По-русски

​Sergey Tchoban: “Sports facilities projects are always customized and individual”.

After the completion of FIFA-2018, whose main venue was the reconstructed Luzhniki Stadium, we are speaking to Sergey Tchoban about the specifics of the reconstruction project, as well as about the architect’s attitude towards sports and the subtleties of designing sports facilities.

Julia Tarabarina

Interviewed by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

06 September 2018
Interview
mainImg
Architect:
Sergei Tchoban
Firm:
SPEECH
Object:
Refurbishment of Luzhniki Stadium
Russia, Moscow

Project Team:
General design and planning:Mosinzhproekt Head of project team: Sergey Kuznetsov, chief architect of Moscow Architecture, technology, site plan: SPEECH architectural office Architects in charge: Sergei Tchoban, Alexey Shubkin, Nikolay Gordushin, E.Chernych,A.Fedorov. L. Korneeva, O.Lipis, A.Loginova, S.Lozhkina, E.Medvedeva, E.Serova Structural engineering and engineering: OOO Metropolis Graphic Design: Art Lebedev Studio Glass: AGC Glass production: AKMA Facade set up: Front Engineering

2013 / 2017

Client: KP BSA Luzhniki

Did SPEECH work with the Luzhniki Arena since 2013 or did you plug in later on down the line?

Since 2013. The company “Mosinzhproject” ran a competition for the best designer, and we won it. Further on, under the supervision of Moscow’s building complex, the main architect of the city and the already-mentioned “Mosinzhproject” we did the sections entitled “Architecture”, “Technology”, “Master Plan”, and also conducted the author supervision over the implementation of the project of refurbishing the Luzhniki Stadium. In addition, it was SPEECH that did the reconstruction of Luzhniki infrastructure projects – totally, there were 16 of them. Among these were cash offices, entrance and service pavilions, checkpoints, training fields with spectator stalls, a children’s sports zone, and a service center for street sports.

zooming
Luzhniki Stadium, reconstruction 2015-2018. SPEECH. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


The description of your project mentions the fact that you preserved the mold of the roof. What about the roof itself – is it new?

The roof is the same as it used to be. It was made of polycarbonate, and it remained that way, the only difference being that now we used polycarbonate conforming to the new fire safety requirements G-1. However, according to our project, a marquee was built that provides extra comfort for the spectators both on sunny days and in the rainy weather.

Do I get it right that, in order to optimize the view from the spectator seats and to boost the number of seats up to 81 000, you had to replace everything that was there on the inside, for the sole exception of the outside wall contour? What were the difficulties that you ran into in the course of the working process, and how did you handle them?

Yes, the old stadium did not conform to the FIFA standards. Specifically, it had an insufficient seat capacity, inadequate breadth of the seat rows, as well as an insufficient amount of bathrooms and cafeterias. In addition, too many of the spectator seats had a limited view, and there were too few spectator seats for people of limited mobility. Therefore, the key task of the reconstruction project was, on the one hand, keeping the outward appearance of the stadium as the icon of Russian sports – the historical walls and the roof of the stadium – and, on the other hand, fulfilling all of the FIFA requirements for the square footage and spectator seat capacity. In other words, we had a task of inscribing all of the new functions into the existing geometry. And this in itself was the most difficult challenge of all.

If you remember, in 2013 they even seriously considered a prospect of tearing down the stadium altogether and building a completely new arena in its place – and we must say thank you to Moscow government that this historical building was ultimately preserved. The historical importance of this edifice, this timeless monument to sports, outweighed all the other considerations. And our project was specially developed with a view to prove that fulfilling all of the FIFA requirements was indeed possible within the historical contour of the stadium. At the same time, barring the historical walls and the roof of the stadium, absolutely everything was replaced – it is a 100 percent new stadium on the inside.

The fact that the spectator seats have been moved closer to the field, and that the angle of their elevation is increased, is covered by all the industry media. Is this really the main technical innovation in the implemented project? And, even if it is, what else is technically new?

