Putting The Life Into Lifestyle

Director of the British company Mace told about working with one of the renovation project.
 

– Rob, Mace made its first appearance in Petersburg with the SC Gallery Project, and now there is a new experience in prospect – integrated development of already build-up areas  within the Housing Complex Regeneration Programme. Could you share with us your impression on working in Petersburg and on such a project
– Petersburg is a beautiful and very impressive city. For ourselves, we have made a note that the major part of the residential buildings being under construction now is very conventional. I am a little upset with this observation, as well as with the fact that any attempts are hardly ever made here to fit  the housing into the ambient environment. After all, no urban context is created as a result, and feeling is lost. In one of their reports, the McKinsey & Company analysts indicated that the Russian construction market is 21% as effective as the American one and 30% as effective as the Swedish construction market.

– And what ambient environment do you work with?
–The project, we are workin on is all about the use of a superb site on a sweeping bend of St Petersburg’s Neva River; the dynamic river at the heart of Peter the Great’s vision for the City some 300 years ago.
This quarter will become a new district of St Petersburg, housing more than twenty thousand people in some thirteen thousand apartments.
But, to make the most of such a fantastic site, the development is focused on delivering lifestyle – an environmentally appreciative public realm design with quiet courtyards, lively public squares, open spaces, river walks and good social provision.  
And then, those life enhancing qualities are further developed by the human scale buildings and well-designed apartments.
 

– What stages are included in the work on the project? Who else is engaged in its delivery?
– A range of designers, Bryden Wood, Aedas, PRP, HKR and Semren-Mansson have been crafted into the overall team to realise a diversity in design with a vibrancy of styles that respond to the opportunities offered by the location and the Johannes Tovatt Masterplan.
These architectural designs are placed into a public realm designed by Gillespies and onto a standardised engineered ‘chassis’, promoted by Mace and based upon their experiences on the London 2012 Olympic Village; where design and construction performance was optimised by the consistency of approach, without design intent being sacrificed.
Bryden Wood, as development-wide Engineers, have then developed this standardisation into an innovative, to the Russian market, structural and engineering services solution, that is effective in project delivery terms, whilst also realising apartments with in-built interior design and layout adaptability.
And all engineered in a way that, whilst making the most of standardisation, that standardisation is in no way apparent to anyone experiencing Gutenborg as a place to live, learn or leisure.
So, an approach focussed upon making the very most of a superb site. An approach with European design quality and effectiveness at its heart, whilst all focussed on truly putting the life into lifestyle.  

– There were very many cases in Petersburg where  even the most viable solutions suggested by foreign experts could not be implemented due to the applicable Russian construction regulations.
– So far, we have encountered  nothing that would have strongly interfered with our commitment to the principles and made us distressed. Actually, the Russian regulations are very severe. And this is a part of our cooperation with SPb Renovation. Regarding individual aspects, we challenge the current rules of the game. We analyse and combine the international practices, and then we introduce them into the Russian conditions. Naturally, no safety requirements and standards  are open to challenge. It is simply the confidence that a better way can be found.

–  Are you personally more interested in renovation or in new construction?
– Reconstruction is a very interesting sphere of works, as a result of which a building has a chance for a new life. In terms of construction, it is a great challenge. In some instances, it is extremely difficult to combine various functions: leisure, commercial spaces, housing. Particularly, I am very excited and happy to work in Petersburg and to create new things transforming the urban environment.
Acting as a partner of SPb Renovation, Mace will be implementing a project including both design and construction of over 780 thousand square meters of housing, as well as three schools, five kindergartens, an out-patient clinic and the entire required road, transport and engineering infrastructure to service a quarter housing more than twenty thousand people.