Palazzo on the Krestovsky Island

Eugene Gerasimov continues his "Italian series" on Saint Petersburg’s Krestovsky Island. Following the "Venice" house, the construction of "Verona" started that combines the features of a country residence and a city palace of the Renaissance epoch.

Written by:
Lilya Aronova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

19 June 2015

Object

Architect:

Firm:

Evgeniy Gerasimov & partners http://www.egp.spb.ru/

It is common knowledge that, until the late XIX century, the Krestovsky Island was considered the place where the lower classes came to have a rest, these swamps being unattractive for the more sophisticated people. Today, the people of Saint Petersburg take this fact as a historical anecdote: today, the island is getting overbuilt with residential complexes of premium class, the price of square meter in them being one of the highest in the city. Eugene Gerasimov is the pioneer of this process - his complex "Green Garden" was put into operation in the year of 2000, and, during the next decade, his studio implemented a number of other brilliant projects on this island. Today, the process of building the high-profile real property at the "green gem of Saint Petersburg" has slowed down a bit, there are almost no suitable land plots left anymore, so "Verona" designed by Eugene Gerasimov (its construction is now beginning on the Morskoy Avenue) has every chance of becoming the last new elite-class residential complexes to be built here, thus beautifully closing the historical circle.

zooming — Location Plan © Eugene Gerasimov and Partners

The complex will be built at Morskoy Avenue 29, in the place of the recently-demolished constructivist building that consisted in fact of twelve units of the Krestovsky residential area. The land plot is handled by the corporation "Revival of Saint Petersburg" that, capitalizing on the success of the recently built neighboring "Venice", has continued the cooperation with the bureau "Eugene Gerasimov and Partners". This is not the only sign of the continuity: as the stylistic centerpiece, the architects again chose the image of Italian Renaissance palazzo, and, in their search of the selling name they did not even cross the border of the Veneto region - the future house got the name of "Verona". Incidentally, this complex will become a third "palazzo" in Eugene Gerasimov's portfolio: the first and the most high-profile one is the project of a hotel at the Ostrovsky Square, next to the "Alexandrinka". This is quite a natural archetype for Saint Petersburg, a city whose connection with the Italian architecture hardly needs any proof.

So, what is a Renaissance palazzo all about, or, in this particular case, its Roman variety? First of all, it is about a closed perimeter whose facades are notable for their austerity and laconism, while the main human activity is concentrated in the courtyard. From today's standpoint, such stuffiness would have probably felt inconvenient in the close-knit array of the houses adjoining to one another but, surrounded by the large and small parks of the Krestovsky Island - 60% of it is woodland - this separately standing building looks a bit different, pretty much like the outpost of the city. This effect is also strengthened by the design solution of the facade opened to the island's main thoroughfare - the Morskoy Avenue. The clearly expressed hierarchy of the main facade versus the side ones, built with the help of the classic architectural lexicon, is enhanced by the choice of the materials, so expressive that it alone would have sufficed to show who is the boss here. The Morskoy Avenue facade is completely coated with opaque light-beige plaster, while the sides of the building, on the other hand, are decorated with rather dull decoration bricks, only inheriting from the main façade's grandeur the exquisite (and at times not really exquisite) numerous details: the window casing moulds, the frontons, and the floor-to-floor pull rods. The combination of the red-brown brick and the light-colored natural stone again refers us to the epoch of the Italian Renaissance - in particular, to the belfry of the Venetian church San Giorgio in Maggiore, the one that Eugene himself names as his source of inspiration for this project.

This is here that some interesting nuances begin. The building, particularly when viewed from a distance, looks not so much as a belfry as the whole San Giorgio: a quick glance catches the magnitude, the contrast of brick and stone, as well as the large portico whose fluted Corinthian semi-columns unite four floors. When viewed from afar, it produces quite a Venetian, even Palladian, impression - it is this feeling that the light-colored stone façades of Andrea Palladio create being applied to the stone giants of those churches. But then again, not only its façades produce this impression: the representative plastic applied to the massive brick volume waiting for its hour, almost undecorated or but partially decorated, is the frequent impression that the Italian churches produce. And not only churches - a similar combination of some slightly inert brick and some ostentatiously organized stone i.e. subjected to some specific architectural order, is to be often encountered in the city gates that were "applied" in the XVI century to the earlier-built brick city walls. If, following the realtors' selling name, we are to take a look at Verona, we will find in it two similar gates built by Palladio's contemporary Michele San Michele.

