Above-water Multifunctional Biotope Center in the Golden Horn Bay in Vladivostok

Far Eastern Federal university

Project idea

The Golden Horn Bay was distinguished by a comfortable microclimate and a variety of marine and coastal ecosystems. The bay, the natural biofilter and the thermal array of the southern part of the Muravyov-Amursky peninsula played a key role in maintaining the comfort and ecological stability of the territory. During the urban development of the territory, the natural configuration of the bottom and coastal land landscapes of the bay was lost, and even with the complete cleaning of the Golden Horn water area without the restoration of coastal and bottom landscapes, the bay will remain "half-dead", and will not be able to restore its role as a natural biofilter (air and water basin purification) of the city center.

The assessment of the initial stage of urban development of the bay coast shows that the development of the bay shores actively interacted in compositional and functional terms. The mirror of the water area was a connecting element of the opposite shores, and despite the beginning of the formation of an industrial and transport zone, citizens' access to water remained: Maltsevsky market and transportation in the early 1900s, later - a shopping area and a square at the mouth of the river Obyasnenie.

The modern port-transport and industrial zone along the coast completely cut off the development of the city in the eastern part of the bay from its water area. Functional and compositional connections through the bay's water area are broken, and in some projects its water area is perceived as an annoying hindrance, to which it is worth turning your back, like, for example, Kalina Mall.

The project solves two main tasks: - restoration of the compositional and functional connectivity of the northern and southern shores of the bay, - the return of the Golden Horn Bay to the role of a natural biofilter through the reproduction of natural coastal and bottom landscapes by elements of the urban environment.

Project description

In the project, part of the northern and southern shores of the bay is returned to the citizens by forming a multifunctional complex of coastal and surface buildings integrating natural systems - "biotope center", which includes: the biotechnology center of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the museum and exhibition center of technologies for the development of bottom landscapes with permanent and temporary exhibitions, the library of the scientific center with a conference hall and coworking, a multi-level linear park with catering and trade enterprises, complexes of administrative and residential buildings with urban farms, as well as zones of landscaping of land and bottom landscapes, restoring the natural characteristics of the littoral zone of the bay.
The opposite shores of the bay are connected by a drawbridge with bicycle paths and a monorail.

The tower performs the function of bridge supports with a movable section, the northern part includes a system of photobioreactors for cleaning the air and water of the bay. The southern part of the tower reproduces the biotope of the seaside rock: the plants are distributed in vertical tiers characteristic of this biotope. The tower supports submerged in water are made of eco-concrete, which allows coastal bottom organisms to settle there.

Reproducible landscapes:
- in a dense building along the street, a tiered structure of a linear park with vegetation of a coastal forest (biotope coastal forest) has been created,
- a cross-shore heated platform with tiers of vertical landscaping (biotope of the sea cape)
- green roofs with meadow and shrub vegetation – analogues of coastal hills
- coastal shallow waters and lagoons imitating the landscapes of the marine littoral
- a replica of the Papenberg islet of Novik Bay has been reproduced
- the inclined esplanade collects the watercourses of the Kalinin Street terrace and reproduces the vegetation of one of the ravines through which streams flowed into the bay
- the edges of the bridge are formed as places convenient for nesting seabirds, and low-growing shrubs create a bridge over the bay not only for citizens, but also for nesting and migration of passerines

Relying on analogues, previously, the tower's photobioreactor systems are capable of processing more than 1 million tons of water and 125 thousand tons of CO2 and atmospheric smog per year.

Technical information

Buildings overhanging the water, the upper technical floor of which serves as a spatial truss, lies on wide supports - vertical connections with thick monolithic reinforced posts.
A wide promenade along the sea with green areas will be made with paving stones, as well as separate paths made of wooden flooring. In places where there was a vertical pier, tiered descents in the water will be made for marine life to enliven the bay, and a pedestrian transit of concrete with translucent inserts for light penetration into the water will take place above it, which will also have a positive effect on the marine biotope.
Also, vertical elements in concrete water will not be made in the form of a smooth surface, but will have a small relief (eco-concrete) for the possibility of oysters, mussels and other mollusks growing on them.
The tower serves as the supports of the drawbridge section. It has 4 monolithic supports that also hold the floors. The facade is made of selective stained glass with the use of sun protection (rotary blinds).