The Grand Façade

Boundary Regime

The houses that are built along the embankments, seaside or riverside alike, are subject to particularly high quality requirements. There is more than one objective reason for that. The architecture that exists at the borderline between the earth and the water, belonging at the same time to the material world and the “mirror wonderland”, thanks to being multiplied in its reflection in the water, adds a lot to the romantic flavor that subconsciously influences the mind of the designer and the observer. Of course, there are also arguments of a purely practical nature: at the expense of the broad space before the building’s façade, these buildings influence a far greater part of the city, although this statement is equally applicable for the modern broad avenues, which, by the way, never stopped the architects from experimenting with silhouettes when designing the longitudinal construction fronts. It is not out of the realm of possibility that the waterfront construction took on a special high-profile status thanks to a large number of great examples: it’s enough to recall Venice, Amsterdam, New York – the list can go on and on. Even Moscow has quite a few buildings to show, not to mention Saint Petersburg. The Saint Petersburg waterfronts, which create the legendary skyline, are the veritable treasure of this city, so it comes as no surprise that people of Saint Petersburg cherish these panoramas and are so wary of every new inclusion that is meant to violate the beauty of the picture.

Luckily, the negative examples of the last few years are few and far between. One of the major reasons for this is the fact that the building space of the waterfront areas within the city limits is extremely limited. Today, the town planning map of Saint Petersburg got a new vacant land site at the edge of the water. It literally appeared out of nowhere because it is of an artificial origin. We are speaking here about the alluvial land lying on the west end of the Vasilyevsky Island, the decision of recreating which was adopted by the government of Saint Petersburg in 2006. Currently, over 170 hectares out of the planned 476 rose above the sea level. The land that has already been washed up is witnessing a major construction boom, which comes as no surprise. This area is located rather close to the center of Saint Petersburg, and, with the launch of the Western High-Speed Diameter highway, its transport accessibility soared, new subway stations being built nearby as well.

zooming — "Golden City" residential complex © KCAP + ORANGE + A.Len

In addition to the new complex of the new passenger sea port of Saint Petersburg with a terminal for cruise ships and ferries, built upon the project by “A.Len”, the city is planning to build here almost 500 000 square meters of housing stock, most of which will be comfort and business class. It is these buildings that will form the new “sea façade” of Saint Petersburg. Besides, building on the alluvial land is about the only chance for this city to form a new standard for the residential construction that will be modern and comfortable, the kind that will meet the high requirements of the “Nation’s Northern Capital”. Taking this task seriously, some of the developers and designers do strive to find a decent and harmonious solution for this “high-profile” type of construction meant to serve as the precursor of the famous city, to see which so many tourists come from near and far away.

Doubling the Advantages

An extra proof of the vital town planning and typological importance of building on the alluvial territory is the competition for the best concept of developing this new city land run by GLORAX Development upon the initiative of the government of Saint Petersburg. The organizer is the company TOPMARK, while the consultants are the architectural school MARCH and the research center MARCH Lab.

Several Russian and the world’s top architectural firms took part in the competition. Suffice it to say that the shortlist of the second round included “Ostozhenka”, “Studio 44”, and “A.Len” as well as Cino Zucсhi Architetti Srl. (Italy), KCAP Holding B.V. (Netherlands), and Snøhetta AS (Norway) that submitted six totally different but equally bright and promising concepts. The judging panel awarded the victory to two teams – the Russian firm “A.Len” and the Dutch “KCAP Holding B.V.” that participated in the competition together with its partner Orange. It seemed that, instead of solving the most complex problem, the results of the competition made things even more complicated by shifting to the developer’s shoulders the burden of responsibility for bringing two projects, albeit based on similar planning principles but still different, to one common denominator.

The obvious strong point of the project by KCAP+Orange was its freshness and clarity of idea, which consisted in the composition of rectangular city blocks composed of parallelepipeds of varying height and packed into an orthogonal façade structure. The laconic set was livened up by a few architectural and planning elements that were meant to make the Dutch concept look more authentic. Channels running between the city blocks were to be traced back to the image of the “Northern Venice”, while the asymmetrical tops of the towers – looking like the frameworks of the golden spears of Saint Petersburg – claimed the status of the new landmarks in the new reformed skyline. For all its flashiness, one could easily see significant discrepancies between the concept and the Russian construction rules and regulations, as well as the realities of the Russian building practice. It was only the input from a highly professional domestic team – which would be (a) experienced in implementing projects of similar magnitude and (b) working with foreign partners – that could ensure just as bright and high-quality realization of the idea. The best candidate for that was “A.Len”, whose project with clearly structured city blocks and a number of planning and façade design solutions similar to those proposed by the Dutch firm clearly was playing to win. Ultimately, according to the leader of “A.Len” Sergey Oreshkin, “the judging panel made a wise decision. They selected the two similar concepts and suggested that the developers and the authors (both the Russian and the European one) take the very absolute best from each concept, thus creating a single synchronized town planning and architectural system”.

