August Lanin and his plan for the end of the Smolenka River

Vasilevskiy is an island that divides the Neva river delta at the point where the Neva flows out into sea (the Gulf of Finland). The Smolenka is a short river that divides Vasilevskiy Island. (The part to the north of Vasilevskiy Island can be considered as a separate island in its own right with the name Decembrists’ Island)
Yesterday we visited an exhibition of the work of August Lanin, an architect and artist. An especially interesting draughtsman, but also… you get the impression from his work, a deep thinker and a pioneering artist. I especially enjoyed his monumental project for a “postapocalyptic” cultural centre at the point in where the Smolenka flows out into the sea.
a complex of cultural buildings for Vasilevskiy Island

I’m not sure about the date for this late work, but Lanin would have been in his 70s…He was born in 1925. On the official Lanin website this is described as “conceptual design for a Cultural Forum” 2001 . He created not only the architecture but also artworks that would be inside the buildings, and an accompanying light and music show.
Today we decided to go and have a look at the spot in question. The area hasn’t changed much in the last decade, although land has been reclaimed on both sides of the river. On the left side new construction of flats is quite advanced:
on the horizon to the right, new buildings on land reclaimed from the sea
The empty space in the foreground of the above picture corresponds to the square island with Lanin’s main building on it. It’s called Aleksander Volodin Square named after the playwright It’s especially nice to find an island in a river (The Smolenka), which itself runs across an island in a river (The Neva). A garden is in the process of being developed there, with a fountain that looks like it’s designed for children to run into and splash about. The kind with jets coming up out of the ground and smooth giant pebbles around it.

The flats to the right have been there at least ten years. Some of them would have been close to the sea, but I think land is being reclaimed in front of them too. flats next to the Smolenka river The water in the square basin was still covered in ice, in spite of temperatures well above freezing today.