One of the tallest buildings in Russia and Europe - the modern skyscraper Lakhta Center - is located in the Primorsky district of St. Petersburg. Its construction began in 2012, the building was put into operation in 2018, and the opening of the Lakhta Center is scheduled for early 2020. In addition to Gazprom's headquarters, there will be offices, scientific and business centers, an amphitheater, a sports club and other infrastructure. The main highlight of the tower will be Observation deck, from where a panorama of St. Petersburg and the Gulf of Finland opens. The cost of the Lakhta Center is estimated at 2.5 billion dollars.

Observation deck of Lakhta Center

The most anticipated object of the complex is the observation deck, which will be located at an altitude of 360 meters, on the top floor. It will be a panoramic site with a 360° viewing angle and telescopes for a detailed view. High-speed elevators will be available to lift visitors up. It is planned that the Lakhta Center observation deck will become one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city.

Christmas tree

Despite the fact that the official opening of the skyscraper has not yet taken place, Lakhta Center is already taking part in cultural life Northern capital. In honor of the New Year, on December 31, festive lighting was lit on the façade of the building, turning the tower into the world's tallest green Christmas tree.

Video of New Year's greetings:

Lakhta Center webcam

Currently, a webcam is installed at the observation deck level, which broadcasts a panorama of St. Petersburg and the Gulf of Finland in real time. You can see the popular attractions of the city - the park named after the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, the Gazprom Arena stadium, the Yacht Bridge, Elagin Island and other objects.

Floor plan and architecture

Due to widespread media coverage of the construction of this facility, many are interested in the question “how many floors are there in the Lakhta Center and what will be there?” According to the project, the tower has 87 floors, and the total area of ​​​​the premises is 400 thousand square meters. meters, of which 130 thousand square meters are designated for offices. meters. Almost 40 elevators are planned to be launched to move between floors. In addition to the main building, the complex includes two more buildings, which are located on the sides of the tower. Their height varies from 22 to 85 meters.

Lakhta Center Project

In addition to the observation deck and Gazprom headquarters, the complex will house the following facilities:

• Panoramic restaurant Lakhta Center. The halls will be located on the 75th and 76th floors (height about 320 meters). This will be a nice alternative viewing platform. Based on the results of the selection of applicants for the creation of the restaurant, at the beginning of 2019 the management company announced the winner. They were famous Russian football players - the Berezutsky brothers, who proposed the concept of a restaurant of Russian cuisine, the basis of which would be Russian-made products and unique recipes from all over the country.
• Multifunctional hall - transformer and congress center. A unique feature of this hall is that, if necessary, it can be divided into two rooms. This is the first such facility in St. Petersburg. The seating arrangement and stage configuration can be changed to suit the format of the event. It is planned that the transforming hall will host concerts, performances, fashion shows and other events.
• Scientific and educational center. The main task of the scientific center will be to popularize science among the population. The center will be open to a wide audience, educational events will be held here - lectures, exhibitions. The exhibition area reaches 7000 square meters. meters.
• Medical Center. The Lakhta Center diagnostic and treatment complex is designed to provide services to residents of the Primorsky district of St. Petersburg. Equipped with the most modern equipment, the medical center will provide dental, therapeutic, surgical and other services.
• Sports complex. In Lakhta Center it is planned to create a large sports center with an area of ​​4600 sq. meters. There will be gyms, group exercise rooms, swimming pools, relaxation and wellness centers.
• Atrium, shopping areas, expositions. For office workers and visitors to the skyscraper there will be exhibition halls for art objects and works of art, a multimedia hall, as well as cafes, canteens and shops.
• Offices. Management Company offers offices for rent ranging from 650 to 2100 sq. m. meters. Detailed information from the administration, contacts can be found on the official website of the Lakhta Center.

At the foot of the tower, on the territory overlooking the bay, it is planned to build amphitheater. Designed for 2,000 seats, the facility will be the first structure of this type in St. Petersburg. The amphitheater is oriented towards the sea; according to the architects' plan, the stage can be water or the coastline.

Architectural solution

Since the Lakhta Center building has an extreme height, during the development of the project and construction, much attention was paid to the stability and safety of the structure. The main tower has a central core made of reinforced concrete, within which the most important communications and security zones are located. The foundation of the skyscraper stands on 2080 piles, and the floors and columns are made of metal and concrete.

The architectural concept of Lakhta Center was developed by RMJM in 2011. As conceived by the authors, the outlines of the skyscraper fit perfectly into the landscape of St. Petersburg and form a harmonious combination with the spiers and domes of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

The glazing of the Lakhta Center is made without joints, which gives the building lightness - the smooth walls of the facade reflect water and clouds.

How to get to Lakhta Center in St. Petersburg

Metro near Lakhta Center

The nearest metro station “Begovaya” is within walking distance from the skyscraper. The walk will take about 20 minutes, but while the tower is not open, you can admire it from the territory of the park of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg.

Route from the metro to Lakhta Center:

The authorities plan to build a new Lakhta metro station. The project is included in the metro development plan until 2025.

Ground transportation

Next to the Lakhta Center there is a public transport stop - “15th km Lakhta”. There are buses No. 101, 101a, 110, 211, 216 and minibuses No. 206, 210, 232, 305, 305a, 400, 405, 417, 425.

In addition, to travel around St. Petersburg, you can use applications from taxi services Uber, Gett, Yandex. Taxi, Maxim, Taxovichkof, etc.

