Ramp to Heaven

In this issue, we continue the story of the Mikhailovka reconstruction for the Management School of Saint Petersburg University. Nikita Yavein turned the students' cafe/club into a meditation on stability versus agility, and on the boundaries of perception and associative thinking.

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

23 December 2015

Object

We have already shared about the reconstruction project of the dacha of the Great Prince Mikhail Nikolaevich meant to turn it into the Higher Management School of Saint Petersburg University and about the implementation of the main educational building in the estate's livery yard. The main historical buildings of the Great Prince's dacha are located in the eastern part of the territory that was allotted for the management school, closer to Strelnya. In the western part, on the Peterhof side, historically, there was only the small St. Olga Church, built by the architect David Grimm back in the early 1860's in the pseudo-Russian style with cubic uprights, and a few villages. In this location, the architects are planning to place a group of modern buildings including a few students’ dormitories, a gym, and the already mentioned cafe/club. Dominated by different stereo-metric figures and freely strewn across the land site, these volumes, according to Nikita Yavein, look very much like park pavilions. Among the things that come to mind, there are, of course, the glacier pyramids in the Tver estates of Nikolai Lvov - but even the conical earth mound in the park of the eastern half of the Mikhailovskaya Dacha also resonates with this idea. On the other hand, the building of the campus is inevitably larger than any park pavilion, their shapes closer to abstract geometry - this inevitably brings up another association, with a group of spaceships standing at the spaceport of a lawn here. The futuristic and the archaic are intermixed here, just as they are with the reminiscences about the Enlightenment of the XVIII century - and not only Lvov but also Leda - and about the avant-garde, the power of each association depending upon the viewer's personal background and preferences.

The building of the club/cafe is so far the only one that has been completed in the modern half of the campus. Which comes as no surprise - it is the informal "gravity center" of its residential part, the place where the students will meet and hang out - which is something that after them graduating will stay in their memory forever, longer that any exams.

The community center, a "key" of sorts, or even the "hub of the universe" of the student part of the campus, was designed by Nikita Yavein as a pentagon - looking pretty much like the soviet "quality sign", and, consequently, a five-facade stair-step ziggurat. It looks both like a mausoleum and the Tower of Babel, particularly the kind that we see on the picture by Breugel the Senior, and the mountain tomb of Hatshepsut pharaoh. It is also reminiscent of the "latent classics" by David Chipperfield, only in a more refined, almost ethereal version of wooden porticos, and, furthermore, seems to be constantly in a state of slight agitation, or in a process of transformation from something to something else. The play of perspectives - and here each straight line treats the contraction of space on its own unique way blowing the viewer's mind just as the good old relatively theory - is supported by the pentagon shape which also violates the static, and how! - no matter from each angle you will look you will not be quite able to grasp what exactly is going on here. And this is what is actually going on: the tectonic transformation of the controversially agile mausoleum that is the exact opposite of the Moscow's static ziggurat designed by Shchusev. Tatlin's tower suggests itself for being included into the thick stew of the enumerated comparisons as a thing in itself or as the final dominant chord.

zooming — The campus of the Higher Management School of Saint Petersburg State University. Axonometry. Reconstruction zone © Studio 44

In actuality, the resemblance between this building and the mausoleum is purely typological, the kind that is always there between stair-step towers. Here is the paradox, however: the stair-step tower as the symbol of conscious stability, this rational and sturdy "stairway to heaven", a sure-fire thing that you just cannot fell down - this tower is turned here into something spinning round but just as sturdy and reliable. Yes, and this is the fate of the manager, especially one of the higher ranks, that even the ziggurat that he has conquered is somewhat shaky, making him to be on the alert for losing his balance. Rocking such a static form as a ziggurat tower is quite a feat, considering that this form is by definition the paragon of sturdiness and stability. It is hard to say what could rock the foundation of the mausoleum at all but Tatlin's tower is not that simple after all - the dynamic spiral demonstrates the dependability of the motion of the oil rig drill, only drilling upward, leaving the observer with no doubts as for the linearity of the progress, however spiral. Who would have ever thought that if you crossed two such stabilities you would get such agility at the end of the day?

There is yet another drastic difference between the building in question and the classic ziggurat: all the real towers (Tatlin's one is not quite real) were built for the chosen few - the kings, the priests, the politburo, after all. And here we get to deal with a cafe building that is "lightweight" by default - or at least not so pompous and designed for everybody, well, maybe not quite for everybody, it is designed for the future big decision makers, but now they are as yet students, and not the politburo at any rate. This is why one wants to understand this dynamics as democratization of the form, transformation from a temple to a club, this being a significant and essential kind of transformation.

