The Ekaterinburg Forum

In Ekaterinburg, the Dutch firm LEVS architecten has designed a housing complex named “Forum-City” that is meant to turn the wasteland (which remained after the building of the Central Market was torn down) into one of the city’s landmarks.

Written by:
Natalya Muradova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

27 July 2017

send.project

For a decade, the location in the center of Ekaterinburg where the new housing complex Forum-City is to appear has been a wasteland. Before that, the quadrant formed by the crossing of Sacco-i-Vanzetti, Radishcheva, and Sheinkmana streets hosted the central market: it opened in the middle of the last century, and, as time went by, gradually turned into a haphazard mass of little stores and kiosks. These were done away with in 2007 – but, together with them, the historical central pavilion with columns was inadvertently torn down as well – and the land site was cleared completely. Initially, they were planning to build here a skyscraper residential complex “in the spirit of Chicago of the 1930’s” – but these plans were thwarted by the financial crisis.

The wasteland, which by now has overgrown with trees, is surrounded by new buildings. Most city people consider these buildings to be elite housing but calling them expressive-looking would be a serious stretch: most of them are sectional high-rises with monotonous façades. Not far away stands Ekaterinburg’s second-tallest (after the “Iset” tower) skyscraper named “Vysotsky” (188 m).

zooming — "Forum-City" housing complex © LEVS architecten

The construction of Forum-City starts in September. The authors of the concept are the Amsterdam-based firm LEVS architecten. The Dutch architects designed a housing complex of a city block type, the planning grid being the kind characteristic of Ekaterinburg.

Forum-City is essentially a 10.3-hectare city block formed by nine towers from eight to thirty stories high: seven of them form the perimeter and two stand in the middle. The demolished marketplace was oriented west; its main pavilion was standing on the Sheinkmana Street. Unlike its predecessor, Forum-City is oriented west, where, on the Sacco-i-Vanzetti Street, there is a recently-built two-floor shopping center. It will occupy the main part of the east flank of the block, and it will also get a glass pavilion built up against it along its entire west façade. At the corner of Sacco-i-Vanzetti and Radishcheva streets, there will be something like a small plaza: the architects will place there the entrance to the above-mentioned pavilion, enshrouding this space in a semicircle; the existing tram stop will remain, while the first floor of the adjacent tower will step back from the construction red line forming a marquee resting on a V-shaped support.

The city block is designed as being completely vehicle-free. The towers are united by a common podium (part of which constitutes the above-described pavilion); the podium has two levels in it, just like the already existing shopping center – with entrances from the yard on the side of the busy Radishcheva Street, the quiet “Central Market” alley (yes, the building is gone but the namesake alley is still there), and the Sheinkmana Street, which leads to the city’s main axis, the Lenina Avenue.

On the roof of the podium, along its entire perimeter, the architects are planning to plant grass and trees so as to make the block more open to the city and save it from looking like an impregnable fortress. The towers that flank the complex will sport green terraces. Next to the tallest tower – it stands in the northwest corner of the site, at the crossing of the Sheinkmana Street and the “Central Market” alley – there will be two terraces designed at approximately the same height marks as the two neighboring roofs. All the roofs of the block will be usable, with trees, lawns, and gazebos.

Along the outer perimeter of the block, the towers’ façade surfaces are rectangular, while the parts that are turned inside look as if they were cut away on a curve gauge, and have a smooth curvilinear profile. On the plan, the two buildings that stand in the yard look like triangles with rounded angles. The outside façades of the tallest towers that overlook the “Central Market” alley are rectangular up to the level of about the tenth floor: higher up, they become curvilinear. The terraces are situated at the joint of the two forms.

The “city” and the “yard” façades are also entirely different in their rhythm and materials used. The rectangular part of the block, including the podium, is covered with motley terra cotta and white brickwork. On the pedestrians’ line of vision, there will be large window shops, encased in wooden frames. The brick solution of the façades is also a hint at a “postcard from Amsterdam”, where the HQ of Levs Architecten is situated, but it also reminds of the brickwork style that was widely spread here at the brink of the XIX-XX centuries – many city residences and, more importantly, many industry facilities of Ekaterinburg and other Russian cities were built in this style.

The streamlined parts of the façades are made from modern building materials; they look lighter and more agile. This creates a seemingly chaotic impression of alternation of wooden lath inserts that project beyond the surface of the railings and the gray panels of the main coverage. Height-wise, the towers are scaled down by horizontal belts of white curbs. On some buildings they will come in two-floor increments, and on some buildings – after each floor. This way, from the yard side, each building will have an image of its own, which at the same time will fit in with the style of the entire block.

