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Hide and Seek

The ID Moskovskiy house, designed by Stepan Liphart in St. Petersburg, in the courtyards near Moskovskiy Avenue beyond the Obvodny Canal and recently completed, is notable for several reasons. Firstly, it has been realized with considerable accuracy, which is particularly significant as this is the first building where the architect was responsible not only for the facades but also for the layouts, allowing for better integration between the two. On the other hand, this building is interesting as an example of the “germination” of new architecture in the city: it draws on the best examples from the neighborhood and becomes an improved and developed sum of ideas found by the architect in the surrounding context.

25 July 2024
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We have already shared about the ID Moskovskiy project, designed in 2020: two residential buildings with a kindergarten and commercial premises on the ground floors are located in a spacious courtyard on Moskovskiy Avenue, close to the “gray belt”, yet beyond the Obvodny Canal. There is currently intensive construction in this area, with the part of former industrial zones closest to the center being actively developed, and Moskovskiy is one of the most intimate and delicate participants in this renewal process. It is built on the site of the former Research Institute of High-Frequency Currents; its name comes from the avenue, and the ID prefix from the developer Euroinvest Development.

Moreover, according to Stepan Liphart, the project marks a certain milestone in his work: firstly, it represents “classic” Art Deco, albeit in a restrained version. Secondly, previously, the architect had managed to work primarily on facades in large residential buildings, but here he was also responsible for the layouts – which is undoubtedly the right approach and should always be the case, though it is not always so. Consequently, the connection between the internal structure of the house and its external appearance is closer and more justified here.

The apartments and their amenities, such as terraces and living rooms with bay windows or triple windows reminiscent of the early 20th century, shape the façade solutions: the two houses grow “from the inside out”. However, these houses remain within the framework of a “slender” classical typology and composition (not without elements of St. Petersburg “palatial” style) – without excluding references to the surrounding tenement houses, in which the triangular bay windows play a significant role. These bay windows provide bright spaces inside, while, on the outside, they create a faceted, rich plasticity, emphasized by the cornice bands, whose considerable overhang allows them to fully contribute to the construction of the façade, both in terms of proportions and rhythm.

Here’s how the apartments change – let’s look at the side “courtyard” façade of the extended part, Section 2 of the larger building: four floors have bay windows, the next, the sixth floor, has a faceted “classic” open balcony, then there are French balconies on the seventh floor, which you can step onto with one foot, and finally, on the eighth floor, there is a terrace deeply recessed inside and open at the top: it could be a “pergola” or a “patio”. It looks very impressive, a rare and interesting feature for the residents – great views and a chance to walk or sit outside without leaving the house. This feature is common in Italy, but even in early 20th-century St. Petersburg, it was not done this way; thus, the influence of global Art Deco is evident.

ID Moskovskiy
Copyright: Photograph © Alexey Naroditsky / provided by Liphart Architects


What’s also very significant is the fact that the realization matches the original design quite well, as can be seen when comparing a couple of perspectives. It’s not always that an architect can proudly compare a rendering to a photograph and say, “Look, no differences!” But here, it is precisely the case.

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    ID Moskovskiy
    Copyright: Photograph © Liphart Architects
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    Section 1, view from the west. ID Moskovskiy
    Copyright: © Liphart Architects


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    ID Moskovskiy
    Copyright: Photograph © Liphart Architects
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    View of Section 1 from the southwest side. ID Moskovskiy
    Copyright: © Liphart Architects


The intrigue is that the buildings stand in a courtyard formed by inexpensive 19th-century tenement houses of approximately equal size and post-war “Stalinist” buildings, one of which has a faint imprint of memories of St. Petersburg neoclassicism, though not very distinct. Mostly, these buildings are surrounded by the fairly economical architecture of their time, easily explained by the former semi-industrial status of the area. The truth is that until the 21st century, this was not a very expensive place.