So, the effect of a Renaissance facade applied to the building, is captured rather accurately here. Later on, however, we notice that the proportions are significantly stretched here, the frieze between the capitals and the fronton has grown to the size of a whole floor, and the rock face basement floor consists in fact of two levels. The space between the columns got a semicircular "thermal window", the sign of architecture of the times of Napoleon wars and of even later days, while the gusts of the columns are fluted, which we will not find in Palladio's architecture, this also being a feature of a later architecture, on the one side, still more oriented on the antique examples, and, on the other hand, "burdened" by the new scale and magnitude... Further on, we notice that the façade has in it yet another theme, namely, that of Saint Petersburg, given to it by the "flattened" background - it is through this very theme that the portico grows forward. The rock-face that unites the third and fourth floors is not of the Renaissance type, but rather, of the local Saint Petersburg kind; it looks more reminiscent of the "Twelve Collegia" building (correction: this does not make it any less Italian because "Twelve Collegia" was built by Trezzini, an Italian architect). Higher up, the flat pilasters unite not four but three floors, thus missing a beat and highlighting the mutual shift of the basis and the center. And, finally, the small entrance stanza, framed by the close-knit array of columns of the Tuscan order, definitely reminds us of the northern Saint Petersburg Art Nouveau: at this point we notice that the vertical composition of triple windows built on top of it belongs to the Silver Age alone, while the empire thermal window was probably inspired by the passéisme of the early XX century. This is a tribute to the context: maybe not the best, not the kind that there is at the Kamenny Island, but a few samples of Art Nouveau are still to be found here on the Krestovsky Island. So the façade is pretty sophisticated - at least three themes are superimposed on one another both geometrically and in space; on the periphery of one's mind, there is also a lurking thought of the Celsus Library, and the shadow of the Stalin architecture, the almost inevitable companion of any Russian experiments with the classics, is also persistently there, although it is not really strong in this project - for the exception of some influences of Mussolini experiments that one can discern on the side facades, still softened by the "medieval" mullioned windows.

The house also got a not really important but a very curious town-planning role. The buildings of the Krestovsky Island that surround it, are predominantly of the "Moscow style" type, spaced out rather freely and at some places even haphazardly. The two houses designed by Eugene Gerasimov - "Venice" and "Verona" - look quite aristocratic among these no-ceremony things. "We deliberately placed the main facade parallel to the thoroughfare's red line: thanks to this solution, the building turned into a small "quarter" building that enhances the planning structure of this area" - explains the chief architect of the project Oleg Kaverin. Indeed, both houses "hold the line", one of the avenue, the other of the embankment, and signify the lines of the streets. It is really a treat to watch just how uptight these two houses are while all the others are just taking a stroll. Besides, in spite of the earlier mentioned presence of several conceptual and plastic layers, both houses are notable for the palpable cohesiveness of their composition and graceful and certain proportions - this is a whole new level of treating the traditions of classical architecture. The two houses rhyme and echo one another, and even look like the "agents of influence" of the urban culture of the new type in the "country-club" atmosphere of the elite Krestovsky Island.

It is planned that the inside yard will be tile-paved and places will be found for the lawn and the small architectural forms; the yard facades will be decorated with large slabs of ceramic granite of the same light-beige tone as the coating stone of the main facade. The theme of the Italian classics will be supported by the decoration of the entrance lobby: the architects plan to install here the same kind of columns as near the entrance on the outside - they will highlight the direction of the building's main axis. The color palette will be reigned by the exquisite tone of the light plaster (all the floors and walls are exclusively decorated with natural stone).

Eugene Gerasimov is an exceptionally versatile architect. He is not really comfortable within the rigid limits of one specific style, and he has equal interest for today's architecture, and for the new interpretation of the classic traditions. As far as architectural historicism is concerned, Eugene Gerasimov's attitude to it is respectful but not doting: "The time of joking around on the historical subjects is gone" - he says. The clear-cut and laconic project of the building on the Morskoy Avenue is a great example of the modern interpretation of the classical tradition. With no hidden irony, quite serious.

Architect:

Firm:

Evgeniy Gerasimov & partners http://www.egp.spb.ru/

19 June 2015

Written by:

Lilya Aronova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

Headlines now

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.

Object

A Paper Clip above the River

In this article, we talk with Vitaly Lutz from the Genplan Institute of Moscow about the design and unique features of the pedestrian bridge that now links the two banks of the Yauza River in the new cluster of Bauman Moscow State Technical University (MSTU). The bridge’s form and functionality – particularly the inclusion of an amphitheater suspended over the river – were conceived during the planning phase of the territory’s development. Typically, this approach is not standard practice, but the architects advocate for it, referring to this intermediate project phase as the “pre-AGR” stage (AGR stands for Architectural and Urban Planning Approval). Such a practice, they argue, helps define key parameters of future projects and bridge the gap between urban planning and architectural design.

Review

Living in the Architecture of One’s Own Making

Do architects design houses for themselves? You bet! In this article, we are examining a new book by TATLIN publishing house. This book – unprecedented for Russia – features 52 private homes designed and built by contemporary architects for themselves. It includes houses that are famous, even iconic, as well as lesser-known ones; large and small, stylish and eccentric. To some extent, the book reflects the history of Russian architecture over the past 30 years.

