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The White Fitness Center

The white health and fitness center, designed by Futura Architects at the entrance to St. Petersburg’s New Piter residential complex, provides the developing area not only with functional but also with sculptural diversity, livening up the rows of the brick city blocks with the whiteness of its seamless facades, cantilevered structures, and dynamic inclined lines.

08 February 2023
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This health and fitness center is part of the public “agenda” of New Piter, more of which we covered here. Futura Architects, we will remind you, designed several buildings for it: a residential building, a business center, and finally the health and fitness center.

New Piter is a large residential area located just outside St. Petersburg’s Ring Road (technically, outside of the city), not far away from Strelna. At the same time, this is a comparatively rare, by the standards of suburban St. Petersburg, example of an all-rounded approach to land development: the “lots” of the houses are introduced here concurrently to the infrastructure and various public projects. Approximately in the middle, the area is crossed by the pedestrian White Nights “park” boulevard; it runs between the school and kindergarten, and, like some kind of central string, it holds greenery, artificial hills, a stadium, and playgrounds strung upon it. The boulevard was also designed by Oleg Manov.

Larger public infrastructure projects have been moved closer to the Krasnoselskoe Highway: this ensures better transport accessibility, while the residential buildings stand rather far away from the highway (about 80 meters), and are protected from the noise, all the more so because the string of public and commercial buildings is separated from the residential blocks by yet another linear park: a wavy pedestrian trail that allows pedestrians to cruise around New Piter, bypassing the highway.

The health and fitness center in New Piter housing complex: location
Copyright: © FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


The fitness center received the key site at the crossing of Krasnoselskoe Highway and Nevskaya Street. This point can be considered to be the main driving/pedestrian entrance to the area.

New Piter has been in construction for a few years already, and the original concept underwent a few changes. Specifically, the standard projects were replaced by “lots”, whose image solution was proposed by different architectural companies, which is definitely a plus.

Other changes can be interpreted in the key of adapting to the ever-changing reality. Originally, it was planned that between the business center (situated on the northwest corner of the complex, at the driving entrance from the Ring Road) and the fitness center (situated two hundred meters south), there would be more vacant space. For this reason, Futura Architects designed them as an ensemble of two noticeable volumes marking the presence of the complex in the city and welcoming the cars coming from the Krasnoselskoe Highway – like a “gate” or a “facade” of the new part of the city. At the first stage of design, both volumes had brick facades – just like the rest of the complex – but they sported an integral energetic shape, literally “shooting” north in the direction of the Ring Road and the Gulf of Finland. An important part in the composition was played by the business center with a powerful sidewall chamfer and a 12-meter cantilever.

The business center in Novoselye, in the northwest corner of New Piter housing complex
Copyright: © FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


The health and fitness center, situated, as we remember, further south, before the crossing of the highway and Nevskaya Street, echoed the chamfer of the north cantilever and developed the related plastique of the large and dynamic form, but showed a slightly greater interest to diagonal and jagged lines.

The health and fitness center in New Piter housing complex
Copyright: © FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


Later on, it was decided to build two multilevel parking garages between the business center and the fitness center, and the town planning “rest” became blurred – but we must realize that the residents have to park their cars somewhere, so this decision is after all motivated. The “southward dash” also became a little less obvious: the parking garages were designed by a different company, and they are essentially static crystalline parallelepipeds, even though we must give them credit for their beautiful glitter.

The brick surface of the walls of the fitness center was also something that the architects had to sacrifice: the COVID pandemic got in the way, supply chains were disrupted, the budget was cut, and the walls became stucco. For economic reasons, the architects also sacrificed the deep jambs of the stained glass windows – they were partially replaced by thin metallic lamellae that trace the lines of the stained glass windows, the plastique is formed solely by cantilevers.

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    The health and fitness center in New Piter housing complex
    Copyright: © FUTURA-ARCHITECTS
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    The health and fitness center in New Piter housing complex
    Copyright: © FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


Nevertheless, after all the changes the building preserved the main thing about it, the purity of lines, and the whiteness of the facades made it even more noticeable, accentuating both the function and the town planning meaning of the sports complex against the background of the residential blocks. The bright pure color, the sloping lines, and the inclined lines and place do attract attention.