Now, everything is different! New neighborhoods are growing here, not exactly ultra-high-end (it’s still not the very center of the city!), but still quite modern. The status of the place is changing; it has already noticeably changed. Recently built houses are also nearby, to the south and southeast. However, ID Moskovskiy, although also part of recent development, behaves differently: it is noticeably more conservative than its new surroundings, which are either too flashy, or too tall, or somewhat standardized and predictable. ID Moskovskiy – with a touch of snobbery – “communicates” more with the nearby historical contour.

However, the complex “communicates” in its own way, and on a new level, too: it hides in the courtyard behind trees, cars, and garages, but despite its declared restraint, it is noticeably more representative than the outer contour that surrounds it. Amid the untidiness of courtyard life, the building stands confidently and rhythmically, maintaining its dignity. It’s a true hidden gem that is not easy to find, and when you do find it, it does a thorough job of surprising you. From its semi-classical surroundings, the building extracts important motifs and develops them in its own unique style.

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    ID Moskovskiy
    Copyright: Photograph © Alexey Naroditsky / provided by Liphart Architects
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    ID Moskovskiy
    Copyright: Photograph © Alexey Naroditsky / provided by Liphart Architects


If you enter through the archway of the 1953 building by architect Lev Kosven – which is one of the “decorated” ones here, reminiscent of neoclassicism, with garlands above the arch, triple windows, and a niche... – what you will see is a side façade of Moskovskiy, but this façade is nonetheless the main one! It doesn’t exactly repeat Kosven’s composition but it definitely resonates with it: for example, the high niche that spans two floors above the entrance finds an echo in the composition of the new building’s end façade.

However, the garlands are out of the equation now, while the plasticity and rhythm in “Moskovskiy”, especially in its façade facing the avenue, increase. The windows are larger, the pilasters with fluted grooves are layered at the edges, as Art Deco likes, and the surface is even more complex. Kosven’s building has quite a lot of flat surfaces, albeit covered with thin stucco rustication – here, however, there are fewer flat surfaces and more windows. Is it due to the dialogue with its neighbor on the avenue that the composition with three risalits arises? Kosven’s building lacks a central risalit for some reason, but the side risalits are very accentuated. And is that why the main facade of “Moskovskiy” has more flat surfaces than the others, the side ones?

It’s interesting how the grand façade is formed here – by the principle of “facing the avenue”. It greets the person entering from the important part of the city, which is why it’s the main one, although if you look at the plan, it is “attached” to the elongated building from the side. The classical symmetry on this façade is very pronounced, it is strictly built, but from the point of view of the composition of the entire volume and the complex as a whole – it is freely built, based on the features of the site and the urban context; asymmetrically. It also flexibly responds to the opportunities provided by the site.

The most interesting feature of the main façade is the entrance portal. The portal is two stories high, with its frame extended far forward, and in plan, it forms an exedra, a semicircular niche, though without the hemisphere. This is a rare, unexpected solution, harking back to Art Deco, and is characteristic of Stepan Liphart’s signature style: he usually extends the entrance groups vertically as much as possible, making them highly sculptural. Entrances are a distinctive signature technique in Stepan Liphart’s buildings.

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    ID Moskovskiy
    Copyright: Photograph © Alexey Naroditsky / provided by Liphart Architects
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    ID Moskovskiy
    Copyright: Photograph © Alexey Naroditsky / provided by Liphart Architectsс


Unfortunately, the architect’s design for the lobby interior was not realized, and the semicircle of the recession was laid out somewhat carelessly by the builders. Where are the master craftsmen of the 1910s?

The second entrance, the one in the extended section, echoes the first but without the round recession, although a row of semicircular grooves appears at the top. These grooves are almost like fluting, and this motif continues in other parts of the building visible to pedestrians.

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    ID Moskovskiy
    Copyright: Photograph © Alexey Naroditsky / provided by Liphart Architects
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    ID Moskovskiy
    Copyright: Photograph © Alexey Naroditsky / provided by Liphart Architects


This detail is also atypical for our time, which seems to be fascinated by Art Deco but often perceives it superficially as a market product. Frames, cornices, finials – and that’s pretty much it. Stepan Liphart, however, generally goes further in his reincarnations of the 1930s style, as he has long been fascinated by studying the subject.