So, this far we've got the building of a pentagon plan - a wide pyramid splashed on the ground, the spacious terraces of its usable roof ascending in a very smooth spiral towards its top landing. For this reason, the parts of the roof (them being also the floors of the terraces) are tilted a little, while the central symmetry of the "quality sign" shifts off-center, and the pentagon of the inner hall is no longer symmetrical. For this same reason, the elongated lines of the roof, instead of a straight line that could have been easily logically explained, form on the outside some kind of reverse perspective causing the observer to think about the image of a pyramid but not just any pyramid but shivering from the cold sea wind blowing from the Finnish gulf. This kind of "hidden dynamics" is one of the favorite techniques of today's architecture - but not always and not everybody is capable of making it so obvious working with a basic humble and seemingly trivial form.

The spiral theme is supported by the entrances - not at all the centered portals but outstanding wind porches; they, again, remind an entrance to some iceberg pyramid in some estate designed by Nokolai Lvov. The tambours are not only asymmetrically placed, always to the right of the center but their axes are also turned like propeller blades, their volumes looking different: one is black glass, another is snow-white, yet another is wooden, and the fourth one is stone white with an odd inclusion of rock face finish.

The façades support that same optical effect of upsetting the balance: the glass surfaces and the offsets of the wooden grilles of colonnades alternate in a staggered order. The austere strokes of the verticals enhance the dance of the cornice lines, simultaneously "tying down" and harnessing the hint at the wild dynamics.

The spacious and well-lit halls of the bottom tier include not one but several cafés: a teachers’ restaurant, a smorgasbord, a cafeteria and a cheap canteen. They are separated by paths that lead from the entrances to the stairways leading to the second floor - together the whole thing looks like a semblance of a "multiplex". The kitchen - the "hearth" - is placed in the very middle but it also spills over to one of the sectors of the pentagram.

The top floor is occupied by a multifunctional hall lit and aired through wide openings that can be, however, closed by metallic shutters whenever necessary. One can get to the upper level from the street, as well as by following the main spiral route set by the tambours of the entrances, ascending the open staircases mounted up against the walls of the inner volume. The diagram that the architects drew clearly shows the human flow from each of the entrances stream towards the nearest staircase, after which, already on the level of the second floor, short little stairways continue the ascendancy fracturing the persistent logic of the spiral ramp until finally one of them takes the person through a grilled volume out on the roof. Pushed up against the wall, the stairways display a clearly viewable profile of their steps and look like a definite and deliberate element of "modern archaism", the conditional "Tower of Babel" - here one can do a fair share of meditating on us as humans eternally climbing uphill, the theme bring pretty obvious and covering virtually every aspect of our existence. The blades of the stairways in their classic and essential meaning are symbolically opposed by the elevator running down a tube covered by a triangular pattern of joining seams. For all intents and purposes, stairways are a pretty ancient invention - they help you climb to heights but they also require a lot of effort from you in order to do that; the lift, however, does not, and, in a curious sense, stairways and elevators are almost antonyms. The triangular pattern of the elevator echoes the pattern of the dome of the congress center playing here, just as the latter does outside, the role of the "high technology" part of the building.

There is plenty of light inside: the outer walls are transparent; the inside ones are white; the floor is beige; there are also broad stripes of light-colored wood and thin stripes of dark metal on the ceilings plus the greenish glass fill-ins of the railings. The bearing columns - round and white - are placed at fairly large intervals; they are echoed by arrays of round lights of reflected light.

Meanwhile, the dominance of the white color was not something that was planned by the architects, and here we find yet another associative parallel, although almost lost in the course of the construction in favor of saving up the resources. "This is the Temple of the Rock" - Nikita Yavein shares - We planned - by contrast with the rather calm facades - to decorate the interior with colorful ceramics so as to achieve the effect that somebody who enters the building finds themselves in a sort of a treasure trove... The white color was not originally meant to dominate the interior". Indeed, presently the column of the elevator is the only texturizing accent, while the walls of the inside volume of the tower were initially supposed to be covered by a thin carpet of multicolored stripes making them look warm and attractive but at the same time pixelated, fractured into bytes of graphic information - or into surfaces with strokes of different direction - but not with such sculpturally obvious ones as now.

On the outside, the jagged band of the terraces falls into three tiers and ends on the upper landing; all these surfaces are designed as usable. It is curious to see what the pyramid of the club looks like when the students sit down on the roof terraces - the whole thing leaves an impression of a "populated hill", not a dead and cold mausoleum.