The health and fitness center in New Piter housing complex
Copyright: © FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


The volumes and contrastive glazing planes, which protrude from the building, mark the functional blocks. The central part of the building is occupied by the swimming pool, its grand-scale stained glass window turned in the direction of the Krasnoselskoe Highway. Closer to the end of the building, the stained glass window narrows down to a band, which makes a zigzag on the sidewall and ascends from the second floor to the third – to continue above the main entrance. This “band” marks the location of the spa zone and multifunctional gyms.

The health and fitness center in New Piter housing complex
Copyright: © FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


The inclined “monitor” of the cantilever turned in the direction of the gulf – as well as yet another smaller cantilever on the opposite side – both include training facilities and management offices. The entire fourth floor is occupied by gyms. This place also has an exit to the cantilever’s roof, where in good weather training sessions can be organized, or maybe just recreation: you cannot really see the Gulf of Finland from here but the roof does command sweeping views.

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    The health and fitness center in New Piter housing complex
    Copyright: © FUTURA-ARCHITECTS
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    The health and fitness center in New Piter housing complex
    Copyright: © FUTURA-ARCHITECTS
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    The health and fitness center in New Piter housing complex
    Copyright: © FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


Since the building is not sunken in the ground, the basin, together with all the technical rooms and communications, occupies almost the entire ground floor.

It must be said that engineering communications always present a serious challenge for a building that aims at brilliant purity of dynamic forms. In this particular instance, the architects were able to hide as much of the ventilation system as possible on the roof, neatly arranging the “fifth facade”, keeping in mind that it would be visible from the higher floors of the buildings that surround the fitness center. Against this background, the cooling grids on white facades can be ignored – such inclusions are to be seen on many buildings, and our eyes are used to ignoring them. All the rest, even the pipes from the yard side, are agreed upon and inscribed into the general concept. As for the interiors, the utility lines remain literally exposed, or even exhibited, covered by glass and backlit.

The architects also provided on the facade a recession for the logo of the future operator – in the most noticeable point, from the side of the Krasnoselskoe Highway.

Thus, the health and fitness center, designed by Futura Architects, righteously occupies the key location at the entrance to this large residential complex at the outskirts of St. Petersburg. The building of the fitness center supports not just the multifunctional nature of the new area but also ensures architectural diversity. The brick city blocks, although not exactly “stylized”, bear a rather traditional look, just as the orthogonal plan. However, this light-colored and dynamic inclusion livens up the regular array of the houses with bold fresh spots. Not to mention the fact that the contrast of shape also emphasizes the difference of function, saving the building from “drowning” in the context of the new housing complex. In this sense, the plaster surface of the walls, a measure that initially appeared out of necessity, turned out to be the best solution – the plaster made it possible to make the facades seamless, and the color bright white.

One more thing: the building of the center also responds to a concrete object in the north part of the White Nights Boulevard – a sculptural bench, or, rather, a sign that the same architect, Oleg Manov, designed five or more years ago for this complex. Mind, you cannot see one object standing next to the other – they are about half a kilometer apart – but, come to think of it, both objects, big and small, charge the whole territory with some neo-modernist cheerfulness. And they also reveal the trademark style of Futura Architects just as vividly.

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    The health and fitness center in New Piter housing complex. Plan of the 1 floor
    Copyright: © FUTURA-ARCHITECTS
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    The health and fitness center in New Piter housing complex. Plan of the 2 floor
    Copyright: © FUTURA-ARCHITECTS
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    The health and fitness center in New Piter housing complex. Plam of the 3 floor
    Copyright: © FUTURA-ARCHITECTS
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    The health and fitness center in New Piter housing complex. Plan of the 4 floor
    Copyright: © FUTURA-ARCHITECTS
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    The health and fitness center in New Piter housing complex. Cross section view 1-1
    Copyright: © FUTURA-ARCHITECTS