Another important and realized part of the complex is the colonnade connecting the two buildings. People can walk there, a staircase from the lobby leads to its upper tier, and below one can take shelter from the rain. The gallery zones the courtyard, dividing it into two parts.

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    ID Moskovskiy
    Copyright: Photograph © Alexey Naroditsky / provided by Liphart Architects
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    ID Moskovskiy
    Copyright: Photograph © Liphart Architects


From the above, it is evident that the façade plasticity is diverse and varies within the given theme from façade to façade, but only in nuances. Facing the avenue is a “palace” while the courtyard is overlooked by a “tenement house”, but… tenement houses of the 19th and early 20th centuries never had such courtyard facades. Here, the courtyard façade is really more like a street façade. It looks like it has been turned inside out: a house placed in the middle of the yard would historically likely have been very simple and inexpensive; but now it is the other way around. Facades of a street-like appearance, and more representative than those nearby on the street itself, ended up in the courtyard. This is how it historically turned out, like a coat worn inside out. But nowadays, not everyone knows how coats were historically worn, and what seemed strange has changed in commonly accepted notions several times, so a more “ceremonial” house behind a restrained front on the red line also appears quite normal.

The lower tier of the facades is made of glass-fiber-reinforced concrete imitating sandstone, while the upper part is plastered. This, by the way, should be acknowledged as normal for St. Petersburg: surprising as it may seem, there are not many historical buildings that are really made of stone. The plastique is rich in all the parts of the complex, but in the lower tier, there are more elements designed to be viewed up close, especially many flutes with regular-shaped semicircular grooves. They are echoed by rustication, interestingly with two levels of relief – protruding stones. Above, there are predominant layered ledges alternating with metal grilles, whose volute-like curves unexpectedly recall the Biedermeier style, which is earlier than Art Deco, from the mid-19th century, subtly softening the rigidity of the dominant straight lines. In short, there are a lot of interesting things to examine here.



In space, the building is organized asymmetrically, yet still logically: two volumes of different lengths but with related three-risalite compositions, one facing west, the other east, stand parallel to Moskovsky Avenue. One, the longest, is perpendicular; the colonnade is also parallel. It forms a fragment of a system, internally directed like a molecule or crystal lattice, but placed in the somewhat chaotic environment of the courtyard. This construction, in terms of both axes and the balance of symmetry and asymmetry, somewhat resembles the plan of the nearby school designed by architect Alexander Lishnevsky back in the 1930s; they somehow, especially when viewed from above, resonate with each other, forming related fragments of the urban fabric – partly regular but not devoid of some playful “modernist” asymmetry.

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    Location plan. ID Moskovskiy
    Copyright: © Liphart Architects
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    The master plan. ID Moskovskiy
    Copyright: © Liphart Architects


This brings me back to the beginning. The rapid growth of “new life” beyond the Obvodny Canal mainly consists of energetic invasions in the city fabric: for the most part, these “new inclusions” claim a significant fragment of the city, completely reformatting it in accordance with their own needs.

The tactic of “Moskovskiy”, however, is different. On the one hand, due to sheer circumstances (the plot is situated in the courtyard), and on the other hand, as a result of the architect’s choice of classical style, the complex deeply immerses itself in the context and develops the ideas found there. The new grows within the old, effortlessly capturing and developing its “design code”. This is a subtle and interesting way of interacting with the city. The market value of Art Deco here seems to rhyme, if I may say so, with the overall cultural value of classical architecture.

Well yes, we are in St. Petersburg, after all! Here, every stump should grow into a column or an arch, though, regrettably, this isn’t always the case.

