Metropolitan Sequence

The housing complex “Tsarskaya Stolitsa” (“Czar’s Capital”) is one of the largest projects of redeveloping former industrial territories in the center of Saint Petersburg. “Evgeny Gerasimov and Partners” was not only able to turn a derelict industrial park into a residential area full of life but also create a thought-out town-planning unit.

Written by:
Alyona Kuznetsova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

04 October 2017

Object

The land site with which Evgeny Gerasimov started working still in 2011, according to the architect himself, was essentially a lost world “in the vein of Conan Doyle”: overgrown with weeds, lopsided abandoned houses were roamed by stray dogs. And, what’s more, all this was taking place but a five minutes’ walk away from the Nevsky Prospect, next to the Moskovsky Railway Terminal, the Alexander Nevski Monastery, and the Gallery, the city’s main shopping mall.

Before the renovation, this territory was occupied by the loading bay of the station “Saint Petersburg freight Moscow” that by 2009 was transferred by the Russian Railways to the city of Shushary. The large almost-20-hectare trapeze-shaped site stretches between the Kremenchugskaya Street and the Oktyabrskaya Railroad, along which it is planned to organize a regular city street. On the Kremenchugskaya Street, the nearest neighbors of “Tsarskaya Stolitsa” are historical buildings of the Botkin Infection Clinic; some of these were built in the XIX century, some belong to the constructivist tradition. It must be also noted that there has been a lot of talk about moving the clinic outside the city center as well. From the south side, in the direction of the Bypass Channel, there is more of undeveloped land, while from the north the new residential area is opened up by the Theodor Cathedral, a cultural heritage building that was built for the 300th anniversary of the Romanov Dynasty. According to Evgeny Gerasimov, it was this cathedral that became the starting point, the “jewel”, for which the frame was ultimately created.

zooming — "Tsarskaya Stolitsa" housing complex © Evgeny Gerasimov and Partners

One of the main tasks that the architects were to solve was a town-planning one. It was important to organize the pedestrian and vehicle streams, make sure the new buildings do not obscure the cathedral, and, possibly, set the tone for the construction of the future neighbors. At the end of the day, the architects came up with a simple yet efficient plan: two traversal drive-through streets cut through an orthogonal in-block grid strung on the longitudinal axis of a pedestrian boulevard. The cells of this grid contain residential houses or blocks, each with a courtyard of its own. In the center, the architects left a vacant space for the future school. This way, a certain hierarchy of city streets and squares was formed: there are public spaces belonging to the city – the cathedral square and the boulevard, and there are private ones – the closed resident-only yards, and there are “intermediate” ones, i.e. streets of local importance.

Yet another task was to minimize the possible negative factors arising from the proximity of the railroad line and the infection clinic. From the railroad side, the residential buildings are fenced off by multilevel parking garages that essentially function as a giant noise screen. From the other side, the noise coming from the Kremenchugskaya Street will be dampened by the buildings of another complex: a business center, a hotel, a shopping mall, and yet another residential building is being built upon a different project developed by “Evgeny Gerasimov and Partners” in collaboration with SPEECH.

Totally, “Tsarskaya Stolitsa” consists of fifteen residential buildings constructed in four stages. The first stage is dramatically different from the rest because the three closed-circuit trapeze-shape blocks that constitute it run in a radiant fan-like fashion away from the cathedral, encircling its west and south façades in an arc-shaped square. These buildings are ostentatiously austere, classical and respectable-looking – they can put one in the mind of the buildings surrounding the Mussolini square of Emperor August in Rome, even the semi-columns in these windows look like the banisters of the balconies in Rome. The base floors and the in-built cornices of light-colored Jurassic lime look really great against the background of the “body” of the buildings designed in a darker tone, one house coated with dark brown brick, another – with ceramic tiles with a subtle pattern of horizontal stripes, a third one – with ripped greenish tufa, whose play of colors on a sunny day looks like moiré ribbon. The low window sills are grouped in twos, the glass of the stanza balconies sunken in to the level of the window apertures (just like in all the other buildings of the complex). Their strict vertical rhythm is gathered into moderate horizontal registers.

