214 000 square metres of floor space, 74 hectares of land, 14 kilometres of roads, 327 kilometres of pipes, 836 apartments, 887 houses, one school, 4 nurseries, one church… Construction of Sputnik City, a gigantic site northwest of Kiev, should begin in 2008 and be completed three years later. In command: Groupe H. In August 2006, the Geneva architectural firm was chosen by a Ukrainian bank, Arcada, to build the new urban complex. It was a godsend for the Swiss company. In the wake of the contract, Groupe H recruited 10 architects and 25 engineers. Hervé Dessimoz, himself an architect and the company’s CEO, is delighted: «It’s very simple, this order doubled our turnover.
We went from 2.8 million francs in 2006, to 5.6 million in 2007.” Project leader Arcada can also be happy.
«During the call for tenders, we were in competition with two other companies, one Ukrainian, the other American.” Astonishingly, the Swiss offer was the lowest. “We’re less expensive, because we’re more productive. It’s a matter of culture and competence.” Nevertheless, Dessimoz believes lower cost is not the only reason the Ukrainian investors were pleased. “More important than the price, our technological and environmental approach played in our favour. Our offer guaranteed made-in-Switzerland quality and proposed a sustainable development concept that the others didn’t have.” Groupe H’s plans seek to preserve the natural site. “The project of our American competitors was what I would call “bulldozer construction”: raze everything and build a standard city on the rubble.
On our side, we wanted to preserve a site that we found really beautiful.” The result: 84% of the existing forest will be preserved and 1,8 hectares of parks and trees will be added, creating a 25- hectare green belt around the city. These areas will be brightened up with various water ponds and restored natural canals, which will also serve to manage rainfall and irrigation of public and private gardens.
“As for the aesthetics of house design, Ukrainian tastes in the matter were equally taken into consideration.” However, this will not be the case for a 17-floor tower. On synthetic images, it displays the classical design of western European buildings.
Sputnik City’s energy consumption has been closely studied with a view to sustainable development. The energy supply should be assured by a mixed thermal power station, one that is fed by both gas and geothermal heat pumps. “This proposal is still under discussion with our clients because of the additional initial cost it imposes. But we have high hopes that we will be able to convince them. The higher the oil price, the more this process is profitable in comparison with a classical power station.
In addition, in case gas supplies were cut off, a temperature of at least 12°C would be guaranteed in all the buildings.” That should score a bull’s-eye in Ukraine. Since Gazprom shut off the country’s gas tap in 2006 because of a commercial dispute with Kiev, the Ukrainians have been studying very carefully everything that would give them more independence from their Russian neighbour in the area of energy supplies.
In order to limit their energy consumption even more, all buildings in Sputnik City will meet current Minergy standard criteria.
This quality label guarantees the use and recuperation of available calories, thanks to a very successful thermal isolation.
Widespread in Switzerland (and totally absent in Ukraine), it reduces energy needs in buildings. “In terms of quality and environment, we will in this way reproduce a Swiss city in Ukraine. No Ukrainian engineer would be capable of doing as much today. However, we are very successful in these areas.” The Swiss architects thus have an important card to play in these former soviet Republics, where market opportunities are potentially enormous. In Ukraine, Sputnik City represents only 5% of Arcada’s projects over the next five years, and all the Republics in Europe’s Far East are in need of reconstruction: “We are targeting these countries in particular because they are all 30 to 40 years late in building-technology, and also because, unlike China, the don’t present a culture completely different from ours.” Groupe H began its involvement in the East in 2003, when it won a contract for a shopping centre in Moscow. “We have also just completed a job for a hypermarket in Saint-Petersburg.” In order to increase its presence on these buoyant markets, the company has hired architects who speak Russian and Ukrainian. In addition, as of 2008, Dessimoz plans to open agencies in Kiev and in Moscow: “If you want to be respected in a country, you cannot come only for a contract and then leave with the money.
Opening offices there shows everyone that we wish to be permanently involved.” Other ambitious projects for countries formerly part of the old USSR are already on the drafting boards. In Kazakhstan for example, the firm is working on plans for two towers in the new capital city of Astana. “This city’s population should go from 400,000 to 1, 200,000 inhabitants over the next few years.
Currently, the Kazakh market is in the hands of Turkish companies that are building without a longterm, sustainable approach. I find that’s a pity. We do our best to remind people that preserving the environment is primordial.
We also insist on the long-term savings this can mean, for example in cutting energy-related costs. But it is hard to explain that: for these countries, the environment is the least of their concerns.”