First of all, we were to leave the elevation level of the field as it was – because of the proximity of the soil water. In order to ensure the required capacity of 81 000 seats and the requirements for areas for various spectator groups, we had to move the seats closer to the field – and we were able to do that at the expense of removing the running and track and field lanes, which used to circle the football field along its perimeter. Instead just one tier of stalls, we designed three tiers, the ring of the middle tier being occupied by skyboxes – a hundred units for 1950 spectators, as well as 300 VIP seats. And in the gap between the upper in the lower stalls, there are 300 seats for people of limited mobility.

The main means of locomotion inside the stadium are cascading stairways, which are separated from the historical wall by an inside street, thanks to which, by the way, the façade of Luzhniki is now perceived not only from the outside but also from the inside. Among other things, the stairways take the spectators to the distribution gallery that runs 23 meters above the ground – this space at the same time serves as a sightseeing platform that commands fine views of the city center and the Moscow City skyscraper business complex.

Luzhniki Stadium, reconstruction 2015-2018. SPEECH. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


Luzhniki Stadium, reconstruction 2015-2018. SPEECH. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


Luzhniki Stadium, reconstruction 2015-2018. SPEECH. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


Luzhniki Stadium, reconstruction 2015-2018. SPEECH. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


The graphic design of the frieze on the attic part was done by Artemy Lebedev Studio. Is this your first experience of doing such a collaboration, and how do you evaluate it?

This was our first experience of collaboration, which led to me recommending Artemy Lebedev Studio for two other of our projects. So, yes, this was a positive experience.

Luzhniki Stadium, reconstruction 2015-2018. SPEECH. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


The frieze was there all along – as an element that decorated the roof’s outer bearing ring. However, it was made of metallic cassettes, which by 2014 totally fell into decay. The frieze was very far from aesthetically pleasing. However, at the same time it was clear that we couldn’t do without it. And we took quite a long time thinking over the new image of this element and its execution. Ultimately, we came up with this idea to apply perforation, and not just any perforation but the kind that depicts athletes symbolizing various kind of sports, which were related to this stadium, including during the 1980’s Olympics. 

Luzhniki Stadium, reconstruction 2015-2018. SPEECH. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


Section view of the spectator seats. Luzhniki Stadium, reconstruction 2015-2018. SPEECH. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


Luzhniki Stadium, reconstruction 2015-2018. SPEECH. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


Luzhniki Stadium, reconstruction 2015-2018. SPEECH. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov

***

Did you ever support any sports team or is it that building stadiums is only a matter of architectural art for you?

I was a huge fan of the Russian team at FIFA 2008. They took the bronze medal at the European Championship. I vividly remember us coming to some huge restaurant in Berlin and shouting for our team – I literally lost my voice then. But I don’t have any fave teams, and I am not a fan in the classic sense of this word.

Currently, the architectural community knows really well the Palace of Water Sports, the Dinamo Stadium, the Krasnodar Stadium, and the Big Sports Arena as the climax of the sports facilities that SPEECH has designed. Can I ask you to get back to the very beginning and remember the first sports facility that you ever designed?

It was the Palace of Water Sports in Kazan that was the first sports facility that we designed.

What would you name as the main challenge in working with a large-scale stadium – the construction set, the bright imagery requirements, deconfliction of streams or perhaps something else?

The projects of sports architecture are always customized and individual. If you design an office building, all you know about it is that after it is launched into operation, some renter will move in. Or some renters. And as for sports facilities, they are always designed for some specific team or for some specific event, their schedule, as a rule, being known for years to come. And this is what raises the bar and sets the most ambitious targets for the architects – tasks that have to do with constructive solutions that are meant to work tomorrow just as well as they work today. And, of course, unlike the other functions, a stadium is always about the architecture of big forms. When you design a stadium, you have to make fewer decisions that you have to make once and for all, but these decisions had better be the right ones because they have a high degree of multiplication.

The architecture of the Krasnodar stadium is, let’s say, “latent classical”, very much in the spirit of the 1930’s. The Big Sports Arena, built in the 1950’s, is also quite classical, and in some way they are even resonant with each other. What are we to expect next? A super-modern iconic stadium or would you prefer to work, in the case of new scenarios, in the classic paradigm of the colosseum?

