Archcouncil

A diagonal layout solution: Archcouncil reviewed a project by Ostozhenka

25 November 2014

In the Setun floodplain near Aminevskoe highway a large mixed-use complex with Irina Viner’s center of rhythmic gymnastics will be designed by the Ostozhenka bureau headed by Alexander Skokan. The Architectural Council has approved the proposal.

The development area is located in the Aminevskoe highway area and faces Vereiskaya Street and Bagritsky Street, and is adjacent to the Setun floodplain green space. However, even though Vereiskaya Street is located in a green area, it is a quite unattractive and neglected place due to the presence of a number of sewage treatment plants and industrial facilities.

The complex includes a building for a gymnastics center with training facilities, a children’s center and the main sports hall (planned for other recreational activities as well), a hotel, an office block, and apartments, with a total area of 110 thousand square meters, of which 16,300 is occupied by sports facilities.

For the composition, Ostozhenka proposed to combine all these rather contradictory functions in a closed mini-neighborhood, which is cut across diagonally with an inner street, prolonging the bend of Vereiskaya Street. This street 220 meters in length begins with a fountain, goes into the inner residential courtyard and through a giant arch into the apartment hotel area and out to the green space. According to the designers, the entire Setun floodplain is planned to be made into parklands in the future.

 

The internal street, closed courtyard, and a small square in front of the sports center, and the retail facilities in the first floor of the building where cafes, shops, bank, consumer services, children’s clubs, and so on will be located, according to the authors, will form a fragment of full-fledged urban life which the surrounding area obviously lacks.

Spatial perception of the architecture in the complex will also be quite varied according to Alexander Skokan’s project. Buildings will not be perceived frontally, but rather in the course of moving through the neighborhood, revealing numerous “perforations” and “openings”, which visually will lighten the quite high and massive volume of the complex.

The apartment unit which is the highest in the complex the architects have downplayed with color — it’s portion which towers over the surrounding buildings has been left white (bottom portion — yellow), as well as with form; the top floor has been indented with small glazed “villa” — penthouses. A giant archway also breaks up the volume, which leads out from the inner-street promenade into the green zone, and on the opposite side a cantilever hangs over the office part of the complex.

The cantilever technique is repeated in the sports center block, forming a semi-covered public space in front of the main entrance, as well as in the offices block with “accordion” facades, very clearly referring to the style of Soviet architecture in the 1970-80s.

The main comments on the project were made by Architectural Council member Hans Shtimman: according to the architect, the project has been made almost perfectly, but follows the logic of a mini-city in a city. This concept, said Shtimman, actually works against the city; this complex is closed on itself and its architecture does not include and doesn’t open up to meet the park area.

The Setun floodplain is a promising park and it’s the river that forms the context here, said Evgeny Asse, adding that the isolation of the complex and its detachment from the scale of the environment is not the best solution. Sergei Tchoban fully supported the project, noting that the contrasting nature of the density and height is a characteristic feature of Moscow’s entire context: “A citadel is created, large and brutal, but a justifiable decision,” said the architect.

Sergey Kuznetsov, Archcouncil Chairman and the Chief Architect of Moscow, concluded that the majority of the council members none the less viewed the project positively. For his part, Kuznetsov wondered how confident are the designers and clients in the formation of a steady stream of people in the project’s diagonal promenade, which obviously complicates and increases the cost of it. According to Alexander Skokan, the selected composition of the complex was a compromise between the complication of specification requirements and the desire of the designers to most efficiently distribute numerous functions on a compact site. “We had several options for sectioning into sports, office, and residential parts but they were pretty awkward. We tried to find a motive in the surrounding situation, something to latch onto, and the diagonal became a layout solution.”

Overall the Architectural Council supported the work of Ostozhenka, noting the thorough developmental work of the project design. Sergey Kuznetsov added that the project will require additional explanation of the transport section (in connection with the plans for the reconstruction of Vereiskaya Street) and the placement of social facilities.


Images: Ostozhenka


 

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