Extreme Cities and an idea of Greater Saint-Petersburg

international design workshop

2011-10-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

ALTERNATIVE SCENARIOS FOR A POST-SOCIALIST CITY

Saint Petersburg is an “extreme city”: a city conceived in a delta; a territory in which the consequences of climate change will be also extreme, together which the extreme climatic conditions.
The 20th century, a century of economic globalisation and technological progress gave rise to the 21th century as the age of the city, when for the first time in history more then half of the earth's population was to live and work in urban areas. The diverse and complex challenges of contemporary society at this point in time are more often than ever associated with the process of urbanisation, making the study of urban process crucial and the concept of the city a principal in¬tellectual strategy in the visualising of the future of civilisation. The city became a condensation, a microcosm of the essence of human kind, exposing its fundamental problems on the one hand and offering unprecedented opportunities on the other.

The principle intention of the workshop is to situate the problematic of post-socialist Saint- Petersburg within the above context in the age of climate change and in an attempt to conceptualise an idea of Greater Saint-Petersburg as an entity that is both integrated and yet distinct within the wider European urban process.

Nowadays Saint-Petersburg is undergoing an intricate and to a large extent uncontrolled process of transformation from its socialist past to the capitalist future. This process, besides the opportunities it has to offer, has generated a number of inevitable challenges both at the level of urban environment, of ecological matters and of urban consciousness.

The structured and efficient, yet totally artificial urban system that the city has inherited from its imperial and soviet past, once exposed to the capitalist mode of production, immediately revealed contradictions existing between the two systems. The contemporary city nowadays faces problems ranging from the deterioration of urban infrastructure, ecological degradation and scarcity of public transportation to the issues of urban sprawl, preservation of cultural heritage, flooding risks and budget deficit, to name but a few. These problems, however, when addressed by the subjects of urban process, are considered in isolation, which results in the misconception of their nature and in the general failure to strategise an approach to the city as a coherent whole.

Any element of urban process is intrinsically linked to all others, resulting in a unique and multifaceted reality that is conceived of as the city. A particular city is realised through the sets of its particular elements to the extent that these elements are determined by the specificities of the city. Major cities are considered to be attractors for particular global processes and trends, reproducing and representing in their limited urban scale global dynamics along with its moments of development or decline. Similarly, urban systems respond to the sets of their own elements - attraction points that articulate certain urban processes; while the idea of a particular city becomes an attractor for the condensation of particular sets of elements that produce subsequent urban dynamics.

Located on the eastern edge of Europe, Saint-Petersburg had played the role of such an idiosyncratic attractor in the history of the 20th century, revealing tendencies and trends of European thought and finally organising them into the general idea of the century manifested in the revolution of 1917. The 21st century is marked by its own sets of processes and possible scenarios of the future, offering concepts of post-industrial society, sustainability, interdisciplinary thinking and many others. In the meantime, the contemporary condition of Saint-Petersburg is defined to a major extent by its post-socialist struggle for the identification of the self and the inability of the urban community to conceptualise the city as a single whole, making degradation of urban environment inevitable and pursuit of a future for the city futile.

The problematic of Saint-Petersburg at this stage narrows down to the question of the defining idea of that city in the contemporary space of opportunities or the role of that city in the context of possible futures for the 21st century.
Can the city still offer a perspective on the contemporary world and continue to be its critical geopolitical site where moments of present and real are capable of organising themselves into a distinct idea of place offering alternative scenarios to those popular models promoted by the global community? What metropolitan form can better deal with the new environmental risks in the extreme conditions of Saint-Petersburg?

in the PERI_CENTRE

2010-11-29T03:45:00.000-08:00

Photographs

2010-11-24T01:03:00.000-08:00

A selection of photos of Saint-Petersburg, by Andrea Petrecca.
8 - 19 October, 2010.

Social Capitalism....

2010-11-10T07:40:00.000-08:00

Final Presentation

2010-11-02T02:32:00.000-07:00

Open publication - Free publishing

2010-10-30T14:28:00.000-07:00

2010-10-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

SCENARIO

2010-10-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

HOW COULD WE BRING “LENINGRAD” INTO THE FUTURE GREAT ST PETERSBURG ?

Each point of the constellation of red points is a court of microrayon.
Starting from the little pilot project, by a complete implementation of the system we will be able to connect in a microscale the water and the social system of microrayon to the Niva river and so to the city centre. A constellation of water squares that connect different landscapes, that become intermediate landscape.

SPB Comments& Scenario by Sybrand

2010-10-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

St Petersburg Workshop

some questions, comments, reflections

by Sybrand Tjallingii

18-10-2010

First of all I have to say that I am impressed by the presentations. They are the result of hard work in a short time in this fascinating city. Now we know that there are three cities: Petersburg, Leningrad and the datsjas and we have developed a deeper understanding of the complex dilemmas of the industrial belt. Moreover, we have now a rich variety of planning and design ideas that make sense and will be very useful for further steps.

A. The group presentations on Monday 18th

As I will not be in Venice the coming weeks I will first write you my comments on the Monday presentations of the groups. I realise that I cannot do justice to all of your ideas. I have to confine myself to those proposals that seem to be most interesting to me. At the end I will give some more general reflections.

1. Re-Creek (Ochta)

A strong point of your presentation is the view on the central role of the river Ochta as a carrier for development. The strategies to connect residential areas to the creek with bike routes and greenways look good.

A first question is about these connectors. I got the impression that the bike routes and the greenways are separated. Or do they coincide? It seems logical to use the synergism between routes, green corridors and the path of the rainwater that can flow to the river. In the cross section it seemed that the rainwater could not flow to the river. Have a look at it and make sure tat the river has a floodplain that can deal with high water if necessary.

Connecting the city to the river Neva is, of course possible with the proposed bridges. But the noise barrier remains and with the new Ochta centre the traffic flows will increase. Would it be an option to more radically reconsider the through fare traffic flows to remove them from the river alltogether?

