Results of the Summer Architecture Camp (Project 1)
05.08.2013

Results of the Summer Architecture Camp (Project 1)

The summer architecture camp was organized as part of our Orange Days Festival. During the week, ten students from Russia and the Netherlands studied the basics of reconstruction and reorganization of cultural heritage, based on the example of New Holland. As a result of the Camp, students presented two projects for future development of the island.

We asked curators and tutors to comment on both projects.


Concept 2:

The project proposes to perceive New Holland as an "oyster": an independent space within the historic city center. For a long time the island was a restricted area without access. Now the island is a unique public space for the city, adding "public" quality to a still unknown city.

The project involves the development of the interior of the island as a separate world: a village in the city, a slow space in the fast city setting, a place where you can relax from the city, while being within the city limits. At the same time, there is the outer zone, a zone between the warehouses and the water, which would developed as a public urban space with terraces and trees. This enhances the interaction of the outer part of the island with the city itself. As a result, the warehouses can be targeted at both the external and the internal spaces. These spaces can welcome all kinds of cultural and business activity, which is the advantage of such a dual orientation.


Curators comments:

Paul Meurs, curator of the camp, architect, professor, head of the ‘Restoration and Transformation’ department of Delft University of Technology

It is not easy to develop a concept for New Holland as a public space. The division into urban and "rural" orientation is a very decent solution for New Holland to be related to the city, while maintaining the independent status of the island.

The idea of ​​a warehouse section with dual orientation is very impressive. In such circumstances, the stores have a great potential.

The proposal makes a large contribution to the enrichment of the historical center in terms of programs and spatial differentiation, all that with the most careful treatment of historic buildings and the urban landscape of St. Petersburg.


Vladimir Frolov, curator of the camp and chief editor of the magazine Project Baltia

The active use of the docks along the channel bordering the island permits to create a public space integrated in the urban sphere of the area, but without disturbing the closed part of the island’s territory.

The inside part is conventionally dedicated to farmer and artisan features, whereas the outer part is relegated to the urban flaneurs and tourists. This feature is designed to strengthen the walking gallery on the roof of the building, such as the one made ​​at the Peter and Paul Fortress.

The inner parts involve the construction of temporary wooden structures that leave a greater functional flexibility. In particular, instead of the building with the experimental pool (where Vallin de la Mothe’s project planned another corpus of warehouses) the students offer the construction of facilities such as greenhouses, which will serve as a permeable fence for the complex.

The historic buildings become a zone of communication between the "rural" and "urban" parts of the island, which permits to implement a functional zoning along the longitudinal axis.

The project proposes the use of "soft" strategies of development of the territory, which seems a quite realistic approach to the existing economic conditions.


Catherine Visser, camp's tutor, architect, partner of DaF-architecten, and visiting tutor at Delft University of Technology

The second project is built on the contradiction of the space: on the one hand, during the three centuries of its existence the island was hidden from viewers, and on the other hand, it turns into an advanced, creative and democratic entity.

The plan is divided into two parts: an open one, interoperable with the island’s promenade, and a secret area: the "village".

At the heart of the project lie many drawings that students made ​​in a cartoon-like style. They admitted chaos and controversies to their project, and as a result have found creative solutions to every question that arose in the process of solving the problem of the island’s reconstruction. The result of their collaboration is the result of a brainstorming taking into account associations and ideas, as well as all possibilities. The final project is a variant of intuitive development, which can become part of the future of New Holland.