По-русски

Arch Speaking to the River

Aleksey Ivanov's studio "Arkhstroydesign" developed several large-scale urban planning concepts.

13 March 2014
Object
mainImg
"Ekodolye" Settlement, Orenburg © "Arkhstroydesign ASD"

For "Arkhstroydesign", the past year turned to be a very productive one indeed: the team of architects lead by Aleksey Ivanov got several commissions to develop master plans for large-scale residential areas. And, even though the designed settlements are different in their size, landscape, and geography, the architect sees a lot of common among them. "What is really in demand now is the rational urban planning that gracefully ties in the rigorous economic factors and the urge to create a thought-out environment that is comfortable to live in" - he explains. How these principles were implemented in every specific project, Aleksey Ivanov shared with Archi.ru.

"Ekodolye" Settlement, Samara Region © "Arkhstroydesign ASD"

"Ekodolye" ("Eco-Valley" - translator's note), Samara Region, 329 hectares

- This project has a budget so tight that initially we thought that any "frills" were completely out of the question. We were to forget from the very start about the "liberties" in the form of straggling parks or creating a broad "fork" over the areas of the land sites. Upon carefully studying the peculiarities of this sight, however, and putting a certain spin on them, we were ultimately able to design for the future settlement a rather large number of recreational areas and public territories.

On the plan, the land site has the shape of an almost perfect oval, only its western border is a bit more on the winding side. Diagonally, it is pierced by a ravine with a brook running at its bottom and flowing into the Sok River, while on the outside radius it is skirted by a highway. This was what prompted the planning idea: through the territory of the settlement, we run the arch of the road that is meant to connect the two exits to the highway. This arch crosses the brook in the conditional center of the territory, thus dividing it into four virtually equal segments, which, on the one side, conditioned the construction priorities of the project, and, on the other side, allowed for introducing into the tissue of the settlement a self-sufficient green-and-blue axis that is completely traffic-free - the boulevards running along the landscaped embankments. The main arc of the road predestined the pattern for all the other secondary roads: we do not use here the rigid orthogonal grid, opting for the smooth curves and ovals. The advantages of such a plan are hard to overestimate: within the settlement, the perspectives constantly change, and, in fact, each estate can boast a unique view of its own to the nearest surroundings and the scenery that spreads out there.

What is also important is the fact that such planning concept allowed us to avert almost all of the land sites from the main road - all the houses here face either this or that secondary road, while the main road is isolated from the cottages with green areas - which ensures peace and privacy to the people who will ultimately live here. The architects were also able to gracefully set off different types of housing here: along the highway, they place the public functions and the logistic complexes, after them there are these sectional medium-rise houses, and then there are townhouses and other buildings. The public centers are located at the settlement's every keystone, plus near the densely built spots. The recreational and the social centers, on the other hand, are "scattered" all over the area so as to give its every district a public space of its very own. 

"Ekodolye Sholokhovo" Settlement, Moscow Region © "Arkhstroydesign ASD"

"Ekodolye Sholokhovo" Settlement, Moscow Region, 102 hectares
- This settlement is located but 15 kilometers away from Moscow, down the Dmitrovskoe Highway. Its very name lets one guess that this is the same customer as in the previous case, so it is not surprising that the project is based on similar principles. The master plans even turned out somewhat similar to each other, or at least this is the first impression that they produce, thanks to the arches of the two "in-settlement" roads. They perfectly fit the existing terrain - so the architects did not even have to "come up with" anything new in this case. This place also has a river whose smooth bend we offset with the arc of the main road. In this case, though, they are facing one another, so the central part of the settlement looks like a conditional "fish" when you look at its layout.

The "fish" even has a tail - the site falls into two unequal parts, the smaller of which adjoins the highway and has a diamond shape on the plan. At this spot, we organize the entrance group with all the necessary public and commercial functions, and, on the same territory, we concentrate the entire social infrastructure: the kindergarten, the sports grounds, the school, the community center, and the sectional medium-rise buildings.