It all depends on the context. Today, the way I see it, we no longer see the approach towards architecture as some sort of a blueprint – I am talking about a situation when an architect comes up with this or that type of a building and then tries to reproduce this pattern in different points of the globe and in different situations. True, there are still such builders out there, but they are few and far between, while modern architects at large pay much more attention to the context in which they do their projects. And it is my personal belief that if we are to think about the next projects, including sports facilities, their image will first of all depend on where they will be situated and for whom they will be designed. In any case, this must be architecture that is thought out and implemented on a high-quality level down to the last detail.
Luzhniki Stadium, reconstruction 2015-2018. SPEECH. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Luzhniki Stadium, reconstruction 2015-2018. SPEECH. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Luzhniki Stadium, reconstruction 2015-2018. SPEECH. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
The plan at the mark of +5400, FIFA mode. Luzhniki Stadium, reconstruction 2015-2018. SPEECH. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
The plan at the mark of +16800, FIFA mode. Luzhniki Stadium, reconstruction 2015-2018. SPEECH. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Section view. Luzhniki Stadium, reconstruction 2015-2018. SPEECH. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


Architect:
Sergei Tchoban
Firm:
SPEECH
Object:
Refurbishment of Luzhniki Stadium
Russia, Moscow

Project Team:
General design and planning:Mosinzhproekt Head of project team: Sergey Kuznetsov, chief architect of Moscow Architecture, technology, site plan: SPEECH architectural office Architects in charge: Sergei Tchoban, Alexey Shubkin, Nikolay Gordushin, E.Chernych,A.Fedorov. L. Korneeva, O.Lipis, A.Loginova, S.Lozhkina, E.Medvedeva, E.Serova Structural engineering and engineering: OOO Metropolis Graphic Design: Art Lebedev Studio Glass: AGC Glass production: AKMA Facade set up: Front Engineering

2013 / 2017

Client: KP BSA Luzhniki

06 September 2018

Julia Tarabarina

Interviewed by:

Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov
Headlines now
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.
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.
Architecture and Leisure Park
For the suburban hotel complex, which envisages various formats of leisure, the architectural company T+T Architects proposed several types of accommodation, ranging from the classic “standard” in a common building to a “cave in the hill” and a “house in a tree”. An additional challenge consisted in integrating a few classic-style residences already existing on this territory into the “architectural forest park”.
The U-House
The Jois complex combines height with terraces, bringing the most expensive apartments from penthouses down to the bottom floors. The powerful iconic image of the U-shaped building is the result of the creative search for a new standard of living in high-rise buildings by the architects of “Genpro”.
Black and White
In this article, we specifically discuss the interiors of the ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh. Interior design is a crucial component of the overall concept in this case, and precision and meticulous execution were highly important for the architects. Julia Tryaskina, head of UNK interiors, shares some of the developments.
The “Snake” Mountain
The competition project for the seaside resort complex “Serpentine” combines several typologies: apartments of different classes, villas, and hotel rooms. For each of these typologies, the KPLN architects employ one of the images that are drawn from the natural environment – a serpentine road, a mountain stream, and rolling waves.
Opal from Anna Mons’ Ring
The project of a small business center located near Tupolev Plaza and Radio Street proclaims the necessity of modern architecture in a specific area of Moscow commonly known as “Nemetskaya Sloboda” or “German settlement”. It substantiates its thesis with the thoroughness of details, a multitude of proposed and rejected form variants, and even a detailed description of the surrounding area. The project is interesting indeed, and it is even more interesting to see what will come of it.
Feed ’Em All
A “House of Russian Cuisine” was designed and built by KROST Group at VDNKh for the “Rossiya” exhibition in record-breaking time. The pavilion is masterfully constructed in terms of the standards of modern public catering industry multiplied by the bustling cultural program of the exhibition, and it interprets the stylistically diverse character of VDNKh just as successfully. At the same time, much of its interior design can be traced back to the prototypes of the 1960s – so much so that even scenes from iconic Soviet movies of those years persistently come to mind.
The Ensemble at the Mosque
OSA prepared a master plan for a district in the southern part of Derbent. The main task of the master plan is to initiate the formation of a modern comfortable environment in this city. The organization of residential areas is subordinated to the city’s spiritual center: depending on the location relative to the cathedral mosque, the houses are distinguished by façade and plastique solutions. The program also includes a “hospitality center”, administrative buildings, an educational cluster, and even an air bridge.
Pargolovo Protestantism
A Protestant church is being built in St. Petersburg by the project of SLOI architects. One of the main features of the building is a wooden roof with 25-meter spans, which, among other things, forms the interior of the prayer hall. Also, there are other interesting details – we are telling you more about them.
The Shape of the Inconceivable
The ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh brings to mind a famous maxim of all architects and critics: “You’ve come up with it? Now build it!” You rarely see such a selfless immersion in implementation of the project, and the formidable structural and engineering tasks set by UNK architects to themselves are presented here as an integral and important part of the architectural idea. The challenge matches the obliging status of the place – after all, it is an “exhibition of achievements”, and the pavilion is dedicated to the nuclear energy industry. Let’s take a closer look: from the outside, from the inside, and from the underside too.
​Rays of the Desert
A school for 1750 students is going to be built in Dubai, designed by IND Architects. The architects took into account the local specifics, and proposed a radial layout and spaces, in which the children will be comfortable throughout the day.
The Dairy Theme
The concept of an office of a cheese-making company, designed for the enclosed area of a dairy factory, at least partially refers to industrial architecture. Perhaps that is why this concept is very simple, which seems the appropriate thing to do here. The building is enlivened by literally a couple of “master strokes”: the turning of the corner accentuates the entrance, and the shade of glass responds to the theme of “milk rivers” from Russian fairy tales.
The Road to the Temple
Under a grant from the Small Towns Competition, the main street and temple area of the village of Nikolo-Berezovka near Neftekamsk has been improved. A consortium of APRELarchitects and Novaya Zemlya is turning the village into an open-air museum and integrating ruined buildings into public life.
​Towers Leaning Towards the Sun
The three towers of the residential complex “Novodanilovskaya 8” are new and the tallest neighbors of the Danilovsky Manufactory, “Fort”, and “Plaza”, complementing a whole cluster of modern buildings designed by renowned masters. At the same time, the towers are unique for this setting – they are residential, they are the tallest ones here, and they are located on a challenging site. In this article, we explore how architects Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova tackled this far-from-trivial task.
In the spirit of ROSTA posters
The new Rostselmash tractor factory, conceptualized by ASADOV Architects, is currently being completed in Rostov-on-Don. References to the Soviet architecture of the 1920’s and 1960’s resonate with the mission and strategic importance of the enterprise, and are also in line with the client’s wish: to pay homage to Rostov’s constructivism.
The Northern Thebaid
The central part of Ferapontovo village, adjacent to the famous monastery with frescoes by Dionisy, has been improved according to the project by APRELarchitects. Now the place offers basic services for tourists, as well as a place for the villagers’ leisure.
Brilliant Production