Presentation of Lakhta Center: video tour

Night lighting of Lakhta Center: panorama-google

It’s hard to imagine beautiful St. Petersburg as a city of skyscrapers, but high-rise construction is rapidly breaking into the city of Petra. Its first “swallow” will soon be the majestic Lakhta Center. At the same time, the Leningrad Tower will not be an ordinary skyscraper, but the second tallest among similar Russian and European buildings, surpassing the “Federation” in “Moscow City” and second only to While the building is under construction, there is time to find out interesting details about it.

General idea of ​​the project

"Lakhta center", "Lakhta center" (both spellings are correct) - located in this moment at the construction stage of a public and business complex. Its scale explains the fact that the key object of the skyscraper will be the headquarters of the largest Russian corporation Gazprom. The location of the complex is Primorsky. Construction of the tower began in 2012. Its full completion is planned for the third quarter of 2018.

The maximum planned height of the Gazprom tower in St. Petersburg with antenna/spire is 462 m. The top level of the very last floor will be located 372 m above the ground. The weight of the structure with filling will be 670 thousand tons. The complex will include not only a tower, but also a multifunctional building, which will divide the atrium into northern and southern parts. The total area of ​​the future building will be 400 thousand m2. How many floors are there in the Gazprom tower in St. Petersburg? The final number will be 87. The building will be served by 102 elevators.

Tower construction progress

Let's touch on the key stages of the construction of the Gazprom tower in St. Petersburg:

• 2013 - a pit was dug for the building.
• 2014 - completion of work on the construction of the pit, start of driving piles.
• 2015 - completion of the so-called construction: production of a box foundation, reinforcement and concreting of minus floors.
• 2015-2016 - construction of the first 50 floors of the skyscraper and 7 floors of the MFZ.
• February 2017 - the 60th floor (260 m) was built.
• April 2017 - work on the construction of the 67th floor (300 m).
• May 10, 2017 - having reached 327.6 m and 78 floors, the skyscraper became the tallest building in the northern capital, “overtaking” the TV tower. The latter held this title for 55 years.

Concept of the Lakhta Center project

According to the project team, this tower, aimed at the sky like a rocket at the start, located on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, will form new standards of living in the city with its appearance and content:

• developed social infrastructure;
• modern offices that meet all global environmental requirements;
• comfortable public spaces;
• abundance of green areas;
• pedestrian and transport accessibility.

The main task of the so-called Gazprom tower in St. Petersburg is to rid the historical center of business and business activity, and at the same time the dominance of transport, moving the focus of this activity to the outskirts of the city. The skyscraper will not only help the second capital move to a polycentric development model, but also attract significant investment, create new high-paying jobs, and create all the conditions for business development.

Architectural solutions

St. Petersburg is a city of skylines, not high-rises. All of its historical high-rise buildings - St. Isaac's Cathedral, Peter and Paul Cathedral - are central points around which independent and integral structures are built. Therefore, in order not to spoil the appearance of the city-museum, it was decided to build a skyscraper that would house the headquarters of the state concern Gazprom, on the coast of the Finnish bay, away from historical buildings.

The tower is intended to begin to form the “sea façade” of St. Petersburg. Its appearance does not at all conflict with the “face” of the city - the same theme of a lonely spire on the horizon, the desire to rise, the contours of buildings reminiscent of the outlines of ship hulls.

The shape of the Lakhta Center, as conceived by the architects, should visualize openness, lightness, freedom, the flow of spaces and the energy of the sea. They strive to give the complex the effect of weightlessness and organic unity with the surrounding city and nature. A special type of double-glazed windows will help with this, which will allow the building to change its color depending on the mood of the sky.

What will happen inside the complex

The popular name of Lakhta Center - Gazprom Tower - is not entirely correct. The design of the “filling” of the complex is striking in its versatility:

• Under office rooms it is planned to allocate only 43% of the total area.
• 2.5 thousand m2 will be occupied by a medical center.
• 7 thousand m2 is guaranteed to be provided to the children's scientific and educational center "World of Science", which will include lecture halls, laboratories, and an exploratorium.
• It is planned to open a planetarium in the building, in which 140 people will be able to simultaneously observe celestial bodies.
• It is planned to build a transforming multifunctional auditorium designed for almost 500 people.
• Floors 74-76 (330 m) are planned to be allocated for a two-story panoramic restaurant.
• At an altitude of 357 m above the ground, on the 83-86 floors there will be an observation deck equipped with powerful telescopes.
• The MFZ will allocate 1.5 thousand m2 for exhibition space.
• It is also planned to build an impressive amphitheater with 2,000 seats. Its stage, with an area of ​​almost 1.5 thousand m2, will host various water shows.
• The complex will also include an indoor pedestrian bridge, which will connect the Lakhta Center space with the city’s 300th anniversary park.

Other characteristics

Let's get acquainted with interesting technical and design features Gazprom towers in St. Petersburg:

• The skyscraper stands on 264 piles, each of which has a diameter of 2 m and a depth of 82 m.
• The reinforced concrete core is responsible for the stability of the tower.
• The horizontal rigidity of the skyscraper is achieved through outrigger floors - there will be 4 pairs of them in total. The outriggers will maintain the stability of the tower even if it loses 30% of its supporting structures.
• Cold-formed glass technology is responsible for the innovative three-dimensional curvature of the complex's facades.
• The lighting of the Lakhta Center is made up of light “pixels”. Their color will depend on the season of the year.
• The waste will be disposed of using an innovative waste removal system.
• It is planned to open a metro station next to the complex under the working name "Lakhta".