25 July 2024

Headlines now
​A Brick Shell
In the process of designing a clubhouse situated among pine trees in a prestigious suburban area near Moscow, the architectural firm “A.Len” did the façade design part. The combination of different types of brick and masonry correlates with the volumetric and plastique solutions, further enhanced by the inclusion of wood-painted fragments and metal “glazing”.
Word Forms
ATRIUM architects love ambitious challenges, and for the firm’s thirtieth anniversary, they boldly play a game of words with an exhibition that dives deep into a self-created vocabulary. They immerse their projects – especially art installations – into this glossary, as if plunging into a current of their own. You feel as if you’re flowing through the veins of pure art, immersed in a universe of vertical cities, educational spaces – of which the architects are true masters – and the cultural codes of various locations. But what truly captivates is the bold statement that Vera Butko and Anton Nadtochy make, both through their work and this exhibition: architecture, above all, is art – the art of working with form and space.
Flexibility and Acuteness of Modernity
Luxurious, fluid, large “kokoshniks” and spiral barrel columns, as if made from colorful chewing gum: there seem to be no other mansion like this in Moscow, designed in the “Neo-Russian-Modern” style. And the “Teremok” on Malaya Kaluzhskaya, previously somewhat obscure, has “come alive with new colors” and gained visibility after its restoration for the office of the “architectural ecosystem” as the architects love to call themselves. It’s evident that Julius Borisov and the architects at UNK put their hearts into finding this new office and bringing it up to date. Let’s delve into the paradoxes of this mansion’s history and its plasticity. Spoiler: two versions of modernity meet here, both balancing on the razor’s edge of “what’s current”.
Yuri Vissarionov: “A modular house does not belong to the land”
It belongs to space, or to the air... It turns out that 3D printing is more effective when combined with a modular approach: the house is built in a workshop and then adapted to the site, including on uneven terrain. Yuri Vissarionov shares his latest experience in designing tourist complexes, both in central Russia and in the south. These include houseboats, homes printed from lightweight concrete using a 3D printer, and, of course, frame houses.
​Moscow’s First
“The quality of education largely depends on the quality of the educational environment”. This principle of the last decade has been realized by Sergey Skuratov in the project for the First Moscow Gymnasium on Rostovskaya Embankment in the Khamovniki district. The building seamlessly integrates into the complex urban landscape, responding both to the pedestrian flow of the city and the quiet alleyways. It skillfully takes advantage of the height differences and aligns with modern trends in educational space design. Let’s take a closer look.
Looking at the Water
The site of Villa Sonata stretches from the road to the water’s edge, offering its own shoreline, pier, and a picturesque river panorama. To reveal these sweeping views, Roman Leonidov “cut” the façade diagonally parallel to the river, thus getting two main axes for the house and, consequently, “two heads”. The internal core – two double-height spaces, a living room and a conservatory, with a “bridge” above them – makes the house both “transparent” and filled with light.
The White Wing
Well, it’s not exactly white. It’s more of a beige, white-stone structure that plays with the color of limestone – smoother surfaces are lighter, while rougher ones are darker. This wing unites various elements: it absorbs and interprets the surrounding themes. It responds to everything, yet maintains a cohesive expression – a challenging task! – while also incorporating recognizable features of its own, such as the dynamic cuts at the bottom, top, and middle.
Urban Dunes
The XSA Ramps team designed and built a three-part sports hub for a park in Rostov-on-Don, welcoming people of all ages and fitness levels. The skate plaza, pump track, and playground are all meticulously crafted with details that attract a diverse range of visitors. The technical execution of the shapes and slopes transforms this space into a kind of sculptural composition.
Proportional Growth
The project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential area has been announced. The buildings are situated on an elongated plot – almost a “ray” that shoots out from the center of the area towards the river. Their layout reflects both a response to Moscow’s architectural preferences over the past 15 years, shifting “from blocks to towers”, and an interpretation of the neighboring business park designed by SOM. Additionally, the best apartments here are not located at the very top but closer to the middle, forming a glowing “waistline”.
The “Staircase” Building
