KRESHCHATIK (UKRAINE)

Location: Kiev
Architect: A. Vlasov, A. Dobrovolskii, B. Prigman, A. Zavarov and others
Construction: 1947-1954


Kreshchatik is the main and on of the most ancient streets of Kiev, a city almost completely razed during World War II. The supremacy of Kreshchatik Street is not only derived from its poly-functionality (it is a business, cultural, shopping center of the city and at the sam tim links the central regions with a park near the Dnieper river), but also comes from the features of the historical layout of Kiev. The city existed without a predominanting central square and the sematic and artistic functions of the city center wer assumed by kreshchatik. A challenge for the architects--to open the space of adjoining hills ( the street lies on the bottom of a ravine and it was inadmissible to close from the view the surrounding picturesque green heights with a blind front of buildings, as it had been before the World War II) and at the same time to follows the predominanting direction and unity of the street, so as to create an amorphous space sensation.

The reconciliation of these two seemingly alternative requirements was made by the architects in an unusual planning mod through th difference in spatial solutions of the even and odd sides of street. The even sid--its role is dominating--has a compact frontal disposition of buildings. On the uneven side, along which a broad boulevard lasts, the buildings are separated with a considerable distance. Throungh the gaps betwwen them the greenery from the nearby hills is descending like streams running to river.

The composition solution of the buildings on the uneven sid reminds one in many respects of an enormous theatrical decoration, where in the "wing" of greens a building emerges from which the stairs, supprting walls and ramps run down to the sides and hid themselves in the surrounding greenery. In Kreshchatik this "theatrical" principale has brought very rich spatial planning effects.