2. Everyday life (Ochta)

The strength of this group lays in their redesign of the huge courtyards in the Porochovye district, the spaces for everyday life. The role of the rain and the role of car parking are central in your approach. I like the idea of starting in small pilot projects to demonstrate the feasibility in this context, or, to leanr from them and do it better in other parts of this large district.

I have a question about the design of places where water (and cyclists + pedestrians) can cross the roads. It seems good to slow-down the speed of traffic by a bend in the road that can also facilitate people to cross. But why should the watercourse be wider at this point?

Improving the rainwater run-off drainage and keeping it separated from the sewers is good for the water quality and in the space of the courtyards it creates interesting options for combination with playing and walking. Finding alternative solutions for parking is a condition. I seems good to think of a redesign of the foot of the buildings, combining renovation and functional change with new parking garages for a limited number of cars, small enough that people can trust each other and feel safe about their car. In the next steps both the design and the stories can be further developed.

3. Social Capitalism in the pericentre (Ochta)

The video introduction helps in sensing the driving forces of capitalism and the contrasts and social conflicts they create. The strong idea of this group is to use the power of these driving forces in partnerships between strong and weak areas. This seems to be a promising approach, although it will not be easy and it requires not only good design and planning proposals but also skilful governance and financial arrangements.

What is not quite clear to me, is how the road infrastructure and water networks can interact with the proposed concrete pattern of dense and green areas.

In relation to the fast-lane and slow-lane strategies, I proposed in my presentation, the fast-lane strategies are still missing. The idea to remove trucks to the ring road is one step in this context. But the ring road is, I am afraid, too far away.

4. Double Cities (Ochta)

This group puts urban agriculture, the datsja issue on the agenda. It is a very urgent issue in many metropolitan areas that has a very special character in St Petersburg. This generates questions for the far periphery, but also for the periphery very close to urban centres, as here in the Ochta area. I think you made good proposals for the improvement of sanitation and drainage in the datsja area and that is a condition for their role as carriers of landscape diversity.

What is not quite clear yet is how you combine the datsja plan with the love for the river that was so evident in your earlier presentation. How is the routing that connects the residential areas with the datsjas and the river valley. In the design proposals Cyclists do not like 90^o angles and it seems better to follow the drainage pattern that flows to the river, taking it as a carrier for drainage and the cycle tracks in one greenway network.

If we want the datsjas to keep playing a role as carriers of landscape in the far and the close periphery, we also have to think about their economic role. How will the products from the datsjas, the fruits and vegetables continue to find their way to the informal markets? And what about the changing nature of datsjas. Middle class people increasingly turn the huts to cottages for their holidays and do no longer grow food crops. From that situation to gated communities, it may be only a few steps.

5. Mind the back (Moskovsky)

The central issue here is the new life for abandoned industrial areas of the old railway complex. The example of the old Warsaw railway can illustrate a possible path to turn these polluted and neglected waste landscape areas (or ‘drossscapes’ as Lars Lerup and Alan Berger call them). It seems a promising idea to use them as new carriers of activities, such as those related to students and tourists. These activities may link the area to both the Hilton hotel on Moskovsky Prospect and to the universities in the old city.

I have questions about the East –West connections that cross the area. Both the proposals for the Obvodny Canal and for the Tramline may be good contribution to the quality of the slow-lane connections. But what to do with the fast lanes? If the busy East-West car traffic will continue to press on the banks of the canal, there will be only limited options for inprovement.

The front side and back side discussion is worth elaborating. If we look at Moskovsky Prospekt as the frontside, we see the chaos of speedy traffic and billboards that is in conflict with the formal buildings and squares designed to impress. If we look at the backside we see the unsafe, neglected abandoned industrial areas in conflict with the informal but safe green spaces for walking and playing designed and used with care. How can we deal with these conflicts?

6. From barrier to carrier (Moskovsky)

This group generated interesting ideas about turning infrastructure barriers to attractors of activities that can bring people together from different sides. Improving the permeability of the barriers and connecting activities to the pores is one strategy. Exploring transformations of railway lines to tramway lines is another.

I have a question about the combination of infrastructure and green structure. Is this a fruitful idea?

In the background of this issue is the search for synergism between activities. Green elements such as trees and lawns may decorate the infrastructure and that’s just fine. Also more technical processes such as water purification through wetlands can be combined well. But as long as the infrastructure carries dynamic traffic flows and attracts activities that depend on loading and unloading, the green structure will not easily carry quiet activities. Avoiding conflicts and seeking synergism between activities leads, in my view, to green structures, parallel to but not coinciding with the dynamic infrastructures.

7. Extravert Micro-rayon (Moskovsky)

As the Everyday life group, also this group starts with the blocks and the courtyards, linking this level of the microrayon to the higher levels. The strength of youl proposals is the combined effort to generate a process of renovation of the buildings and the improved permeability and accessibility by a new network of East – West tramlines. There are also interesting proposals for crossing the highway between these blocks and the western districts.

Questions remain about the step-by-step organisation of the rehabilitation process, including the issues of temporary housing during the reconstruction works. Can new buildings also be used for temporary housing, and what happens thereafter?

The underlying discussion is about the urgent need for a process of urban renewal in the vast residential areas built in the Chrousjtsjov period (and other periods as well). Will it be possible to link the strong driving forces behind new developments to the urgent need for renewal in the old parts?

B. Some reflections and a scenario

Reflecting on the workshop presentations and discussions some ideas emerge about the transformations of the old industrial belt and the role it may be able to play in the development of the greater St Petersburg area. Suppose….

From backside to backbone

Suppose we start with the construction of a new access road, a spine of infrastructure that can carry the redevelopment of the industrial belt between the StPetersburg and Leningrad parts of the city. The new road can best begin at the point where the new ring road highway bends towards the harbour. From that point (where the Baltijski and the old Warsaw rail lines come together) the new road could follow the existing railway lines, meandering to the East up to the river Neva. After a new bridge the access road could then turn North, again following the existing railway. In the North East, the new road can then be connected to the ring road, not far from the upstream Ochta lake.

