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​Buyan and the Court Quarter

The news about cancellation of the Tuchkov Buyan park has been stirring the minds of people of St. Petersburg for a week already. In the absence of any verified specific information, we discussed the situation with the architects of the park and the Court Quarter: Nikita Yavein and Evgeny Gerasimov.

18 January 2022
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On the first working day of the year, the news came out that the St. Petersburg city council changed their minds about building the Tuchkov Buyan park and decided to pull up the idea of building the “Court Quarter” on Vatny Island. Later on, Smolny specified that the park will still be built, but, judging from the official wording, not in the form that was designed by Studio 44 and West 8, whose joint concept won in the international competition. The commentary on combining both functions was given by Dmitry Peskov, while the vice-governor of St. Petersburg Boris Piotrovsky said that the construction of Boris Eifman Dance Palace was still in progress. The local preservation activists already made a stand against building on the land site where the park was promised. 

We asked the architects to comment on the situation.

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Copyright: Source: park-spb.ru


Evgeny Gerasimov:

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“This construction that has been going on on Dobrolyubova forever is something that everybody is seriously tired of, and I think that finishing it would be great news for St. Petersburg.

A year ago I proposed a compromise. Due to the fact that the design of the Court Quarter was 100% ready, including the interiors, it would make sense to continue the construction of the department and “relocate” the building of the Supreme Court to the spot of the former housing project, finding accommodation for the judges at another site – for example, the nearby Petrovsky Island, thus vacating the area for the park. This makes perfect sense from the town-planning standpoint: we make sure that the Boris Eifman theater does not look like a splinter, and the three neoclassical buildings stand up in a row forming the front of Speranskogo Street, without getting in the park’s way – by analogy with the Russian Museum or the Tavrichesky Palace.

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    Evgeny Gerasimov′s new proposal for Tuchkov Buyan: reduction combined with preservation of the Court Quarter on Vatny Island
    Copyright: © Evgeny Gerasimov and Partners
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    The draft of the Judicial Quarter, relevant for the spring of 2019
    Copyright: © Evgeny Gerasimov and Partners
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    The project of the Judicial Quarter, as of spring 2019
    Copyright: © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
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    Scheme: the possibility of “huddling together” the buildings of the Court Quarter and vacating space for the park
    Copyright: © Evgeny Gerasimov and Partners


The area of the entire site is 9.9 hectares, including the theater. Without the theater, it is 8.7 hectares, half of which is occupied by already-complete underground floors. My proposal was that we leave 6 hectares to the park, and 2.7 hectares to the Supreme Court and the Department. This will save a whole lot of people’s money and will spare us the necessity to look for a new land site. Instead of killing an already existing real park with high-rise trees – the Neva Garden (to which the former chief architect of St. Petersburg Vladimir Grigoriev proposed to transfer the court buildings) – and building a new park on building foundations that are already there, we could save billions of rubles, lots of land, and years of hard work.

Whether or not the buildings or the Court Quarter will be constructed in accordance with our proposal is a question that should not be addressed to me – but I hope that they will. We will redesign them quickly, all the more so because the construction blueprints of the residential quarter and the Supreme Court are virtually identical.”

Nikita Yavein, Studio 44:

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“For the whole year after the competition for the Tuchkov Buyan park was over, Evgeny Gerasimov went out of his way to prove to everyone that, save for this site, the court buildings will not fit anywhere else. No other land site but this one, no alternative. He did a lot of work, and, as we can see, he did succeed, which makes perfect sense: court buildings are a priority.

It’s too bad that the project that won in the competition will not be implemented. This would be a very architectural and spatial project – multilevel, with bridges, end-to-end views, and multiple scenarios of usage and perception.

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    The master plan and the explication. The competition proposal of the romantic park “Tuchkov Buyan” in Saint Petersburg
    Copyright: © Studio 44, West 8
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    Romantic park “Tuchkov Buyan”. The green amphitheater, the central lawn
    Copyright: © Studio 44, West 8
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    Romantic park “Tuchkov Buyan”. Construction and engineering solutions
    Copyright: © Studio 44, West 8
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    Romantic park “Tuchkov Buyan”. The lighting
    Copyright: © Studio 44, West 8


And now the situation looks like this: the construction front along the Malaya Neva is formed by some sort of a “Turkish Empire Style”, looking like the most expensive hotel in Antalya – with full-fledged stone facades and sculptures. The difference is that in Turkey it is all done with a slightly ironic flavor, and here we are building such things like we really mean it! And in the main panorama of St. Petersburg this will stand on the right of Thomas de Thomon…

As far as I can see, the city people are shocked. They feel insulted, they feel deceived, and they collect signatures under petitions. This will hardly improve things in any way. But the aftertaste will remain in any event.”

Romantic park “Tuchkov Buyan”
Copyright: © Studio 44, West 8
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The Tuchkov Buyan park is not at all the first project that did not come to fruition on Vatny Island. As early as in 1945, Nikolai Baranov proposed to make in this part of the Petrograd Side a large continuous green zone, but by 1960 the site was occupied by the buildings of the State Institute of Applied Chemistry.

The next phase was the competition named “Naberezhnaya Evropy” (“Waterfront of Europe”) for the residential construction held in 2009, which was won by the consortium of Evgeny Gerasimov and nps tchoban voss with an idea of city blocks designed by different European architects. This project already included the Boris Eifman Dance Palace, but there was a separate competition held for it.



After the Chemistry Institute was removed from the site, and the “project” stage was developed, the decision to make the Supreme Court complex ensued. The new 2013 competition was won by Maxim Atayants, Maxim Atayants but in the end, the Presidential Administration, which still manages the site, outsourced the design to Evgeny Gerasimov Studio.



They already started to build the Court Quarter but in 2019 the situation changed again: as is known, the future governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov proposed to build a park, and the president of Russia Vladimir Putin supported this idea. The large-scale international competition was won by the concept proposed by Studio 44 and West 8, but already in May 2021 Nikita Yavein shared that the park project was frozen. 



The detailed chronicle of decisions made on Vatny Island is published in the Sobaka Magazine. On Arch.ru, you can get acquainted with the concept of the park, recall the experts’ opinions on the possibility of creating something like St. Petersburg’s Zaryadye, and read an interview with Evgeny Gerasimov about how competitions and designers came and went.


18 January 2022

Headlines now
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.
Reconciliation
The restoration of the Salt Warehouse for the Zvenigorod Museum, on the one hand, was quite accurately implemented according to the design of the People’s Architect, and, on the other hand, it was not without some extra research and adjustments, which, in this case, was quite beneficial for the project. The architects discovered the original paint color, details of the facades, and studied the history of rebuilds of this building. As a result, the imposing character of the empire building, the oldest one in the city, and the differences of later additions were accurately revealed. Most importantly, however, the city got a new cultural and public space, which is already “working” in full swing.
From Moscow to Khabarovsk
This year, the works submitted by the students of the Genplan Institute of Moscow included a proposal for revitalizing Moscow’s “Pravda” complex with its structures designed by Ilia Golosov, landscaping an East Siberian town, located a 12-hour drive away from the nearest big city, and three versions of turning a derelict “pioneer camp” into an educational hub, similar to “Sirius”. Two sites out of three have an interested client, so chances are that the students’ works will be ultimately implemented.