In designing the “Details” residential complex in New Moscow, Rais Baishev spiced up the now-popular Moscow theme of a “courtyard” building with an idea drawn from the surrealist drawings by Maurits Escher. He envisioned the stepped silhouettes and descending slopes as a metaphysical mega-staircase, creating a key void within the courtyard that gave the project an internal “spine”. This concept is felt both in the building’s silhouette and on its façades.
Projection of the Quarter
No one doubted that the building that Vladimir Plotkin designed as part of the “Garden Quarters” would be the most modernist of all. And it turned out just that way: while adhering to the common design code, the building successfully combines brick and white stone, rhythmically responding to the neighboring building designed by Ostozhenka, yet tactfully and persistently making a few statements of its own. This includes the projection of the ideal urban development composition “14–9–6”, which can be found right next door, mathematical calculations, including those for various types of terraces (and perhaps the only reminder of the Soviet past of the Kauchuk rubber factory!), and the white “cross-stitch” pattern of the façade grid.
Domus Aurea
In this issue, we examine the “Tessinsky-1” house, designed by Sergey Skuratov and completed in 2023. Located in the middle of the Serebryanicheskaya Embankment district, at the intersection of its main streets, this house assumes a sort of “nodal” role: it not only responds to everything around it and preserves many memories of the former EMA factory within itself, but it weaves all this into a newly directed pattern, reconciling bright “gold” and dark-colored brick, largely with the help of the new, modern-yet-archaic Columba brick, which, come to think about it, is the most precious element here.
The Chimney of Nikola-Lenivets
In this issue, we are examining the “Obelisk House” designed by KATARSIS and built for the Arkhstoyanie 2023 festival. However, it was only finished later on, and this is why we are examining it now. It seems to us that after the “Obelisk House” appeared in Nikola-Lenivets, a dialogue and a few inner connections appeared between the temporary structures built here. These houses no longer look like “accidental neighbors”, more of which below.
​Periscope by the Bay
The jury awarded the second place in the competition for a public and cultural center in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the companies GORA (“Mountain”) and M4. In the consortium’s proposal, the building resembles a sperm whale with a calf swimming next to it or a periscope, whose lenses capture the most spectacular views from the surrounding landscape.
From Arcs to Dolmens
While working on the competition project for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, ASADOV Architects prioritized the value of the natural and urban environment, aiming to preserve the balance of the location while minimizing the resemblance of the volume that they designed to a “traditional building”. The task was challenging, and the architects created three versions, one of which having been developed after the competition, where their main proposal took third place. However, the point of interest here is not the competition result but the continuity of creative thinking.
Hide and Seek
The ID Moskovskiy house, designed by Stepan Liphart in St. Petersburg, in the courtyards near Moskovskiy Avenue beyond the Obvodny Canal and recently completed, is notable for several reasons. Firstly, it has been realized with considerable accuracy, which is particularly significant as this is the first building where the architect was responsible not only for the facades but also for the layouts, allowing for better integration between the two. On the other hand, this building is interesting as an example of the “germination” of new architecture in the city: it draws on the best examples from the neighborhood and becomes an improved and developed sum of ideas found by the architect in the surrounding context.
The Big Twelve
Yesterday, the winners of the Moscow Mayor’s Architecture Award were announced and honored. Let’s take a look at what was awarded and, in some cases, even critique this esteemed award. After all, there is always room for improvement, right?
Above the Golden Horn
The residential complex “Philosophy” designed by T+T architects in Vladivostok, is one of the new projects in the “Golubinaya Pad” area, changing its development philosophy (pun intended) from single houses to a comprehensive approach. The buildings are organized along public streets, varying in height and format, with one house even executed in gallery typology, featuring a cantilever leaning on an art object.
Nuanced Alternative
How can you rhyme a square and space? Easily! But to do so, you need to rhyme everything you can possibly think of: weave everything together, like in a tensegrity structure, and find your own optics too. The new exhibition at GES-2 does just that, offering its visitor a new perspective on the history of art spanning 150 years, infused with the hope for endless multiplicity of worlds and art histories. Read on to see how this is achieved and how the exhibition design by Evgeny Ace contributes to it.
