To create the new without destroying the old: students from SPbGASU, MGSU and NNGASU proposed their design project for the reconstruction of the Neva Riva area
A workshop for future architects started at SPbGASU. Students from three universities of Russia - Moscow State University of Construction, Nizhny Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering and St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering were solving a far from easy task: to develop a concept for renovations in the area of the Palace, Admiralty and Kronverk embankments of the Neva River, the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island.
Participants of the workshop were split into five teams - by the number of sites. Each group consists of six students, two from each university.
The program of the event started in the House of Architects, where future architects spoke with the president of the St. Petersburg Union of Architects, Oleg Romanov, and had a tour of the magnificent old building. Then the students were divided into teams and for working on particular design projects.
“The task is difficult. No standard solutions can be applied here. We need ingenious, non-standard suggestions. You are supposed to redesign the most precious areas of our city. Professionals call it the “main space of the Neva”. This is a world-class super-space, the main ensemble of St. Petersburg, images of which can be found in textbooks around the world. It was created, first of all, to reflect the imperial spirit. But pedestrians often feel not too comfortable here. Of course, you can walk from point “A” to point “B” in delight and admiration, but there are no places to take rest. Therefore, it is more convenient to watch it from a car or a bus window.
Your task is to create something for pedestrians in this super space. And this “something” should not be visible in order not to change the imperial component in any way. You have to figure out how to do that.
But, let me say it again, no conventional solutions will work here. We want to make you think at the level of genius,” said the head of the SPbGASU Department of Architectural and urban planning heritage, doctor of architecture, professor, and the workshop jury member Sergey V. Sementsov.
“This is tough but we’ll do our best to cope,” said Elizaveta Fedorova, a 4th grade student of the SPbGASU Faculty of Architecture, participant and one of organizers of the architectural workshop. “We studied the history of these places, found a lot of information. We hope that the guests of our city will offer new ideas. After all, a lot is novel for them. Therefore, we will surely have several opinions, adding them up we will create projects and then present them to the jury.”
”Students had very little time to create their projects: on July 10, they were divided into teams and found out what city part each of them got, and already on July 13, at 14-00, the defenses started. Young architects talked about how they saw St. Petersburg. The jury is represented by teachers of all three universities and the head of the restoration shop "Studio 44".
Students offered a lot of ideas for organizing spaces in which city residents and tourists should feel comfortable – convenient and open courtyards, new pedestrian zones, bridges connecting roofs, winter ice rinks in unexpected places, original ponds, improvised art workshops, protective structures against the cold wind and many other things. And though not all options offered to the experts seemed promising and implementable, the students' works impressed the professionals.
“I really liked their enthusiasm and creativity. And, of course, the outcome, given the tough conditions in which they had to work and the little time they had. The guys are just great; they performed at a fairly high professional level. They managed to cope in such a difficult situation,” said a teacher from the Moscow State Civil Engineering University and a member of the workshop jury Alexandra Ignatova.
In the result, the team comprising Polina Rudneva, Victoria Bogacheva, Polina Shatova, Polina Prokopenko, Victoria Sorokina, Nadezhda Ustinova was announced the winner.
The second was ranked the team consisting of Olesya Zubyuk, Elizaveta Fedorova, Gleb Kaplinsky, Alexandra Karaseva, Anastasia Foteyeva, Valentina Ashikhmina.
Two best projects by the recommendation of the jury will be presented at the All-Russian "Architect" contest. And the architectural workshop continues its work: the students are gone to Nizhny Novgorod, and the final point will be in Moscow.
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Text: Angella Semicheva
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