The complex stands on Beresteiskyi Avenue (formerly Peremohy Avenue), one of Kyiv’s main traffic arteries, next to Nyvky metro station. Across the avenue are Nyvky Park, shops and cafés, and schools and kindergartens are within walking distance.
The complex is used mainly by two groups: residents and office workers.
This is America
The concept had to connect with the complex’s name and theme. So when SAGA Development asked us to design the landscape for a complex called San Francisco, we started by asking what the name brings to mind and how it could tie the site together.
American spaces are about freedom and scale. We decided to keep the site minimal and uncluttered, leaving room to roam.
Where the previous proposal had a road, we created a pedestrian zone and a playground for preschoolers. A wide sidewalk and seating areas run between the active building frontages and the planting. Landforms with dense shrub planting separate the area from the parking lot, making it more sheltered and safe. The street becomes a place to linger rather than just pass through.
The courtyard sits on the podium slab and has a complex, tapering shape. Instead of a classic layout with fixed routes, we designed it around ovals rather than lines. They make the most of the site and let residents move freely, however they like; usable space begins the moment they step out of the building. The ovals organize the functions: the larger one holds the playground, the smaller one a lawn, and the space between them is left for socializing.
The playground follows the project’s overall theme: rubber hills in shades of red and orange recall the canyons of the American Southwest. Contemporary play elements invite improvisation and let children choose their own way through.
Lombard Street, the world’s most famous winding street, inspired us to rethink the existing ramp at the entrance to the courtyard.
In 2020, the public space along the avenue was completed.
KOTSIUBA Landscape Architecture
Maksym Kotsiuba, Mariia Andriienko, Marianna Kryvoruchko, Victoria Kachura, Anna Vasylieva, Inna Dobrovolska
Phytopathologist
Sergiy Rohovskyi
Photography
Maria Savoskula
Strategy + design — Other Land
Web development — Perevorot.com