Finally, let's look at some interesting facts related to the St. Petersburg tower:

• The concreting of the bottom slab of the skyscraper's foundation was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest continuous pour of concrete in the world. It lasted 49 hours, during which 19,624 cubic meters of concrete were poured.
• 400 thousand cubic meters of concrete will be spent on the construction of the entire complex.
• The glass surface area of ​​the tower will be 77 thousand m2. The weight of each double-glazed window is more than 700 kg.
• In July 2016, the skyscraper became the tallest building in St. Petersburg. He was able to achieve this title in just 10 months.
• In August of the same year, Lakhta Center became the northernmost skyscraper in the world.

Surprisingly, the most tall skyscraper Russia will be located in St. Petersburg, the city of skylines. In addition to its height, the Lakhta Center project amazes with its multifunctionality, thoughtful concept and organic architectural design.

Architect Philip Nikandrov tells how Gazprom's Okhta Center in St. Petersburg turned into Lakhta Center, and explains why the architect should be more important than developers and officials

Chief architect of Gorproekt Filipp Nikandrov /Evgeniy Egorov / Vedomosti

Philip Nikandrov designed high-rise buildings for St. Petersburg and Moscow that have every chance of becoming new city symbols - the Lakhta Center tower on the shores of the Gulf of Finland and the Evolution tower in Moscow City. The architect worked for 15 years at the international bureau RMJM, in offices in the UK and the Middle East, from where he returned to Russia in 2004. He began designing high-rise buildings in the 2000s, working in Dubai. At home, he led the design of two skyscrapers based on his concepts, which won international architectural competitions - the Evolution tower in Moscow City in 2005 and the Gazprom complex in St. Petersburg in 2006.

The Lakhta Center tower in St. Petersburg, where Gazprom structures will move, will be put into operation in the fall of 2018. It will become the tallest building in Europe (462 m).

– Construction of the Lakhta Center is being completed. But at one time the decision to build a tower for Gazprom in St. Petersburg caused a scandal. Tell us about the history of the project and why the move from Okhta to Lakhta took place?

– This story began on a plot of about 5 hectares in the place where the Okhta flows into the Neva. On the site of Petrozavod, which was demolished in 2008, there was once the Okhtinskaya shipyard, in the 16th–17th centuries. here was the Swedish fortress of Nyenschanz, and before that, back in the 13th century, the Swedish fortress of Landskrona. In fact, the history of St. Petersburg began with the fact that in 1703 Peter I took Nyenschanz by siege, and three weeks later founded new town downstream of the Neva, starting to build a fortress on Hare Island. The old earthen fortification of Nyenskans was subsequently destroyed. When in 2006 " Gazprom“announced a closed international competition to build a headquarters on this site, I collaborated with the British company RMJM, which was shortlisted from all Pritzker laureates. We were able to present an interesting concept that was liked by the customers and the majority of the jury members, while simultaneously winning the open Internet voting and voting at the exhibition of competitive projects.

The concept not only embodied the historical genetic code of the site in its forms - we proposed the museumification of Nyenschanz and Landskrona by tracing its outlines in the paving and in the numerous atrium spaces of the complex, which also included an archaeological museum for artifacts found during excavations carried out with Gazprom’s money. True, the archaeologists, having received their reward, declared the entire site “the Troy of St. Petersburg” and demanded a ban on construction, without having any scientific plans for conserving the site or recreating the earthen fortress, except, of course, a pure remake - to build one razed in the 17th century. fortification from scratch again, and then declare it a monument. Having passed the approval of Glavgosexpertiza in 2010, the project was closed, and the authorities of St. Petersburg immediately declared the entire site a monument and prohibited any construction on it.

But the project on Okhta was closed mainly not because of UNESCO’s protests about the very fact of high-rise construction in the so-called buffer zone near the historical center, but because of the revealed illegitimacy of the city’s high-rise regulations, when gross violations were discovered when it was adopted as part of the PZZ [ rules of land use and development] of St. Petersburg. In 2010, the Supreme Court overturned it. Then, about 120 projects were actually suspended, located in the territories of the industrial belt around the historical center, which UNESCO considered a buffer zone (such status in defining the boundaries of the historical center of St. Petersburg as a monument world heritage still no). But this whole story developed against the backdrop of the emerging pre-election political protest, in which the construction of a tower for opposition movements in St. Petersburg symbolized a certain act of violence by the authorities over culture and history, hence various kinds of comparisons of towers with phallic images and the lament of part of the intelligentsia about “defloration” cultural space of the city" (they came up with such a thing!). Built in the 1960s. No one seemed to notice the 300-meter television tower against the background of the spire of Peter and Paul Fortress and three dozen smoking industrial chimneys, exceeding the mark of the top of St. Isaac's dome. That is, all this was not so much about architecture as about politics; this landmark project “smelled too much of power.”

Philip Nikandrov

Chief Architect of Gorproekt

Born in 1968 in Leningrad. Graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the Leningrad Civil Engineering Institute. In 1994 he joined the Union of Architects of Russia

Works at Lengiprogor: Workshop No. 3, participation in projects for Severodvinsk

Moved to the Personal Creative Architectural Workshop (PTAM) of Yu. K. Mityurev

Became chief architect in the offices of the UK, Middle East and Russia of the international architectural company RMJM Scotland Ltd. (since 2011 – director and co-director of the European studio RMJM). In 1999 he received a professional license to carry out independent architectural activities

Appointed chief architect of JSC Gorproekt

Initially, the idea was not received with hostility, in 2006 an architectural competition was held, there was an open exhibition of all concepts, there was controversy, but already in 2007 serious money flowed into a protest campaign to discredit the project on Okhta. I don’t know exactly who financed this, but it was about moving the country’s largest taxpayer from the capital, the amount of tax deductions of which was comparable to the total annual budget of St. Petersburg, and too many influential forces were interested, if not stopping, then at least slowing down this move from one region to another.

