The environment, which has been forming on the site of the former industrial territories in the northern part of Aptekarsky Island for the last fifteen years, tends to an average European exemplaryness. Despite the data complicating the context - a television tower, pedestrian-unfriendly Medikov Avenue with the Kantemirovsky Bridge junction and the remains of enterprises with chaotic internal buildings - cozy quarters with a strict Petersburg-style planning structure are being formed here. The first violins: the Europe-City residential complex designed by Evgeny Gerasimov and Partners in partnership with SPEECH and nps tchoban voss with memorable ceramic tile facades, as well as the Skandi Klubb residential complex designed in Scandinavian aesthetics. Closer to the embankment, a business cluster has formed, which is still a rarity for new monofunctional residential areas: almost half of this territory is occupied by the River House shopping center, the rest - by Mikhail Mamoshin's Avenue business center, Avenue Apart hotel, again designed by Evgeny Gerasimov, and several medical institutions.
Until recently, this quiet part of the Aptekarsky Island was visited, it seemed, only by employees of Microsoft, whose office is located in the business center "Avenue". Now, thanks to the large-scale construction of housing - to the already mentioned complexes, it is worth adding projects on the opposite bank of the Bolshaya Nevka - the feeling of peripherality has disappeared and the advantages of the place have become obvious: the historical part of the city, the view of the river and the embankment with almost no traffic, large parking lots, high-quality modern architecture.
The coworking cube was the final touch in the design of the Aptekarskaya Embankment from Kantemirovsky Bridge to Lopukhinsky Garden. The building filled the gap between the shopping and business center, giving the ensemble a finished look and breathing life into it thanks to its moderately ironic image.
Evgeny Gerasimov says that the architecture was largely determined by the site. Since the building is sandwiched between two large neighbors, the end walls could not have windows, they were left blank. The main facade, overlooking Bolshaya Nevka, was made memorable and open to the river for obvious reasons. “In order not to get lost, the house had to get a powerful and clear appearance, strong shape, like a mausoleum against the background of the Kremlin wall. He had to jump out of the building like a “picture” from a wall,”explains the architect.
By examining hand-made sketches, you can follow the progress of the creative search. The general form - a brutalist cube with a console - was found already in the first sketches. The "screen", looking at the river, has many options: the facade mesh is enlarged, then stretched by verticals, a game with color is going on, gradually separate volumes of bay windows are isolated from the total mass, which are sometimes combined into groups, then they act separately, at an angle or strictly perpendicular …
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zooming 1/11 Coworking Avenue Page. Preliminary sketches © Evgeny Gerasimov and partners
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zooming 2/11 Coworking Avenue Page. Preliminary sketches © Evgeny Gerasimov and partners
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zooming 3/11 Coworking Avenue Page. Preliminary sketches © Evgeny Gerasimov and partners
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zooming 4/11 Coworking Avenue Page. Preliminary sketches © Evgeny Gerasimov and partners
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zooming 5/11 Coworking Avenue Page. Preliminary sketches © Evgeny Gerasimov and partners
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zooming 6/11 Coworking Avenue Page. Preliminary sketches © Evgeny Gerasimov and partners
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zooming 7/11 Coworking Avenue Page. Preliminary sketches © Evgeny Gerasimov and partners
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zooming 8/11 Coworking Avenue Page. Preliminary sketches © Evgeny Gerasimov and partners
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zooming 9/11 Coworking Avenue Page. Preliminary sketches © Evgeny Gerasimov and partners
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zooming 10/11 Coworking Avenue Page. Preliminary sketches © Evgeny Gerasimov and partners
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zooming 11/11 Coworking Avenue Page. Preliminary sketches © Evgeny Gerasimov and partners
The final version is a regular grid of windows with a sonorous accent of bay windows, or "birdhouses," as Yevgeny Gerasimov himself calls them. Bay windows are arranged in a strict geometric order at a height from the third floor to the penultimate, seventh. The second and eighth floors, as well as the side columns of the windows, form a flat frame for bay windows, while the gallery of the first floor in this context can be compared to an easel tripod. The ceiling of each bay window is also a terrace for the upper floor. The technique is generally simple, but effective: the active plastic of the facade gives the building pulsation and energy, which is quite consistent with the function of the building.
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zooming 1/5 Coworking Avenue Page © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
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zooming 2/5 Coworking Avenue Page © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
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zooming 3/5 Coworking Avenue Page © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
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zooming 4/5 Coworking Avenue Page © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
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zooming 5/5 Coworking Avenue Page © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
Since the architects aimed primarily at a catchy form, they chose neutral colors. The texture and cutting of porcelain stoneware on the main facade imitates wood, the end walls are faced with the same Arkhskin panels, but in a graphite color and with a slate texture. At the ends, large-format panels are glued into metal cassette frames, that is, the surface of the wall was typed like a giant masonry.
Due to the proportions and the chosen color scheme, the coworking space becomes a link that allows uniting the buildings on the embankment into a single ensemble: the cubes of bay windows echo the geometry of the sections between the glass squares of the Avenue business center, and the horizontal divisions correspond to the lines of the shopping center.
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zooming 1/4 Coworking Avenue Page © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
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zooming 2/4 Coworking Avenue Page © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
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zooming 3/4 Coworking Avenue Page © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
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zooming 4/4 Coworking Avenue Page © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
The interiors designed by Designic are inspired by the ideas of the architects. Using shades of primary colors, gray and brown, as a base, they create spaces that are different in spirit: from strict work areas, where nothing interferes with concentration, to ironic meeting rooms stylized as telephone booths and cafeterias that have a pause. The workplaces, obviously, turned out to be comfortable: they have a lot of light, everyone can go out on the terrace to breathe and be distracted by the beautiful view, within one building there is everything you need for both work and leisure.
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zooming 1/3 Coworking Avenue Page. The interiors were developed by the Designic studio © Evgeny Gerasimov and partners
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zooming 2/3 Coworking Avenue Page. The interiors were developed by the Designic studio © Evgeny Gerasimov and partners
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zooming 3/3 Coworking Avenue Page. The interiors were developed by the Designic studio © Evgeny Gerasimov and partners
Another striking detail of the coworking space is the sculpture “Pushing the Wall” by Antonina Fatkhullina. The neighboring business center has a similar symbol, where a bronze manager with a laptop sits on a bench in front of the main entrance. Both objects were installed at the initiative of the customer GK Best.
Avenue Page is the only coworking space in St. Petersburg built from scratch, and also the largest - its area is 5000 m2… The building accommodates a conference room for 40 people, several meeting rooms, a lounge area, a cafe, a view space with a bar on the roof of the building. Open-space offices are located on the second to eighth floors, each accommodating 71 workplaces. Bay windows act as separate offices.
Covoking opened under quarantine conditions in April this year, three floors have already been rented by Russian Post to house the company's IT hub.
See also: Archiblog report by Anna Martovitskaya
