11-2 To Russia, With Love from Japan —St. Petersburg, “WARM CITY”—

St. Petersburg, Russia—located on the Gulf of Finland at the eastern end of the Baltic Sea—is a city built in a single, sweeping effort through the strong will of Peter the Great (d. 1725), the autocratic monarch who established Russia as a great power.Built in just about 20 years in the early 18th century on wasteland within the sphere of influence of Sweden—then a major power—it served as a “window” to Europe. While Moscow represents traditional Slavic-Russian culture, St. Petersburg represents another facet of Russian culture: European culture.
The historic district, including the Hermitage Museum, and its associated buildings are designated as a World Heritage Site. The short summers, with their beautiful white nights, and the harsh, long winters have nurtured Russian literature—including the works of Dostoevsky—and Russian music, such as that of Tchaikovsky.Located at the mouth of the Neva River delta and crisscrossed by a network of canals, the city of St. Petersburg—affectionately known as “Piter”—is a source of pride for the Russian people.

11-9 The St. Petersburg metropolitan area, facing the Gulf of Finland at the eastern end of the Baltic Sea. The circle indicates the downtown area, which contains a cluster of historic buildings.
The red mark indicates WARM CITY. The red dotted line shows the access route.

How the Framework of “WARM CITY” Came to Be

St. Petersburg has been a stage for Russia’s tumultuous history, serving as the base for the Baltic Fleet and the spark that ignited the Russian Revolution. Today, it is Russia’s second-largest city with a population of 5 million and has become one of the country’s leading international port and industrial cities.
A ring road encircles the city’s bow-shaped area, which wraps around the eastern tip of the Gulf of Finland. At the northern end of this ring road, where it meets the Gulf of Finland, “WARM CITY” is being planned as the new central business district of the St. Petersburg metropolitan area.This area is located approximately 20 km northwest of the city center and is currently a traditional resort district.
This new city, designed to incorporate a diverse range of urban functions, is planned as a long, north-south reclamation project on marshland. It is projected to have a resident population of approximately 50,000 and attract about 30,000 day visitors daily for business and tourism.Furthermore, various cutting-edge urban development techniques have been incorporated throughout the new city to realize the comfort of a new lifestyle and the appeal of a tourist resort.

11-10 The Festival Core, symbolized by the Grand Canal, serves as the heart of “WARM CITY,” a resort-style multifunctional mixed-use city.
During the summer, it can be accessed by speedboat from the Water Plaza near the Hermitage Museum.

Initially, the local planning team—led by developers—was seeking a fundamental vision for “what the framework of this new city should be.” The starting point they established was the urban layout of St. Petersburg, which had taken shape 300 years earlier. Peter the Great harbored a strong admiration for Amsterdam, the “water city” of the Netherlands—then a major economic power—and built the new city of St. Petersburg using a similar design featuring multiple concentric canals and a radial road network. The “WARM CITY” project also pays homage to this history, beginning with a plan featuring multiple canals and radial roads.

11-11 “WARM CITY” Master Plan (North is on the right)
This new resort city, with the Grand Canal as its central axis, is shaped like a bird taking flight toward the Gulf of Finland.

However, after Nikken Sekkei joined the “WARM CITY” project, the plan took a dramatic turn. This was marked by the emergence of the “Grand Canal,” which runs from east to west. The “Grand Canal” clarified the overall vision of the project and accelerated efforts to enhance the city’s appeal. Out of respect for the history of St. Petersburg, the design for the new resort city took on the shape of a bird taking flight toward the Gulf of Finland.

Warm up the freezing Pieter!

One civil engineering method used to reclaim land from the marshlands is the caisson method. Instead of filling the sea with soil and sand, this method involves sequentially sinking and connecting large concrete boxes prefabricated in a factory. Although a large space remains inside the connected boxes underground, Nikken Sekkei proposed using the natural energy from this underground space as a key solution to warm the freezing Pieter.

11-12 The pedestrian network on the basement level features sunken gardens at key locations, with everyday grocery stores and restaurants situated to receive natural light. Above ground, a low-impact urban transit system (LRT) operates, and as shown on the left and right sides of the diagram, parking facilities are also located underground.

Located at 60 degrees north latitude, St. Petersburg is characterized by winters with short daylight hours and severe cold, and summers with very long daylight hours. A system that fulfills the wish, “If only we could use the warmth of summer during the winter…” stores heat generated by solar collectors in the summer in underground water storage tanks until winter, allowing that solar heat to be used during the coldest months. Furthermore, we propose a system known as “geothermal utilization,” which takes advantage of the ground’s stable temperature throughout the year to extract heat from the subsurface—warm in winter and cool in summer. These methods not only save on energy costs but also help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, a major cause of global warming.

11-13 Winter: A Heating System That Uses Geothermal Energy
11-14: A System That Uses Geothermal Energy for Air Conditioning in the Summer

The benefits of the box-type construction method don’t end there. A pedestrian network designed as a comfortable, all-weather underground space that lets in natural light connects to the atria and galleries of individual buildings, shielding people from the bitter winter cold above ground.Furthermore, by utilizing underground space for parking, vehicle breakdowns caused by extreme cold can be prevented, making it possible to create spacious, lush green landscapes on the surface.
Russian culture is epitomized by the arts—literature, music, ballet, fine arts, theater, and architecture—nurtured by the Russian land. Respect for the Russian people, who take pride in their culture, forms the foundation of Nikken Sekkei’s Russian project team.
Meanwhile, Nikken Sekkei’s profile in Russia has been gradually rising. Several projects are underway in Moscow, and urban planning projects are also progressing in Krasnoyarsk, located in central Russia, and in Nizhny Novgorod, 500 km east of Moscow.

11-15 The underground pedestrian network, which is flooded with natural light, connects to the galleries and atriums incorporated into each building. This system is shown in brown in the figure above and in the brown sections of the schematic diagram below.

(References)
Fumio Komachi (2006), *St. Petersburg: The Revived City of Illusions*, Chuko Shinsho
Satoshi Kamata (1996), *St. Petersburg: A City of Chaos and Fantasy*, NHK Publishing