По-русски

Warm Black and White

The second phase of “Quarter 31”, designed by KPLN and built in the Moscow suburb town of Pushkino, reveals a multifaceted character. At first glance, the complex appears to be defined by geometry and a monochrome palette. But a closer look reveals a number of “irregular” details: a gradient of glazing and flared window frames, a hierarchy of façades, volumetric brickwork, and even architectural references to natural phenomena. We explore all the rules – and exceptions – that we were able to discover here.

05 June 2025
Object
mainImg
The four black-and-white towers on the banks of a dammed section of the Serebryanka River in Pushkino form the second phase of “Quarter 31” residential complex. The first three buildings were completed in 2018, and two more – also designed by KPLN – are now nearing completion. All the buildings are 23-24 stories tall. The reservoir is surrounded by buildings of similar height, interspersed with smaller Soviet-era panel and Stalin-era apartment blocks. As a result, the central portion of “Quarter 31” does not stand out for its height, yet its façade design certainly feels like a “newcomer” here.

“Quarter 31” housing complex
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Yagovkin / provided by KPLN


“Quarter 31” housing complex
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Yagovkin / provided by KPLN


From a distance, the four towers read as a neatly ordered mass. However, the master plan hides a subtle secret: while three of the towers align orthogonally to the main axes, the fourth breaks the grid, following the curve of Yaroslavskoye Highway and the boundaries of the site. Given the buildings’ size, the shift feels natural, almost imperceptible – and in fact, this slight “irregularity” brings a touch of humanity to the rigid geometry. The towers are unified by a shared plinth, whose rooftop hosts all the necessary landscaping and public spaces. Circular zones on the roof might have made the site plan resemble a quatrefoil, but instead, a stairway bridges the plinth from the highway side down to the reservoir – accessible to the public, not just residents. This seemingly small design choice was, in fact, a hard-won victory for the architects in their negotiations with the developer about ensuring the complex’s permeability.

The masterplan. "31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN


The master plan is by far not the only part of the project where strict regularity is subtly broken – another broad stroke that makes the complex quite a sight to see is the architects’ use of color. Rather than fragmenting the towers into blocks and tiers by using different façade materials, the architects did everything the other way around and emphasized the monolithic form. Three sides of each tower are completely white, while the fourth – much like the north-facing trunk of a tree – is almost entirely black. The stark contrast elongates the silhouette, adds depth, and accentuates the plasticity of the light façades.

“Quarter 31” housing complex
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Yagovkin / provided by KPLN


“Quarter 31” housing complex
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Yagovkin / provided by KPLN


The black façades are not all the same either: touches of white appear here and there as dots, grids, or stripes at different heights and densities. From afar, these subtle elements animate the façades and guide the eye across the surface, establishing visual rhythm.

“Quarter 31” housing complex
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Yagovkin / provided by KPLN


“Quarter 31” housing complex
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Yagovkin / provided by KPLN


At closer range, it becomes clear that the “white” stripes on the dark façades are actually made of polished steel. The highly reflective panels create intense highlights, whose texture could even be mistaken for granite or marble.

“Quarter 31” housing complex
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Yagovkin / provided by KPLN


At street level – where it matters most – the full range of materials is revealed. The ground floors of the plinth beneath the towers are clad in glazed brick. The piers between the windows feature 3D brickwork that transforms them into “pilasters”. Each one ends in a sharp wedge shape that is echoed by a smooth, projecting element of the façade above. The pairing resembles an hourglass and separates the plinth from the residential mass not just through texture, but also through volume. The connecting segments of the plinth are clad in black, while the entrances and parking portals are trimmed with wood, adding a striking touch of warmth to the otherwise monochrome palette.

“Quarter 31” housing complex
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Yagovkin / provided by KPLN




As for the towers themselves – they are more complex than they might first appear. A key feature that the architects use is the window grid, which varies in size. While the grid remains strict enough to avoid visual disorientation, the changing window dimensions create a gradient effect: the density and area of glazing increases from the dark northern façade toward the southern side. The most transparent point is the southern corner, where loggias give the impression of a fully glazed edge.

“Quarter 31” housing complex
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Yagovkin / provided by KPLN


“Quarter 31” housing complex
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Yagovkin / provided by KPLN


As mentioned earlier, the white façades are more plastically expressive than the black ones. Square and triangular fiber cement panels are arranged on a supporting system to create three-dimensional elements – triangular pilasters between windows, angled like sun-loving plants toward the south. The floor slabs are also slightly sloped, forming small “eaves” over the windows below. The white panels, along with the folded black seams between them, resemble sheets of paper – another way of lightening the visual mass. These origami-like folds are complemented by AC unit baskets, carefully integrated into the buildings’ design.



