New ideas for New Holland

WORKac, winner of the competition for the redevelopment of a disused Russian naval warehouse site, proposes a bold merging of structure and nature.

It's no longer news that derelict factories, warehouses, hangars, garages and arsenals are perfect to site multiuse cultural centers and host modern art. But rarely does an industrial building exposed to such conversion result in a masterpiece of architecture. Located in a former Navy warehouse complex in St. Petersburg, Novaja Gollandija (New Holland) is not just an architectural monument of the 18th-century neoclassicism, it is one of the sacral landmark buildings of the city and uniquely engineered structure. The timber warehouses were built from 1763 to 1784 in several stages under the successive guidance of architects Savva Chevakinskiy, Jean Baptiste Michel Vallin de la Mothe, Johann Gerhard and Mikhail Vetoshnikov, but was never completed. It's an island with an interior artificial lake and two channels, the famous arch (one of the postcard images of St. Petersburg) is thrown over one of them. In the 1800s it was decided to add to storerooms the naval prison building circular in plan, arrested seamen called it "the bottle".

In 2004, the Russian Navy left New Holland, which from that moment turned into a tasty morsel for the ambitious real estate developers and architects. In 2006, Sir Norman Foster presented the first reconstruction project, which involved a fairly dramatic architectural intervention resembling a half-airborne stealth bomber. In February 2011 a new competition was announced, and international firms David Chipperfield Architects, Dixon Jones, Lacaton & Vassal, MVRDV, OMA, WORKac—as well as Russian architects Yuri Avvakumov, in collaboration with Georgiy Solopov and Studio 44—responded. The competitive job was standard: to restore the monument of industrial architecture in the most germane way and introduce there a typical range of services for a cultural epicenter—concert and exhibition halls, studios of artists and architects, educational centers, as well as sites of a culturally commercial infrastructure (design boutiques, hotels, restaurants).

WORKac (above and on top) proposed an extreme rapprochement with nature, as much as possible within the constraints of competition. The large-scale reintroduction of plants on the island led the jury to name WORKac as the leading consultant in the redevelopment of the island.

The most radical project was proposed by Office for Metropolitan Architecture, which ultimately did not continue their participation in the competition. Architects decided to make an archipelago of the island, cutting off one of its parts by new channels, and connecting it to the mainland. A part of the archipelago would accommodate a spa and a newly planted forest.

French architects Lacaton & Vassal were the next-most radical, immediately declaring that their project will contrast with the neoclassicism of the 18th-century design, contributing a vision that looks something like a greenhouse farm with numerous glazed structures.

Yuri Avvakumov and UK architects David Chipperfield and Dixon Jones submitted projects with different forms, but intrinsically similar solutions. The island at Admiralty Channel between the prison and the warehouses remains vacant, ready to be populated by new structures. Avvakumov diagonally arrayed in this site a few 'pen case'-like structures of varying heights. Chipperfield heaped a pile of similar objects that resemble frames. Dixon & Jones made a mélange of the 18th-century original architecture with a super-contemporary interior.

Bottle, cheese, swimming pool, hot air balloon—not the standard set of images for the institution of contemporary art. Evoking a playful mood, perhaps it's not bad in the context of contemporary culture.

MVRDV proposed a cheerful mix of various colored shapes, which are on display inside the building in the winter and are moved outside during summer.

MVRDV's solution seemed like the previous, with one exception. The Dutch architects also provided a set of mobile multi-function modules, called "activators", a conglomeration of cheerfully colorful forms. In winter, they would slot into the minimalist building designed by MVRDV, and in the summer they would array on the quays and the streets like tents on a resort beach or clowns at a children's holiday.

Also among the participants were enthusiasts of the green approach—Nikita Yavein's Studio 44 and American firm WORKac. Yavein proposed to create a memorial to trees felled for the construction of the fleet in the design of a new pseudoclassical pavilion.

WORKac proposed an extreme (within the constraints of the competition) rapprochement with nature, bordering on the absurd. Nevertheless, the massive greening of the island affected the jury's decision and WORKac will be the main consultant to develop a master plan for the project. Accordingly the winning project in New Holland does not create any new buildings save for a temporary tent in front of the corner building. Between the prison and the warehouse, the architects designed a mound covered by artificial turf, where the parking and engineering infrastructure should be hidden.

Studio 44, Nikita Yavein proposed to design a park and build a neoclassical pavilion next to the prison.

Greenhouses are to be installed inside the warehouse buildings, where for glazed perforate the roof, which is unlikely to put a smile on the faces of preservationists. One of the lights is not glazed, through which a grove of deciduous trees peeks out. A green promenade snakes across the greenhouses, and interpenetrates the space. The island is divided into three zones—the cinema and fashion center with boutiques, the art center with a museum at the corner building and the food pavilion with urban markets, restaurants and gardens. Small vessels will be able to enter in the inland lake (a common feature to all of entries). There will also be two new attractions: a hilltop balloon launch, and three swimming pools within the lake itself, which will even be heated in the winter. Here the desire to merge with nature reaches its apotheosis. Winters in St. Petersburg are rather harsh, so visitors to the pool at this culture center will resemble the famous Japanese snow monkeys (Macaca fuscata), who love to bask in the winter in the waters of hot springs of Yakushima island.

Bottle, cheese, swimming pool, hot air balloon—not the standard set of images for the institution of contemporary art. Evoking a playful mood, perhaps it's not bad in the context of contemporary culture. However, establishing a new hallmark of Russian architectural competitions with participation by global architectural stars proves that winning doesn't mean everything. In this sense, another cause for optimism is that the reconstruction of New Holland will also be underwritten by Roman Abramovich's Millhouse Capital and Daria Zhukova's Iris Foundation, who jointly have already realised a similar project in Moscow with the remade Bahmetevsky Garage by Konstantin Melnikov. Although there have been more reverent attitudes to Russian architectural heritage, the only significant deviation there from the original project was the disappearance from the facade of a prominent hammer-and-sickle symbol.
Sergei Kulikov

David Chipperfield Architects: view of the foyer inside the building.

David Chipperfield Architects: view of the new cultural space, overlooking a central courtyard and swimming pool.

David Chipperfield Architects: section of the cultural building.

New ideas for New Holland

WORKac, winner of the competition for the redevelopment of a disused Russian naval warehouse site, proposes a bold merging of structure and nature.

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