Blinds for Ice
An ice arena has been constructed in Domodedovo based on a project by Yuri Vissarionov Architects. To prevent the long façade, a technical requirement for winter sports facilities, from appearing monotonous, the architects proposed the use of suspended structures with multidirectional slats. This design protects the ice from direct sunlight while giving the wall texture and detail.
Frozen Magma
A competition for the creation of a public and cultural center was held in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Three architectural companies made it to the final, and we consider it important to share about the work of each. Let’s start with the winner – the consortium led by Wowhaus.
Campus within a Day
In this article, we talk about what the participants of Genplan Institute of Moscow’s hackathon were doing at the MosComArchitecture booth at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition. We also discuss who won the prize and why, and what can be done with the territory of a small university on the outskirts of Moscow.
Vertical Civilization
Genpro considered the development of the vertical city concept and made it the theme of their pavilion at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition.
Marina Yegorova: “We think in terms of hectares, not square meters”
The career path of architect Marina Yegorova is quite impressive: MARHI, SPEECH, MosComArchitectura, the Genplan Institute of Moscow, and then her own architectural company. Its name Empate, which refers to the words “to draw” in Portuguese and “to empathize” in English, should not be misleading with its softness, as the firm freely works on different scales, including Integrated Territorial Development projects. We talked with Marina about various topics: urban planning experience, female leadership style, and even the love of architects for yachting.
Andrey Chuikov: “Optimum balance is achieved through economics”
The Yekaterinburg-based architectural company CNTR is in its mature stage: crystallization of principles, systematization, and standardization helped it make a qualitative leap, enhance competencies, and secure large contracts without sacrificing the aesthetic component. The head of the company, Andrey Chuikov, told us about building a business model and the bonuses that additional education in financial management provides for an architect.
The Fulcrum
Ostozhenka Architects have designed two astonishing towers practically on the edge of a slope above the Oka River in Nizhny Novgorod. These towers stand on 10-meter-tall weathered steel “legs”, with each floor offering panoramic views of the river and the city; all public spaces, including corridors, receive plenty of natural light. Here, we see a multitude of solutions that are unconventional for the residential routine of our day and age. Meanwhile, although these towers hark back to the typological explorations of the seventies, they are completely reinvented in a contemporary key. We admire Veren Group as the client – this is exactly how a “unique product” should be made – and we tell you exactly how our towers are arranged.
Crystal is Watching You
Right now, Museum Night has kicked off at the Museum of Architecture, featuring a fresh new addition – the “Crystal of Perception”, an installation by Sergey Kuznetsov, Ivan Grekov, and the KROST company, set up in the courtyard. It shimmers with light, it sings, it reacts to the approach of people, and who knows what else it can do.
The Secret Briton
The house is called “Little France”. Its composition follows the classical St. Petersburg style, with a palace-like courtyard. The decor is on the brink of Egyptian lotuses, neo-Greek acroteria, and classic 1930s “gears”; the recessed piers are Gothic, while the silhouette of the central part of the house is British. It’s quite interesting to examine all these details, attempting to understand which architectural direction they belong to. At the same time, however, the house fits like a glove in the context of the 20th line of St. Petersburg’s Vasilievsky Island; its elongated wings hold up the façade quite well.
The Wrap-Up
The competition project proposed by Treivas for the first 2021 competition for the Russian pavilion at EXPO 2025 concludes our series of publications on pavilion projects that will not be implemented. This particular proposal stands out for its detailed explanations and the idea of ecological responsibility: both the facades and the exhibition inside were intended to utilize recycled materials.
Birds and Streams
For the competition to design the Omsk airport, DNK ag formed a consortium, inviting VOX architects and Sila Sveta. Their project focuses on intersections, journeys, and flights – both of people and birds – as Omsk is known as a “transfer point” for bird migrations. The educational component is also carefully considered, and the building itself is filled with light, which seems to deconstruct the copper circle of the central entrance portal, spreading it into fantastic hyper-spatial “slices”.