The main reason for this proposal is to create conditions for the revival of the old industrial belt. I start with the fast lane, because I think that this is the condition for making the old industrial belt attractive for new investments. This corresponds with the proposal of the third group to make capitalism more social by creating partnerships between strong and weak elements in development. My proposal rests on the assumption that the industrial belt, once the strong force of the urban development, can go through a process of economic revival that can make it strong again, strong enough to support weaker social and ecological qualities. The new road may create conditions for this revival. But it is, of course, not a cause and effect relationship. Many more complex processes may play a role. There are several arguments, however, to opt for a scenario that starts with the road.

As in most countries, it can be expected that the economic system will develop from an industrial economy based on heavy manufacturing industry towards a service economy with industry in a role of predominantly assembly plants, using parts produced in different corners of the country and of the world. Essential condition for the new economy is good infrastructure, especially for goods transportation. The politicians that discussed with us last Friday, stressed that the city wants to keep the industry. It may be possible to make a deal between the local government and private parties (the old owners, new investors) linking the investments for the new road and related projects to the expected profits in the future.

From a spatial point of view, an alternative route for goods transportation between Neva and the port creates conditions for traffic calming along the Obvotny Canal. If this takes place it will be possible to create along the canal a ‘slow lane’ zone for pedestrians, bicycles, a tramline and the green and cultural activities that combine with this situation. The same scenario can be realised along the Neva banks South and North of the Ochta mouth. Also here, the banks can be turned to a quiet zone, if an alternative route for cars can be created. The proposed road offers this opportunity. If the new road is constructed on a dyke and combined with the existing railway lines, there will not be a new barrier. The dyke facilitates the construction of viaducts that will create permeability. As the new commercial activities, services and light industry will require less space than the old industry, there will be a lot of space for other things such as sports fields, parks, wetlands etc. A green structure plan for the industrial belt will create both connections in North – South and in East – West directions, connecting the belt with the old and the new city. In the fringes of the industrial belt there will be also place for new residential buildings that can play a role in the big renewal operations that will have to take place in the residential blocks build in the period between 1950 and 1990.

In a flows perspective, polluted soils can be used to build the dyke for the new road, thus concentrating and isolating the pollutants. Heavily polluted soils have to be concentrated and treated. For moderately polluted soils there can be on-site treatment, possibly in combination with water pollution treatment. Wetlands can play an important role in this programme. They are part of the green structure plan and may function in the drainage scheme for the area. Thus, conditions can be created for a surface water drainage plan that aims at collecting all the rainwater from the post war residential areas. This requires a connecting surface water network between these areas and the industrial belt. Parts of the industrial belt can perform a surface water storage function that can play an important role in a water system that prevents rainwater from entering the sewers, thus preventing flood and pollution problems.

It may seem that the proposed road will increase car traffic with all its related problems. This, indeed, is a risk. However, for goods transportation there is no alternative. Trains can never provide the door-to-door or ship-to-factory transport that is essential for the economic revival of the industrial belt. For liquids and gases, however, pipelines might be a good alternative (perhaps, they exist already). New pipelines can be incorporated in the new infrastructure line. Once the revival of the economic belt will generate many jobs, it may be expected that many workers and employees will be inclined to take the car and use the new road to get to their work. If this generates congestion on the new road, however, private car use can be discouraged by road pricing for example. At the same time the use of public transport can be encouraged. In this situation, the rail line is already there and with a complementary network of trams and cycle tracks. For passenger transport, the non-car alternative is conceivable, for goods transportation trains can only be attractive on longer distances and for some goods.

From an energy point of view, part of the industrial and services programme in the industrial belt may be directed to a change of oil-based car transport to natural gas based vehicles. There are still rich resources of natural gas, and Gazprom is a powerful organisation that may be interested in this transformation. Moreover. If a part of the industrial belt will be forested, the wood can be a source of methane gas that is equivalent to fossil natural gas. Thus the industrial belt itself can contribute to CO2 emission reduction and sustainable energy production. In the future, when it has become common practice to generate electric energy with sustainable means, the vehicles will be powered by a system of hydrogen and fuel cells. The natural gas technology and infrastructure will be a good starting point for the hydrogen-based systems of the future.

There are many different possible scenarios. Many ideas, generated by the seven groups can play important roles. The road proposed here did not yet emerge in the discussions but it seems an interesting starting point. I hope the idea will contribute to your critical discussions and design work in the coming weeks.

Sybrand Tjallingii

FINAL PRESENTATION

2010-10-21T01:33:00.000-07:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More water storages

2/3/4.
INTERVIEWS
WHAT IS THE EVERYDAY’S LIFE
We interviewed some of the citizens on the streets to begun to formulate a picture of the everyday’s life in the neighborhood. Children need more facilities like swimming pools, playgrounds in good conditions or small and local cinemas. On the other hand, older people need a place to meet instead of staying in the open space without any optional activity. The great mass of citizens who need to move to the city several times for business or other reasons need a better connection by public transports, and defined parking areas to leave their cars.

So further to transform the space, our goal is to help to transform the mentality of the citizens by the urban project, introducing in their minds the idea of a better everyday life.

5.
SITE ANALYSIS
Our area is one of the satellite towns that surround the center. It is crossed by one of the main roads that connect to the center axis representing one of the gates of St Petersburg. The area, however, is poorly connected to the public transport system, metro, tram and train. On its northwest side there is one of the branches of the River Neve and on the northeast border the area opens to the forest. However the permeability of the area with the river on the west, with the city center and with the big forest is very low, because it represents a piece of city almost isolated.

Road section
We worked on the road’s section linking the city. The big empty in between the road and the river can be projected defining quality public spaces where the river takes place as part of the activities proposed along the promenade: children playgrounds, fishing areas and many other flexible uses. At the same time we protect the pedestrian promenade projecting green barriers with vegetation. For the tram we design new stops where people can wait in safe conditions. We also introduce vegetation or light elements that protect pedestrians from the extreme weather conditions and propose a bike way until the area.

New intermodal point
In order to improve the connection of the area with public transport, we propose an intermodal point in the heart of the neighborhood to take tram, bus or metro, providing with new services and a big parking.