Object

A City Block Isoline

Another competition project for a residential complex on the banks of the Volga in Nizhny Novgorod has been prepared by Studio 44. A team of architects led by Ivan Kozhin concluded that using a regular block layout in such a location would be inappropriate and developed a “custom design” approach: a chain of parceled multi-section buildings stretching along the entire embankment. Let’s explore the features and advantages of this unconventional method.

Report

Competition: The Price of Creativity?

Any day now, we’re expecting the results of a competition held by the “Samolet” development group for a plot in Kommunarka. In the meantime, we share the impressions of Editor-in-Chief Julia Tarabarina, who managed to conduct a public talk. Though technically focused on the interaction between developers and architects, the public talk turned into a discussion about the pros and cons of architectural competitions.

Object

Terraced Design

The “River Park” residential complex has confidently and securely shaped the Nagatinsky Backwater shoreline. Featuring a public embankment, elevated courtyards connected by pedestrian bridges, and brick façades, the development invites exploration of its nuanced response to the surrounding context, as well as hints of the architects’ megalithic design thinking.

A Kremlin’s Core and Meteorite Fragments

We continue our coverage of the competition projects for the residential district that the development company GloraX plans to build along the embankment of the Rowing Channel in Nizhny Novgorod. ASADOV Architects approached the concept through a deep dive into local identity, using storytelling to pinpoint a central idea for the design: the master plan and composition are imagined as if a meteorite had struck a “proto-Kremlin”. Sounds weird? Find more details below!

Contest Results

The Volga Regatta

GloraX plans to develop a residential complex spanning 14 hectares along the Volga River in Nizhny Novgorod. The winning design in a closed-door competition, created by GORA Architects, features housing typologies ranging from townhouses to terraced high-rise slabs, a balance of functions, diverse ways of engaging with the water, and even a dedicated island (no less!) for the city residents.

Object

Life Plans

The master plan for the residential district “Prityazheniye” (“Gravity”) in Naberezhnye Chelny was developed by the architectural company A.Len, taking into account the specific urban planning context and partially implemented solutions of the first phase. However, the master plan prioritized its own values: a green framework, a system of focal points, a hierarchy of spaces, and pedestrian priority. After this, the question of what residents will do in their neighborhood simply doesn’t arise.

Object

A New Track

We took a thorough look at D_Station, a railcar repair depot dating back to 1906, recently reconstructed while preserving its century-old industrial structure, upon the project by Sergey Trukhanov and T+T Architects. Though work on the interiors – set to house restaurants and public spaces – is still underway, the building’s exterior already offers plenty to see. Visitors can explore the blend of old and new brickwork, appreciate the architect’s unique interpretation of ruin aesthetics, and enjoy the newly built pedestrian route that connects the Citydel Business Center’s arches to Kazakova Street.

Report

Four Different Surveys

The “Explore the City” competition, organized this year by the Genplan Institute of Moscow, stands out as a pretty unconventional one for the architectural field but aligns perfectly well with the character of urban planning work. The winning project analyzed contemporary residential complexes, combining urban planning insights with a realtor’s perspective to propose a hybrid approach. Other entries explored public centers, motivations for car ownership, and housing vacancy rates. A fifth participant withdrew. Here’s a closer look at the four completed works.

Report

Scheduled Evolution

ASADOV Architects unveiled the EvyCenter pavilion, a microcultural hub for fostering personal growth, organizing workshops, and doing gymnastics. Additionally, this pavilion serves as a prototype for a scalable country house, drawing inspiration from the “Loskutok” project, and constructed from CLT panels in a factory. This marks the beginning of a developer project initiated by the architectural firm (sic!), which is seeking partners to expand both small Evy settlements and even larger Evy cities, which are, according to Andrey Asadov, aimed at fostering the “evolutionary” development of the people who will inhabit them.

Object

The Golden Crown

The concept for a dental clinic in Yekaterinburg, developed by CNTR Studio, revolves around the idea of a “mouth full of gold”: pristine white porcelain stoneware walls are complemented by matte brass details. To avoid an overly literal interpretation, the architects focused on the building’s proportions, skillfully navigating between sunlight requirements and fire safety regulations.

News

Flexibility and Integration

Not long ago, we covered the project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential complex, designed by APEX. Now, we’ve been shown different fence concepts they developed to enclose the complex’s private courtyards, incorporating a variety of public functions. We believe that the sheer fact that the complex’s architects were involved in such a detail as fencing speaks volumes.

Object

A Step Forward

The HIDE residential complex represents a major milestone for ADM architects and their leaders Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova in their quest for a fresh high-rise aesthetic – one that is flexible and layered, capable of bringing vibrancy to mass and silhouette while shaping form. Over recent years, this approach has become ADM’s “signature style”, with the golden HIDE tower playing a pivotal role in its evolution. Here, we delve into the project’s story, explore the details of the complex’s design, and uncover its core essence.