08 February 2023

Headlines now
Living in the Architecture of One’s Own Making
Do architects design houses for themselves? You bet! In this article, we are examining a new book by TATLIN publishing house. This book – unprecedented for Russia – features 52 private homes designed and built by contemporary architects for themselves. It includes houses that are famous, even iconic, as well as lesser-known ones; large and small, stylish and eccentric. To some extent, the book reflects the history of Russian architecture over the past 30 years.
A City Block Isoline
Another competition project for a residential complex on the banks of the Volga in Nizhny Novgorod has been prepared by Studio 44. A team of architects led by Ivan Kozhin concluded that using a regular block layout in such a location would be inappropriate and developed a “custom design” approach: a chain of parceled multi-section buildings stretching along the entire embankment. Let’s explore the features and advantages of this unconventional method.
Competition: The Price of Creativity?
Any day now, we’re expecting the results of a competition held by the “Samolet” development group for a plot in Kommunarka. In the meantime, we share the impressions of Editor-in-Chief Julia Tarabarina, who managed to conduct a public talk. Though technically focused on the interaction between developers and architects, the public talk turned into a discussion about the pros and cons of architectural competitions.
Terraced Design
The “River Park” residential complex has confidently and securely shaped the Nagatinsky Backwater shoreline. Featuring a public embankment, elevated courtyards connected by pedestrian bridges, and brick façades, the development invites exploration of its nuanced response to the surrounding context, as well as hints of the architects’ megalithic design thinking.
A Kremlin’s Core and Meteorite Fragments
We continue our coverage of the competition projects for the residential district that the development company GloraX plans to build along the embankment of the Rowing Channel in Nizhny Novgorod. ASADOV Architects approached the concept through a deep dive into local identity, using storytelling to pinpoint a central idea for the design: the master plan and composition are imagined as if a meteorite had struck a “proto-Kremlin”. Sounds weird? Find more details below!
The Volga Regatta
GloraX plans to develop a residential complex spanning 14 hectares along the Volga River in Nizhny Novgorod. The winning design in a closed-door competition, created by GORA Architects, features housing typologies ranging from townhouses to terraced high-rise slabs, a balance of functions, diverse ways of engaging with the water, and even a dedicated island (no less!) for the city residents.
A New Track
We took a thorough look at D_Station, a railcar repair depot dating back to 1906, recently reconstructed while preserving its century-old industrial structure, upon the project by Sergey Trukhanov and T+T Architects. Though work on the interiors – set to house restaurants and public spaces – is still underway, the building’s exterior already offers plenty to see. Visitors can explore the blend of old and new brickwork, appreciate the architect’s unique interpretation of ruin aesthetics, and enjoy the newly built pedestrian route that connects the Citydel Business Center’s arches to Kazakova Street.
Four Different Surveys
The “Explore the City” competition, organized this year by the Genplan Institute of Moscow, stands out as a pretty unconventional one for the architectural field but aligns perfectly well with the character of urban planning work. The winning project analyzed contemporary residential complexes, combining urban planning insights with a realtor’s perspective to propose a hybrid approach. Other entries explored public centers, motivations for car ownership, and housing vacancy rates. A fifth participant withdrew. Here’s a closer look at the four completed works.
Scheduled Evolution
ASADOV Architects unveiled the EvyCenter pavilion, a microcultural hub for fostering personal growth, organizing workshops, and doing gymnastics. Additionally, this pavilion serves as a prototype for a scalable country house, drawing inspiration from the “Loskutok” project, and constructed from CLT panels in a factory. This marks the beginning of a developer project initiated by the architectural firm (sic!), which is seeking partners to expand both small Evy settlements and even larger Evy cities, which are, according to Andrey Asadov, aimed at fostering the “evolutionary” development of the people who will inhabit them.
The Golden Crown
The concept for a dental clinic in Yekaterinburg, developed by CNTR Studio, revolves around the idea of a “mouth full of gold”: pristine white porcelain stoneware walls are complemented by matte brass details. To avoid an overly literal interpretation, the architects focused on the building’s proportions, skillfully navigating between sunlight requirements and fire safety regulations.
Flexibility and Integration
Not long ago, we covered the project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential complex, designed by APEX. Now, we’ve been shown different fence concepts they developed to enclose the complex’s private courtyards, incorporating a variety of public functions. We believe that the sheer fact that the complex’s architects were involved in such a detail as fencing speaks volumes.
A Step Forward
The HIDE residential complex represents a major milestone for ADM architects and their leaders Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova in their quest for a fresh high-rise aesthetic – one that is flexible and layered, capable of bringing vibrancy to mass and silhouette while shaping form. Over recent years, this approach has become ADM’s “signature style”, with the golden HIDE tower playing a pivotal role in its evolution. Here, we delve into the project’s story, explore the details of the complex’s design, and uncover its core essence.
Gold in the Sands