The Integrated System

The land site, upon which “Golden City” will be built, borders on the U-shaped port bay, flanking its south corner. The narrow site stretches westward and is divided lengthwise into three blocks #7, 8, and 9. Two more blocks (#5 and 6) lie at a right angle in the direction of the last block #4, which is situated outside the main perimeter and is separated from the main body of the complex by a crossroads and a small square. Currently, the working documents of the corner block #4 are ready and the construction of its overland part is underway.

The perimeter type of the city block construction helps to protect the inner yard from the bone-chilling sea winds that blow here from October and well into the wintertime. At the same time, the architects are leaving a few breaks in the perimeter, designing them as arches, in order to keep the visual connection between the residential buildings and the world outside, particularly the bay. In order to further protect the residents from the wind and the rain, the architects designed covered galleries running along the first floors and resting on V-shaped columns.

Defining the sizes of the blocks, the architects proceeded from their historical prototypes, based on the measurements of the town planning grid of the center of Saint Petersburg, as well as on the expertise of modern suburban housing construction. The height of the buildings that form the blocks varies from 20 meters (the level of the cornice of the Winter Palace) for the main bulk of the houses to 50 and even 100 meters of the corner towers, which create extra compositional accents and add to the beauty of the silhouette of the complex. The façades are clad in a structural grid that is formed by the horizontal and vertical ribs marking the levels of the floors and a 3.3 meters regular axis span (the construction span being 6.6 meters, double that size). One of the things that also make this architectural concept different is the asymmetrical spears and rooftops of metallic framework painted gold. These “crowns” or, rather, architectural “headdresses”, are essentially an interesting compromise between the fashionably laconic and even minimalist style of the entire complex and the architects’ desire to accentuate its connection to the historically formed image of Saint Petersburg.

The inner yards are closed for the non-residents’ cars. Developed by the Gensler Company, the outside traffic and pedestrian infrastructure is meant to make the locomotion around the complex safe and easy.

The range of the apartments in “Golden City” meets the current trends of the market. Out of the 588 apartments, only 20% are three-room ones with a floor space of about 90 square meters. The rest are studios (10%) with a 25 square meter floor space, single-room apartments (20%), and double-room apartments (40%). “The Russian architects better feel the needs of the market – Sergey Oreshkin explains – And they are capable of proposing design solutions that are more effective in terms of ergonomics. The Russian conditions are harsher, and the market is much more volatile that the European one. Regretfully, the buying power rises and falls all the time. And now we are in yet another shrinking phase – in terms of the apartments’ floor space and the technology. Only because of the floor space alone our complex is marketed as comfort class. At the same time, the level of the architectural, engineering and design solutions, as well as the detailed work with landscape, façades, and public places, including the lobbies, the elevator halls, and such like, meets the world’s highest standards”.

Reality Check

Over two years that have elapsed since the results of the competition were announced, the project has moved a good deal ahead. The construction of block #6 is underway, the other four being in the phase of detailed design and definition engineering. The Russian and the Dutch teams are in constant contact, handling arising issues together. The designers of KCAP and Orange are focused on the development of the architectural image, striving to keep up the purity and clarity of solution that the judging panel liked so much. The Dutch teams work methodically, dividing their sub-projects into phases, each of which is preceded by a survey, and justifying their solutions by analytics.

Most of the solutions proposed in the competition concept proved efficient upon the detailed analysis but some of them did not pass the Russian reality check. The first thing that the architects had to give up in the beginning of their joint work on the project was changing the configuration of the construction blueprint and enlarging its size, which the Dutch proposed to do in their competition proposal “to harmonize the construction”. Then the developer for economic reasons decided to abandon the idea of the channels. This turned out to be a prohibitively expensive luxury for a housing complex that is officially marketed as “comfort class”. In connection with the specification of some of the clauses of the city’s town planning code, difficulties arose with getting the approvals for the maximum allowed height, including that of the golden spears.

