Huge Skyscraper Contest Held In St Petersburg

Russian oil and gas company Gazprom has plans to crown its position as one of the country's biggest multi-nationals with an ambitious but controversial competition to build a new headquarters in St Petersburg.

The scheme features entries from six of the leading architecture firms in the world - Studio Daniel Libeskind, Herzog & De Meuron, RMJM, Rem Koolhaas's Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Jean Nouvel and Fuksas Associates.

First up is a curving glass Libeskind design. This highly sculptural idea is built around the concept of St Petersburg being the entrance to Russia working on two levels as Libeskind has also conceived the scheme as an archway that symbolises this with Gazprom being the main gateway from West to East.

Herzog and De Meuron have come up with a typically organic design made distinctive by its spiralling design, rather like an underwater plant. The height of the design has been decided by looking at the horizontal depth and width of more historical buildings in St Petersburg that the architects hope will help set it more in context.

RMJM have planned a spiralling point akin to an ornate spear-head with their entry that expresses motion and the dynamics of movement. The tower is built up with a series of layers of reflecting glass that will use the changing of skies of St Petersburg to build up a varied palette that colours the building.

The OMA design is as usual a play on a series of blocks, a united module of blocks that form a distinct whole. Applied sequentially, the architect hopes this will create a convincing urban structure that fits in well with the old centre of the city.

Jean Nouvel has planned what is arguably the most complicated for of all the proposals that if anything combines the blocky form of the OMA idea with the more elegant spires of other architects. There are few vertical elements to it apart from three spires with the main bulk along the riverfront being more horizontal, this perhaps suggests the ancient sea going vessels of the Neva with their triple masts. As usual Nouvel plays heavily with light with the cladding meaning the building should be transparent in the morning light and reflective in the evening.

The Fuksas Associates plans are the most simple, a couple of gently twisting towers symbolising vortexes and an environmentally friendly image, something that may well appeal to a fuel company having to content with growing environmentalism. The architect bearing this in mind has drawn the massing and façade treatment to create a soft and gentle image that is only monumental because of its height.

Despite the wide variety of entries on offer the competition has hit heavy flak from some quarters. St Petersburg is a largely historical city that was massively rebuilt in its original form after World War 2. Naturally sticking a skyscraper between 300 and 320 metres tall as these designs all intend, completely changes a city that has nothing coming close to this.

This is even more the case when you take into account the prominent riverside site that Gazprom have chosen for their new headquarters - it is not tucked away like La Defense in Paris but slap bang next to an untouched UNESCO World Heritage Site.

They may be Russia's biggest company but no matter what design they choose, no matter how amazing it is, they will face an uphill struggle from the planning authorities and heritage bodies mindful of a city that many Russians compare to Venice to build a new super-tall skyscraper.