– You yourself did not perceive that project as a threat to the historical appearance of St. Petersburg?

- No. This would certainly bother me if it were being built, say, opposite Palace Square or the Peter and Paul Fortress, similar to the 300-meter London tower The Shard, which stands across the Thames directly opposite the Tower, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our site was far beyond the boundaries of the historical city ensembles. We then built a 3D model of the city, carried out our landscape-visual analysis, looking at all the points from which streets the tower would be visible, and found only 5-6 streets, on the axis of which the new dominant sat, and all these streets were outside the so-called golden triangle. Five kilometers from Palace Square is quite a decent distance.

But Gazprom eventually made a strategically correct decision - to move the construction from disputed territory and away from the historical center. Since 2011, the project has been developing in Lakhta, on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, on a section of alluvial territory, 5 km from the border of the historical center. RMJM was unable to survive the international economic crisis and work with it did not go beyond concept. So, together with the Lakhta Center project, I went to work as the chief architect at Gorproekt, which won the tender for the general design of the facility in 2011. Since then, the project has been completely and repeatedly redesigned; all that remains from the previous concept is the idea of ​​the silhouette of a spire tower, symbolizing the flame that Gazprom brings to the people. But now it is 462 m, it will be for many years to come the tallest skyscraper not only in Russia, but also in Europe.

Now “Lakhta Center” as a new social and business cluster is the flagship of the agglomeration practically in the center of the lagoon ring of the Gulf of Finland, surrounded by a ring highway, in the orbit of which Greater St. Petersburg will develop in the 21st century. And the tower on the shore of the bay, as a new city-wide dominant, forms the sea facade of the city directly opposite the new passenger port, which welcomes in the summer tourist season 5–7 each cruise ships at the same time, and this is more tourists than arrives through Pulkovo airport every day.

-What was in this place before?

– There was a sand depot – they stored sand for construction projects.

– So the tower stands on the sand?

– No, it stands on 264 piles with a diameter of 2 m and 82 m deep, they go through the first 30 m of soft soil and rest on hard clay. The foundation slab was poured continuously for more than two days (a Guinness Book record).

The area of ​​the first phase is 8 hectares, there will be large landscaped spaces: three public squares, an open amphitheater with a stage against the backdrop of the bay, an entertaining science museum with a planetarium, and a concert hall. The tower is completed not by the office of the head of the company, but by an accessible observation deck, an absolute center of attraction for tourists. The facility is also LEED Gold certified, making it a national leader in energy efficiency and environmental stewardship. environment, after all, this is the headquarters of the largest energy company, developing in step with progress.

– What is the ratio of the areas that Gazprom will occupy to public areas?

– Less than 45% of all areas are allocated for office functions, the rest are public spaces and functions, including recreation. Gazprom has another site of 7 hectares nearby; a second phase will be built there, where there will be more office space.

– Does Gazprom pay for everything?

– Investor of the first phase – “ Gazprom Neft", this company was initially the developer and developer of the project through its subsidiary. But in the end, all the main brands of the Gazprom group of companies will live in the complex. Now in St. Petersburg they occupy comparable areas in different business centers and pay rent. In the long term, owning a building is a definite saving for them.

– Do you assume that Lakhta will face the fate of the Eiffel Tower rather than Montparnasse? (The 210-meter Montparnasse Tower, the only skyscraper in the historical center of Paris, became the object of criticism. Two years after its construction, the construction of high-rise buildings on this territory was prohibited.)

“I really hope so, but history will be the judge.” However, any architect is convinced that he is right. Although, I think, the creator of the Montparnasse Tower was also proud of it. We - architects, designers - live and work in difficult times in the context of the ideology of universal consumerism, which forces many of our colleagues to destroy their own buildings, following the path of momentary architectural fashion, constantly inventing new styles and thereby devaluing the value of previous ones. This makes life difficult for investors, especially if it is a high-rise building. The construction period increases with height in direct proportion. And it may turn out that, having invested in a concept that was trendy at the time the project began, you will end up with a facility that is obsolete by the time construction is completed. This is why so many pseudo-classical buildings are being built in Russia (which is considered bad taste in Europe) - in this way, customers are trying to save investments and deceive time. But they are only deceiving themselves; all these “pseudo” and “quasi” will never become classics, but will forever remain in the category of pathetic parodies. The style of the facades and forms of the Lakhta Center is timeless; it is not tied to any architectural fashion.

– Is the tower reinforced concrete?

– A reinforced concrete core in the center and concrete steel columns along the periphery, between them there are steel beams and reinforced concrete floors on a steel corrugated sheet - this is the most popular type of structure for mega-skyscrapers now, it is called composite. By 2020, when the tower is fully occupied, it will no longer be included in the list of the 20 most tall towers peace. But we live in the context of Europe, and there were no goals to set high-altitude records. The task initially was to find harmony with the place in the urban planning context of St. Petersburg.

- How was it built?

