NEW HOLLAND
Location: Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Size: 8 ha
Curators: Paul Meurs (Netherlands), Vladimir Frolov (Russia)
Tutors: Catherine Visser (Netherlands), Alexey Levchuk (Russia)
Project team: Alina Chereyskaya, Artem Belyi, Guangruey Tan, Luis Sacristan, Marieke Zegwaart
Project year: 2013
As part of the Year of the Netherlands in Russia and the Year of Russia in the Netherlands, and also Netherland Culture Festival “Orange Days” the New Holland Summer Architectural Camp was held (http://www.newhollandsp.ru/blog13/lectures/summer-architectural-camp/). The main task was to make a project of reorganization of the New Holland Island in Saint-Petersburg.). New Holland is a manmade island in Saint-Petersburg. It was created in 1720. Until the beginning of the 21 century it was a closed territory for common citizens. Now the territory of the island is used as a public space, but most of the buildings are in a ruined condition.
According to the urban analysis this territory is suitable for creating a multifunctional space. Unlike many other proposals for the island the main concept of this project is to preserve architecture and environment as a monument, so all the new buildings are placed under the existing buildings, playing the role of a plinth for the historic architecture.
The main reference for the construction ideas is Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
In our research we compared the Hermitage Museum and the New Holland Island. The Hermitage is a rather static space, unlike it the New Holland should be a flexible multifunctional zone to attract different strata of society and social groups. To achieve this goal and to enhance the territory we worked with different elements of the environment: water, landscape and buildings.
Get more information here: Project Baltia №20 (p. 85-91) or http://www.newhollandsp.ru/blog13/orange-days/project-1/