6.
THE MICRORAYON’S ISOTROPY
Fifty million apartments were built between 1955 and 1985 in Soviet cities.
In this situation the location was not significant, most Soviet citizens lived in more or less the same type of neighborhoods and housing blocks, shared more or less the same kind of hallways, and had more or less the same type of apartments.
The microrayons, that consist of a number of large urban blocks or kvartaly separated by main roads. The center of the kvartaly is formed by schools and kindergartens. Around the schools are the housing blocks with the entrance located inside of the court and are served by small secondary roads.
The starting idea was that no children have to cross a street to reach the school.
Capitalism has destroyed the internal logic of Soviet urbanism in which people were allocated in accordance with were they work and a basic set services would be located close by. Under capitalism the transport system has changed forcing people to move with the car and filling the courts with cars.

7.
SOCIAL RELATIONS
It is necessary to work in a small scale inside the units of the Microrayon to encourage the community sense of living but at same time to develop the relationships in between the units in a bigger scale. So the matter is to find a system that could be applied as a general tool for all the rest of microrayon satellite towns.

8.
AREAS WHICH COULD BE USABLE
We will work in the empty of one of these Microrayon in order to introduce solve all the deficiencies as car and bicycle parking systems, increase the local markets and cafes or introduce any sports facilities.

9.
PSYCHOLOGY ON THE ACTUAL EVERYDAY’S LIFE
Many aspects influence the daily lives of the citizens in a very bad way. The connection with rest of city develop in their minds the sense of isolation. In addition there is a lack of alternative transports and those citizens who choose to move by foot live normally exposed to extreme climate conditions. One of the result is losing the consciousness of their physical presence, the mind lives between worries of past and present instead of living the present moment.
We propose to implement the alternative public transports, also to improve the environment conditions in order to protect from extreme climate and to provide to the citizens with new activities that bring life in their daily routine. Looking forward to stimulate the social interactions.

10.
EXISTING LOCATION
Analyzing the oldest typologies displayed in one corner of the area we found an interesting and smaller city scale, the typologies of housing and public spaces offer their citizens a better life. The idea is to extend this typology in some of the empty interiors of the Microrayon units, so we can increase the variety of housing in the area.

11/12/13.
NEW UNIT. PUBLIC SPACE AND TRANSFORMATION OF BUILDINGS
We start by introducing few volumes which combine housing with semi-underground parking. As a condition to allow us juxtaposing the new volumes to the existing dwelling buildings is necessary to convert the ground and first floors, we propose to transform the ground into commercial shops that are opened to the streets and join the first and second floor as duplex apartments. At the same time the public space inside the unit is projected introducing the water system and amending the highlight of the soil. With the diversity of typologies in same unit the idea is to create social gradients where medium level is the key sector.
Of course we understand this process as a gradual transformation through the time, so the existing buildings can improve also their current conditions.

14.
ISOTROPIC PARKING AND WATER SYSTEMS
Some datas explains the enourmous amount of parking areas and water peak storage needed in comparison with the site size. Instead of solving the problems by creating enormous structures we propose a more sensitive and diffuse solution.

15.
The original hydrographic system has been erased by the microrayon carpet. The existing creeks have been buried and the water directly piped towards the Okhta River. The traces of the original configuration are still visible in the territory but the way it used to work has been interrupted.

16.
The necessity to solve drainage problems in the area, especially during the spring when a huge amount of ice is melting, suggested us to take advantage of the original topography (slopes and direction of the creeks) also taking into consideration its relation with the added street grid.
The analysis of the actual topography showed us that the streets level is not fixed in relation with the level of the neighborhoods. When is higher, the risk is the contamination of the clean water inside the courtyards with the more polluted one coming from the streets. Viceversa, when the streets are lower, there is a dispersion of clean water that gets mixed with the low quality one.
Therefore, the need to keep the two systems separate. On one hand the clean water is managed through a primary and a secondary structure, with a sort of tree-like configuration. On the other hand the polluted water is conveyed along the streets and treated before reaching the river.

17.
The capillary part of the system comprises little scale interventions in order to collect the rainwater from roofs and courtyards into visible, artificial creeks and ponds that change their level, and so their appearance, during the seasons. These water courses support the creation of bike lanes and an intensification of the green public space; by crossing the inner secondary roads in the courtyards they help in slowing down the traffic thus creating a more friendly environment for children, pedestrians and cyclists.

18.
The aim of the primary water infrastructure is to open again the connections between the creeks and the river Okhta, throughout the district and therefore by means of a design compatible with housing complex, facilities, public spaces and streets. Here is also collected the water from the seasonal secondary system, described above.
It is composed by water courses and ponds, whose large section and dimension is able to cope with the peak reached during extreme precipitations. The water stored in the spring and winter time is slowly released into the system during the summer, in order to let it flow also when the level is low. In this case, because of the big scale of the interventions, the water course is not always visible but is diverted with siphons or pipes, for instance when it crosses the main streets.

19.
Along the main streets a system of canals will catch the rain water and discharge it in wetlands and ponds in the industrial belt, in order to be purified before it will go to the river.

20.
THE PILOTE PROJECT
The existing situation is composed by a single system (streets, courtyards and streets) that discharge through the streets to the Okta river. The system can be easily implemented by creating, along the Okta river benches, a fito-depuration park and by creating the first example of water square in the neightborhood of the river. In this way the sistem is already able to work and this approach can serve as an example for the many comparable squares in this urban district, whereby the significance of the pilot transcends the physical impact.

21.
THE SLOW SYSTEM: THE WATER SQAURES
The water squares offer a solution for the local flooding that can be executed step by step in each neighbourhood.
The surrounding streets can drain directly into the square and the roofs can discharge the rain water by using the existing pipes.
The urban situation and the water management in the Krasnogvardeiski district have many points in common with each other. This approach can serve as an example for the many comparable squares in this urban district, whereby the significance of the pilot transcends the physical impact. The space so created will represent a multi-functional square and, as a water square, it will also appeal to a diverse group of people who will use it to sit, exercise, play games or simply spend leisure time there. The new water square will become a representative, central space in the neighbourhood.