The volume is used to capacity; it is spacious, open to all sides, every of its corners being effectively used. It is broad and balanced but at the same time thin and agile; its shape - which is inevitable for a stair-step pyramid - is, on the one hand, laden with associations, and, on the other hand, feels quite at ease in the company of the sparse northern birch trees on the shore of the Finnish Gulf. Gracefully reconciled in the architecture of the cafe/club, the sums of controversies look as if they were meant to set an example for the future managers. In any case, the sloping floor of the terraces will teach them to always be on their guard and be ready to act in some pretty unpredictable situations - which is something that a manager's work is all about, particularly in view of the times that we seem to be in for.

23 December 2015

Headlines now

Object

A Small Country

Mezonproekt is developing a long-term master plan for the MEPhI campus in Obninsk. Over the next ten years, an enclave territory of about 100 hectares, located in a forest on the northern edge of the city, is set to transform into a modern center for the development of the nuclear energy sector. The plan envisions attracting international students and specialists, as well as comprehensive territorial development: both through the contemporary realization of “frozen” plans from the 1980s and through the introduction of new trends – public spaces, an aquapark, a food court, a school, and even a nuclear medicine center. Public and sports facilities are intended to be accessible to city residents as well, and the campus is to be physically and functionally connected to Obninsk.

Object

Pearl Divers

GAFA has designed an apartment complex for Derbent intended to switch people from a work mode to a resort mindset – and to give the surrounding area a much-needed jolt. The building offers two distinct faces: restrained and laconic on the city side, and a lushly ornate façade facing the sea. At the heart of the complex, a hidden pearl lies – an open-air pool with an arch, offering views of a starry sky, and providing direct access to the beach.

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A Satellite Island

The Genplan Institute of Moscow has prepared a master plan for the development of the Sarpinsky and Golodny island system, located within the administrative boundaries of Volgograd and considered among the largest river islands in Russia. By 2045, the plan envisions the implementation of 15 large-scale investment projects, including sports and educational clusters, a congress center with a “Volgonarium”, a film production cluster, and twenty-one theme parks. We explain which engineering, environmental, and transportation challenges must be addressed to turn this vision into reality. The master plan solutions have already been approved and incorporated into the city’s general development plan.

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The Amber Gate

The Amber City residential complex is one of the redevelopment projects in the former industrial area located beyond Moscow’s Third Ring Road near Begovaya metro station. Alexey Ilyin’s studio proposed an original master plan that transformed two clusters of towers into ceremonial propylaea, gave the complex a recognizable silhouette, and established visual connections with new high-rise developments on both right and left – thus integrating it into the scale of the growing metropolis. It is also marked by its own futuristic stylistic language, based on a reinterpreted streamline aesthetic.

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A Theater Triangle

The architectural company “Chetvertoe Izmerenie” (“Fourth Dimension”) has developed the design for a new stage of the Magnitogorsk Musical Theater, rethinking not only theater architecture but also the role of the theater in the contemporary city.

Interview

Aleksei Ilyin: “I approach every task with genuine interest”

Aleksei Ilyin has been working on major urban projects for more than 30 years. He has all the necessary skills for high-rise construction in Moscow – yet he believes it’s essential to maintain variety in the typologies and scales represented in his portfolio. He is passionate about drawing – but only from life, and also in the process of working on a project. We talk about the structure and optimal size of an office, about his past and current projects, large and small tasks, and about creative priorities.

Interview

Sergey Tchoban: “My ideal model for shaping a museum space is the Uffizi Gallery. In the...

Yesterday, the ZILART Museum opened on the ZILART grounds with three exhibitions curated by well-known curators. We speak with Sergey Tchoban about the concept and its realization.

Object

A Golden Sunbeam

A compact brick-and-metal building in the growing Shukhov Park in Vyksa seems to absorb sunlight, transform it into yellow accents inside, and in the evening “give it back” as a warm golden glow streaming from its windows. It is, frankly, a very attractive building: both material and lightweight at the same time, with lightness inside and materiality outside. Its form is shaped by function – laconic, yet far from simple. Let’s take a closer look.

Architecton Awards

In 2025, the jury of the Architecton festival reviewed the finalist projects through live, open presentations held right in the exhibition hall – a rather engaging performance, and something rarely seen among Russian awards. It would be great if “Zodchestvo” adopted this format. Below, we present all the winning projects, including four special nominations.

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Garden of Knowledge

UNK architects and UNK design created the interiors of the Letovo Junior campus, working together with NF Studio, which was responsible for developing the educational technology that takes into account the needs and perception of younger and middle school children.

