Sergei Tchoban: biography, photos and main buildings

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

The creator of the project of the famous Moscow skyscraper and the tallest building in Europe - the Federation Tower - architect Sergei Tchoban was educated at the Repin Leningrad Academic Institute. This university, now called the academy, has always been famous for its talented graduates. Sergei Tchoban successfully combines work in Russia and Germany, heading his own bureaus.

Here and there

The architect was already famous for his first works due to the originality of the art forms used and the exceptionally well-designed details of very unusual facades. Sergey Tchoban knew how to present even the simplest rectangular buildings like a real artist.

• DomAquaree in Berlin is a reconstruction of a historical building in the city center, the name of this renovated building was received because of the sixteen-meter height of the aquarium, the eleven-meter diameter of which includes a panoramic elevator.
• The Benois House in St. Petersburg is a business center building with panoramic glazing, the facade is decorated with amazing ornaments made up of motifs taken from the sketches of Benois, who lived nearby. Behindthis work Sergei Tchoban was awarded the "House of the Year" award - this is how the people of St. Petersburg voted.

The work of this architect was loved both abroad and at home, because not only aesthetic needs were satisfied, but all problems of ease of use were also solved.

Expensive pleasure

• Cubix in Berlin is the largest cinema in the city (about two and a half thousand seats). This building is made in the form of a black cube, the facade is lined with granite of a rare color, there is a lot of glazing. Grateful spectators willingly visit all the halls located one above the other and look from the foyer of Alexanderplatz.
• Residential complex in Granatny Lane in Moscow. Sergei Tchoban, whose photographs invariably evoke delight, not to mention direct acquaintance with the work of the famous architect, initially designed an oval building. But the Moscow authorities insisted on a rectangular shape. Then Tchoban Sergei Enverovich came up with a way by which the building nevertheless stood out sharply among the absolutely non-standard environment. The building has not become cheaper, on the contrary, it is the most expensive facade in Moscow: the limestone slabs with which it is lined were mined in Germany, and artistic carvings were made in China. The work and material itself is not cheap, plus such travel.

These are not the only works of the master, which cost the customers fabulous sums. However, they were ready to sign any bills for the ownership of buildings, which will amaze both onlookers and professionals for many years, since thistruly talented, original and artistically grounded.

Best

Brilliant find - Langenzippen, a business center on Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt, St. Petersburg. The sixties of the last century left the metal frame of the factory unfinished. Sergei Tchoban, an architect with rich imagination, built a glass facade and decorated it with photographs of Rome, which from afar look like whimsically executed stucco. The façade alone cost two million euros - more than a fifth of the total budget for this project.

And, of course, the pinnacle of our admiration: the "Federation" complex in Moscow City - two famous sails with a mast-spire. Already the first tower - "West" (the one that is smaller) - became the winner of the FIABCI competition in 2009. Sergey Tchoban, an architect whose projects almost always won competitions, was never offended by awards.

Early work

Arriving in Germany at the beginning of perestroika, still a little-known specialist, Choban already in 1995 headed the Berlin architectural bureau. Moreover, his name was included in the name of the company: NPS Tchoban Voss. In addition to the Kubiks cinema and the DomAkvare complex, he designed such magnificent buildings as the Arndt Gallery, the synagogue (Munstersche Strasse), as well as many equally interesting buildings both in Berlin and in other German cities.

In 2003 Sergei Tchoban resumed projects in Russia. ATIn 2009, the Tchoban Foundation Museum for Architectural Drawing was organized, where the field of architectural drawing is considered. And a year earlier, one of the most important offspring of the master's social work was created - an architectural magazine was established, which was invented by Sergey Kuznetsov and Sergey Tchoban. Speech operates as a body of the association of the same name, formed as a result of the merger of two bureaus: "Choban and Partners" and "S. P. Project".

Milestones

Almost constantly he curates the Russian pavilions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, where his projects also receive awards. Since 2011, he has been a member of the City Planning Council (Skolkovo Foundation), and since 2013, he has been a member of the Moscow Architectural Council for Urban Planning and Architecture. Sergei Tchoban, whose biography at the very beginning is not much different from the prevailing situations in the work of all his fellow students, purposefully strove for the heights of the architectural craft.

He was born in Leningrad in 1962, he studied first at the art school at the Academy of Arts of the USSR, after which he entered the architectural faculty at the Repin Institute. From 1986 to 1992 - an ordinary architect Choban Sergey, whose work is known to a very narrow circle of specialists. Further - the beginning of work in the architectural bureau NPS (Nietz, Prasch, Sigl - by the names of the owners) in Hamburg. In three years, he managed to grow to a managing partner and head the Berlin office of this institution. In 2003, the Moscow architectural firm "Choban and Partners" was opened. It often happens that the way todemand at home runs through recognition abroad.