The buildings that make up the square are respectable and conservative – they are just enough to create here a feeling of transition to the historical Saint Petersburg that begins right across the street behind the cathedral, on the Mirgorodskaya and Poltavskaya streets. On the other side, the rays of the two streets between the blocks are routed in such a way that the cathedral is also viewable from the railroad. And, by all means, the very appearance of a semicircular square in Saint Petersburg, at the south end of the Nevsky Prospect, cannot but resonate, at least to some extent, with the Palace Square, or the Joint Staff, looking very much like their replica or reflection. But then again, the associations are unobtrusive, and this square might just as well fit in with a whole number of arc-shaped classicist squares, all the more so because the very presence of the main accent – the temple – prompted such a solution in more ways than one.

The cathedral got a frame it truly deserved; Eugene Gerasimov was so into it that he even entered the guardian council on recreating the temple. “The meaning of this cathedral is very much of a literary type – the architect shares: the European Saint Petersburg meets its Moscow guests with a temple in the Old Russian style, as if to make sure that nobody feels like a stranger here”. The architectural image of the cathedral – which is a characteristic trait of the 1910’s temple construction – is rather eclectic: it includes Rostov, Vladimir, Pskov, and Suzdal motifs.

Thus, the first buildings of “Tsarskaya Stolitsa” pay homage to the cathedral and the historical city; they are critical for creating a smooth transition from the old to the new.

The second, third, and fourth stages are definitely a modern city. The further away from the cathedral, the bolder the façades become. The techniques are really numerous here: the play of colors and textures, combination of verticals and horizontals, optical illusions, windows of different sizes, asymmetry, and complex rhythms. The buildings turned out bright, dramatic, of the “Instagram” kind but not garish – exactly in the taste of the millennials, for whom, possibly, this entire complex was designed: living around here, you can get pretty much everywhere by foot, and even Moscow is but a train ride away, the nearby railroad and clinic being as much of a romantic twist for these people as they would have normally been a nuisance.

Buildings with the bolder design solutions will be occupied by offices: these are a luscious orange one (with differently sized windows) and a milky-white one (whose windows look as if they grow out of the building and sink into it – thanks to the technique very much like grisaille). The last residential building, the only one that does not have a courtyard here, becomes like a period in this architectural sentence.

The brightest in the whole complex are the parking garage buildings. They are decorated in two ways: with colored perforated slabs or with grilles. Totally, there are seven of them, and, as we remember, they line up along the railroad tracks protecting the residential buildings from the noise.

This railroad line that runs through this place is doubtlessly yet another genius loci. Viewed in the spaces between the houses, streams of cars are yet another horizontal accent that at some points supports the façade lines, and at some points competes with them. Together with the cathedral, the railroad fills the area with sound: the muffled horns and the dispatcher’s voice, and then the real magic of the sound of the tolling bells reflecting from the walls. This gives you a feeling that is as unusual and fresh as it is long-forgotten.

Jane Jacobs and Jan Gehl would have probably been pleased with “Tsarskaya Stolitsa”. The sidewalks here are uncommonly wide by Saint Petersburg standards, and they are protected from the traffic by special pillars. The pedestrian and vehicle streams are comfortably divided. The buildings look really human-proportionate. The closed yards are completely secured, while the streets have “eyes” of their own: the windows and balconies overlook both courtyards and pedestrian sidewalks and promenades which, in all likelihood, will soon be bustling with life: all the ground floors are public ones, almost all of them are covered by the banners announcing the openings of future cafés, studios, and salons. From these banners one can also draw a conclusion that this area will be populated by people with different income levels: one can see here the “Pyaterochka” discounter, a premium-class dentist office, steak houses, and bakeries. The apartments range from studios to five-room ones, reasonably priced by Saint Petersburg standards.

“Tsarskaya Stolitsa” is one of the largest projects of renovating and redeveloping former industrial parks of Saint Petersburg (a similar story happened on the Petrogradskaya Side where Evgeny Gerasimov and Sergey Tchoban designed the “Europe-City” complex). The past of this place is still readable. There is tall weed shooting up between the new buildings; at some places the houses stand pushed against concrete fences, brand-new façades neighbor on hangars, wooden warehouses, and even balls of barbed wire. But it’s clear that pretty soon this place will “comb itself up”, and its surroundings will eventually follow suit. “Tsarskaya Stolitsa” is promising to become an attraction point for most diverse city flows. And gracefully combining these flows is probably exactly what any city must be about.

04 October 2017

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.