NEST WIND SHELTER

A temporary quickly erectable installation
Vasilyevsky Island hydraulic fill, St. Petersburg, Russia

28.10.2018

first - infrastructure, then act

A temporary quickly erectable installation on the beach of Vasilyevsky Island hydraulic fill in St. Petersburg was built to protect visitors of the event Russian BBQ from wind. Russian BBQ served as one of the points of a tour around the territory of redevelopment of the waterline and post-industrial territories of the cities of the Hanseatic League—part of the program of Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) College of Architecture and HafenCity University Hamburg (HCU).

15 students from Chicago, 10 young architects from design::unit (St. Petersburg), professor Martin Klaeschen, Daniyar Yusupov, Arsene Konnov, WaterFront Project team.

The idea of Russian BBQ was to attract attention to a new waterline in St. Petersburg and to show the local tradition of having barbeque at the seaside. The event took place in the light of the Western High-Speed Diameter, with a view to the sea, the Saint Petersburg Flood Prevention Facility Complex and Lakhta Center, despite weather conditions.

Within forty minutes, 30 participants of the event built a semi-circular shield NestWindShelter out of three-meter beams and polypropylene. The constructions, together with space blankets, heated up the group enough to make it possible for them to stay at sight for more than five hours. After the event, the construction was left on the beach to be used by other visitors.

This project shows that in modern Russia people often have to create infrastructure by themselves if they intend to perform activities outside, within the urban environment.