And as for the part of the site that adjoins the river, it is predictably given to the individual houses. Here we also broke from tradition a bit, though, placing along the forest edge townhouses instead of villas - this was done to attract the mass buyer. The main arc of the road in this part of the settlement serves as a string on which we "hang" a few circular-layout areas - these are roundabouts, and landmark places that are meant to make each part of the settlement more recognizable. There are also small green squares that will give the settlement a fair share of coziness and privacy. The river, together with its ravines, will also be turned into a recreation area, also serving as the natural zoning element and something that will determine the construction phases.

"Dream" Settlement, Moscow Region © "Arkhstroydesign ASD"

"Mechta" ("Dream") Settlement, Moscow Region, 222 hectares
- This villa community is being built between the Dmitrovskoe and the Leningrad highways, 23 kilometers away from the Moscow Ring Road. One of its features is the fact that it has in it a maximally broad range of housing - you will see here compact and two-level apartments, townhouses and duplexes, as well as villas of various square footages. This was the customer's main requirement who was deliberately going to bring to the market a multi-format product - this is one of our primary objectives was coming up with a master plan that would allow for such "peaceful coexistence".

"Dream" Settlement, Moscow Region © "Arkhstroydesign ASD"

On the plan, the land site has the shape of a complex polygon that has by one "long" side - it is here that it adjoins the highway. The idea of the main "arched axis" that, together with the highway, would look somewhat like an angle protractor was also suggesting itself - but in this case we string upon in separate residential clusters. These are separated by the green zone - a small park that connects the road to the main forest, on the edge of which this settlement is being built. Through this park, we run a boulevard that we make deliberately winding - connecting the various public spaces and centers it offers and unconventional walking route that we thought would be a lot more interesting than just a straightforward "shooting-through" to the woodland. Plus - each cluster gets a public center of its own, together with a pedestrian square and a cultural object. 

Working on this project, I would often recall the words of Francesco Milizia "The plan of the city must be positioned in such a way that the beauty of the whole would be divided into an infinite number of endless beauties, so different that they never once repeat themselves". And I think that we have been able to build, if not a city, then a fairly large settlement in full accordance with these principles. In particular, we paid a lot of attention to designing the residential quarters as such - totally, we developed about a dozen types which ensures the visual variety of "Mechta". 

"Okhotino" Settlement, Tver Region © "Arkhstroydesign ASD"

Okhotino, Yaroslavl Region, 80 hectares
- This settlement is located 145 kilometers away from Moscow, on the bank of the Nerl River, surrounded by the almost-virgin leaves and pine forests. For us, this project became the exposure to a new format of a countryside settlement - because although there are sites of individual residential housing, the residential function as such is far from dominant here. Here, the houses from the start were built for "renting out", so, this is rather a settlement of a recreational type - we were to lay the main stress on the entertainment and sports infrastructure, providing it in as broad range as possible. 

Analyzing the western analogues, we came to a conclusion that the sport resorts as such are not in great demand, really - the people who live in the contemporary megalopolises get so tired of their noise, constant rush, and information flow that they primarily look for the opportunities to relax in the first place. The settlement and its surrounding lend themselves to that, so we paid special attention to designing the pedestrian and equestrian routes, spots for meditation, as well as the objects of rural tourism. The challenge that we had to face was the fact that by the moment that we actually entered into our project, the territory of the future settlement already had in it the wood clearings of the future roads. In fact, we had to deal with the existing road grid, and it was definitely far from perfect. We think that our main achievement in this situation was being able to maximally relieve the bank area - in fact, there is only one recreation zone running along the river, and here I am not speaking about the water protection zone but about a much broader "belt" that turns the rivage into a sanctuary of sorts, a place where you can touch the magnificence of the nature but where you cannot be the absolute master of things. The project was not quite a success because we never were able to get across to our customer the planning subtleties that made the private housing from the resort type. In the latter case, you have to do something closer to Disneyland, and our project turned out to be on the boring side.

"Adagio Houses", Sverdlovsk Region © "Arkhstroydesign ASD"

"Adagio Houses", Sverdlovsk Region, 182 hectares
- Yet another project that we would want to feature today stands apart from the rest. First of all, due to the fact that it belongs on a different price segment: "Adagio Houses" is a premium-class project and it was important to highlight its status when designing it. It is situated in Sverdlovsk Region, on the bank of the Ilinskoe Lake, 30 kilometers away from Yekaterinburg. The first thing that we did was think out and design a highly developed community center that was in effect a whole landscaped block on the lake shore that offered most diverse scenarios of recreational activities, including those of the family type. This block stands a little bit apart from the rest of the settlement, and this has to do with the features of the land site one of "protuberances" of which is fully stretched along the water area. We decided that it would be worth it to reserve this unique place for ALL the people who would ultimately live here - and this is why we concentrated the public functions here. 