– Many of the advanced construction technologies used have already been tested previously at other sites, but on a more modest scale. For example, the facades are unique: this is the largest cold-formed facade in the world (after the Evolution Tower): the glass is curved and strictly follows the spiral geometry of the form, as if flowing continuously. In addition, an intelligent ventilated façade is used here: in summer it will prevent heating of rooms when the ventilation valves are open, and in winter it will accumulate solar energy due to the greenhouse effect, reducing energy costs for heating when the ventilation valves are closed. The facade maintenance system is also unique: special rails are laid according to the shape of the building, along which beams with a cradle will move for washing or replacing double-glazed windows. Architectural lighting and anti-icing systems are integrated into these same rails. Anti-icing measures are extremely important here - no one has built such high buildings at such a northern latitude and in such a humid climate. Special sensors will monitor when it is necessary to turn on local heating in places where icicles may appear during the cold season.

The city certainly needs such objects; they position it much further than its usual niche of a museum city or Northern Venice. St. Petersburg, like Venice, is a flat city. But the height of ordinary buildings outside the historical center has increased several times, but the height of the dominant buildings has not, now average height historical architectural dominants in the center - 50–60 m, like an average residential building on the outskirts. And this new scale dictates the scale of new high-rise dominants. But until recently, such dominant buildings were not built in the city.

Photo gallery

Turned out to be the highest

Skyscrapers and high-rise construction in general are a trend associated with the increasing density of our cities and megalopolises, as, indeed, all phenomena of our life. The trend is positive if professionals are involved in urban planning, as well as the design and construction of skyscrapers, and a frightening phenomenon if amateurs are involved in this, and this also happens.

– Do you think that increasing building density is progressive?

– Increasing building density is progressive and inevitable. It is progressive, since in general on the planet, with increasing density, living becomes more and more compact and, thus, significant areas that remain on the balance of natural ecosystems are preserved or freed from development. Inevitable, since with the growth of the planet's population, the general tendency to save resources, including energy and all types of infrastructure, is intensifying.

– Nowadays there is a lot of talk about the need to build garden cities, but they continue to build anthill cities. What needs to happen to society for progressive urban trends to prevail?

– I can’t answer in a few words. Russia is now in captivity of several trends at the same time - industrial society still predominates, but in megacities, where traditional production is being replaced by an innovative and service economy, elements of a post-industrial social structure are already visible. For example, Skolkovo can be considered as a prototype or, rather, a showroom of such a garden city. Although it is being created in some isolation from the real economy of the country and has signs of Potemkin villages, this is the fate of many pilot projects.

In Russia, mass housing construction of the industrialization era, which began in Khrushchev's times, still prevails. To this day, millions of adult children live with their parents, millions of divorced spouses continue to share living space, not to mention the millions of people living in communal apartments and dilapidated houses. New buildings are still competing for buyers’ wallets with the same Khrushchev and Brezhnev buildings: such a poor competitive background does not promise us the special quality of economy-class houses being built and improving the urban environment. IN Western countries On the contrary, there is an overproduction of housing, so there is no such scale of mass housing construction; much less is being built there, which means that the competition is much higher and better quality. This also applies to social housing, which is also built, but according to government orders and not as massively as ours, which makes it possible to use individual projects for each specific site and even involve famous architects in these projects.

Only serious competition in the field of housing construction can revive the institution of real architectural competitions and return the quality of architecture to new construction. As for the “anthills” that have already been built, unfortunately, we have to live with this, and for a very long time.

But we must understand that progressive urban trends do not promise a decrease in building density in our cities; it will continue to grow with the increasing pace of urbanization. Which will continue until at least the middle of this century, when, according to forecasts, 70% of the world's population will live in cities. But these may be completely different cities.

– Polycentric or monocentric development, agglomeration or conurbation – which path should Moscow and St. Petersburg choose?

– The general plans and public planning zones of both megacities, as well as all Russian urban planning as a science, are still based on the fundamental principles of urban planning of an industrial society since the industrial revolutions of the 19th century. This means: industrial zones were built at a distance from the downtown, and residential residential areas were located nearby, stadiums, parks for recreation of citizens, etc. were built separately. However, if we get rid of such functional zoning and zoning of cities according to the old schemes of centric development and build life of a post-industrial society, creating a mixed development in which housing, retail, offices, schools, universities, cultural and sports facilities will harmoniously coexist along landscaped and landscaped streets and squares, then a further increase in urban density due to an increase in the number of storeys of buildings can be carried out without destroying such harmony, and, on the contrary, reducing the need for daily migration. The fact that now the majority of the population lives in one area, works in another, and goes shopping or relaxing in a third, only creates a transport collapse. The answer to this challenge is the polycentric development of our cities.

– It has already become a commonplace that developers criticize architects for being “excessively beautiful,” and architects criticize developers for simplifying projects to the detriment of quality. Is it possible for these parties to reach an agreement? And How?

– This is an eternal dispute and struggle for a share in the budget. The developer will strive, if not to cut, then to extremely optimize the budget allocated for architectural expressiveness, quality of details and landscaping. An architect, on the contrary, will (and is obligated by definition) to fight for an increase in the budget for aesthetics and quality. But an agreement is possible. If, for example, we accept the principle of minimalism in the lofty sense in which [German architect Ludwig] Mies van der Rohe formulated it: “Less is more.” But it’s not the developer, not the official, but the architect who should measure “more or less” here.

– Do you agree that for an architect to make a good design for a cheap but high-quality house is a professional challenge? Do you have such projects?

– I absolutely agree, this, in principle, is the highest exam. Of course, for any architect it is great luck to receive an unlimited budget for the realization of his architectural dreams and fantasies, but, in my opinion, to build beautifully on a small budget is a much more honorable achievement and a higher mission worthy of applause.

