A Will for Diversity

Twenty years ago, the Aptekarsky Island used to be made up of industrial spaces and old research institutions buildings; it now undergoes an assertive transformation: the territory behind the Karpovka river, distinguished by the proximity of the Vyazemsky, Lopukhinsky and Botanic gardens, sees a lot of construction; both office and residential blocks are built, the latter having prevailed in the recent years, and the largest of them probably being the Europa City Residential Complex at the former Elektrik plant site at the Medikov prospect. The complex area is nearly 7 ha, it stretches out for about 550 m along the frontage line of the Medikov prospect and the Akademika Pavlova street; the yard proved capable of housing ten 13-storey towers. The total area is about 180,000 sqm, comprising 1,645 business-class apartments; the property developer was LSR company, which started working on this project before the renown ZilArt project in Moscow.

We described the Europa City Residential Complex in 2014. Let us remind that the main thing about the complex is not its scale, which is rather large, although not as large as that of Tsarskaya Stolitsa, but the experimentality. First of all, the complex is made up of panel buildings: the Series 137 design used by the Saint Petersburg Blok house building factory was specifically redeveloped for the complex, and the panel structures rest on a monolithic plinth. Furthermore, Evgeny Gerasimov and Sergei Choban chose to completely conceal the panels with a ceramic coating of a very diverse design: there are almost no repetitions in section solutions, but the design is tailored as to arrange the sections under a common cornice. The “various hands” theme continues into the yard, where five different designs are implemented, being developed by young architects who had won a special contest. Hereby, the architects have to some degree shown that the panel construction might be an architect’s friend rather than an enemy, providing a flexible instrument, if you know how to use it right (and of course if you have enough weight and influence to implement your solutions).

Also, the residential complex might be the largest ceramic-coated one in Saint Petersburg.

“The architectural concept of the complex is first of all expressed by the façade coating material, that is the hollow glazed ceramic panels,” - the authors of the project explain. - “We aimed to bring about as much diversity as possible, this is why every single section uses shades as well as mouldings that are unique within the complex: this includes moulded elements, relief mouldings etc., with almost no repetitions. We used the most diverse techniques: vertical and horizontal rustication, square baguette and so on. As a result, our glazed ceramic shows a maiolica-like gleam. Also, the entrance group of every section corresponds to its façade solution.”

You can read the full text of the interview at the site (in Russian).