The task of the brick portals. "31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN


In the project, the plinth performs several functions at once. First, it compensates for the natural slope of the site, which drops almost three meters toward the river. As a result, the height of the plinth ranges from one to two stories. Most of the space is taken up by parking for 330 vehicles, surrounded by storage units and public facilities: a kindergarten, a café, sports halls, shops, and, finally, co-working areas. The main entrance groups are located at street level, while residents can also enter the plinth via secondary lobbies at the second-floor level.

  • zooming
    1 / 5
    Simplified plan at elevation -3.600."31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
    Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN
  • zooming
    2 / 5
    Simplified plan of the floor at elevation -0.300. "31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
    Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN
  • zooming
    3 / 5
    Simplified plan of the underground mechanical rooms at elevation -5.650. "31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
    Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN
  • zooming
    4 / 5
    Simplified plan of the lower mechanical area at elevation +2.550 and +4.450. "31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
    Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN
  • zooming
    5 / 5
    Simplified plan of the 3rd residential floor. "31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
    Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN


Since the towers are positioned at the corners of an almost perfectly square site, the center is left open for a landscaped courtyard. On top of the plinth, the residents enjoy recreational zones, children’s playgrounds, sports areas, and greenery. A pedestrian boulevard runs through the center, leading to the Serebryanka embankment via a wide staircase. This promenade is separated from the recreation zones by wedge-shaped lawns.



Despite the pronounced geometry and monochrome palette, the complex reveals a number of personal touches, warm gestures toward residents, and even allusions to nature. One final detail deserves special mention: the realized project stays remarkably true to the original 3D renderings – we invite you to compare the photos in this article with the visualizations from the design phase.
  • zooming
    “Quarter 31” housing complex
    Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Yagovkin / provided by KPLN
  • zooming
    “Quarter 31” housing complex
    Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Yagovkin / provided by KPLN
  • zooming
    1 / 11
    "31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
    Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN
  • zooming
    2 / 11
    "31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
    Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN
  • zooming
    3 / 11
    "31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
    Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN
  • zooming
    4 / 11
    "31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
    Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN
  • zooming
    5 / 11
    Section view 1-1. "31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
    Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN
  • zooming
    6 / 11
    Section view 2-2. "31 Kvartal« (“Quarter 31”) housing complex
    Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN
  • zooming
    7 / 11
    Facade in grid 1.1-4.9. "31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
    Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN
  • zooming
    8 / 11
    "31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
    Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN
  • zooming
    9 / 11
    "31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
    Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN
  • zooming
    10 / 11
    The facade inn grid. "31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
    Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN
  • zooming
    11 / 11
    Development drawing of the facades along the Yaroslavl Highway. "31 Kvartal« (»Quarter 31") housing complex
    Copyright: © Architectural Bureau KPLN