We recently received such an order - a project for a standard residential building for rent. The result should be the concept of a rental home, which will be centrally owned and managed by a single homeowner. For this business to be successful in the market, the new landlord must offer not only affordable rent, but also exceptionally attractive housing to potential tenants in terms of quality and aesthetics. This is the task and the professional challenge you are asking about.

– At a recent forum on high-rise construction in Yekaterinburg, you painted a picture ideal city future. What should it be like?

– So that the majority of its residents would be comfortable living there, without dreaming of moving to another city. So that people born in it would like to live their lives in it. We are talking about an environmentally and socially safe urbanized urban space, in harmony with the environment and providing - due to its layout and functional configuration - convenient and easy access for citizens to the main elements of complex social infrastructure, including employment, education, healthcare, culture, trade , recreation and sports. As for transport, its structure is already changing with the process of “Uberization” and with the advent of unmanned vehicles and drones, and the goal for the person of the future, in my opinion, is to move around the city less in a car and walk more and/or use bicycles and hoverboards . The pattern of daily migrations within the city has already begun to change, online shopping and couriers have begun to slowly but surely kill traditional trade; in developed countries, street retail, malls and hypermarkets with huge parking lots are slowly dying out as a class. But people must remain mobile enough to travel between cities or travel around the world. I think that virtual reality will reduce the share of business tourism and business trips, people will travel to visit relatives or to see the world. And if tourists flock en masse to a certain city, then it means that it is already successful in some way and has thereby won its place in the present and future.

Now let's see how they build IGLOO GAZPROM

The whole story began with the project of the Okhta Center, or Gazprom City complex. The complex with a 396-meter skyscraper was planned to be tied to the Neva again - it was supposed to rise on the cape formed by the Neva and the Okhta River flowing into it. On the opposite side of the Neva is the famous Smolny Institute, which was once the headquarters of the Bolsheviks, and now serves as the residence of the governor of St. Petersburg. The project then caused a lot of noise, mostly unenthusiastic. The glass needle of the skyscraper was radically disharmonious with architectural style St. Petersburg center, while creating a new high-rise dominant, competing with the spiers of the Admiralty and the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Such interference in the historical low-rise urban landscape seemed blasphemous to many.

In the end, the Okhta Center became the Lakhta Center: the construction of the Gazprom skyscraper, now 462 m high, was moved to the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland. There are no urban developments nearby, and the historical center is a full 9 km away, so the “needle” will no longer invade the recognizable outlines of old St. Petersburg. The complex of a high-rise building, an auxiliary building and a vast recreational area is scheduled for completion in 2018, and then...

Is there any practical sense in constructing such tall buildings where there seems to be no shortage of land? Of course, Lakhta does not have the cramped conditions of American downtowns, but architecture is not always intended to perform a utilitarian function. Sometimes her task is to create symbols, objects of attraction. Historically, temples that were supposed to rise above the surrounding buildings became such centers of attraction. There was no other meaning in this except symbolic. When elevators appeared and cities began to grow rapidly, high-rise buildings became the leaders and dominants. “Lakhta Center” will greet cruise ships and ferries heading to St. Petersburg like the Statue of Liberty in New York Bay; it will become a new symbol of the city, and this is precisely its main aesthetic task. This is what the authors of the project think.

Even those who are not good at geography probably remember: a city built in the delta rests on loose, water-soaked soil. Everyone remembers a branch of the St. Petersburg metro that was torn apart by quicksand for almost a decade. Unlike the textbook Manhattan, which is essentially bare rock, in the St. Petersburg area the granite shield lies below 200 m, and it is unrealistic to rest a building on it. How to build a skyscraper here? It turns out that from the point of view of geotechnics - the science of soils - no monstrous difficulties arise in this case. In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where two twin super-skyscrapers were being built, the situation was even worse: the buildings stand on 120-meter stilts. Of course, it is too difficult to rest on the rocky ground in Lakhta - this would require piles of an unprecedented length in world practice, so we have to use ones that support the building due to friction. The upper layers of the soil are very loose, but already below 30 m the Vendian clays begin to be quite hard, and the piles are held securely in them.

The traditional construction of a skyscraper foundation is an array of piles on which a powerful slab rests. In principle, something similar has been done in Lakhta, but the foundation of the St. Petersburg skyscraper will have its own characteristics. It is a box-shaped structure buried in the ground to a depth of 17 m. Thus, the building will appear to be “sunk” in the ground, which will serve to more evenly distribute the weight of the structure and help avoid severe settlement of the skyscraper in the future.

The outer boundary of the foundation is a wall in the ground (in plan it is a regular pentagon, or pentagon). It is not a supporting element, but it protects the strength part of the foundation from soil pressure, and most importantly, from the seepage of groundwater. A pit is dug in the ground inside the wall, and to prevent the wall from collapsing, it is gradually strengthened with four reinforced concrete structures located on top of each other - the so-called spacer discs. When the pit is ready, the heads of the pre-installed piles are exposed. There are 264 piles, and the length of the most powerful of them is 82 m. At the bottom of the pit, a concrete slab resting on the heads is poured, and reinforcement for the main load-bearing structure - the lower foundation slab - is mounted on it. The designers did not have a shortage of space, and therefore they were able to support the building on a large foundation to ensure maximum stability.

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The tragedy of the World Trade Center towers in New York, and especially the terrible picture of their collapse, is so clearly etched in the memory of each of us that the question “what will happen if???” arises quite naturally, as soon as we are talking about a new high-rise building. Here it should be remembered that the main customer of the complex is Gazprom, and we can say that this building is of strategic importance for our economy.

