Sergey Oreshkin: "Nowadays, the architects should work more with small-scale sport facilities".

A talk about the specifics of the sports architecture and about the experience of "A.Len" Company in this tricky area of architectural design.

Interviewed by:

Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

06 May 2015

Interview

One can hardly say that Saint Petersburg's sports architecture is booming now. The city's largest sports complex - the Ice Palace of Sports - was opened fifteen years ago, back in 2000. All the other large-scale stadiums are even older: the Sports and Concert Complex "Peterburgsky" was built in 1980, the sports complex "Yubileiny" - back in 1967; in 1994 the city reconstructed the Petrovsky stadium that was built as early as in 1925. The new "Zenith" Stadium at the Krestovsky Island has been in construction for more than ten year now. On the other hand, in this country, the interest for designing and building the so called Sports and Recreation Centers abated still in the nineties. Today, though, as part of "Gasprom to Children" program, in many cities, including the suburbs of Saint Petersburg, sports complexes are being built anew: technically, they are equipped quite well but their facades are faceless to the point of being identical.

We talked to the leader of "A.Len" Sergey Oreshkin about the sports architecture, its specifics and possible prospects. The company's portfolio includes one of Russia's largest roofed water parks (in spite of the fact that this water park belongs in fact to a hotel) named "Waterville", this park actually being the first one to be ever built in Saint Petersburg; "Reebok" sports complex; a multifunctional spa complex at the Veteranov Avenue; the sports complex of Civil Service Academy; the education and training facility of "Zenith" football club; "Platonov Academy of Volleyball" built in 2006, although with considerable changes made to the project that the authors still regret; and a whole number of other sport facilities. Presently, the architects of "A.Len" perform the construction of SKA ice hockey stadium, while last year Sergey Oreshkin and his bureau for the first time took part in the international contest for a badminton-oriented multifunctional sport complex in South Korea, offering a smooth-stroke "hieroglyph" building.

zooming — Project of a sport complex for the district of Dalseong-gun,South Korea © "A.Len" Architectural Bureau

Archi.ru:
- Could you please share about your project of this sports complex in South Korea? Why did you decide to take part in it and what were the main conditions of participation?

Sergey Oreshkin:
- The idea to take part in this contest was suggested to us by our German colleagues. At that time, we worked a lot on various sports facilities; besides, South Korea is a small country but it's quickly developing. We examined the land site and we liked the place - though a bit depressing today, it is still beautiful in its own way, and it has a huge potential: next to it, there is a large federally financed residential complex, and a river, too. Besides, this is a region with a rich history; it's got a lot of sanctuaries and museums in it.

The city wanted to get an interesting bright landmark that would attract everyone's attention. It seemed to us, however, that the contest program significantly digressed from what it was originally meant to be. The world crisis set in; China, that used to build a lot upon the projects of world-class architects, suddenly took the diametrically opposite attitude - against any high-maintenance architecture, for example, Zaha Hadid and other "star" architects. And the Koreans also changed their preferences in favor of functionality, simple "cubes", not to put too fine a point on it. And as for us, we are the advocates of comfortable and context-friendly architecture - if this place does not need an architectural monument, we will not build one here. In that particular case in Korea, however, an architectural monument was exactly what that place needed but ultimately the judging panel opted for the utilitarian "sport goods" warehouse.

To me, this contest was very useful from the ideological standpoint: in this country, we do not design things the way they do over there. The thing is that their buildings are not meant exclusively for sports, you can organize any public event there. The specifications required that a large hall - the size of eight-nine baseball fields - could be used, for a concert, for example.

The contest was won by a Ukrainian project: a simple building with semitransparent walls of milky glass - a decent, sturdy project. To me, however, these walls will not be able to provide the sufficient amount of light, and in sports, particularly in badminton, light is very important and is subject to rigorous regulations.

- Do you think your project is better?

- This is just me, but the winners' projects seemed to me all too "international" and lacking identity. Such buildings could appear just about anywhere. But why build this "interarchitecture"? We tried to approach our project "evolutionally", tried to understand these people's outlook on their lives, tried to find out what had been there at this place in the days past - it was an exciting game of associations. To cap it all, badminton is a "trajectory" sport, the birdie never flies in a straight line, it flies over curved parabolas - which we tried to ultimately get across. I think that our project was executed on a highly professional level.

- Incidentally, how do you think a great sport facility must look, say, in the context of Saint Petersburg?

