Business-park as a wall

This business park concept for Ufa is like an element of some huge compound wall, that includes various volumes united with a long atrium.

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina, Natalia Koriakovskaia

28 February 2008

Object

Firm:

iCube Architectura

Object:

Project of territory development, Ufa. Business park with residential complex. Architectural concept
Russia, Ufa

Project Team:
the authors of the project:
Art director: Sergey Avetisov
Architect: Ekaterina Lubavskaya

6.2007 — 7.2007

Business park typology is a new and trendy theme of modern architecture, popular in its most costly and prestigious sphere – office construction for huge and well-established companies that rent the whole buildings. This was the subject of a recent concept by architectural studio iCube – a business-park in Ufa. Not only B+ class business centre will be here, but a sport and entertainment complex, hypermarket, hotel, congress-centre as well as 100 cottages settlement.

In search for the key idea of the general layout the authors considered peculiarities of the site. This is a green territory of 50 ha, that is near the cross of railroad and a highway Ufa-airport. The complex is far enough from both to arrange a car parking and convenient entering to underground one. But they are not distant enough to make comfortable life for owners of the cottages. Architectures suggested uniting different parts of the giant complex into a single structure and stretch it along the roads, like a screen. So buildings of the business park become a buffer that isolates future cottages from the existing settlement.

The complex is a long construction with the two wings along the railroad and the highway. The corner that marks their crossing and “break” in the line of the main construction, is fixed with the 23storey tower (not very high for the whole composition) faced with white and orange “pixels” of facade panels that alternate with chaotically spread windows. Colorful skin covers also a part of the “long” volume. The giant stretched building is joined by single atrium, which is the main communication line of the entire complex – according to the project it will connect all the parts of the business-park.

Then, the architects step back from the common today typology. The fact is that usually a business-park consists of buildings placed on a site – a kind of a business town. And here buildings of different purpose are not placed separately from each other, but almost stick, like flies to amber, into the long body of the main volume. The most interesting part of the “collection” is the rectangular 4storey chest that is almost imitating a huge variant of leather covering with very large upholstery nails. With blackness and strictness it contrasts with angular biomorpheness of the rest. Among the collection-mates of the building-chest there are volumes of different geometry shapes: triangle, oval, asymmetrical hexahedron – almost all are of glass, but the oval is covered by small (probably metal) net.

There shapes a peculiar volume-sculptural herbarium which idea echoes with the facades of the business construction on Nametkin street (also designed by iCube), we have recently told about it. But also the image resembles a fortress wall of a medieval town, and constructions of various character and periods have stuck to it. But the “wall” is much huger and had initially been designed compound. The orange tower in the middle of the composition maintains the analogy.

Firm:

iCube Architectura

Object:

28 February 2008

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