“During the development of the project and specifying its details, a lot of the solutions proposed by the Dutch team had to be altered in favor of the ideas that were originally proposed by “A.Len” from the very start – Sergey Oreshkin shares – And this was a natural thing to do because we have a better knowledge of our regulatory structure, and we took it into consideration all along. Besides, we are experienced in working on alluvial lands, and we know just what kind of design and engineering solutions must be used in such a project. All of our structures rest on 30-meter piles that in turn are based on the natural hard ground below. Everything that’s above that mark must be designed with regard to the fact that this land was actually washed up. If you are aware of it and if you know how to deal with it, it’s not really a problem but if you are oblivious of the fact, you are in for a whole number of risks”.

In order to implement some of the key elements of the project, the architects oftentimes had to revise and improve their design and engineering solutions. For example, designing the units of the V-shaped columns which support the covered arcades running along the first floors of all of the buildings, the Russian proposal was to be revised in favor of the more elegant and aesthetically pleasing solution that the architects insisted upon, the Russian and the Dutch teams bring unanimous on this issue.

The architects also had to find the design solution for the railing structures of the top floors of the towers, from which spring the “golden” asymmetrical spears and the structural “crowns”. The diagonal elements of the grilles, necessary both for the rigidity of the structure, and for purely aesthetic purposes, would slice the window apertures, and the Russian designers were to find the optimum solution for each joint, turning a beautiful picture into a no-frills technological draft.

Rather serious changes had to be made to the floor plans of the buildings and apartments as well. In this respect, the team of “A.Len” also plays the leading part. Unlike their European colleagues, the Russian architects pay a great deal of attention to the orientation of the apartments, the insolation level, and the views that open up from the apartments’ windows, trying to smoothly distribute these qualities among the apartments within the limits of one floor. This approach is in fact inherited from the soviet design tradition but it is still relevant for the realities of the modern market economy, ensuring that there will be no non-sellers among the apartments.

On the other hand, in terms of their architectural solution, clarity of technique, and the absence of “fuss” in working with the façades, the Dutch architects, according to Sergey Oreshkin, outdo their Russian colleagues: “The Dutch have a very keen eye for the purity of architectural lines. It’s hard to say what exactly is the reason for that – maybe their market is adequately developed or the specific education is really up to the mark – but they do very well realize that any fuss, something like a couple of unnecessary details or frontons, is just not architecture. This is equally applicable to the design code of the façade and the silhouette of the building. They chisel away the surplus. The problem is that, as is often the case in this country, we often see the author trying to use a pileup of different techniques and complex shapes as a coverup for his inability to achieve architectural harmony”.

The team also collectively selects the construction materials from suppliers and contractors. What the Dutch designers propose cannot always be implemented in Russia – not all of the materials are available on the market, and you cannot always be sure in the quality of those that you do get, and the practical knowledge of “A.Len” helps to substitute the conceptual solutions to visually similar ones that are at the same time just as dependable.

In actuality, this, of course, is a whole different project now. The differences are considerable also on the level of the town planning solutions, and in terms of the volumetric composition. Which inevitability happens in the process of fine-tuning the competition project to reality anyway. What is amazing, however, is the fact that the international team was able to keep the original image and character of the project turning it into real sustainable architecture which did not lose a bit of its quality and preserved the message of the “sea façade” of Saint Petersburg – the purpose that all of the members of the project set two years ago.

14 May 2018

Written by:
Elena Petukhova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

Headlines now

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Depths of the Earth, Streams of Water

In the Malaya Okhta district, the Akzent building, designed by Stepan Liphart, was constructed. It follows a classic tripartite structure, yet it’s what you might call “hand-drawn”: each façade is unique in its form and details, some of which aren’t immediately noticeable. In this article, we explore the context and, together with the architect, delve into how the form was developed.

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Fir Tree Dynamics

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A Brick Shell

In the process of designing a clubhouse situated among pine trees in a prestigious suburban area near Moscow, the architectural firm “A.Len” did the façade design part. The combination of different types of brick and masonry correlates with the volumetric and plastique solutions, further enhanced by the inclusion of wood-painted fragments and metal “glazing”.

Report

Word Forms

ATRIUM architects love ambitious challenges, and for the firm’s thirtieth anniversary, they boldly play a game of words with an exhibition that dives deep into a self-created vocabulary. They immerse their projects – especially art installations – into this glossary, as if plunging into a current of their own. You feel as if you’re flowing through the veins of pure art, immersed in a universe of vertical cities, educational spaces – of which the architects are true masters – and the cultural codes of various locations. But what truly captivates is the bold statement that Vera Butko and Anton Nadtochy make, both through their work and this exhibition: architecture, above all, is art – the art of working with form and space.