- We live in a city that has Scandinavia breathing down its neck, and you feel with your skin that this place was populated by the Finns, Karelians, Ingermanlanders, this is a Finno-Ugric land. Again, that's just me but I feel that it all comes down to you doing architecture that is Scandinavian to a certain degree.

On the other hand, it doesn't seem to make much sense to me trying to combine an expensive bent construction of glued wood with a cheap facade, the way we see it on the children's sports complexes that are now being built in Saint Petersburg on Gasprom's money. To me, this looks a bit ineffective. If we are to speak about a family sport school, the kind that they've got at the Veteranov Avenue, it must be first of all a great place to be, one that you would want to come back to - over and over again. And this is the reason why our philosophy here is all about the wood or wood-imitating materials, a zone with a large marquee, i.e. the entrance element where people can meet and maybe have a conversation securely protected from the rain or snow. And then, the function kicks in - the federal authorities write the specifications for us: we want a skating rink, a swimming pool, and a universal gym - the way it was with the sport school in Sosnovaya Polyana. Essentially, this is an all-purpose gym that anyone can do sports in, including people of limited mobility. It was a great idea, and, I hope we quite succeeded in implementing it.

Before that, we had a few go's - we designed a lot for "Zenith" football club, then, also, "Petrotrust" club also ordered something. And then this ice-hockey club came to us, which meant a real large-size commission, so, we have been building this SKA club for three years now. With that project, we do everything there: landscape design, geodesic survey, and exclusive architecture; we also work a lot with the suppliers and do the interior designs as well.

- The project of this SKA sport complex won the tender but then it was significantly redone. Why and in which ways did it change?

- In our contest project, we wanted to convey the feeling of motion: how an ice hockey player moves about the field, how a hockey stick looks like, what stance he is in when on the attack. Turned out, there are lots of curved lines, so what we ultimately got was curved architecture that consisted of intertwining lamellae. There were also the vertical lamellae - the glowing panels, each one of which could display different motifs. At the end of the day, the customer said that, because thus building is all "skewed and lopsided" it would be very high maintenance.

Then we came up with a different idea: let it be a huge chunk of ice, with traversing side cuts in it. The result was cubic architecture, a very simple constructivist thing based on the ideas of avant-garde of the twenties. What made our project different, though, was a fair share of symbolism in it: ice blade trails, trajectories of the hockey puck, and so on. We proposed to start off with the most basic girder construction but we wanted to draw it all beautiful and use the ceramics as the finishing material for the facade.

- What do you think makes designing sports facilities different from other kinds of architecture - how much more difficult are they, for example, than shopping centers?

- Ten times as difficult. You need at least four venues of different types, and this puts a lot of requirements on ventilation, especially when it comes to the skating ice. I only know a handful of people in Russia who are capable of making correct plans of refrigeration of the ice and routing the cold supply to it. It is very difficult to support the constant ice temperature while the temperature outside is constantly changing, plus the people who come to the competition also emanate a huge amount of warmth in uneven portions, especially when the spectators seats are not evenly distributed.

There are a lot of subtleties here - the sound, the light, and many more. Plus, the possibilities of today's television also put forth a lot of challenging requirements. There is a growing tendency for using the Full-HD format but in order to make the most of it you need to do the filming in a certain place, put up the lights of specific wattage and type, and they must be oriented in different directions too. You need to keep all these things in mind. The postgame interviews can only be taken in the zones with the correct light, and the reporter that takes the interview must not have access to the locker room - this may sound like a little thing but it's really important. Another important consideration is the acoustic properties of the premises - there must not be so much as a hint at echo.

- In which way do you as an architect want to develop within the framework of this genre? Do you dream of building your own stadium one day?

- Building a stadium is not very much of an exciting prospect, to be quite honest. It's all about standardization now; the "clew" theme has already been used by Herzog & de Meuron, the "bubble" theme - "Alliance Arena" is also history now. Inventing something entirely new is very difficult in view of the fact that a stadium is a very large architectural edifice with its shell mounted directly upon the function that in fact sets the configuration of the building. Meaning - the very genre has too little of a resource to it, it must accumulate it before customers finally get fed up with these crates and buckets.

Today, one would be doing the right thing working with small-scale facilities - designing the small sports objects or even the outdoor gyms - there are few companies that do that. The option for your very own neighborhood! Perhaps, one could think of designing a very stylish, top-quality "designer" gym - the all-purpose kind that you can attach to any senior or junior high school. We did quite a handsome project, the "Baltic States style" kind, and for a long time we tried to pull it through the city council board. We ultimately got some response - it was after that struggle that we got the commission for the project of a sport school in Sosnovaya Polyana.