That is why the task was set to ensure the highest safety standards. In principle, the skyscraper will be built according to a well-known scheme: a cylindrical reinforced concrete core, floors, columns along the outer contour. The World Trade Center towers had approximately the same design. These were strong buildings, designed to withstand the impact of a Boeing 747, but the destruction of some power structures of the external circuit led to the progressive destruction of others, a domino effect was created, and as a result the skyscrapers collapsed. The high-rise building of Lakhta Center is designed in such a way that it can be supported by one core. You can blow up all ten columns along the outer contour, but even then the skyscraper will stand. This is a real fortress, which, according to the architects, should survive many decades.

The stability of the structure is ensured by a special scheme for redistributing the load of the external contour of the building to the core. Every 16 floors, ten powerful consoles extend from the reinforced concrete core - a kind of hanging foundations on which a section of the building will additionally rest. There are four such outrigger levels in the skyscraper.

As a result, Lakhta Center will have a safety margin unique among buildings of this kind, significantly exceeding established international standards.

The reluctance to save on safety does not mean that the idea of ​​increasing the efficiency of a structure and reducing operating costs is completely alien to the authors of the project. On the contrary, it is very important for Gazprom, given that it is building a building “for itself,” to remain committed to modern energy saving technologies, especially in the harsh climate of St. Petersburg. For example, the building will receive a double façade, that is, there will be an insulating layer of air between two strands of glazing. The heating system will use such highly economical devices as infrared emitters. In addition, the heat accumulated in the building from operating computers and other office equipment will be removed and then used in the heating system. The air conditioning system has its own peculiarities - it is based not on the usual scheme for removing heat from the room to the outside, but on cold accumulators placed underground, which can produce up to 1000 tons of ice per night, and then release its cold to the rooms during the day. Occupancy sensors will also become widespread, which will turn off lighting fixtures when there is no one in the room.

But will the building be habitable from the bottom floors to the very top? High-rise buildings erected for purely commercial purposes are often inhabited from top to bottom, and there are no “excesses” there. However, if we are talking about a symbol, be it the Moscow State University building on Sparrow Hills in Moscow or the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, a significant part of their height is an uninhabited spire, designed to give the structure aesthetic completeness. Despite the fact that the height of the Lakhta Center skyscraper will be 462 m, all inhabited floors will be below the 400 m mark. Anything higher is an architectural element that will help the building serve as a city landmark and decoration of the sea gates of St. Petersburg.

The skyscraper in Lakhta will have a helical shape, that is, its facades will have a rather complex and asymmetrical surface. Particularly interesting is the use of cold-formed glass, which makes the glazing absolutely smooth. Together with the double facade, this will give unusual optical effects - for example, the reflection of clouds, as if rising diagonally along the wall of the building.

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The construction of a business and public center in Lakhta is not only an attempt to turn St. Petersburg to the sea with a “human face,” but also a desire to follow the centrifugal trend in modern urban planning. New business parks are being created away from dense urban areas, here large areas, there are no problems with parking here. The flow of cars to the Lakhta Center will always be in antiphase with the flow that moves to the city center in the morning and rushes to the outskirts and suburbs in the evening. This way, the historical center of St. Petersburg will be partially relieved, and business activity in the Lakhta Center, on the contrary, will intensify. Of course, the accessibility of Lakhta Center will be ensured not only for motorists, but also for those who use public transport: the complex will be connected to the city center by a metro line.

However, the purpose of Lakhta Center goes far beyond the task of providing the city with additional office space. In the skyscraper and in the auxiliary building, the project provides not only business premises, but a large entertaining science center for children, conference rooms, exhibition spaces, sports and medical complexes, cafes, restaurants, shops and even an ultra-modern planetarium. The vast surrounding area will include public gardens, parks, walking paths and an amphitheater overlooking the Gulf of Finland.

We can say that the history of Lakhta Center is connected not only with urban planning and architecture. After all, it so happened that the clash of interests of a large national corporation and the aspirations of the civil society of the Northern capital regarding the Okhta Center led not to the triumph of one side to the detriment of the other, but to a new quality and to a new stage in the development of St. Petersburg.

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Construction of a high-rise building in the area of ​​a deep river delta is a difficult task, but not impossible. The upper layers of the soil have quicksand properties, but at a depth of 30 m there are so-called Vendian clays, which are comparable in hardness to natural stone. In this regard, it became possible to replace the slotted foundations with bored piles, which will support the building not due to support on the rock, but due to the force of friction. The piles, the most powerful of which reach a length of 82 m, are not driven, but installed. Such piles are called bored piles: first a well is drilled, then a casing pipe is lowered into it (so that the walls of the well do not crumble), reinforcement is installed inside the pipe, and then concrete is poured.

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In mid-October 2018, the Lakhta Center multifunctional complex, the construction of which began back in 2012, received permission to put into operation. The opening of the first phase of the complex, which is dominated by the tallest skyscraper in Europe, is scheduled for the end of next year, and for many more months work will be carried out at the new Gazprom headquarters on interior decoration, equipment and landscaping of the vast area. However, already last summer During the broadcasts of the 2018 World Cup matches, the world was able to see a new vertical dominant forming the panorama of modern St. Petersburg.

The silhouette of the 462-meter tower, the compositional center and main accent of the complex, is the embodied energy of flame, the symbol and logo of Gazprom. The five wings of the tower rotate by floor by 0.82 degrees relative to their centers, or about 90 degrees over the entire height. As they ascend, they decrease in size, thereby creating the silhouette of a spire, the proportions and shape of which allow it to be perceived as another city spire, stylistically not competing with the existing dominants of the historical center.