"Federation", "Neva City Hall" and more

In the 90s of the last century, building in Russia became not only an honor, but also extremely profitable - this business became a multi-billion dollar one. It was then that Sergei Tchoban, who had already received awards and a name, returned to the country and converted all his European fame into a stream of fees. Orders do not bypass him: he designed the "Federation" for Mirax Group, and in St. Petersburg he has two such projects, equal in area to the whole district, not even a small one.

These are "Neva City Hall" and "Embankment of Europe" - two projects for developers "VTB" in a city that is very careful about its own historical environment. Choban almost knows no failures - stopped projects or unwinnable competitions. And with a smile, she recalls the first years of the architectural chores, from which the School of Children's Art in St. Petersburg and the memorable interiors in the Moscow Fashion House turned out. It was much more boring in the 1990s to learn German and German building laws.

Germany

NPS is a design firm engaged in the design of hotels, business centers, shopping malls, theaters. Choban was lucky: the projects there went one after another, as a conveyor. Several of them became a turning point in his life: with the light hand of the St. Petersburg architect, the appearance of even the famous Alexanderplatz has noticeably changed. Choban reconstructed the shopping center,built in 1929 in the style of constructivism, and next to it built a nine-hall cinema cube. By the way, this is the first and only absolutely new building built in the square ensemble since the reunification of the GDR and the FRG.

And then the moment came when the founders of the bureau gave way to the pedestal of the younger generation. Nietz, Prasch and Sigl began to be called modestly - NPS, and the names of two peers were added to this abbreviation - Thoban and Voss (Eckerhard Voss is just as young and no less talented). By the early 2000s, they had erected several dozen beautiful buildings. However, one day an unexpected event allowed the new project to override all previous works with grandiosity.

Competition

In 2002, the eccentric developer S. Polonsky was looking for an architect for a three-hundred-meter skyscraper in Moscow City. All work on this square was carried out by employees of the Mosproekt-2 creative workshop, but Polonsky had no intention of solving his problem so simply. The head of Mosproject, A. Asadov, after the developer refused his services, wrote Choban's phone number on a piece of paper, whom he knew from the Berlin exhibition of projects. Thus, Choban turned out to be the only Russian among the participants in the competition for the design of the Federation Tower.

The silhouette of this giant was invented quickly - right on the plane. But in order to increase the chances of winning, Sergei invited P. Schweger to cooperate, who was already a real dock in the construction of skyscrapers. The project defeated them, Polonsky was satisfied, and the Moscow authorities also willingly made a choice infavor of the only Russian, albeit German firm, architect. After this large order in the homeland of Choban, real fame overtook. The project was subjected to powerful PR, and in a few months the contours of the not yet built Federation Tower were already familiar to the widest sections of the Russian population.

Monuments of the era

"Neva City Hall" - a huge business complex, which consists of the building of the city administration and office buildings, in the project - not far from Smolny. And that means a lot. The norms of the town-planning constitution of St. Petersburg prohibit the construction of buildings higher than forty-two meters. The best designer was determined by a competition, during which all participants complied with this height regulation.

Except Choban, whose building with a transparent dome is much higher - fifty-five meters. And this project was accepted. Because the administration building should rise above the rest, but in the project this height does not look like a dominant. It's like a little splash. The project was not only accepted, but as a result of this choice, a special meeting of the town planning council was held, where other building rules were adopted, and the allowable height increased to fifty-five meters - exactly the required value.

"Were all monuments created in the eighteenth century?" - as if the architect asks. And then he claims: "Monuments must be created by each era with their own hands!"

Money

Sergey Tchoban, whose awardsbrought more than a dozen various competitions and awards, "worth", of course, expensive. It is about him that the Russian and German press in the field of architecture write very favorably, and he himself publishes a magazine that is highly appreciated by his colleagues. Customers are also not upset by Choban's high fees, since he does not build for the average consumer. Of course, Zaha Hadid or Norman Foster would have demanded not so much. However, prominent Moscow architects are paid several times less than Tchoban.

Projects of "Federation" or "Neva City Hall" can cost from twenty to thirty million dollars, but specialists are also paid from here: designers of all engineering systems, designers and so on. A business in turnover "weighs" about seven million euros a year, and personal income (before taxes) can be in the hundreds of thousands. But Choban and his team are engaged not only in the design of public buildings, from time to time they do not disdain the construction of mansions - without any tenders and with a clearly defined fee. However, infrequently.

Crisis

The construction industry has been hit hard by the economic crisis of recent years. Along with this market, design bureaus also suffered losses, even many of the well-known ones. In Moscow, Erick van Egerat and Norman Foster curtailed their projects: customers began to have financial difficulties. Moscow architects are also closing their offices or reducing the number of employees quite significantly.

And Choban cutfifteen percent of employees in offices located in Russia. However, the work has not stopped: an office center is being built on Ozerkovskaya embankment (Moscow), a club house in Granatny Lane (the same place), office buildings of Novatek have been designed. Because the architect does not live in the beautiful past and not in the distant future, but in the present day. And he doesn't really like to have his head in the clouds.