"Adagio Houses", Sverdlovsk Region © "Arkhstroydesign ASD"

As for the houses that are from 200 to 330 square meters, they are situated on the main territory of the settlement that has the shape of a rectangle that "reaches out" its broad sleeves towards the shore line. The thing is that, in this part of the bank, there are already a few residential houses, and we are virtually "embracing" this area. The planning of the resulting "sleeves" basically presents no difficulties: each of them gets two lines of houses between which we run a loop of the access driveway. Each one of them indeed ends in a roundabout - which gave us the opportunity to place a few of the sites in the immediate "visual" vicinity of the water. Plus - each of such "neighborhoods" got local public territories of its own; these will later on be marked with a fountain or a sculpture. And, as for the central part of the settlement, it is embraced by the circle of the road, so the estates are placed in a "fan-like" pattern around the landscaped area. The style of the settlement was also chosen by the customer - this is Italy - and we tried to live up to it, drawing inspiration from our favorite samples of Tuscan architecture.

zooming


13 March 2014

Headlines now
New “Flight”
Architects from “Mezonproject” have developed a project for the reconstruction of the regional youth center “Polyot”(“Flight”) in the city of Oryol. The summer youth center, built back in the late 1970s, will now become year-round and acquire many additional functions.
The Yauza Towers
In Moscow, there aren’t that many buildings or projects designed by Nikita Yavein and Studio 44. In this article, we present to you the concept of a large multifunctional complex on the Yauza River, located between two parks, featuring a promenade, a crossroads of two pedestrian streets, a highly developed public space, and an original architectural solution. This solution combines a sophisticated, asymmetric façade grid, reminiscent of a game of fifteen puzzle, and bold protrusions of the upper parts of the buildings, completely masking the technical floors and sculpting the complex’s silhouette.
Architecture and Leisure Park
For the suburban hotel complex, which envisages various formats of leisure, the architectural company T+T Architects proposed several types of accommodation, ranging from the classic “standard” in a common building to a “cave in the hill” and a “house in a tree”. An additional challenge consisted in integrating a few classic-style residences already existing on this territory into the “architectural forest park”.
The U-House
The Jois complex combines height with terraces, bringing the most expensive apartments from penthouses down to the bottom floors. The powerful iconic image of the U-shaped building is the result of the creative search for a new standard of living in high-rise buildings by the architects of “Genpro”.
Black and White
In this article, we specifically discuss the interiors of the ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh. Interior design is a crucial component of the overall concept in this case, and precision and meticulous execution were highly important for the architects. Julia Tryaskina, head of UNK interiors, shares some of the developments.
The “Snake” Mountain
The competition project for the seaside resort complex “Serpentine” combines several typologies: apartments of different classes, villas, and hotel rooms. For each of these typologies, the KPLN architects employ one of the images that are drawn from the natural environment – a serpentine road, a mountain stream, and rolling waves.
Opal from Anna Mons’ Ring
The project of a small business center located near Tupolev Plaza and Radio Street proclaims the necessity of modern architecture in a specific area of Moscow commonly known as “Nemetskaya Sloboda” or “German settlement”. It substantiates its thesis with the thoroughness of details, a multitude of proposed and rejected form variants, and even a detailed description of the surrounding area. The project is interesting indeed, and it is even more interesting to see what will come of it.
Feed ’Em All
A “House of Russian Cuisine” was designed and built by KROST Group at VDNKh for the “Rossiya” exhibition in record-breaking time. The pavilion is masterfully constructed in terms of the standards of modern public catering industry multiplied by the bustling cultural program of the exhibition, and it interprets the stylistically diverse character of VDNKh just as successfully. At the same time, much of its interior design can be traced back to the prototypes of the 1960s – so much so that even scenes from iconic Soviet movies of those years persistently come to mind.
The Ensemble at the Mosque
OSA prepared a master plan for a district in the southern part of Derbent. The main task of the master plan is to initiate the formation of a modern comfortable environment in this city. The organization of residential areas is subordinated to the city’s spiritual center: depending on the location relative to the cathedral mosque, the houses are distinguished by façade and plastique solutions. The program also includes a “hospitality center”, administrative buildings, an educational cluster, and even an air bridge.