22.
THE FAST SYSTEM: THE PERSPECTIVES
To keep the quality of the discharged rain water is necessary to make a separation between the system of rain water that follow in the roofs of the buildings and in the courtyards and that one that flow in the main streets.
The street system is designed to discharge fast big amount of water. In the same time the water has to improve the quality of the street environment, involve the building in the street scape system and allows easy connections between the blocks.

We designed a system to slow down the traffic speed, to allow physical connections between the blocks. By providing some deviation in the free spaces along the main streets we enlarged the green section providing some other natural stepping stones to create a continuity in the biological corridors.

23/24.
Some images of the crossing between water systems and infrastructures.

25.
HOW COULD WE BRING “LENINGRAD” INTO THE FUTURE GREAT ST PETERSBURG ?

26.
Each point of the constellation of red points is a court of microrayon.
Starting from the little pilot project, by a complete implementation of the system we will be able to connect in a microscale the water and the social system of microrayon to the Niva river and so to the city centre. A constellation of water squares that connect different landscapes, that become intermediate landscape.

Visiting the micro-rayon

2010-10-20T08:51:00.001-07:00

Final presentation

2010-10-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

Our final presentation is for sure not the last one about the topic of Saint-Petersburg and Peter The Great. Work in progress...

Open publication - Free publishing - More urbanism

Final presentation

2010-10-20T06:10:00.000-07:00

After an extremely long sunday working on the project in the hostel , the day of final presentations arrived.

The project was appreciated by the jurors and everybody is really happy with the results... and... that we can now really enjoy Saint Petersburg!

Open publication - Free publishing

Final Presentation

2010-10-18T06:57:00.000-07:00

The final presentation is merging the result of the micro-macro scale proposals for the area, starting from the micro and finishing on the macro scale.

Starting from the microraion/neighborhood scale, the main theme is its conversion from an introvert and socially autonomous unit to a holder of public activity. However autonomy and decentralisation of the energy-water streams is the target in terms of sustainability. Mobility has a dual role. On the one hand, introducing a new tramway, perpendicular to the current radial public transport network, many accessibility issues are solved , especially in the east-west axis. But what is more important is that by placing the tram stops within the blocks, turns them into node-catalysts who will activate public activity within the block.

The Network of the microrayons comes in focus on the second part. The water streams emerging from the first part form a large scale ecological network. Additionally the barrier of the industrial patch that seperates the residential area in focus with the one to the west, next to the port is addressed. Finally access from microraion to microraion is taken into consideration with various access options.

Finally the example of the microrayon can be extracted in the greater St Petersburg scale, regarding the soviet belt, by swifting the urban-private relationships and enhancing a different connectivity and mobility pattern.

Open publication - Free publishing - More st. petersburg

Re-culturalisation of the creek

2010-10-15T08:44:00.000-07:00

2010-10-15T02:53:00.000-07:00

Disconnections.

Moskovsky District is situated in the south of the city center. The canal is bounded by two large avenues that were conceived to support the big traffic coming from industrial areas. The connection south-north has to be mentioned as an important border inside the territory that are disconnecting the district in the west-east direction.

The area that we are working in is part of a big industrial belt that has the character of buffer. This industrial presents a lot of negative aspects that can be used as an opportunity to improve the connections with other parts of the city. Abandoned industries, soil and air pollution, lack of green and public spaces, high speed roads, are some of the negative aspects that can be found there.

At the same time, a lot of potentials can be found in the area as urban voids, dismissed buildings, spontaneous paths, dismissed railway.
All these negative aspects and potentials invite us to propose a new system based in a green structure that can generate new activities which can make it more attractive and usable for people of the surrounding areas.

This new green axis is going to be the main element to articulate the area and it will contain a new line of public transport, bike ways, pedestrian ways, and new activities as university uses, sport and cultural facilities.

extrovert micro-rayon and the new urban network

2010-10-14T14:02:00.000-07:00

A post soviet neighborhood, a complex of micro-rayons, is in focus during the first part of the analysis. Located within the south part of the soviet housing belt, this neighborhood is characterized by a series of paradoxes. The most obvious is the contradiction between the green environment of the blocks with the building stock. The vast amount of open green spaces, the layout of which is embracing the housing blocks creating a network of very interesting public spaces. However the blocks themselves are characterized by their distinctively poor condition (deteriorated prefabricated panels,extremely small apartments, no insulation). The neighborhood, quiet and green, but also extremely neglected, seems its not actually positioned within the city.

However within this area many important icons of the city are located. For example the new city centre-as it was envisioned by the Soviets-is located on the axis of Moskovskiy Prospekt which connects the two centres cutting through the industrial belt. The wider area is surrounded by vast industrial areas, while barriers like the highway and the train lines cut the area isolate it from the port on the west.
The project tried to give answers in the macro and the micro scale. As far as the first is concerned, it was important to see the possibilities of this area to turn upon a new city center that will be well linked to activity and economy attractors, like the port area, without loosing the existing qualities.

On the micro scale, the micro-rayon was the basic population unit during the Soviet era which was constructed on a community of around 5000 people, the plan of which was set up based on the distances of the housing blocks, the service blocks the schools and the kinder gardens. However, a century after, the demand for a more sustainable neighborhood is even more obvious. Water, energy and social equilibrium is the target. Can a rayon incorporate enough vertical farms to feed all its population? Could it reuse the water it collects within its own area and reutilize it? Could the local society benefit from a more public core of the microrayon.Research by design will give the answer in these questions within the following period.

For the first presentation please click here:

2010-10-14T10:53:00.001-07:00

The area we deal with is located in the south part of the city, between Moskowsky Prospect on the west side and the railway to Puskin on the east side, Obvodny Canal on the north.

Looking at it we immediately realized how the system of our area is constituted of a series of infrastructure which identify some areas by acting as strong barries between them.

Boundaries and patches.

These are the two levels on which we decided to work with the purpose of solving two big problems of the area: a lack of transitional spaces and a lack of permeability.

Inside the patches we identified a multitude of smaller open spaces, most of all are green spaces.

They are private spaces but acting on them we imagine the possibility of using them as a mean to improve the lack of permeability and create a second system that will interact with the main infrastructural system to interconnect all the different patches among each other and the all area with the city in general.