The land site has a significant height difference – it sinks eight meters from west to east. In the central part of the block the height difference is about four meters. Thanks to this, the inside yard will become a two-level one: from the side of the Sacco-i-Vanzetti Street, coming through the pavilion, the residents will enter the lower part of the yard, while, coming from the Sheinkmana and Radishcheva streets – into the upper part. These two will be connected by a staircase. Part of the lower yard will be covered with a roof with skylights and fountains. It will become the zone of shops, cafes, and restaurants, expectedly open to general public. The upper yard, on the other hand, will be private, accessible only to the residents, with landscaping elements whose curvilinear contours will echo those of the towers: pedestrian trails, pavements, lawns, flowerbeds, and a children’s playground.

Along the outer perimeter of the block there will be entrances to the cafes and shops, while the entrance lobbies of the residential part will be placed on the yard side. The smallest apartments are designed as being 46 square meters, while the largest penthouses are 144 square meters. Totally, Forum-City will include 50000 square meters of housing and 9000 square meters of commercial premises.

Paying homage to the genius loci of the place, the architects decided to organize a modern farmers market on the territory of the block, while the top floor of the hundred-meter tower will host a bar with a panoramic view of the city.

In their Forum-City project, the architects were able to find the perfect balance: the dense plan fits in neatly with the existing city fabric, repeating the planning pattern typical of Ekaterinburg. This housing complex will look bright yet at the same time tactful, at the same time restoring the historical function – which was lost after the demolition of the Central Market – in a modern interpretation.

27 July 2017

Written by:

Natalya Muradova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

Headlines now

The Big Twelve

Yesterday, the winners of the Moscow Mayor’s Architecture Award were announced and honored. Let’s take a look at what was awarded and, in some cases, even critique this esteemed award. After all, there is always room for improvement, right?

Object

Above the Golden Horn

The residential complex “Philosophy” designed by T+T architects in Vladivostok, is one of the new projects in the “Golubinaya Pad” area, changing its development philosophy (pun intended) from single houses to a comprehensive approach. The buildings are organized along public streets, varying in height and format, with one house even executed in gallery typology, featuring a cantilever leaning on an art object.

Report

Nuanced Alternative

How can you rhyme a square and space? Easily! But to do so, you need to rhyme everything you can possibly think of: weave everything together, like in a tensegrity structure, and find your own optics too. The new exhibition at GES-2 does just that, offering its visitor a new perspective on the history of art spanning 150 years, infused with the hope for endless multiplicity of worlds and art histories. Read on to see how this is achieved and how the exhibition design by Evgeny Ace contributes to it.

Object

Blinds for Ice

An ice arena has been constructed in Domodedovo based on a project by Yuri Vissarionov Architects. To prevent the long façade, a technical requirement for winter sports facilities, from appearing monotonous, the architects proposed the use of suspended structures with multidirectional slats. This design protects the ice from direct sunlight while giving the wall texture and detail.

Report

Campus within a Day

In this article, we talk about what the participants of Genplan Institute of Moscow’s hackathon were doing at the MosComArchitecture booth at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition. We also discuss who won the prize and why, and what can be done with the territory of a small university on the outskirts of Moscow.

Overview

Vertical Civilization

Genpro considered the development of the vertical city concept and made it the theme of their pavilion at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition.

Interview

Marina Yegorova: “We think in terms of hectares, not square meters”

The career path of architect Marina Yegorova is quite impressive: MARHI, SPEECH, MosComArchitectura, the Genplan Institute of Moscow, and then her own architectural company. Its name Empate, which refers to the words “to draw” in Portuguese and “to empathize” in English, should not be misleading with its softness, as the firm freely works on different scales, including Integrated Territorial Development projects. We talked with Marina about various topics: urban planning experience, female leadership style, and even the love of architects for yachting.

Interview

Andrey Chuikov: “Optimum balance is achieved through economics”

The Yekaterinburg-based architectural company CNTR is in its mature stage: crystallization of principles, systematization, and standardization helped it make a qualitative leap, enhance competencies, and secure large contracts without sacrificing the aesthetic component. The head of the company, Andrey Chuikov, told us about building a business model and the bonuses that additional education in financial management provides for an architect.

Object

The Fulcrum

Ostozhenka Architects have designed two astonishing towers practically on the edge of a slope above the Oka River in Nizhny Novgorod. These towers stand on 10-meter-tall weathered steel “legs”, with each floor offering panoramic views of the river and the city; all public spaces, including corridors, receive plenty of natural light. Here, we see a multitude of solutions that are unconventional for the residential routine of our day and age. Meanwhile, although these towers hark back to the typological explorations of the seventies, they are completely reinvented in a contemporary key. We admire Veren Group as the client – this is exactly how a “unique product” should be made – and we tell you exactly how our towers are arranged.