It would be interesting to do a project for Gasprom or Rosneft - instead of the "brokeback" stilted architecture that we see almost everywhere now, we could come up with a comfortable thought-out space that is great to be in. We want to do an object with an environment that people will feel like caring about in the years to come.

06 May 2015

Interviewed by:

Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

Headlines now

Object

New Aeroflot Office: Lightness, Play, Comfort

Even if you have no plans to fly with Aeroflot anytime soon, their new office at 2A 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street is still worth a visit for its interior design alone.

Object

Centipede Town

The new school campus designed by ATRIUM Architects, located on the shores of a protected lake in the Imeretian Lowland Ornithological Reserve, represents an important and ambitious undertaking for the team: this is not just a school, but a Presidential Lyceum for the comprehensive development of gifted children – 2,500 students from age 3 through high school. At the same time, it is also envisioned as a new civic hub for the entire Sirius territory. In this article, we unpack the structure and architecture of this “lyceum town”.

Object

Warm Black and White

The second phase of “Quarter 31”, designed by KPLN and built in the Moscow suburb town of Pushkino, reveals a multifaceted character. At first glance, the complex appears to be defined by geometry and a monochrome palette. But a closer look reveals a number of “irregular” details: a gradient of glazing and flared window frames, a hierarchy of façades, volumetric brickwork, and even architectural references to natural phenomena. We explore all the rules – and exceptions – that we were able to discover here.

Object

Skylights and Staircase

Photos from March show the nearly completed headquarters of FSK Group on Shenogina Street. The building’s exterior is calm and minimalist; the interior is engaging and multi-layered. The conical skylights of the executive office, cast in raw concrete, and the sweeping spiral staircase leading to it, are particularly striking. In fact, there’s more than one spiral staircase here, and the first two floors effectively form a small shopping center. More below.

Object

The Whale of Future Identity

Or is it a veil? Or a snow-covered plain? Vera Butko, Anton Nadtochy, and the architects of ATRIUM faced a complex and momentous task: to propose a design for the “Russia” National Center. It had to be contemporary, yet firmly rooted in cultural codes. Unique, and yet subtly reminiscent of many things at once. It must be said – the task found the right authors. Let’s explore in detail the image they envisioned.

Object

Greater Altai: A Systemic Development Plan

The master plan for tourism development in Greater Altai encompasses three regions: Kuzbass, the Altai Republic, and Altai Krai. It is one of twelve projects developed as part of the large-scale state program bearing the simple name of “Tourism Development”. The project’s slogan reads: “Greater Altai – a place of strength, health, and spirit in the very heart of Siberia”. What are the proposed growth points, and how will the plan help increase the flow of both domestic and international tourists? Read on to find out.

Object

The Colorful City

While working on a large-scale project in Moscow’s Kuntsevo district – one that has yet to be given a name – Kleinewelt Architekten proposed not only a diverse array of tower silhouettes in “Empire-style” hues and a thoughtful mix of building heights, creating a six-story “neo-urbanist” city with a block-based layout at ground level, but also rooted their design in historical and contextual reasoning. The project includes the reconstruction of several Stalin-era residential buildings that remain from the postwar town of Kuntsevo, as well as the reconstruction of a 1953 railway station that was demolished in 2017.

Object

In Orbit of Moscow City

The Orbital business center is both simple and complex. Simple in its minimalist form and optimal office layout solution: a central core, a light-filled façade, plenty of glass; and from the unusual side – a technical floor cleverly placed at the building’s side ends. Complex – well, if only because it resembles a celestial body hovering on metallic legs near Magistralnaya Street. Why this specific shape, what it consists of, and what makes this “boutique” office building (purchased immediately after its completion) so unique – all of this and more is covered in our story.

Object

The Altai Ornament

The architectural company Empate has developed the concept for an eco-settlement located on a remote site in Altai. The master plan, which resembles a traditional ornament or even a utopian city, forms a clear system of public and private spaces. The architects also designed six types of houses for the settlement, drawing inspiration from the region’s culture, folklore, and vernacular building practices.

Object

Pro Forma

Photos have emerged of the newly completed whisky distillery in Chernyakhovsk, designed by TOTEMENT / PAPER – a continuation of their earlier work on the nearby Cognac Museum. From what is, in essence, a merely technical and utilitarian volume and space, the architects have created a fully-fledged theatre of impressions. Let’s take a closer look. We highly recommend a visit to what may look like a factory, but is in fact an experiment in theatricalizing the process of strong spirit production – and not only that, but also of “pure art”, capable of evolving anywhere.