2010-10-14T10:23:00.000-07:00

Mapping the area

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Presentation 01

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The Kransogvardeisky district is organized near to the border of the city. We consider the territory as being non-porous, non-permeable and unconnected. The other main problems of the area are the pollution, undefined space and the low-quality of the housing. During the first day of our fieldwork it became clear that it contains lots of industrial areas. Our project emphasizes the possibility of creating a global accessibility throughout the region thus creating an isotropic city. We use the main idea of Peter The Great: the water as the fundamental infrastructure as a connecting element.

3 extreme scenario’s for the future are: the creek disappear, naturalization of the creek and the creek as a connector. In the first case the amount of build space and industries rise, there is a loss of connection. The second case provides a green corridor for the area, connected with the green located towards the east. The last scenario uses the creek as a connector on the levels of ecology (water purification), function (public space, recreation) and mobility (pedestrians, bikes, creek, new railway station, new metro stops) as possible connections. The railway can serve as a connector of the housing through the industrial areas.

Our area contains 3 landscapes: the creek-industrial landscape, the Neva-landscape and the urban landscape. The creek applies a territorial linearity and gives the possibility of transformation of the area.

INTERVIEWS

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VALENTINA, 22
Where do you usually go for a walk? Do you go to Okhta riverside?
We prefer to go to the Rzhevsky Forestpark. Okhta cannot be reached due to the
industry.

Where do you prefer to spend your free time in your neighbourhood?
We try to spend it outside, in natural landscape.

How do you relate with your neighbours?
Sure, we’re quite friendly to each other, i know a lot of persons.

How long have you lived here?
5 Years.

Where do you work and how do you arrange your day time?
I found a job nearby this neighbourhood. We go to the center only for cultural
events and so on.

What wishes do you have to upgrade your region?
Indeed, something for my child - playgrounds, entertainment, green zones. With
high level of safety. Our municipal department promised it to us, but nobody did it.

VLADIMIR PETROVITCH, 63 + ANONYMOUS, 68
Where do you usually go for a walk? Do you go to Okhta riverside?
We are too old to go anywhere! Usually we sit there.

Where do you prefer to spend your free time in your neighbourhood?
Okhta? it’s too far for us.

How do you relate with your neighbours?
We know each other for years!

How long have you lived here?
I was born there, i worked there, i’ll die there! (Second man: i lived in the center, and now - here.)

Where do you work and how do you arrange your day time?
We are retired now,but previously i worked at the factory here.

What wishes do you have to upgrade your region?
Cinemas! There were 5 cinema-clubs,i remember from my youth, and now they’re replaced with commercial areas. And no public toilets as well! (Second man: I’m dissatisfied with this chaotic parking)

ELENA, 35
Where do you usually go for a walk? Do you go to Okhta riverside?
We visit Forestpark and to this lakepark, because to approach the Okhta is impossible.

Where do you prefer to spend your free time in your neighbourhood?
We’d like to have everythig nearby, but unfortunately.. you see.

How do you relate with your neighbours?
Yes, we make a friendship with some of them.

How long have you lived here?
I was born there, my children either.

Where do you work and how do you arrange your day time?
Now i’m sitting with my child but earlier i work at Novocherkasskaya.

What wishes do you have to upgrade your region?
My son swims, so would be great to have a sport complex with swimming pool somewhere here. We have to go every
day to the SCA-Pool, it’s too far. And landscaping would be nice.

ISOTROPIC SYSTEM

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MICRORAYON
Fifty million apartments were built between 1955 and 1985 in Soviet cities. The Soviet citizen became an urban dweller and the standard Soviet city was born. In this situation the location was not significant, most Soviet citizens lived in more or less the same type of neighborhoods and housing blocks, shared more or less the same kind of hallways, and had more or less the same type of apartments.
The microrayons that constitute the Soviet city have a standard layout. They consist of a number of large urban blocks or kvartaly separated by main roads. The center of the kvartaly is formed by schools and kindergartens. Around the schools are the housing blocks with the entrance located inside of the court and are served by small secondary roads.

Although the rigid rules based on calculation the structure leaves space for a certain freedom in distributing functions within a microrayon. Consequently there are configurations in which all educational and commercial facilities are concentrated tigether, while there are other examples in which they are distributed equally thrughout the whole area. (On left Krasnogvareisky district typology)

TRANSPORT AND PUBLIC SPACES
Capitalism has destroyed the internal logic of Soviet urbanism in which people were allocated in accordance with were they work and a basic set services would be located close by. Under capitalism the transport system has changed from collective to private. Since 1990 car ownership in Russia has increased five times. This means that public space in the microrayon has been invaded by cars and temporary garages.

SOCIALITY
The very neutrality and the scale of new residential areas and the anonimity of the people in their separate apartments put a natural ends to the neighborhood watch which reduced the sense of safety but allowed various subculture to flourish.

In recent years when building constructed in late 60s and the 70s have been renovated, the surrounding outdoor areas are left open and private initiatives fill the niches left empty by central planning. In this moment many microrayons became more confortables place to live.
The idea of the potentiality of the microrayon has been summarized by Dmitry Prigov that captures the attachment new residents feel for seemingly nondescript mass housing:
“I remember that after living about 15 years in mellow and non-violent Belyevo, built up with nine-story concrete monsters, I decided to acquaint my five year-old son with the real beauties of urban construction and architecture. That is, with the historical center of holy Moscow. Well, we came. Walked around. Looked around. Then the foolish child said to me: Let’s go back our Belyaevo. It is so cramped and scary here. And where we live there is plenty of light and space.
Here it is, architecture with all its pretensions and ambitions.”

Reference: Volume n.21, 2009, "The Block"

First Impression

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A profound perspective of the territory has revealed that the original intentions observed at the foundation of St. Petersburg are still current. The connections between the city functions and the landscape as a system of delivery and reception is adequate for the imagination of possible futures. "Les architectes ont pris parti" the architects made a decision on the direction, the perspective the city should take on its development. To serve as a critical place of exchange between a nation and the world was posible thanks to the water communications existing between the Neva river and the Gulf of Finland.