The Silver Skates

The STONE Kaluzhskaya office quarter is accompanied by two residential towers, making the complex – for it is indeed a single ensemble – well balanced in functional terms. The architects at Kleinewelt gave the residential buildings a silvery finish to match the office blocks. How they are similar, how they differ, and what “Silver Skates” has to do with it – we explore in this article.

Overview

On the Dynastic Trail

The houses and townhouses of the “Tsarskaya Tropа” (“Czar’s Trail”) complex are being built in the village of Gaspra in Crimea – to the west and east of the palaces of the former grand-ducal residence “Ai-Todor”. One of the main challenges for the architects at KPLN, who developed the project, was to respond appropriately to this significant neighboring heritage. How this influenced the massing, the façades, and the way the authors work with the terrain is explored in our article.

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A New Path

The main feature of the Yar Park project, designed by Sergey Skuratov for Kazan, is that it is organized along the “spine” of a multifunctional mall with an impressive multi-height atrium space in its middle. The entire site, both on the city side and the Kazanka River embankment, is open to the public. The complex is intended not to become “yet another fenced enclave” but, as urban planners say, a “polycenter” – a new point of attraction for the whole of Kazan, especially its northern part, made up of residential districts that until now have lacked such a vibrant public space. It represents a new urban planning approach to a high-density mixed-use development situated in the city center – in a sense, an “anti-quarter”. Even Moscow, one might say, doesn’t yet have anything quite like it. Well, lucky Kazan!

Object

Beneath the Azure Sky

A depository designed by Studio 44 will soon be built in Kenozersky National Park to preserve and display the so-called “heavens” – ceiling structures characteristic of wooden churches in the Russian North, painted with biblical scenes. For each of these “heavens”, the architects created a volume corresponding in scale and dimensions to the original church interior. The result is a honeycomb-like composition, with modules derived directly from the historic monuments themselves, allowing visitors to view the icons from the historically accurate angle – from below, looking upward. How exactly this works is the subject of our story.

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The Power of Lines

The building at the very beginning of New Arbat is the result of long deliberations over how to replace the former House of Communication. Contemporary, dynamic, and even somewhat zoomorphic in character, it is structured around a large diagonal grid. The building has become a striking accent both in the perspective of the former Kalinin Avenue and in the panorama of Arbat Square. Yet, unfortunately, the original concept was not fully realized. In 2020, the Moscow ArchCouncil approved a design featuring an exoskeleton – an external load-bearing structure, which eventually turned into a purely decorative element. Still, the power of the supergraphic “holds” the building, giving it the qualities of a new urban landmark with iconic potential. How this concept took shape, what unexpected associations might underlie the grid’s form, and why the exoskeleton was never built – all this is explored in our article.

News

Resort on the Kama River

Wowhaus has developed a project for the reconstruction of Korabelnaya Roshcha (“Mast Grove”), a wellness resort located on the banks of the Kama River.

Object

Nests in Primorye

The eco-park project “Nests”, designed by Aleksey Polishchuk and the company Power Technologies, received first prize at the Eco-Coast 2025 festival, organized by the Union of Architects of Russia. For a glamping site in Filinskaya Bay, the authors proposed bird-shaped houses, treehouses, and a nest-shaped observation platform, topping it all with an entrance pavilion executed in the shape of an owl.

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The Angle of String Tension

The House of Music, designed by Vladimir Plotkin and the architects of TPO Reserve, resembles a harp, and when seen from above, even a bass clef. But if only it were that simple! The architecture of the complex fuses two distinct expressive languages: the lattice-like, transparent, permeable vocabulary of “classical” modernism and the sculptural, ribbon-like volumes so beloved by today’s neo-modernism. How it all works – where the catharsis lies, which compositional axes underpin the design, where the project resembles Zaryadye Concert Hall and where it does not – read in the article below.

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How Historic Tobolsk Becomes a Portal to the Future

Over the past decade, the architectural company Wowhaus has developed urban strategies for several Russian cities – Vyksa, Tula, and Nizhnekamsk, to name but a few. Against this backdrop, the Tobolsk master plan stands out both for its scale – the territory under transformation covers more than 220 square kilometers – and for its complexity.

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St. Petersburg vs Rome

The center of St. Petersburg is, as we know, sacred – but few people can say with certainty where this “sacred place” actually begins and ends. It’s not about the formal boundaries, “from the Obvodny Canal to the Bolshaya Nevka”, but about the vibe that feels true to the city center. With the Nevskaya Ratusha complex – built to a design that won an international competition – Evgeny Gerasimov and Sergei Tchoban created an “image of the center” within its territory. And not so much the image of St. Petersburg itself, as that of a global metropolis. This is something new, something that hasn’t appeared in the city for a long time. In this article, we study the atmosphere, recall precedents, and even reflect on who and when first called St. Petersburg the “new Rome”. Clearly, the idea is alive for a reason.