Object

The Arch and the Triangle

The new Stone Mnevniki business center by Kleinewelt Architekten – designed for the same client as their projects in Khodynka – bears certain similarities to those earlier developments, but not entirely. In Mnevniki, there are more angular elements, and the architects themselves describe the project as being built on contrast. Indeed, while the first phase contains subtle references to classical architecture – light touches like arches, both upright and inverted, evoking the spirit of the 1980s – the second phase draws more distantly on the modernism of the 1970s. What unites them is a boldly expressive public space design, a kaleidoscope of rays and triangles.

Object

Health Factory

While working on a wellness and tourist complex on the banks of the Yenisei River, the architects at Vissarionov Studio set out to create healing spaces that would amplify the benefits of nature and medical treatments for both body and soul. The spatial solutions are designed to encourage interaction between the guests and the landscape, as well as each other.

Object

The Blooming Mechanics of a Glass Forest

The Savvinskaya 27 apartment complex built by Level Group, currently nearing completion on an elongated riverfront site next to the Novodevichy Convent, boasts a form that’s daring even by modern Moscow standards. Visually, it resembles the collaborative creation of a glassblower and a sculptor: a kind of glass-and-concrete jungle, rhythmically structured yet growing energetically and vividly. Bringing such an idea to life was by no means an easy task. In this article, we discuss the concept by ODA and the methods used by APEX architects to implement it, along with a look at the building’s main units and detailing.

Object

Grace and Unity

Villa “Grace”, designed by Roman Leonidov’s studio and built in the Moscow suburbs, strikes a balance between elegant minimalism and the expansive gestures of the Russian soul. The main house is conceived as a sequence of four self-contained volumes – each could exist independently, yet it chooses to be part of a whole. Unity is achieved through color and a system of shared spaces, while the rich plasticity of the forms – refined throughout the construction process – compensates for the near-total absence of decorative elements.

Object

Daring Brilliance

In this article, we are exploring “New Vision”, the first school built in the past 25 years in Moscow’s Khamovniki. The building has three main features: it is designed in accordance with the universal principles of modern education, fostering learning through interaction and more; second, the façades combine structural molded glass and metallic glazed ceramics – expensive and technologically advanced materials. Third, this is the school of Garden Quarters, the latest addition to Moscow’s iconic Khamovniki district. Both a costly and, in its way, audacious acquisition, it carries a youthful boldness in its statement. Let’s explore how the school is designed and where the contrasts lie.

Object

A Twist of the Core

A clever and concise sculptural solution – rotating each floor by N degrees – has created an ensemble of “dancing” towers: similar yet different, simple yet complex. The designers meticulously refined a single structural node and spent considerable effort on the column construction – after that, “everything else was easy”. The architects also rotated the core walls on each floor to maximize the efficiency of the office spaces.

Object

The Sculpting of Spring Forest Matter

We’ve been observing this building for a couple of years now: seemingly simple, perhaps even unassuming, it fits in remarkably well with the micro-district context shaped by the Moscow MCD road junctions. This building sticks in the memory of everyone who drives along the highway, even occasionally. In our opinion, Sergey Nikeshkin, by blending popular architectural techniques and approaches of the 2010s, managed to turn a seemingly simple structure into a statement “on the theme of a house as such”. Let’s figure out how this happened.

Object

Water and Wind Whet the Stone

The Arisha Terraces residential complex, designed by Asadov Architects, will be built in a district of Dubai dedicated to film and television production. To create shaded spaces and an intriguing silhouette, the architects opted for a funnel-shaped composition and nature-inspired forms of erosion and weathering. The roofs, podium, and underground spaces extend leisure opportunities within the boundaries of a man-made “oasis”.

Object

Elevation 5642

The Genplan Institute of Moscow has developed a comprehensive development project for three ski resorts in the Caucasus, which have been designated as special economic zones of the tourism and recreation type. The first of these zones is Elbrus. The project includes the construction of new ski runs, cable cars, and hotels, as well as the modernization of stations and improvements to the Azau tourist meadow. To expand the audience and enhance year-round appeal, a network of eco-trails is also being developed. In this article, we provide a detailed breakdown of each stage.

Object

The IT Town

Taking the example of the first completed phase of the “U” district, we examine how the new neighborhood in Innopolis will be organized. T+T Architects and HADAA formed a well-balanced and ingenious master plan with different types of housing, a green artery, a system of squares, and a park in the town’s central part.