Philip Nikandrov. Photo by the Gorproekt press service

The shape of the tower is based on architectural principles laid down by the builders of ancient pyramids: the entire mass of the building is visually directed upward, concentrating at the apex point. Almost all historical vertical dominants of St. Petersburg - spiers and domes - were built according to this principle. The silhouette of the skyscraper is precisely a transitional form from a dome to a spire, with a gradual increase in the radius of curvature from an arc at the bottom to a straight line at the top. The rich plasticity of the tower facades through the organic composition of volumes gives the object dynamism, symbolizing energy and development.

The architectural and technical solutions of the Lakhta Center, on which the team of architects, designers and engineers of the Gorproekt company (general designer of the complex) have been working since 2011, are innovative in many aspects not only for Russia, but also for the whole world. The project, which does not have a single repeating (standard) floor, is technically considered one of the most complex and unique even in comparison with other mega-skyscrapers on the planet; Leaders of the global construction industry, leading contracting companies and manufacturers from Europe and Asia took part in its implementation. Solving the most complex design problems became possible only through the use of the latest BIM technologies and parametric design.

The façade solutions of the complex are especially unique. Firstly, a record amount of glass was used: the area of ​​glazed shells is about 130 thousand square meters. m, of which 72.5 thousand sq. m on the tower. m (this is 16.5 thousand double-glazed windows). In total, more than half a million square meters of glass were used in production, and glass was used not only as a translucent shell of hanging stained-glass windows, but also as a load-bearing structural material: record-high all-glass mullion stands (more than 17 m without a single seam) provide maximum visual lightness and transparency of planar stained glass windows at the level of public spaces of the atrium.

Secondly, the latest synthetic materials were used for translucent shells, for example, ETFE film, from which the pneumatic elements (“cushions”) of the skylight in the central atrium of the stylobate part of the complex are made. This solution made it possible to significantly reduce the weight of the structure of a huge lantern with a length of more than 250 m, while avoiding the risk of icing in the winter. On the facades of stylobate buildings, energy-saving double-thread glazing is used, which provides ventilation of buffer zones in a passive mode. On the tower itself, an intelligent two-thread facade was implemented, which allows (already in active mode) to automatically ventilate the buffer zones between the two threads of the facade - in the summer it will prevent heating of the premises when the ventilation valves are open, and in winter, on the contrary, it will accumulate solar energy due to the “greenhouse effect”, reducing energy consumption for heating with closed ventilation valves.

Curved in three dimensions, the stained glass window of the outer thread is assembled from huge double-glazed windows with an area of ​​11 square meters. m each. All 15 petal-faces of the facade look like a single shell of glass, curved in a spiral with a 90-degree rotation over the entire height. Each glass unit in plan is bent at an angle of 0.82 degrees when cold (without the use of molds and traditional heating in an oven up to 600 degrees), which allowed saving a huge amount of energy during production. Today, this stained glass window is the largest cold-formed façade in the world by area; it broke the record of our other project - in Moscow City.

The Lakhta Center tower, however, is not only the tallest in Europe, but also the northernmost mega-skyscraper in the world. For several months a year, the 100-meter spire will be hidden in low clouds, that is, in an area of ​​increased risk of condensation on the surfaces of its facades. Anti-icing measures are extremely important here, and the task was complicated by the fact that no one before us had built such tall buildings at such a latitude and in such a humid climate.

"Lakhta Center". Photo by the Gorproekt press service

In winter, condensation will freeze on the surfaces of the spire in the form of ice, which can threaten the fall of fragments or entire icicles, so we have developed a unique spire anti-icing system, which is designed to combat ice accumulation on large metal surfaces. In the tower spire, the glass has been replaced with stainless steel cladding with a heating system in the cold season, and a steel mesh to control the formation of dangerous ice and icicles on the shell of the upper part of the skyscraper.

A unique façade maintenance system for cleaning and repairing stained glass or replacing double-glazed windows moves along a spiral path along a rail parallel to the façade shell. Active dynamic architectural lighting and anti-icing systems are also integrated into these rails. Special sensors will monitor when it is necessary to turn on local heating in places where ice may appear. The flashing aircraft obstacle lights at the top of the spire operate 24 hours a day and are visible to pilots of aircraft and ships from many tens of kilometers away.

Based on the totality of innovative energy-efficient solutions used in the project, the facility claims a LEED gold certificate, which makes it a national leader in terms of energy saving and respect for the environment - after all, we are talking about the headquarters of the largest energy company.

Of course, Lakhta Center is not only a tower, it is a huge complex with an area of ​​400 thousand square meters. m, of which the tower occupies only a third. The area of ​​the first phase is 8 hectares, and large landscaped spaces will appear on them: three public squares, an open amphitheater with a stage against the backdrop of the bay, an entertaining science museum with a planetarium, and a multifunctional concert hall. The tower is completed by a publicly accessible observation deck in the lower space of the spire, an absolute center of attraction for tourists.

“Lakhta Center” is the urban flagship of the agglomeration practically in the center of the lagoon ring of the Gulf of Finland, surrounded by the ring highway (Ring Road) - it is in its orbit that “Greater St. Petersburg” will develop in the 21st century. And the tower on the shore of the bay, in the geometric center of this orbit, like a grandiose lighthouse, forms the sea facade of the metropolis directly opposite the passenger port, which simultaneously receives 5-7 cruise ships during the summer tourist season. And they are all met and escorted by the Lakhta Center, the symbol of modern St. Petersburg.