Inhabited Columbarium" by Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin.

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1/3 Nikolsky Forum © ARKHATAK
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2/3 Columns. Nikolsky Forum © ARKHATAKA
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3/3 Nikolsky Forum © ARKHATAK

The image of the courtyard is inspired by the ruins of a Roman forum, massive gabions filled with parts of destroyed buildings are responsible for the drama of the space - on the renders you can see the abbreviation SKK and the logo of the metro - possibly a reference to the Polytechnic. By moving the "columns", you can change the scenario: the cultural forum is a hypostyle hall, for the development forum the columns form office fences, for the economic one they move to the center and free up many square meters. Development and construction companies that can place showrooms and sales offices in Nikolsky Ryad are considered as tenants.

Hidden Navidu / Urbanica

Mentor: Evgeniya Arefieva

Team: Julia Sekushina (EUSP, St. Petersburg), Elizaveta Demina (SPbGASU), Lyudmila Delarova (SPbGU), Polina Kirienko (NSUADI, Novosibirsk), Nikita Iskhov (SPbGASU).

Urbanica's team, with a strong work with data, explored in detail city flows, routes and points of influence and based the image on the principle of a meander - an urban labyrinth that unfolds a tangle of history or resonates for many quarters around a living space. The concept impresses with the elaboration of scenarios of use: the yard is easily adaptable to different functions, regardless of the time of day, day of the week or season, accepting a variety of categories of events and people.