05 June 2025

Headlines now
The Angle of String Tension
The House of Music, designed by Vladimir Plotkin and the architects of TPO Reserve, resembles a harp, and when seen from above, even a bass clef. But if only it were that simple! The architecture of the complex fuses two distinct expressive languages: the lattice-like, transparent, permeable vocabulary of “classical” modernism and the sculptural, ribbon-like volumes so beloved by today’s neo-modernism. How it all works – where the catharsis lies, which compositional axes underpin the design, where the project resembles Zaryadye Concert Hall and where it does not – read in the article below.
How Historic Tobolsk Becomes a Portal to the Future
Over the past decade, the architectural company Wowhaus has developed urban strategies for several Russian cities – Vyksa, Tula, and Nizhnekamsk, to name but a few. Against this backdrop, the Tobolsk master plan stands out both for its scale – the territory under transformation covers more than 220 square kilometers – and for its complexity.
St. Petersburg vs Rome
The center of St. Petersburg is, as we know, sacred – but few people can say with certainty where this “sacred place” actually begins and ends. It’s not about the formal boundaries, “from the Obvodny Canal to the Bolshaya Nevka”, but about the vibe that feels true to the city center. With the Nevskaya Ratusha complex – built to a design that won an international competition – Evgeny Gerasimov and Sergei Tchoban created an “image of the center” within its territory. And not so much the image of St. Petersburg itself, as that of a global metropolis. This is something new, something that hasn’t appeared in the city for a long time. In this article, we study the atmosphere, recall precedents, and even reflect on who and when first called St. Petersburg the “new Rome”. Clearly, the idea is alive for a reason.
On the Wave
The project of transforming the river port and embankment in the city of Cheboksary, developed by the ATRIUM Architects, involves one of the city’s key areas. The Volga embankment is to be turned into a riverside boulevard – a multifunctional, comfortable, and expressive space for work and leisure activities. The authors propose creating a new link with the city’s main Krasnaya (“Red”) Square, as well as erecting several residential towers inspired by the shape of the traditional national women’s headdress – these towers are likely to become striking accents on the Volga panorama.
Valery Kanyashin: “We Were Given a Free Hand”
The Headliner residential complex, the main part of which was recently completed just across from Moscow City, is a kind of neighbor to the MIBC that doesn’t “play along” with it. On the contrary, the new complex is entirely built on contrast: like a city of differently scaled buildings that seems to have emerged naturally over the past 20 years – which is a hugely popular trend nowadays! And yet here – perhaps only here – such a project has been realized to its full potential. Yes, high-rises dominate, but all these slender, delicate profiles, all these exciting perspectives! And most importantly – how everything is mixed and composed together... We spoke with the project’s leader Valery Kanyashin.
​The Keystone
Until quite recently, premium residential and office complexes in Moscow were seen as the exclusive privilege of the city center. Today the situation is changing: high-quality architecture is moving beyond the confines of the Third Ring Road and appearing on the outskirts. The STONE Kaluzhskaya business center is one such example. Projects like this help decentralize the megalopolis, making life and work prestigious in any part of the city.
Perpetuum Mobile
The interior of the headquarters of Natsproektstroy, created by the IND studio team, vividly and effectively reflects the client’s field of activity – it is one of Russia’s largest infrastructure companies, responsible for logistics and transport communications of every kind you can possibly think of.
Water and Light
Church art is full of symbolism, and part of it is truly canonical, while another part is shaped by tradition and is perceived by some as obligatory. Because of this kind of “false conservatism”, contemporary church architecture develops slowly compared to other genres, and rarely looks contemporary. Nevertheless, there are enthusiasts in this field out there: the cemetery church of Archangel Michael in Apatity, designed by Dmitry Ostroumov and Prokhram bureau, combines tradition and experiment. This is not an experiment for its own sake, however – rather, the considered work of a contemporary architect with the symbolism of space, volume, and, above all, light.
Champions’ Cup
At first glance, the Bell skyscraper on 1st Yamskogo Polya Street, 12, appears strict and laconic – though by no means modest. Its economical stereometry is built on a form close to an oval, one of UNK architects’ favorite themes. The streamlined surface of the main volume, clad in metal louvers, is sliced twice with glass incisions that graphically reveal the essence of the original shape: both its simplicity and its complexity. At the same time, dozens of highly complex engineering puzzles have been solved here.
Semi-Digital Environment
In the town of Innopolis, a satellite of Kazan, the first 4-star hotel designed by MAD Architects has opened. The interiors of the hotel combine elegance with irony, and technology with comfort, evoking the atmosphere of a computer game or maybe a sci-fi movie about the near future.
History never ends
The old railway station in Kapan, a city in southern Armenia, has been given new life by the Paris-based design firm Normal Studio. Today, it serves as a TUMO center.
A Deep, Crystal Shine
A new luxury residential development by ADM architects is set to rise in the Patriarch’s Ponds district, not far from Novopushkinsky Square. It will replace three buildings erected in the early 1990s. The project authors, Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova, have placed their bets on the variety among the three volumes, modern design solutions, and attention to detail: one of the buildings will feature smoothly curved balconies with a ceramic sheen on their undersides, while another will be accented by glass “sculpture” columns.
Grigory Revzin: “What we should do with the architecture of the seventies”