Object

The Heart Lies Within

The second-phase building of the Evgeny Primakov School already won multiple awards while still in the design stage. Now that it’s completed, some unfinished nuances remain – most notably, the exposed ceiling structures, which ideally should have been concealed. However, given the priority placed on the building’s volumetric composition, this does not seem critical. What matters more is the “Wow!” effect created by the space itself.

Object

Magnetic Forces

“Krylatskaya 33” is the first large-scale residential complex to appear amidst the 1980s “micro-districts” that harmoniously coexist with the forests, the river, the slopes, and the sports infrastructure. Despite its imposing scale, the architects of Ostozhenka managed to turn the complex into something that can be best described as a “graceful dominant”. First, they designed the complex with consideration for the style and height of the surrounding micro-districts. Second, by introducing a pause in its tallest section, they created compositional tension – right along the urban planning axis of the area.

Object

Orion’s Belt

The Stone Khodynka 2 office complex, designed by Kleinewelt Architekten for the company Stone, is built with an ergonomic layout following “healthy building” principles: natural light, ventilation, and all the necessary features for an efficient office environment. On the outside, it resembles – like many contemporary buildings – an iPhone: sleek, glowing, glass-and-metal, edges elegantly rounded. Yet, it responds sensitively to the Khodynka context, where the main theme is the contrast between vertical and horizontal lines. The key intrigue lies in the design of the “stylobate” as a suspended passage, leaving the space beneath it open for free pedestrian movement.

Interview

Grigory Revzin: “It Was a Bold Statement Made on the Sly. Something Won”

In this article, we discuss the debates surrounding the circus competition and the demolition of the CMEA building with the most renowned architectural critic of our time. A paradox emerges in the process: while nostalgia for the Brezhnev era seems to be in vogue in Russia, a landmark building – the “axis” of the Warsaw Pact – has been sentenced to demolition. Isn’t that strange? We also find out that wow-architecture has made a comeback as a post-COVID trend. However, to make a truly powerful statement, professionals still remain indispensable.

Object

Exposed Concrete

One of the stages of improving a small square in the town of Lermontov was the construction of a skatepark. Entrusting this part of the project to the XSA team, the city gained a 250-meter trick track whose features resemble those of land art objects – unparalleled in Russia in both scale and design. Here’s a look at how the experimental snake run in the foothills of the Caucasus was built.

Object

One Step Closer To the Dream

The challenges of getting all the mandatory approvals, an insufficient budget, and construction site difficulties did not prevent ASADOV Bureau from achieving its main goal in the realization of the school project in the town of Troitsk – taking another step away from outdated notions of educational spaces toward creating a fundamentally new academic environment.

Object

Chalet on the Rock

An Accor hotel in Arkhyz, designed by A.Len, will be situated at the gateway to the resort’s main tourist hubs. The architects reinterpreted the widely popular chalet style while adding an unexpected twist – an unfinished structure preserved on the site. The design team transformed this remnant into an exciting space featuring an open-air pool and a restaurant with panoramic views of the region’s highest mountain ridges.

Interview

Sergey Skuratov: “By and large, the project has been realized in line with the original ideas”

In this issue, we talk to the chief architect of Garden Quarters, looking back at the history and key moments of a project that took 18 years to develop and has now finally been completed. What interests us most are the transformations that the project underwent during construction, and the way the “necessary void” of public space was formed, which turned this remarkable complex into a fragment of a whole new type of urban fabric – not just at the horizontal “street” level but in its vertical structure as well.

Object

A Unique Representative

The recently concluded year 2024 can be considered the year of completion for the “Garden Quarters” residential complex in Moscow’s Khamovniki. This project is well-known and, in many ways, iconic. Rarely does one manage to preserve such a number of original ideas, achieving in the end a kind of urban planning Gesamtkunstwerk. Here is a subjective view from an architecture journalist, with an interview with Sergey Skuratov soon to follow.

Object

Field of Life

The new project by the architectural company PNKB (an acronym for “Design, Research, and Advisory Bureau”), led by Sergey Gnedovsky and Anton Lyubimkin, for the Kulikovo Field Museum is dedicated to the field as a concept in its own right. The field has long been a focus of the museum’s thorough and successful research. Accordingly, the exterior of the new museum building is gentler than that of its predecessor, which was also designed by PNKB and dedicated specifically to the historic battle. Inside, however, the building confidently guides the visitor from a luminous atrium along a spiral path to the field – interpreted here as a field of life.