Anatoly Stolyarchuk: "You don't need an architect to build a modern hypermarket".

Hypermarkets are one of the most popular and in-demand types of today's construction. Is there a place in it for architecture, or does it all come down to the technology and cost-efficiency requirements? About this, we are talking to Anatoliy Stolyarchuk, the architect of "Lenta" supermarket chain in Saint Petersburg.

Interviewed by:
Irina Bembel
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

16 June 2016

Interview

Architect:

Firm:

Anatoly Stolyarchuk Architectural Studio

Archi.ru:
- Anatoly, "Lenta" was quite a milestone in you career. When you started working on it, virtually nobody here heard about shopping centers of such kind. Meanwhile, this genre is very specific: essentially, a hypermarket is as much of a machine as a housing project - only it is designed for retail operations.

Anatoly Stolyarchuk:
- Yes, for us it was also a new thing to do. Some of us had seen hypermarkets when they went abroad but for most of our citizens the very notion of a food store came down to a bakery or a corner grocery store. In 2001, when the customer approached us with a proposal to design "Lentas", there was but one shopping center of such kind in Saint Petersburg - it was situated on the Energetikov Avenue, in a former factory building that was redesigned to fit the purpose in the late 1990's.

A "Lenta" is a retail store and a warehouse at the same time, a place where everything is about logistics, where all the dimensions are calculated down to the last inch, where the joint efforts of the developers, the marketing experts, psychologists and designers are channeled to one end: to make the customer lose all touch with reality and leave here what money they have.

zooming — "Lenta" shopping center on the Bukharest Street. Construction, 2003 © Anatoly Stolyarchuk architects

- Unlike Moscow's GUM, TSUM, and other "posh" shopping centers, supermarkets need to be as utilitarian as possible. At the same time, they must look colorful, attractive, and possess a "fair-like" quality. Does this "fork" leave any room for true architecture? How did you address these issues?

- As I already said, all the technological content of the supermarket is calculated down to an inch. We took into consideration everything - the warehouse issues, loading and unloading of the goods, showcasing them, as well as providing a possibility for the supermarket to produce its own trademark foodstuffs, and so on. The distance between the shelves depends on the size of the forklift that cruises between them virtually 24/7. We consulted Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and German technologists and logistics experts. We had to learn lots of things along the way.

All these technologies had to be clad in some "construction dress". At the same time, nobody was going to spend any money on what you would call "architecture". Luckily, however, that time was not completely devoid of any romantics. Based on this feeling, we were able to convince our customer in the necessity of some extra expenses to be made. We placed our bets on the expressiveness of the entrance groups that were meant to attract customers. We also tried to make the routes of people's flows as interesting as possible. These, of course, were also technologically calculated but, by using lighting, decoration elements, and smart advertising, we were able to achieve some extra effects. All of our "Lenta" supermarkets have different entrance groups. I don't think something like this could be possible today.

- Can such buildings respect their architectural context?

- Hypermarkets are giant volumes with a floor space of some 12000-14000 square meters that consequently require large 3-4 hectare land sites. You also need a 400-500 stall parking lot, and, furthermore, a huge loading bay for the trucks to unload the product. In any city, such places are few and far between, and, yes, it's a lot easier to find them outside of town. Hence, luckily, the issue of context is just not on.

The first location address of our "Lenta" is at the Savushkin Street. Sixteen years ago it was a total wasteland. Then it was the Pulkovskoe Highway that at that moment was surrounded by a swampy field with croaking frogs. Today, as you very well know, every square inch of that land is owned by someone. On the Kim Avenue that is on the Vasilyevsky Island, this is just the territory of a river freight port. On the Obvodny Channel, it is the territory of the hoisting equipment plant.

- Still, however, at the Obvodny Channel, your "Lenta" has porticos, doesn't it?

- In the case of the Obvodny Channel project, the portico solution has in fact nothing to do with the intention to imitate the historical Saint Petersburg. For any building with such a function any adornment is strictly forbidden. And this is just not our style, even if we design something in the historical center of the city.

What we do pay attention to, however, is what the rest of the world is doing. Back in the day, I was really impressed by Michael Graves: I liked his popular postmodernist works in which he successfully tried to "fit a square peg into a round hole". I also wanted to do this sort of thing.

I must mention that our customer did not really like this idea - he thought it was too much on the hefty side. However, the project was still implemented, and, after the store opened, the customer called me to say thank you because he saw that these porticos were a great tool to attract people (he deliberately took a vantage point on the opposite bank of the Obvodny Channel). What I was after, though, was "doing architecture". Yes, we impose our ideas on our customers, and there's nothing wrong with that. When we are successful in it, beautiful pieces of architecture appear.

- On the one hand, hypermarkets are convenient but what they also bring about is faceless unification of architecture. And this is partially why we are so attracted (especially when we travel abroad) by small shops where you can chat with the person behind the counter, get some advice, maybe taste something - in a word, places that have identity and some human touch about them. And such cute little stores are having a very hard time now trying to compete with hypermarkets.

- One does not substitute or exclude the other. As you very well know, Lenta is not just a food supermarket and not just a department store: it has cafes, a drugstore, ATM's, and lots of other things. When you can, for relatively reasonable money, fill your cart with purchases, push it toward your car, unload it and just leave it there - this is convenient, which is one of the reasons why such shopping centers are thriving. Furthermore, even such rank-and-file projects can be made interesting - where there is a will there is a way! The only problem is that I am seeing less and less of the former.

We designed eleven "Lentas", two "Metricas", and two "Castoramas". Every year, two "Lentas" would be launched: we went from an empty land site to the opening of the store, each of them being an individual project. However, they simplified our last project to an impossible degree and then just let us know that they "did not require our services any longer". You don't need an architect to build a modern hypermarket. And this is not because times are tough. This year, "Lenta" is planning to open forty new stores across the nation.

- One might think that allotting money for the architect would also be possible?

- There's no practical point in it anyway.

Architect:

Firm:

Anatoly Stolyarchuk Architectural Studio

16 June 2016

Interviewed by:

Irina Bembel
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

Headlines now

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.

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.