Saint Petersburg, Russia

GloraX City Zanevsky Residential Complex

The residential building designed by A.Len Architectural Bureau with two small built-in 3* and 4* hotels is located in the historic district of St. Petersburg – Bolshaya Okhta.

The history of the area begins in the 12th and 13th centuries when Swedes seeking to conquer Finnish lands clashed with Novgorod Princedom which wanted to maintain control over the most important part of the ancient trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks". The banks of the Neva and Bolshaya Okhta have been used as industrial zones since the first half of the 18th century. Improvement of the area began in the 1920–1930s, when wooden buildings that had originally prevailed here were replaced by more modern stone buildings. A full range of cultural and social institutions was created in every microdistrict of the area.

The project site is located in the historical district of Yablonevka, near Ladozhskaya Metro Station, on the right bank of the Okkervil River. By the mid-1990s most historical buildings of Yablonovka were destroyed. Today this territory is home to a large trade zone, industrial and warehouse zones. With the appearance of Ladozhsky railway station in 1985, the territory began transforming.

The new master plan seemed too complex on the surface, but there were good reasons for this. The buildings here are rectangular in shape, with flat roofs. The layout and proportions of the buildings and the exterior design of facades have been created according to the original tradition of St. Petersburg functionalism of the 1970–1980s, and are also reminiscent of laconic Scandinavian architecture.

A.Len Architectural Bureau has found progressive volumetric and spatial solutions to bring together in the same building the functionally different residential and hotel parts. This necessitated bringing together very different facade structures, combining different construction volumes, contrasting elements, different color solutions that allow for a very complex game of perception. Structurally, hotel buildings are different from residential buildings. A clever solution was found when sections of the building’s overall volume were divided into separate blocks by light slots. The building has a descending stepped structure, the residential building in the south part of the complex has been made lower to allow for insolation of the inner courtyard. High-rise buildings of the hotel protect the inner space of residential buildings from traffic noise and frame the space of Ploshchad Fabergé from the north.

A complex situation arose at the design stage, as the main facade of the building on Zanevsky Prospekt faced north, so for the most part of the day it remained in the shadow. An optimal color solution was found: the facade was painted in very light color hues. The architectural design of the building therefore appeared quite unique, with plaster technology being used.

The project also provides for the improvement of the entire open space territory:
- all driveways, sidewalks and parking places were asphalted;
- landscaping design was used for the arrangement of greenery;
- public green zones and landscaped sections were set up with the main "recreation nucleus" in the center. This nucleus included playgrounds for children and adults, sports grounds with modern and safe surface covering;
- separate zones were allocated within sports playgrounds for table tennis and lawn tennis, badminton, volleyball, and basketball.

The residential complex on Zanevsky Prospekt with the adjacent territory has become a green oasis for rest and recreation, helping people get into harmony with the world around them and get in touch with nature in the center of the gas-polluted metropolis with a fast pace of life. A rationally designed pedestrian esplanade has been designed to divide the site into two parts and create a transit path through the inner space of the residential complex from Ladozhskaya Metro Station.


Facts and Figures
Team of authors
  • S. Oreshkin — Project Manager
  • A. Weiner — Сhief Engineer of the Project
  • R. Andreeva — Chief Architect of the Project
  • V.Ivanov — Architect