Object

Crystal is Watching You

Right now, Museum Night has kicked off at the Museum of Architecture, featuring a fresh new addition – the “Crystal of Perception”, an installation by Sergey Kuznetsov, Ivan Grekov, and the KROST company, set up in the courtyard. It shimmers with light, it sings, it reacts to the approach of people, and who knows what else it can do.

Object

The Secret Briton

The house is called “Little France”. Its composition follows the classical St. Petersburg style, with a palace-like courtyard. The decor is on the brink of Egyptian lotuses, neo-Greek acroteria, and classic 1930s “gears”; the recessed piers are Gothic, while the silhouette of the central part of the house is British. It’s quite interesting to examine all these details, attempting to understand which architectural direction they belong to. At the same time, however, the house fits like a glove in the context of the 20th line of St. Petersburg’s Vasilievsky Island; its elongated wings hold up the façade quite well.

The Wrap-Up

The competition project proposed by Treivas for the first 2021 competition for the Russian pavilion at EXPO 2025 concludes our series of publications on pavilion projects that will not be implemented. This particular proposal stands out for its detailed explanations and the idea of ecological responsibility: both the facades and the exhibition inside were intended to utilize recycled materials.

Birds and Streams

For the competition to design the Omsk airport, DNK ag formed a consortium, inviting VOX architects and Sila Sveta. Their project focuses on intersections, journeys, and flights – both of people and birds – as Omsk is known as a “transfer point” for bird migrations. The educational component is also carefully considered, and the building itself is filled with light, which seems to deconstruct the copper circle of the central entrance portal, spreading it into fantastic hyper-spatial “slices”.

Faraday Grid

The project of the Omsk airport by ASADOV Architects is another concept among the 14 finalists of a recent competition. It is called “The Bridge” and is inspired by both the West Siberian Exhibition of 1911 and the Trans-Siberian Railway bridge over the Irtysh River, built in 1896. On one hand, it carries a steampunk vibe, while on the other, there’s almost a sense of nostalgia for the heyday of 1913. However, the concept offers two variants, the second one devoid of nostalgia but featuring a parabola.

Review

Midway upon the Journey of Our Life

Recently, Tatlin Publishing House released a book entitled “Architect Sergey Oreshkin. Selected Projects”. This book is not just a traditional book of the architectural company’s achievements, but rather a monograph of a more personal nature. The book includes 43 buildings as well as a section with architectural drawings. In this article, we reflect on the book as a way to take stock of an architect’s accomplishments.

Inverted Fortress

This year, there has been no shortage of intriguing architectural ideas around the Omsk airport. The project developed by the architectural company KPLN appeals to Omsk’s history as a wooden fortress that it was back in the day, but transforms the concept of a fortress beyond recognition: it “shaves off” the conical ends of “wooden logs”, then enlarges them, and then flips them over. The result is a hypostyle – a forest of conical columns on point supports, with skylights on top.

send.project

Transformation of Annenkirche

For Annenkirche (St. Anna Lutheran Church in St. Petersburg), Sergey Kuznetsov and the Kamen bureau have prepared a project that relies on the principles of the Venice Charter: the building is not restored to a specific date, historical layers are preserved, and modern elements do not mimic the authentic ones. Let’s delve into the details of these solutions.

The Paradox of the Temporary

The concept of the Russian pavilion for EXPO 2025 in Osaka, proposed by the Wowhaus architects, is the last of the six projects we gathered from the 2022 competition. It is again worth noting that the results of this competition were not finalized due to the cancellation of Russia’s participation in World Expo 2025. It should be mentioned that Wowhaus created three versions for this competition, but only one is being presented, and it can’t be said that this version is thoroughly developed – rather, it is done in the spirit of a “student assignment”. Nevertheless, the project is interesting in its paradoxical nature: the architects emphasized the temporary character of the pavilion, and in its bubble-like forms sought to reflect the paradoxes of space and time.

The Forum of Time

The competition project for the Russian Pavilion at EXPO 2025 in Osaka designed by Aleksey Orlov and Arena Project Institute consists of cones and conical funnels connected into a non-trivial composition, where one can feel the hand of architects who have worked extensively with stadiums and other sports facilities. It’s very interesting to delve into its logic, structurally built on the theme of clocks, hourglasses and even sundials. Additionally, the architects have turned the exhibition pavilion into a series of interconnected amphitheaters, which is also highly relevant for world exhibitions. We are reminding you that the competition results were never announced.

Mirrors Everywhere

The project by Sergey Nebotov, Anastasia Gritskova, and the architectural company “Novoe” was created for the Russian pavilion at EXPO 2025, but within the framework of another competition, which, as we learned, took place even earlier, in 2021. At that time, the competition theme was “digital twins”, and there was minimal time for work, so the project, according to the architect himself, was more of a “student assignment”. Nevertheless, this project is interesting for its plan bordering on similarity with Baroque projects and the emblem of the exhibition, as well as its diverse and comprehensive reflectiveness.