The architects from London-based MOST Architecture have designed the space for the high-tech production of Charge Cars, a high-performance production facility for high-speed electric cars that are assembled in the shell of legendary Ford Mustangs. The founders of both the company and the car assembly startup are Russians who were educated in their home country.
Three-Part Task: St. Petersburg’s Mytny Dvor
The so-called “Mytny Dvor” area lying just behind Moscow Railway Station – the market rows with a complex history – will be transformed into a premium residential complex by Studio 44. The project consists of three parts: the restoration of historical buildings, the reconstruction of the lost part of the historical contour, and new houses. All of them are harmonized with each other and with the city; axes and “beams of light” were found, cozy corners and scenic viewpoints were carefully thought out. We had a chat with the authors of the historical buildings’ restoration project, and we are telling you about all the different tasks that have been solved here.
The Color of the City, or Reflections on the Slope of an Urban Settlement
In 2022, Ostozhenka Architects won a competition, and in 2023, they developed and received all the necessary approvals for a master plan for the development of Chernigovskaya Street for the developer GloraX. The project takes into account a 10-year history of previous developments; it was done in collaboration with architects from Nizhny Novgorod, and it continues to evolve now. We carefully examined it, talked to everyone, and learned a lot of interesting things.
A Single-Industry Town
Kola MMC and Nornickel are building a residential neighborhood in Monchegorsk for their future employees. It is based on a project by an international team that won the 2021 competition. The project offers a number of solutions meant to combat the main “demons” of any northern city: wind, grayness and boredom.
A New Age Portico
At the beginning of the year, Novosibirsk Tolmachevo Airport opened Terminal C. The large-scale and transparent entrance hall with luminous columns inside successfully combines laconism with a bright and photogenic WOW-effect. The terminal is both the new façade of the whole complex and the starting point of the planned reconstruction, upon completion of which Tolmachevo will become the largest regional airport in Russia. In this article, we are examining the building in the context of modernist prototypes of both Novosibirsk and Leningrad: like puzzle pieces, they come together to form their individual history, not devoid of curious nuances and details.
A New Starting Point
We’ve been wanting to examine the RuArts Foundation space, designed by ATRIUM for quite a long time, and we finally got round to it. This building looks appropriate and impressive; it amazingly combines tradition – represented in our case by galleries – and innovation. In this article, we delve into details and study the building’s historical background as well.
Molding Perspectives
Stepan Liphart introduces “schematic Art Deco” on the outskirts of Kazan – his houses are executed in green color, with a glassy “iced” finish on the facades. The main merits of the project lie in his meticulous arrangement of viewing angles – the architect is striving to create in a challenging environment the embryo of a city not only in terms of pedestrian accessibility but also in a sculptural sense. He works with silhouettes, proposing intriguing triangular terraces. The entire project is structured like a crystal, following two grids, orthogonal and diagonal. In this article, we are examining what worked, and what eventually didn’t.
An Educational Experiment for the North
City-Arch continues to work on the projects that can be termed as “experimental public preschools”: private kindergartens and schools can envy such facilities in many respects. This time around, the project is done for the city of Gubkinsky, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. A diverse educational and play environment, including a winter garden, awaits future students, while the teachers will have abundant opportunities to implement new practices.
Alexandra Kuzmina: “Working is easy when the rules are the same for everyone”
The subject matter of Moscow Region’s booth and presentations at Zodchestvo Festival was the concept of “Integrated Land Development”, and for a good reason: this task is very challenging, very relevant, and Moscow Region has already accumulated quite a formidable experience in this regard. In this article, we are speaking to the main architect of the region: about master plans and who makes them, about where you obtain resources for creating a comfortable environment, about her favorite projects, about why there are so few good architects, and what we should do with the bad ones.
The Cemetery: Inside and Outside
The workshop organized by the Genplan Institute of Moscow scored one of the two first places at the “Open City” festival. Its subject is reorganization of municipal cemeteries. Two action plans were proposed, diametrically opposite: one for the downtown and one for the suburbs.
Our Everything
Who is Alexey Shchusev? In the last couple of weeks, since the architect’s 150th birthday, different individuals have answered this question differently. The most detailed, illustrated, and elegantly presented response is an exhibition held in two buildings of the Museum of Architecture on Vozdvizhenka. Four curators, a year and a half of work performed by the entire museum, and exhibition design by Sergey Tchoban and Alexandra Sheiner – in this article, we take you on a tour of the exhibition and show what’s what in it.
For Mental Reboot
At the architectural competition held in 2023 in Novosibirsk, the project by GORA Architects – a pedestrian bridge leading to the town of Bor – was awarded the “Golden Capital” prize. In this country, more than a hundred pedestrian bridges are constructed each year. What makes the Bor bridge different?
Gold Embroidery
A five-story housing complex designed by Stepan Liphart in Kazan, responds to the stylistically diverse context with its form, both integral and agile, and as for the vicinity of the “Ekiyat” movie theater, the complex responds to it with a semblance of theater curtain folds, and active plastique of its balconies, that bear some resemblance to theater boxes. Even if excessively pompous a little bit, the complex does look fresh and modern. One will have a hard time finding Art Deco elements in it, even though the spirit of the 1930s, run through the filter of neo-modernism, is still clearly felt, just as a twist of the Occident.