RESIDENTIAL COMPLEX AT 34A PETROGRADSKAYA EMBANKMENT

Project team:

Architects: Nikita Yavein, Anton Yar-Skryabin, Ksenia Sokolova.

Chief Project Engineer: Lev Gershtein

A new residential complex is situated in Saint Petersburg in an area rich in architectural history. Apart from the fact that the site was once the former home of the tulle Factory (1850-1870, architect Rudolph Bernhard), the nearby neighborhood includes the cultural heritage building «James Beck» Paper Spinning Manufactory (1909, architects Jules-Louis-Auguste Benois, Ferdinand  Miller). This prominent example of industrial architecture enables the newly constructed building to architecturally co-exist in a dialogue without which such a neighborhood is unbelievable.

Flowing in a meandering fashion, the composition of the two sections of the apartment complex forms a grand courtyard- cour d'honneur, opening directly into the manufactory building.

The spacious recreational area and covered galleries that form a rhythmical colonnade where you can admire the beauty of the surrounding architecture -   is a peculiar tribute to Benois's work. The same can be said about the section facing Chapaeva Street. The silhouette of a tower crowned with a colonnade is in tune with the three-tiered corner tower of the building.

Not typical of St Petersburg architecture, the outline of the pitched roof shades and verticals of the stepped compositions draws admirable attention, marks in the street space both for new housing estate and the entrance to the pedestrian promenade, leading deep into the block of another Studio 44 construction - the Linkor business centre. This intra-block street will be open to everyone, as the ground floors within the gallery are designated for shops, cafes, bars etc. At the prospect of the promenade, a restored factory chimney rises as the genius loci.

The building of the residential complex acts as a catalyst and stimulant for the uniqueness of its surroundings, relying not only on its size and shape, but also the choice of colors and materials used.

The mottled silhouette with its bizarre jigsaw puzzle-like penthouses, the changes in texture and colorization in the façade which is finishedin burgundy brick and moving into light and dark grey, all set to a humanistic scale, integrating the variety of colors and urban materials into a single picturesque canvas and even creating the illusion that it is naturaland organic progression of the site's development.

The urban fabric on the Petrogradsky district has been called irregular and even chaotic. In fact, looking at the city plan, we do not see here the typical pattern of residential blocks with chains of courtyards that are characteristic of the center of St. Petersburg.

At the beginning of the 20th century the iron "rule of the firewall" weakened, and the solid front of the building was dissolved by the parade cours d'honneurs or by simple airy intervals between the houses, that seem inviting people into the heart of the block.

The Petrograd side owes this to the liberalization of construction practices, its freedom from the 'highest' censorship rules and the  relaxation in Construction Statute of the Russian Empire. 

By creating a pedestrian promenade inside the block, accentuating the entrance with the dominant towers, turning the  cour d'honneur to the neighbouring building, the authors of the project inherit the 'freethinking' of their predecessors, but remain faithful to their fundamental principles: rationality, fluidity, picturesqueness and architectural dialogue with the surroundings.

Total area – 48 219 sq.m.