These conditions appear to have emerged in part due to the prehistoric glacial activity which produced a rich aquatic system and which are visible in the hinterland of St.Petersburg. At this time, one prospect to be potentiated can be found in the same spirit of pioneering looking from the center to the periphery of the city. In this sense, the peripherical district of K can function as a testing ground, a prototype of innovative, sustainable development in St. Petersburg.

Concept

Three fields of research and activity converge in this effort: the recovery of the natural landscape of the river Okhta and its tributaries;a double scale mobility development program; and an urban fabric transformation and reuse. It is thought that these activities will lead to an improved quality of life, a greater interaction and benefit gain with the natural landscape, and a new model of management of the territory for the greater region of St. Petersburg.

Presentation 01

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The situation of the project area can be perceived in two ways; firstly, strategically, in the periphery of the center 'St. Petersburg' and secondly, with huge potential, as a center for the periphery 'Leningrad'. The potential of this strategic location was the basis for approach both the analysis and strategies presented. The analysis of problems and potentials in the area is categorised under four titles; ecology, barriers & access, identity, unused spaces.

Ecology: The river Ohkta and its tributary the Okkervil' as recognised as valuable assets of the territory. However the water of the rivers is quite polluted, along with the soils of the industrial land. The operating industries in the area further reduce the air quality.

Barriers and Access: Different borders enclose the area like barriers; the Neva river between the area and the city center; The ring rail line to the south and west, coupled with the industrial areas. The river Ohkta may be percieved as a barrier to the north, along with the industrial areas surrounding it. To deal with these barriers the existing accesses are mapped as key points.

Identity deals with the questions posed by the situation of the site its self. Should it become an extension of the historic center? or an new centre - consolidating its icons.

Unused spaces include both out of use industrial spaces, open green unlandscaped spaces and backland areas. These are spaces for action in dealing with the issues discussed and creating a distinct urban condition for this Peri-Centre site.

Zooming out to the city scale we can recognise similar conditions in many areas. Here we see that these areas have a potential for the city as a whole as they are all linked by this ring rail line. This creates a necklace of peri-center sites which may be developed with similar cities - and together act as a larger system within the city.

The project area is then a case-study of how these peri-centres can be developed with taking both the conditions at city-scale and the unique issues of this specific location into account.

There are three starting strategies put forward; consolidation of the areas, linking the existing icons and recongising the river as a important element of the area; hard and soft routes, where heavy infrastructure and busy urban streets are seen as hard, and rivers, green corridors and pedestrian routes are seen as soft; riverbank-backlands balance, this is an economic partnership where the development along the rivers edge can support ecological and social projects in the backlands.

For the first presentation please click here:

Open publication - Free publishing - More peri-center

Workshop programme day by day

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8th Friday

Arrival day

9-10 Sat/Sun
General tour through the city: green and water network; city centre, cultural heritage and industrial areas; Moskovskiy and Krasnogvardejskiy districts.

11th Monday
10:00 Introduction

Methodology and Context

12:00 Outlook of contemporary SPb: lecture by Prof. V. Nefedov and Assist.Prof I. Sotnikova
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Alternative SPb: presentation by V. Frolov and A. Levchuk
15:00 From Theory to Practice: lecture by Y. Milevskiy
16:00 Alternative Master-plan for SPb: presentation by L. Rudko and I.Cogliano
17:00 Division on sub-groups

12th Tuesday:

Built Environment

10:00-13:00 Case of Veneto Region, Italy: lecture by P.Viganò and B.Secchi
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Design Session: Methodology, Research, Vision

13th Wednesday:

Built Environment

10:00-13:00 Design Session: Methodology, Research, Vision
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Urban Space: lecture by Prof. P. Vigano
15:00 Presentation by P. Lehtovuori
17:00 Charrette session. Open Discussion

14th Thursday:

Space and Identity

10:00-13:00 Photography and Architecture: lecture and presentation by G. Guidi
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Cinema and Architecture: (TBC) “Saint-Petersburg on the screen”
15:00-19:00 TBC

15th Friday:

Landscape and Ecology

10:00-13:00 Urban management through green infrastructure: lecture and presentation by M. Desvigne
13:00 Lunch
14:00 TBC

16th Saturday:
Design studio
10:00 – Design Session: Research & Vision

17th Sunday:
Design studio
10:00 – Design Session: Research & Vision

18th Monday:
Design studio

12:00 – Presentations and Discussion

19th Tuesday:

Departure day

ACADEMIC STAFF

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IUAV, VENICE

Bernardo Secchi
Professor of urbanism at Venice School of Architecture, Bernardo Secchi was professor at the Geneva School of Architecture, in Leuven, Paris, Rennes and Zurich and, from 1975 to 1982 Director of the Milan School of architecture; Doctor honoris causa at the University Mendes France, Grenoble, 1994; Grand Prix d’Urbanisme 1994; Mellon Senior fellow at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, in 2008. He coordinates the PhD program in Urbanism and is part of the board of the European Post-graduate Master in Urbanism (EMU). In 1990 he founded Studio together with Paola Viganò and has won several international competitions. Studio is today working on different projects at different scales in Europe. In 2008 Secchi and Viganò have been one of the 10 teams selected for the “Grand Paris project” and research.

Paola Viganò
Architect and urbanist, has a PhD in Architectural and Urban Composition and is Associate Professor in Urbanism at Università IUAV of Venice. Guest professor in several European schools of Architecture (KU Leuven, Belgium; EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland; Aarhus Danemark…), she is in the Board of the PhD in Urbanism at IUAV and of the European Post-graduate Master in Urbanism (EMU). In 2010 she is “nominée” for the Grand Prix d’Urbanisme. In 1990 she founded Studio together with Bernardo Secchi and has won several international competitions. Studio is today working on different projects at different scales in Europe. In 2008 Secchi and Viganò have been one of the 10 teams selected for the “Grand Paris project” and research.

Sybrand Tjallingii
Professor of the Delft University of Technology and at EMU (IUAV Venice), author of Ecopolis: Strategies for Ecologically Sound Urban Development, 1995.