A new office for a transcontinental company specializing in resource extraction and processing has opened in Dubai. Designed by T+T Architects, masters of creating spaces that are contemporary, diverse, flexible, and original, this project exemplifies their expertise. On the executive floor, a massive brass-clad partition dominates, while layered textures of compressed earth create a contextually resonant backdrop.
Layers and Levels of Flight
This project goes way back – Reserve Union won this architectural competition at the end of 2011, and the building was completed in 2018, so it’s practically “archival”. However, despite being relatively unknown, the building can hardly be considered “dated” and remains a prime example of architectural expression, particularly in the headquarters genre. And it’s especially fitting for an aviation company office. In some ways, it resembles the Aeroflot headquarters at Sheremetyevo but with its own unique identity, following the signature style of Vladimir Plotkin. In this article, we take an in-depth look at the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) headquarters in the Moscow agglomeration town of Zhukovsky, supplemented by recent photographs from Alexey Naroditsky – a shoot that became only recently possible due to the fact that improvements were finally made in the surrounding area.
Light and Shadow
In this article, we delve into the architectural design of the “Chaika” house by DNK ag architects, which was recently completed in 2023 as part of the collection of signature designs at ZILArt. As is well-known, all the buildings in this complex follow a design code, yet each one is distinct. This particular building stands out not only for its whiteness and minimalism but also for the refined use of a limited number of techniques that, together, create what can confidently be called synergy.
Casus Novae
A master plan was developed for a large residential area with a name of “DNS City”, but now that its implementation began, the plan has been arbitrarily reformatted and replaced with something that, while similar on the surface, is actually quite different. This is not the first time such a thing happens, but it’s always frustrating. With permission from the author, we are sharing Maria Elkina’s post.
Treasure Hunting
The GAFA bureau, in collaboration with Tegola and Arkhitail, organized an expedition to the island of Kilpola in Karelia as part of Moskomarkhitektura’s “Open City” festival. There, amidst moss and rocks, the students sought answers to questions like: what is the sacred, where does it dwell, and what sustains it? Assisting the participants in this quest were landscape engineer Evgeny Levin, artist Nicholas Roerich, a moose, and the lack of cellular connection. Here’s how the story unfolded.
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.
Fir Tree Dynamics
The “Airports of Region” holding is planning to build an airport in Karachay-Cherkessia, aiming to make the Arkhyz and Dombay resorts more accessible to travelers. The project that won in an invitation-only competition, submitted by Sergey Nikeshkin’s KPLN, blends natural imagery inspired by the shape of a conifer seed, open-air waiting spaces, majestic large trees, and a green roof elevated on needle-like columns. The result is both nature-inspired and WOW.
​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”.
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.
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”.
Yuri Vissarionov: “A modular house does not belong to the land”
It belongs to space, or to the air... It turns out that 3D printing is more effective when combined with a modular approach: the house is built in a workshop and then adapted to the site, including on uneven terrain. Yuri Vissarionov shares his latest experience in designing tourist complexes, both in central Russia and in the south. These include houseboats, homes printed from lightweight concrete using a 3D printer, and, of course, frame houses.
​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.
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.
The White Wing
Well, it’s not exactly white. It’s more of a beige, white-stone structure that plays with the color of limestone – smoother surfaces are lighter, while rougher ones are darker. This wing unites various elements: it absorbs and interprets the surrounding themes. It responds to everything, yet maintains a cohesive expression – a challenging task! – while also incorporating recognizable features of its own, such as the dynamic cuts at the bottom, top, and middle.
Urban Dunes
The XSA Ramps team designed and built a three-part sports hub for a park in Rostov-on-Don, welcoming people of all ages and fitness levels. The skate plaza, pump track, and playground are all meticulously crafted with details that attract a diverse range of visitors. The technical execution of the shapes and slopes transforms this space into a kind of sculptural composition.
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”.
The “Staircase” Building
In designing the “Details” residential complex in New Moscow, Rais Baishev spiced up the now-popular Moscow theme of a “courtyard” building with an idea drawn from the surrealist drawings by Maurits Escher. He envisioned the stepped silhouettes and descending slopes as a metaphysical mega-staircase, creating a key void within the courtyard that gave the project an internal “spine”. This concept is felt both in the building’s silhouette and on its façades.
Projection of the Quarter
No one doubted that the building that Vladimir Plotkin designed as part of the “Garden Quarters” would be the most modernist of all. And it turned out just that way: while adhering to the common design code, the building successfully combines brick and white stone, rhythmically responding to the neighboring building designed by Ostozhenka, yet tactfully and persistently making a few statements of its own. This includes the projection of the ideal urban development composition “14–9–6”, which can be found right next door, mathematical calculations, including those for various types of terraces (and perhaps the only reminder of the Soviet past of the Kauchuk rubber factory!), and the white “cross-stitch” pattern of the façade grid.