Pargolovo Protestantism
A Protestant church is being built in St. Petersburg by the project of SLOI architects. One of the main features of the building is a wooden roof with 25-meter spans, which, among other things, forms the interior of the prayer hall. Also, there are other interesting details – we are telling you more about them.
The Shape of the Inconceivable
The ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh brings to mind a famous maxim of all architects and critics: “You’ve come up with it? Now build it!” You rarely see such a selfless immersion in implementation of the project, and the formidable structural and engineering tasks set by UNK architects to themselves are presented here as an integral and important part of the architectural idea. The challenge matches the obliging status of the place – after all, it is an “exhibition of achievements”, and the pavilion is dedicated to the nuclear energy industry. Let’s take a closer look: from the outside, from the inside, and from the underside too.
​Rays of the Desert
A school for 1750 students is going to be built in Dubai, designed by IND Architects. The architects took into account the local specifics, and proposed a radial layout and spaces, in which the children will be comfortable throughout the day.
The Dairy Theme
The concept of an office of a cheese-making company, designed for the enclosed area of a dairy factory, at least partially refers to industrial architecture. Perhaps that is why this concept is very simple, which seems the appropriate thing to do here. The building is enlivened by literally a couple of “master strokes”: the turning of the corner accentuates the entrance, and the shade of glass responds to the theme of “milk rivers” from Russian fairy tales.
The Road to the Temple
Under a grant from the Small Towns Competition, the main street and temple area of the village of Nikolo-Berezovka near Neftekamsk has been improved. A consortium of APRELarchitects and Novaya Zemlya is turning the village into an open-air museum and integrating ruined buildings into public life.
​Towers Leaning Towards the Sun
The three towers of the residential complex “Novodanilovskaya 8” are new and the tallest neighbors of the Danilovsky Manufactory, “Fort”, and “Plaza”, complementing a whole cluster of modern buildings designed by renowned masters. At the same time, the towers are unique for this setting – they are residential, they are the tallest ones here, and they are located on a challenging site. In this article, we explore how architects Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova tackled this far-from-trivial task.
In the spirit of ROSTA posters
The new Rostselmash tractor factory, conceptualized by ASADOV Architects, is currently being completed in Rostov-on-Don. References to the Soviet architecture of the 1920’s and 1960’s resonate with the mission and strategic importance of the enterprise, and are also in line with the client’s wish: to pay homage to Rostov’s constructivism.
The Northern Thebaid
The central part of Ferapontovo village, adjacent to the famous monastery with frescoes by Dionisy, has been improved according to the project by APRELarchitects. Now the place offers basic services for tourists, as well as a place for the villagers’ leisure.
Brilliant Production
The architects from London-based MOST Architecture have designed the space for the high-tech production of Charge Cars, a high-performance production facility for high-speed electric cars that are assembled in the shell of legendary Ford Mustangs. The founders of both the company and the car assembly startup are Russians who were educated in their home country.
Three-Part Task: St. Petersburg’s Mytny Dvor
The so-called “Mytny Dvor” area lying just behind Moscow Railway Station – the market rows with a complex history – will be transformed into a premium residential complex by Studio 44. The project consists of three parts: the restoration of historical buildings, the reconstruction of the lost part of the historical contour, and new houses. All of them are harmonized with each other and with the city; axes and “beams of light” were found, cozy corners and scenic viewpoints were carefully thought out. We had a chat with the authors of the historical buildings’ restoration project, and we are telling you about all the different tasks that have been solved here.
The Color of the City, or Reflections on the Slope of an Urban Settlement
In 2022, Ostozhenka Architects won a competition, and in 2023, they developed and received all the necessary approvals for a master plan for the development of Chernigovskaya Street for the developer GloraX. The project takes into account a 10-year history of previous developments; it was done in collaboration with architects from Nizhny Novgorod, and it continues to evolve now. We carefully examined it, talked to everyone, and learned a lot of interesting things.