Emanuel Giannotti
Workshop tutor and EMU assistant, studied architecture at the TU Delft, SCIArc and at the university IUAV in Venice, where he graduated in 2003. Currently he is concluding his phd-thesis in urbanism in the same university.

Lora Rudko
Organizer of the workshop, tutor and assistant, architect of the studio Secchi-Viganò in Milan, graduated at the Architectural University of Venice (IUAV) with a diploma work ‘Sustainable Development of St. Petersburg’.

Irene Cogliano
Workshop tutor and assistant, architect of the studio Secchi-Viganò in Milan, graduated at the Architectural University of Venice (IUAV) with a diploma work ‘Sustainable Development of St. Petersburg’.

Andrea Petrecca
Workshop tutor and assistant. Architect, phd in urbanism, he has been research fellow at University IUAV in Venice. He was invited as a tutor in international workshops and took part in research projects and international art and architecture exhibitions (Venice Biennale, Whitney Museum Biennial - New York, Milan Triennale).

SPSUACE, SAINT-PETERSBURG

Valery Nefedov
Professor of architecture, urban planning and landscape architecture; Urbanism and Urban Design department, Architectural Faculty of Saint-Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (SPSUACE),
RUSSIA. Visiting Professor of the College of Architecture, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, USA and National
Higher School of Gardening and Landscape Architecture (INH), Angers, France. He is a coordinator of the
numerous international workshops and student scientific programs with Germany, Sweden, Denmark, France, etc.
2010 - Scientific coordinator and strategy author of the Concept “St. Petersburg Green Infrastructure development.
Nature-ecological shell of the city”

Daniyar Yusupov
Graduated from Saint-Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (SPSUACE). Assistant professor of urban planning and urban design at SPSUACE. Participant and winner of the international architectural competitions and design workshops. Expert in the field of rehabilitation of the urban environment.
Author of several articles in professional editions like forma.spb.ru and Project Russia, head of URBANLAB.SPB studio, St Petersburg.

Inna Sotnikova
Assistant Professor of Urbanism and Urban Design Department of Saint – Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering. Graduated from Volgograd State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (VolgGASU), she worked as a landscape designer and urban planner.

SPECIALIST-CONTRIBUTORS

Yuriy Milevskiy
Architect and researcher. From 2006-2009 Yuriy worked as an urban designer as part of 'Integrated Urbanism', a multidisciplinary group at Arup London, taking part in projects in Britain, the Netherlands, China, UAE and Russia. From 2009 onwards, he has worked in collaboration with an international research project studying the application of Soviet prefabricated building technologies in Chile and Cuba. He has also contributed numerous articles to both professional and academic journals. Yuriy graduated from Moscow State University of Civil Engineering and Urban Laboratory of University College London.

Panu Lehtovuori
Finnish architect, professor of Tallinn Art Academy, department of Architecture and urban planning

Alexey Levchuk
architect, interior designer and architectural critic, St Petersburg

Vladimir Frolov
architectural critic, Project Baltia editor, St Petersburg

Elena Mironova
Head architect of the Institute for the Territory Development of St. Petersburg

POLITICIANS

Polischuk Viktor Efimovich
Mityagin Sergei Dmitrievich
Amosov Mixail Ivanovich
Chistyakov Kirill Valentinovich

PROGRAMME AND ORGANISATION

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The workshop is open to students of the EMU Post-graduate Masters in Urbanism (UPC Barcelona, TU Delft, KU Leuven, IUAV Venezia) and Masters students from the architectural department of St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering. Participating students will be coordinated by tutors from the same universities and external experts.

The inaugural lecture will be held at the beginning of October in St. Petersburg where academic staff and specialist-contributors will introduce the problematic of Saint-Petersburg and the region at large. The lecture will be followed by a site visit of Saint-Petersburg by combined groups of Russian and foreign students. The workshop agenda includes lectures, discussions, round table and design sessions where students, together with contributors from Italy, France, Sweden, UK and Russia will explore the problematic of post-socialist Saint-Petersburg.

Final results of the workshop will also be published and presented as a separate exhibition.

In addition to the academic programme the alternative evening meetings will be organized. The students will have an opportunity to meet the experts of various fields of arts, photography, cinema, theatre in the particular places of Petersburg.

DESIGN APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY

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The workshop will approach the problematic of contemporary Saint-Petersburg through two conceptual stages. The first will study the city from an interdisciplinary perspective, looking into the multiplicity of urban elements and processes in order to define an integrated design approach and develop local design strategies. The second will attempt to juxtapose the findings and design proposals of the first stage with popular models of urban design and urban development scenarios with a view to conceptualising a defining idea and identity of Greater Saint-Petersburg as an integrated whole.

FIRST STAGE. (INDICATIVE THEMES)

In order to develop an integrated perspective and design methodology the first stage of the workshop will study urban dynamics and design strategies through the following themes:

Built environment and Sustainability
Landscape and Ecology
Socio-economics and Planning
Urban politics and Citizenship
Space and Identity
Cultural landscape and History

SECOND STAGE. CONTEXT AND POSSIBLE DIRECTIONS.

The economic crisis, having exposed the insecurity of the Russian development model based on natural resources finally brought changes to the political perspective, reorienting it towards the theme of 'innovation and modernisation' - today's official governmental and presidential programme. Taking this position, the last international economic forum held in June 2010 in Saint-Petersburg indicated a number of strategic issues to be addressed in the context of budget deficit, global competition for human resources and the city's overall role in the world's economic system. Exploring those, Russia traditionally looks to the West, learning from known models and cases, which focus on concepts of sustainability, creative economy, place branding and suchlike.

The principle intention of the second stage of the workshop is to avoid the practice of mere transposition of well-established models into the post-socialist city, but to juxtapose these with urban specificities and corresponding design opportunities identified during the initial stage in order to conceptualise an idea of the city as a coherent and distinct whole - Greater Saint-Petersburg. This perception of the city would then contribute to the political stance taken by the government, yet transgressing its superficial perspective by offering alternative and tangible content.