Object

On the Wave

The project of transforming the river port and embankment in the city of Cheboksary, developed by the ATRIUM Architects, involves one of the city’s key areas. The Volga embankment is to be turned into a riverside boulevard – a multifunctional, comfortable, and expressive space for work and leisure activities. The authors propose creating a new link with the city’s main Krasnaya (“Red”) Square, as well as erecting several residential towers inspired by the shape of the traditional national women’s headdress – these towers are likely to become striking accents on the Volga panorama.

Interview

Valery Kanyashin: “We Were Given a Free Hand”

The Headliner residential complex, the main part of which was recently completed just across from Moscow City, is a kind of neighbor to the MIBC that doesn’t “play along” with it. On the contrary, the new complex is entirely built on contrast: like a city of differently scaled buildings that seems to have emerged naturally over the past 20 years – which is a hugely popular trend nowadays! And yet here – perhaps only here – such a project has been realized to its full potential. Yes, high-rises dominate, but all these slender, delicate profiles, all these exciting perspectives! And most importantly – how everything is mixed and composed together... We spoke with the project’s leader Valery Kanyashin.

Object

The Keystone

Until quite recently, premium residential and office complexes in Moscow were seen as the exclusive privilege of the city center. Today the situation is changing: high-quality architecture is moving beyond the confines of the Third Ring Road and appearing on the outskirts. The STONE Kaluzhskaya business center is one such example. Projects like this help decentralize the megalopolis, making life and work prestigious in any part of the city.

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Perpetuum Mobile

The interior of the headquarters of Natsproektstroy, created by the IND studio team, vividly and effectively reflects the client’s field of activity – it is one of Russia’s largest infrastructure companies, responsible for logistics and transport communications of every kind you can possibly think of.

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Water and Light

Church art is full of symbolism, and part of it is truly canonical, while another part is shaped by tradition and is perceived by some as obligatory. Because of this kind of “false conservatism”, contemporary church architecture develops slowly compared to other genres, and rarely looks contemporary. Nevertheless, there are enthusiasts in this field out there: the cemetery church of Archangel Michael in Apatity, designed by Dmitry Ostroumov and Prokhram bureau, combines tradition and experiment. This is not an experiment for its own sake, however – rather, the considered work of a contemporary architect with the symbolism of space, volume, and, above all, light.

Object

Champions’ Cup

At first glance, the Bell skyscraper on 1st Yamskogo Polya Street, 12, appears strict and laconic – though by no means modest. Its economical stereometry is built on a form close to an oval, one of UNK architects’ favorite themes. The streamlined surface of the main volume, clad in metal louvers, is sliced twice with glass incisions that graphically reveal the essence of the original shape: both its simplicity and its complexity. At the same time, dozens of highly complex engineering puzzles have been solved here.

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Semi-Digital Environment

In the town of Innopolis, a satellite of Kazan, the first 4-star hotel designed by MAD Architects has opened. The interiors of the hotel combine elegance with irony, and technology with comfort, evoking the atmosphere of a computer game or maybe a sci-fi movie about the near future.

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History never ends

The old railway station in Kapan, a city in southern Armenia, has been given new life by the Paris-based design firm Normal Studio. Today, it serves as a TUMO center.

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A Deep, Crystal Shine

A new luxury residential development by ADM architects is set to rise in the Patriarch’s Ponds district, not far from Novopushkinsky Square. It will replace three buildings erected in the early 1990s. The project authors, Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova, have placed their bets on the variety among the three volumes, modern design solutions, and attention to detail: one of the buildings will feature smoothly curved balconies with a ceramic sheen on their undersides, while another will be accented by glass “sculpture” columns.

Interview

Grigory Revzin: “What we should do with the architecture of the seventies”

Soviet modernism came in two flavors: the good, author-driven kind, and the bad, standardized kind. The good kind was “on the periphery”, while the bad kind was in the center – geographically, in terms of attention, scale, and everything else. Can we demolish it? “That would be destroying public consensus out of thin air”. So what should we do? Preserve it, but creatively: “Bring architecture into places where it hasn’t yet appeared”. Treat these buildings not as monuments, but as urban landscape. Read our interview with Grigory Revzin on the pressing topic of saving modernism – where he proposes a controversial, yet really intriguing, way of preserving 1970s buildings.