Ukraina Hotel Entryway

Studio 44 is one of the largest private architectural firms in St. Petersburg and in Russia. The studio’s team consists of over 120 highly qualified specialists in a variety of fields. The company has both the human resources and the capacity to perform the whole cycle
of project stages – from concept planning and preliminary designs to drafting. Studio specialize in designing large public venues and multifunctional centers. The portfolio of "Studio 44" includes such successfully implemented projects as the Ladozhsky Railway Station, Atrium Business Center at Nevsky 25, the Novy Peterhof hotel, the new museum complex of the State Hermitage Museum in the General Staff Building and Olympic Park Railway Station in Sochi.

Architectural concept
two massive propylaea in a slight downward curve (a “rushnik” is an embroidered towel
traditionally used to offer bread and salt to guests welcomed to one’s home in Russia and other Eastern European countries). The propylaea are made from square blocks of cast iron (6 m x 6m). The height of the blocks conforms with the rhythm of the horizontal structure of the hotel entrance level. They rest on cast iron pedestals. One of the propylaea is a structural support, while the other serves as a counterweight. The
counterweight rests on a cylinder hinge made of extra high strength steel. This is the only asymmetrical detail in the otherwise highly symmetrical structure. The stand-alone structure on independent foundations is located away from the existing Hotel Ukraina portico and can thus be interpreted as an avant-portico of sorts. A tectonic structure and imagery strikingly different from the order of the original building helps the avant-portico avoid being either in confrontation with or contraposition to the hotel building. It is neither in contrast to or flirtation with the original building; but rather it is neutral, in “exterritoriality” and autonomy.
The size of the load-bearing pillars, their horizontal rhythm, as well as the distance
between the propylaea aligns the new structure with the monumental scale of the hotel. The area under the canopy becomes a large public space that can be used as an event venue.
The associations of the ‘rushnik’ make the hotel guests think of the bread and salt inside…