Apraksin Dvor, St Petersburg, Russia

Client: Glavstroy

Role: Masterplanning and Architecture

Apraksin Dvor is the re-invigoration of a series of dilapidated historic buildings in St Petersburg - creating a city within a city.

This dilapidated 16 hectares site of historic buildings and markets will be re-invigorated to create a "city" within the city, with 300,000m² of mixed use floor space, including retail and leisure uses, markets, offices, residential and hotels.

The proposals carefully preserve the very best of the historic buildings by adapting them to create exciting but rational floor space which will attract the best retail designer names, hotel operators, office occupiers and residents.

New buildings will be inserted where possible to provide exceptional facilities. These will cleverly respect the retained historic buildings whilst responding to the most recent design trends. New public squares and spaces will be created to enhance the reputation of the area as a special place for leisure, pleasure, living and work.