A Single-Industry Town
Kola MMC and Nornickel are building a residential neighborhood in Monchegorsk for their future employees. It is based on a project by an international team that won the 2021 competition. The project offers a number of solutions meant to combat the main “demons” of any northern city: wind, grayness and boredom.
A New Age Portico
At the beginning of the year, Novosibirsk Tolmachevo Airport opened Terminal C. The large-scale and transparent entrance hall with luminous columns inside successfully combines laconism with a bright and photogenic WOW-effect. The terminal is both the new façade of the whole complex and the starting point of the planned reconstruction, upon completion of which Tolmachevo will become the largest regional airport in Russia. In this article, we are examining the building in the context of modernist prototypes of both Novosibirsk and Leningrad: like puzzle pieces, they come together to form their individual history, not devoid of curious nuances and details.
A New Starting Point
We’ve been wanting to examine the RuArts Foundation space, designed by ATRIUM for quite a long time, and we finally got round to it. This building looks appropriate and impressive; it amazingly combines tradition – represented in our case by galleries – and innovation. In this article, we delve into details and study the building’s historical background as well.
Molding Perspectives
Stepan Liphart introduces “schematic Art Deco” on the outskirts of Kazan – his houses are executed in green color, with a glassy “iced” finish on the facades. The main merits of the project lie in his meticulous arrangement of viewing angles – the architect is striving to create in a challenging environment the embryo of a city not only in terms of pedestrian accessibility but also in a sculptural sense. He works with silhouettes, proposing intriguing triangular terraces. The entire project is structured like a crystal, following two grids, orthogonal and diagonal. In this article, we are examining what worked, and what eventually didn’t.
An Educational Experiment for the North
City-Arch continues to work on the projects that can be termed as “experimental public preschools”: private kindergartens and schools can envy such facilities in many respects. This time around, the project is done for the city of Gubkinsky, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. A diverse educational and play environment, including a winter garden, awaits future students, while the teachers will have abundant opportunities to implement new practices.
Alexandra Kuzmina: “Working is easy when the rules are the same for everyone”
The subject matter of Moscow Region’s booth and presentations at Zodchestvo Festival was the concept of “Integrated Land Development”, and for a good reason: this task is very challenging, very relevant, and Moscow Region has already accumulated quite a formidable experience in this regard. In this article, we are speaking to the main architect of the region: about master plans and who makes them, about where you obtain resources for creating a comfortable environment, about her favorite projects, about why there are so few good architects, and what we should do with the bad ones.
The Cemetery: Inside and Outside
The workshop organized by the Genplan Institute of Moscow scored one of the two first places at the “Open City” festival. Its subject is reorganization of municipal cemeteries. Two action plans were proposed, diametrically opposite: one for the downtown and one for the suburbs.
Our Everything
Who is Alexey Shchusev? In the last couple of weeks, since the architect’s 150th birthday, different individuals have answered this question differently. The most detailed, illustrated, and elegantly presented response is an exhibition held in two buildings of the Museum of Architecture on Vozdvizhenka. Four curators, a year and a half of work performed by the entire museum, and exhibition design by Sergey Tchoban and Alexandra Sheiner – in this article, we take you on a tour of the exhibition and show what’s what in it.
For Mental Reboot
At the architectural competition held in 2023 in Novosibirsk, the project by GORA Architects – a pedestrian bridge leading to the town of Bor – was awarded the “Golden Capital” prize. In this country, more than a hundred pedestrian bridges are constructed each year. What makes the Bor bridge different?
Gold Embroidery
A five-story housing complex designed by Stepan Liphart in Kazan, responds to the stylistically diverse context with its form, both integral and agile, and as for the vicinity of the “Ekiyat” movie theater, the complex responds to it with a semblance of theater curtain folds, and active plastique of its balconies, that bear some resemblance to theater boxes. Even if excessively pompous a little bit, the complex does look fresh and modern. One will have a hard time finding Art Deco elements in it, even though the spirit of the 1930s, run through the filter of neo-modernism, is still clearly felt, just as a twist of the Occident.