Lakhta Centre St Petersburg Tower, Gazprom skyscraper building architect, Russian high-rise height news

Lakhta Centre St Petersburg Skyscraper News

Gazprom Headquarters Building in Russia design by RMJM Architects

25 Dec 2018

Lakhta Center (Gazprom Tower) Awarded Prestigious LEED Green Building Certification

The Lakhta Center Tower, the construction of which was completed this year in St. Petersburg, awarded LEED® Platinum certification according to the results of the assessment of the environmental performance criteria. The Lakhta Center Tower scored 82 points, which corresponds to the highest Platinum level.

image courtesy of Lakhta Center

Lakhta Centre LEED Green Building Certification

It should be reminded that at the design and construction stage the complex was pre-certified according to the LEED Gold standard. However, during the project implementation period, a number of parameters were improved, in particular, the indicators of transport accessibility and the quality of the internal environment were improved, the number of bicycle parking lots was increased and additional infrastructure for those coming to work by bikes was worked out; the absence of a negative impact on the environment was proved due to the treatment facilities for surface runoff from the territory; the target level of energy efficiency of buildings was increased, including through the use of cold accumulators. The Lakhta Center Tower scored 10 points out of 10 possible for some credits, such as water efficiency and regional priorities.

Lakhta Center Chief Engineer Sergey Nikiforov: “For us, obtaining an international environmental certificate of the highest status is another confirmation of the fact that the project was implemented in full accordance with the original idea – as the flagship of high technology, environmental friendliness and comfort. It is extremely important for us that the maximum possible indicators be achieved precisely by the quality criteria of the internal environment, in particular, by maximizing the use of natural lighting – more than 75% of workplaces with sufficient daylight”.

“LEED is a transformative tool that ensures a building is designed and operating to achieve high performance in key areas of human and environmental health while enhancing the triple bottom line – people, planet and profit,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, president and CEO, USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council). “By prioritizing sustainability, Lakhta Center is leading the way in their industry and helping USGBC continue toward our vision of a sustainable built environment within a generation.”

Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg

Background information

Lakhta Center is a multifunctional complex in Saint Petersburg which houses the headquarters of Gazprom Group and public spaces that occupy about a third of its area. The construction was completed in October 2018, at the moment finishing and furnishing works in the business and public areas are in progress.

The construction of the complex lasted 6 years, from October 2012 to October 2018. The architectural dominant of Lakhta Center – a 462-meter (1516 ft) skyscraper – has become the Europe’s tallest building. About 600 Russian and foreign companies and more than 20,000 people from 18 countries took part in the project implementation.

Lakhta Center comprises four facilities, with a total floor area of more than 400,000 sq. m:
An 87-storey skyscraper twisted at 90 degrees from foundation to top in accordance with the complex geometry and architecture of the building.

A multifunctional building.

An arch that is a stand-alone building-entrance to the complex.
A stylobate that hides the parking, the warehouses, and the logistics passages.

For the LEED standard, a 100-point rating system has been developed for five main categories: environmental friendliness of the construction site; efficient water consumption; energy and environment; materials and resources; environmental quality in the premises; plus additional points for innovation and design, as well as for regional priority.

Each of the categories reviewed by experts provides its own points system and assesses the degree of the implementation of green construction principles in a relevant area. By the amount of points, a Facility is awarded one of four levels of the certificate: Certified — 40-49 points, Silver — 50-59, Gold — 60-79, and Platinum — 80+ points.

Today, LEED is the foundation for creating healthy, highly efficient, and economical green buildings. This is the most widely used green building rating system in the world: 98,690 projects in 165 countries.

In Russia, only two projects are LEED Platinum certified: Renaissance Business Park in St. Petersburg, 6 Smolyachkova Street (its area is 25,625 sq. m) and the new part of L’Oréal plant (13,700 sq. m) in the territory of Vorsino Industrial Park in the Kaluga Region.

20 Jun 2018

Lakhta Centre St Petersburg Skyscraper Building

Lakhta Centre St Petersburg Tower News

Location: Lakhta, St Petersburg, Northwestern Russia

Europe’s tallest tower

photo : Anton Galakhov

Highest World Cup Tribune ever

Permasteelisa Group completes the façade of the Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe with unique view on the St. Petersburg World Cup stadium and the FIFA World Cup

Vittorio Veneto, June 20th, 2018 – The Lakhta Center in St. Petersburg offers spectacular views on the adjacent Saint Petersburg Stadium, one of the stadiums used during the FIFA World Cup.

With its height of 462 meters, the building is the tallest skyscraper in Europe. In time for the FIFA World Cup, and supported by experienced alpinists, the Permasteelisa Group has completed the installation of all the glass panels of the tower.

The double skin façade has been designed and produced by Josef Gartner GmbH, the German subsidiary of the Permasteelisa Group. The curved façade comprises an overall area of around 14 football pitches – an area exceeding the sum of all football pitches of the Russian Word Cup stadiums.

At a height of more than 300 meters, the latest installed glass panels on the Lakhta Center have been those necessary to close the remaining open parts of the outer building envelope where the tower crane had been fixed. Unlike the other prefabricated façade units, these glass panels had to be pressed onto the curved aluminum frame from the outside. A very complex that required the support of skilled alpinists on the rope. In January, Gartner had already installed the 13 metres high stainless steel tower spire.

image courtesy of architects

The new landmark of St. Petersburg is located ten kilometers from the city center, with an air-line distance of only three kilometers to the new World Cup stadium. It is expected to become the heart of a new City thus providing relief to the historical center. In addition to the Observation Deck, the building complex also offers cafes & restaurants as well as cultural & exhibition facilities. The office tower, with a gross area of 163.000 sqm, will accommodate the headquarters of the Gazprom Group.

Like a needle, the Lakhta Center elegantly spirals up into the sky. Around half-height the tower, which has been designed by the Moscow architects ZAO Gorprojekt, reaches its maximum width and then tapers into a spire-shape. The floor plan of the building resembles a five-pointed star. As the floor slabs are twisted towards each other, the tower winds upwards by 0,89 degrees each floor. Nevertheless, the tower seems to uniformly spiral toward the sky. Such effect can be achieved with cold formed glass façades.

image courtesy of architects

Gazprom Tower in St Petersburg Building Façade

The façade of the Lakhta Center has got a total façade area of 100,000 sqm with unit sizes of 2,8 x 4,2 m that gives the skyscraper a very high degree of transparency. At the lower floor levels, the façade is inclined outwards while the upper levels are inclined inwards. For the cold bent glass panels, the planar glass panes have been cold-bent by 40 millimeters at one corner in the frame yielding a flat twisted glass surface that creates an elegant twist of the façade at each floor level as well as uniform reflections.

At each of the five exterior edges of the building, glazed atria span over two storeys offering naturally ventilated lounge areas with openable wings integrated in the corner units of the tower. This makes Lakhta Center one of the tallest naturally ventilated skyscrapers worldwide. In winter, the atria serve as a heat buffer and, together with other energy-saving technologies the tower has become a Green Building which is pre-certified under LEED Gold (International Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design system).

“The fundamental role of Permasteelisa in this project proves the quality of our innovative and advanced technical solutions, coupled with the ability to turn the ideas of the most visionary architects into reality,” commented the CEO of Permasteelisa Group, Riccardo Mollo. “Our extraordinary capabilities in designing, engineering, manufacturing and installation of state-of-art facades and cladding solutions make our Group the partner of choice for the realization of the most iconic and representative buildings in the world.”

Previously on e-architect:

5 Feb 2018