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Flexibility and Acuteness of Modernity

Luxurious, fluid, large “kokoshniks” and spiral barrel columns, as if made from colorful chewing gum: there seem to be no other mansion like this in Moscow, designed in the “Neo-Russian-Modern” style. And the “Teremok” on Malaya Kaluzhskaya, previously somewhat obscure, has “come alive with new colors” and gained visibility after its restoration for the office of the “architectural ecosystem” as the architects love to call themselves. It’s evident that Julius Borisov and the architects at UNK put their hearts into finding this new office and bringing it up to date. Let’s delve into the paradoxes of this mansion’s history and its plasticity. Spoiler: two versions of modernity meet here, both balancing on the razor’s edge of “what’s current”.

Interview

Yuri Vissarionov: “A modular house does not belong to the land”

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Object

Moscow’s First

“The quality of education largely depends on the quality of the educational environment”. This principle of the last decade has been realized by Sergey Skuratov in the project for the First Moscow Gymnasium on Rostovskaya Embankment in the Khamovniki district. The building seamlessly integrates into the complex urban landscape, responding both to the pedestrian flow of the city and the quiet alleyways. It skillfully takes advantage of the height differences and aligns with modern trends in educational space design. Let’s take a closer look.

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Looking at the Water

The site of Villa Sonata stretches from the road to the water’s edge, offering its own shoreline, pier, and a picturesque river panorama. To reveal these sweeping views, Roman Leonidov “cut” the façade diagonally parallel to the river, thus getting two main axes for the house and, consequently, “two heads”. The internal core – two double-height spaces, a living room and a conservatory, with a “bridge” above them – makes the house both “transparent” and filled with light.

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The White Wing

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Urban Dunes

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Proportional Growth

The project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential area has been announced. The buildings are situated on an elongated plot – almost a “ray” that shoots out from the center of the area towards the river. Their layout reflects both a response to Moscow’s architectural preferences over the past 15 years, shifting “from blocks to towers”, and an interpretation of the neighboring business park designed by SOM. Additionally, the best apartments here are not located at the very top but closer to the middle, forming a glowing “waistline”.

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The “Staircase” Building

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Projection of the Quarter

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Object

Domus Aurea

In this issue, we examine the “Tessinsky-1” house, designed by Sergey Skuratov and completed in 2023. Located in the middle of the Serebryanicheskaya Embankment district, at the intersection of its main streets, this house assumes a sort of “nodal” role: it not only responds to everything around it and preserves many memories of the former EMA factory within itself, but it weaves all this into a newly directed pattern, reconciling bright “gold” and dark-colored brick, largely with the help of the new, modern-yet-archaic Columba brick, which, come to think about it, is the most precious element here.

send.project

The Chimney of Nikola-Lenivets

In this issue, we are examining the “Obelisk House” designed by KATARSIS and built for the Arkhstoyanie 2023 festival. However, it was only finished later on, and this is why we are examining it now. It seems to us that after the “Obelisk House” appeared in Nikola-Lenivets, a dialogue and a few inner connections appeared between the temporary structures built here. These houses no longer look like “accidental neighbors”, more of which below.

Periscope by the Bay

The jury awarded the second place in the competition for a public and cultural center in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the companies GORA (“Mountain”) and M4. In the consortium’s proposal, the building resembles a sperm whale with a calf swimming next to it or a periscope, whose lenses capture the most spectacular views from the surrounding landscape.

Contest Results

From Arcs to Dolmens

While working on the competition project for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, ASADOV Architects prioritized the value of the natural and urban environment, aiming to preserve the balance of the location while minimizing the resemblance of the volume that they designed to a “traditional building”. The task was challenging, and the architects created three versions, one of which having been developed after the competition, where their main proposal took third place. However, the point of interest here is not the competition result but the continuity of creative thinking.

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Hide and Seek

The ID Moskovskiy house, designed by Stepan Liphart in St. Petersburg, in the courtyards near Moskovskiy Avenue beyond the Obvodny Canal and recently completed, is notable for several reasons. Firstly, it has been realized with considerable accuracy, which is particularly significant as this is the first building where the architect was responsible not only for the facades but also for the layouts, allowing for better integration between the two. On the other hand, this building is interesting as an example of the “germination” of new architecture in the city: it draws on the best examples from the neighborhood and becomes an improved and developed sum of ideas found by the architect in the surrounding context.

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?

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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.

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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.

Contest Results

Frozen Magma

A competition for the creation of a public and cultural center was held in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Three architectural companies made it to the final, and we consider it important to share about the work of each. Let’s start with the winner – the consortium led by Wowhaus.

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.

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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 Grand Façade

The Grand Façade