Trade and office complex near the metro station "Pionerskaya"
St. Petersburg, Prospect Ispytateley, building 2, building 6
Designer: JSC "LENNIIPROEKT", Workshop No. 6
Customer: LLC "MEGALIT-OKHTA GROUP"
Discussed: architectural and town-planning appearance
The area around the Pionerskaya metro station is often called "Shanghai": for high-rise residential complexes, for the bright signs of three shopping malls, for powerful car traffic, public transport streams, rivers of people, power lines, spontaneous street trading, musicians, beggars - all this is possible take a look at almost any time of the day, leaving the subway.
The already densely populated area continues to thicken: not so long ago a business center was put into operation, the Megalit residential complex is being built, the Hollywood shopping and entertainment center the size of MEGA is about to begin, a high-rise area has long been fenced in, where they plan to do something offices, then a hotel. It is hard to imagine what awaits Bogatyrsky Prospekt and Prospect Ispytateley, which can be freely driven only at night, after the new settlers receive the keys to the apartments and the retail and office areas find tenants.
The multifunctional center presented at the City Council is part of the Megalit residential complex under construction. On the one hand, it loads and compacts the microdistrict even more, on the other hand, it makes its contribution to the polycentric model of St. Petersburg. The area around the Pionerskaya metro station is becoming more and more like an independent city, from where you don't have to leave (you won't leave anyway) - there are jobs, a large Udelny park, shops and entertainment, a church and a mosque, a theater, a little
cultural heritage. The social and urban environment is extremely diverse, although the cultural function is obviously sagging, and the spirit of spontaneity rather than thoughtful planning hovers over all processes.
So, there is a triangular section, the hypotenuse and a long leg of which are formed by two avenues, traffic on the verge of a transport collapse, a dense urban environment and a residential complex next door. Mikhail Sarri called the site a gift of fate and at the same time recognized its complexity: the workshop has been struggling with a task since 2008, when the draft design of the entire residential quarter was developed. Later, the altitude regulations changed, and in 2014 the territory planning project was approved.
The building plan follows the shape of the site, and its spatial and volumetric characteristics are largely dependent on the insolation norms. The building can be roughly divided into two parts: a wedge and a ziggurat. In a narrow part, it gains height, turning into a "house-iron" or "house-wall" - a similar angle, by the way, has another local
Business center "Commonwealth". In the wide part, the volume splits into many terraces. The complex configuration is emphasized by the façade mesh, which transforms the building into a megastructure. Michal Sarri said that the image was created under the influence of the ideas of Lazar Khidekel, the Vitebsk school of the avant-garde and Suprematism in general.
The building is multifunctional. The entire first floor will be occupied by trade, the sports center will be completely isolated, and b about Most of the premises are used as offices. Parking is a significant part of the project. Some of them - 1345 places, are intended for residents of "Megalit". The issue of parking, in fact, was devoted to most of the further discussions.
The parking lots in the complex are varied and sophisticated: open and underground, with a classic ramp, with an elevator and a carousel, automatic three-story, for long-term storage and for routine shopping. Experts considered them too complicated: in order to somehow regulate the queues in elevators and cells, you will need a traffic light system, valets and schedules,and too narrow passages and difficult exit trajectories will increase driver stress levels to critical levels. It is best to quote Alexander Karpov here: "As an inveterate car hater, I should support the project, there has not been a decision that humiliates motorists for a long time." The reason the conventional ramps were rejected is that they are too large.
Another controversial point is the formality of the norms for the number of parking spaces. The representative of the customer explained that in total there will be space for 4,000 cars on the territory of the complex, of which only 300 have been sold so far. Accordingly, the queues to enter the parking lot will be less than it seems. Parking lots, which take up a significant amount of space, but are only used by 10%, do not evoke any feelings other than frustration.
There were other comments: rough drawing of facades, narrow fire passages, lack of exits to green terraces, lack of accent that would allow the building to be viewed as a local dominant. Despite this, many experts supported the project. Mikhail Mamoshin called the complex "a theater of geometric figures", congratulated everyone on the fact that "the cultural cuisine is working", and was glad to bring the Petersburg identity to the new architecture. Oleg Romanov supported: "the complex does not look like a painted box, it is individual, and this is rarely found in new buildings." Mikhail Kondiain agreed that "without a sharp dominant, the semicircular wall of the residential complex will look lonely" and expressed the hope that the super-graphics of the facades will be implemented in the same form as intended.
Vladimir Grigoriev offered his conclusions: it will be difficult even for an experienced driver to park in such a complex, the building should be accentuated, and the dryness of office architecture should be opposed by developed landscaping.