Report

The Steppe Is Full of Beauty and Freedom

The goal of the exhibition “Dikoe Pole” (“Wild Field”) at the State Historical Museum was to move away from the archaeological listing of valuable items and to create an image of the steppe and nomads that was multidirectional and emotional – in other words, artistic. To achieve this goal, it was important to include works of contemporary art. One such work is the scenography of the exhibition space developed by CHART studio.

The Snowstorm Fish

The next project from the unfinished competition for the Russian Pavilion at EXPO 2025, which will be held in Osaka, Japan, is by Dashi Namdakov and Parsec Architects. The pavilion describes itself as an “architectural/sculptural” one, with its shape clearly reminiscent of abstract sculpture of the 1970s. It complements its program with a meditative hall named “Mendeleev’s Dreams”, and offers its visitors to slide from its roof at the end of the tour.

The Mirror of Your Soul

We continue to publish projects from the competition for the design of the Russian Pavilion at EXPO in Osaka 2025. We are reminding you that the results of the competition have not been announced, and hardly will ever be. The pavilion designed by ASADOV Architects combines a forest log cabin, the image of a hyper transition, and sculptures made of glowing threads – it focuses primarily on the scenography of the exhibition, which the pavilion builds sequentially like a string of impressions, dedicating it to the paradoxes of the Russian soul.

Part of the Ideal

In 2025, another World Expo will take place in Osaka, Japan, in which Russia will not participate. However, a competition for the Russian pavilion was indeed held, with six projects participating. The results were never announced as Russia’s participation was canceled; the competition has no winners. Nevertheless, Expo pavilion projects are typically designed for a bold and interesting architectural statement, so we’ve gathered all the six projects and will be publishing articles about them in random order. The first one is the project by Vladimir Plotkin and Reserve Union, which is distinguished by the clarity of its stereometric shape, the boldness of its structure, and the multiplicity of possible interpretations.

Object

The Fortress by the River

ASADOV Architects have developed a concept for a new residential district in the center of Kemerovo. To combat the harsh climate and monotonous everyday life, the architects proposed a block type of development with dominant towers, good insolation, facades detailed at eye level, and event programming.

Object

In the Rhombus Grid

Construction has begun on the building of the OMK (United Metallurgical Company) Corporate University in Nizhny Novgorod’s town of Vyksa, designed by Ostozhenka Architects. The most interesting aspect of the project is how the architects immersed it in the context: “extracting” a diagonal motif from the planning grid of Vyksa, they aligned the building, the square, and the park to match it. A truly masterful work with urban planning context on several different levels of perception has long since become the signature technique of Ostozhenka.

Object

Generational Connection

Another modern estate, designed by Roman Leonidov, is located in the Moscow region and brings together three generations of one family under one roof. To fit on a narrow plot without depriving anyone of personal space, the architects opted for a zigzag plan. The main volume in the house structure is accentuated by mezzanines with a reverse-sloped roof and ceilings featuring exposed beams.

Object

Three Dimensions of the City

We began to delve into the project by Sergey Skuratov, the residential complex “Depo” in Minsk, located at Victory Square, and it fascinated us completely. The project has at least several dimensions to it: historical – at some point, the developer decided to discontinue further collaboration with Sergey Skuratov Architects, but the concept was approved, and its implementation continues, mostly in accordance with the proposed ideas. The spatial and urban planning dimension – the architects both argue with the city and play along with it, deciphering nuances, and finding axes. And, finally, the tactile dimension – the constructed buildings also have their own intriguing features. Thus, this article also has two parts: it dwells on what has been built and what was conceived

Object

New “Flight”

Architects from “Mezonproject” have developed a project for the reconstruction of the regional youth center “Polyot”(“Flight”) in the city of Oryol. The summer youth center, built back in the late 1970s, will now become year-round and acquire many additional functions.

Object

The Yauza Towers

In Moscow, there aren’t that many buildings or projects designed by Nikita Yavein and Studio 44. In this article, we present to you the concept of a large multifunctional complex on the Yauza River, located between two parks, featuring a promenade, a crossroads of two pedestrian streets, a highly developed public space, and an original architectural solution. This solution combines a sophisticated, asymmetric façade grid, reminiscent of a game of fifteen puzzle, and bold protrusions of the upper parts of the buildings, completely masking the technical floors and sculpting the complex’s silhouette.

​The Ekaterinburg Forum

In Ekaterinburg, the Dutch firm LEVS architecten has designed a housing complex named “Forum-City” that is meant to turn the wasteland (which remained after the building of the Central Market was torn down) into one of the city’s landmarks.

The Ekaterinburg Forum