The suburban campus of the Higher School of Management is located in Mikhailovskaya Dacha, the country residence of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, son of Emperor Nicholas I. The main academic building accommodating 1400 students occupies the former stables (1861, architect Harold Bosse). The stables originally were a utilitarian building without valuable decorative details. However, the building has a unique layout structure and composition. The authors of the project strived to find a naturally harmonious way to project modern education technology onto the historic structure, to reconstruct the axial hierarchy and the logic behind the connections within the building. The main U-shaped courtyard was spared from new construction and left empty: the conference auditorium, which was originally planned there, was moved outside of the historic building and into an ellipsoid volume on the former racetrack. A low dome covers an auditorium seating 450, with an amphitheater going 3.0 m down. Therefore, the central courtyard—an equivalent of a university cloister—retained its role of the school’s main public space. The open cloister gradually leads to the covered Forum space in the former carriage wing. Together, they form a system of spaces hosting the process of communication and social networking, which are immensely significant for a business school.

The cafeteria and club building—the heart of the social life on campus—lies on the crossroads of the five main routes. This determines the shape of the building and the fact that there are five equally significant entryways. From the lower level, where the dining rooms are, it is possible to go up to the club living-room terraces that spiral around the auditorium, the core of the building, intended for meetings, concerts, etc. This structure gives the space a centripetal dynamic, bringing people closer and closer together. The roof of the building is also governed by the spiral motif, its height gradually increasing towards the centre.

Another important part of the complex is the halls of residence for undergraduate students. Nine similar structures form two groups of buildings set in a chessboard-like arrangement along the axis of the church of St. Olga. As a result, a number of courtyard spaces for socializing and entertainment emerge. This arrangement also allows visual access to the park and the Gulf of Finland.

The buildings taper at ground level, thus forming galleries that link the courtyards and make the halls of residence complex fully penetrable, both physically and visually. The three-storeyed buildings are crowned with translucent structures that provide light for the core space of the buildings: lobbies on the ground floor and group study rooms between the first and second floors. Around the central core, there are four-bedroom blocks for four students each. The tongue and groove plank façades emphasize the eco-friendliness of the project. This kind of finish is perfect for integrating new buildings into a natural landscape and historic small-town neighbourhoods.

Though inheriting the historical principle of regular layout, contemporary architecture does not tend to replicate or act as an interpretation of the historical ensemble. Rather – it tends to distance itself from it as if paying reverence to the heritage of the past and accentuating its contemporary status. With their inclined walls and the extensive use of glass and timber, the new structures seem to easily assimilate with the surrounding landscape, at the same time retaining their reminiscence of some historical ‘park pavilions’. Each element of the new construction is highly distinctive and emblematic in shape, yet the entire complex functions as a seamless ensemble.