Green Buffer Spaces landscape organisation of Business and Office Buildings in Saint

Petersburg: problems and solutions.

Nadya Kerimova1, Valery Nefedov2
1
State Forest Technical Academy of Saint Petersburg, 194021 Saint Petersburg, Institutskii per.,
5, Tel. +7921-903-31-49, Fax +7812-550-00-71, E-mail: nadya@lkw-neva.ru, 2 Saint Petersburg
State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, 190005, Saint Petersburg, 2nd
Krasnoarmeiskaya str., 4, Tel. +7 812-575-05-28, Fax +7 812-316-58-72, E-mail:
valerynefedov@yahoo.com
This study focuses on implementation of Contemporary Landscape Design around Office
(Business) Buildings in Saint Petersburg. These buildings were virtually absent in the city during
the Soviet period. The construction of Office Buildings has become particularly active after the
transition to market economy and the number of them in St Petersburg is still increasing despite
the world credit crunch.
Our study of selected Office Buildings (Benua, Nabereznaya, Petrovskyi Fort, Linkor, City
Centre and others) demonstrates that new intensively exploited open public territories are arising
nearby. They include pedestrian zones, roads and open parking spaces, but they almost lack
plants, trees, protected and defined zones for walking, sitting, and meetings. Overall, an
uncomfortable open realm is arising there that does not meet contemporary criteria of the high-
quality public space.
These problems could be solved by an integration of landscape with building. It is possible to
enlarge green areas with help of innovative technology, i.e. greenery could be integrated with
architectural objects and could be included into inner and outer space of buildings. This approach
could improve quality of the open space and urban environment sustainability.
To address this research question we introduce a concept of a Buffer Space of an architectural
object. The Buffer Space is the space that is created by means of Landscape Architecture within
the structure of the building, spreads around it and provides functional and architectural
interactions of the building and the environment.
Our preliminary results indicate that the most relevant methods to introduce greenery into Buffer
Spaces are green roofs, green walls, retaining walls with greenery components and containers
with plants and trees. However, aforementioned methods have not been widely used in St
Petersburg because the technologies and the plants assortment have not been adapted for North-
West Russia.