Soviet modernism came in two flavors: the good, author-driven kind, and the bad, standardized kind. The good kind was “on the periphery”, while the bad kind was in the center – geographically, in terms of attention, scale, and everything else. Can we demolish it? “That would be destroying public consensus out of thin air”. So what should we do? Preserve it, but creatively: “Bring architecture into places where it hasn’t yet appeared”. Treat these buildings not as monuments, but as urban landscape. Read our interview with Grigory Revzin on the pressing topic of saving modernism – where he proposes a controversial, yet really intriguing, way of preserving 1970s buildings.
A Roadside Picnic of Urban Planning Theorists
Marina Egorova, head of Empate Architectural Bureau, brought together urban planning theorists – the successors of Alexey Gutnov and Vyacheslav Glazychev – to revive the substance and depth of professional discourse. At the first meeting, much ground was covered: the participants revisited the theoretical foundations, aligned their values, examined a cutting-edge case of the Kazan agglomeration, and concluded with the unfathomable intricacies of Russian land demarcation. Below, we present key takeaways from all the presentations.
Perspective View
CNTR Architects has designed a business center for a new district in Yekaterinburg, aiming to reduce the need for commuting and make the residential environment more diverse. The architectural solutions are equally focused on creating spatial flexibility, comfortable working conditions, and a memorable image that could allow the building to become a spatial landmark of the district.
Malevich and Bathhouses, Nature and High-Tech
The Malevich Bathhouse complex is scheduled to open in the fall of 2025 on the Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Highway. The project, designed by DBA-GROUP under the leadership of Vladislav Andreev, is an example of an unconventional approach to the image of a spa in general and of a bathhouse in particular. Deliberately avoiding any kind of allusion, the architects opted for streamlined forms with characteristic rounded corners, a combination of wood with bent glass, and restrained contemporary shapes – both inside and out. Let’s take a closer look at the project.
Rather, a Tablecloth and a Glass!
After many years, the long-abandoned Horse Guards Department building in St. Petersburg has finally received the attention it deserves: according to a design by Studio 44, the first restoration and adaptation works are scheduled to begin this year. Both the intended function and the general scope of works imply minimal alteration to the complex, which has preserved traces of its three-century history. All solutions are reversible and aimed, above all, at opening the monument to the city and immersing it in a lively social scene – hence the choice of a cultural center scenario with a strong gastronomic component.
​Materialization of Airflows
The Nikolai Kamov International Airport in Tomsk opened at the end of August last year. We have already written about the project – now we are taking a look at the completed building. Its functionality is reinforced by symbolic undertones: the architects at ASADOV sought to reflect local identity in the architecture as fully as possible.
The City as a Narrative
Sergey Skuratov’s approach to large urban plots could best be described as a “total design code”. The architect pays equal attention to the overall composition and the smallest of details, striving to ensure that every aspect is thoroughly thought out and subordinated to the original vision. It’s a Renaissance-like approach, really – a titanic effort demanding remarkable willpower and perseverance. The results are likewise grand – architecture that makes a statement. This article looks at the revived concept for the central section of the Seventh Heaven residential district in Kazan, a composition so thoroughly considered that even the “gradient of visual emphasis” (sic!) across the facades has been carefully worked out. It also touches on the narrative idea behind the project – and even the architect’s own doubts about it.
A Garden of Hope for Freedom
In October, at the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery in Suzdal, the Prison Yard Garden opened on the site that had served as a prison from the 18th century until the Khrushchev Thaw. The architectural concept was developed by NOῨD Short Film, and the landscape design by the MOX landscape bureau. In fact, there are two gardens here – very different ones. We try to understand whether they evoke the right emotions in visitors, while also showing the beauty of June’s ruderal plants in bloom.
A Laconic Image of Time
The Time Square residential complex, built on the northern edge of St. Petersburg, appears more concise and efficient than its neighbor and predecessor, the New Time complex. Nevertheless, the architect’s hand is clearly felt: themes of “black and white”, “inside and outside”, and most notably, the “lamellar” quality of the facades that seems to visibly “eat away” at the buildings’ mass – everything is played out like a well-written score. One is reminded of both classical modernism and the so-called “post-constructivism”.
The Flower of the Lake
The prototype for the building of the Kamal Theater in Kazan is an ice flower: a rare and fragile natural phenomenon of Lake Kaban “froze” in the large, soaring outlines of the glass screens enclosing the main volume, shaping its silhouette and shielding the stained-glass windows from the sun. The project, led by the Wowhaus consortium and including global architecture “star” Kengo Kuma, won the 2021/2022 competition and was realized close to the original concept in a short – very short – period of time. The theater opened in early 2025. It was Kengo Kuma who proposed the image of an ice flower and the contraposition of cold on the outside and warmth on the inside. Between 2022 and 2024, Wowhaus did everything possible to bring this vision to life, practically living on-site. Now we are taking a closer look at this landmark building and its captivating story.
Peaceful Integration on Mira Avenue
The MIRA residential complex (the word mir means “peace” in Russian), perched above the steep banks of the Yauza River and Mira Avenue, lives up to its name not only technically, but also visually and conceptually. Sleek, high-rise, and glass-clad, it responds both to Zholtovsky’s classicism and to the modernism of the nearby “House on Stilts”. Drawing on features from its neighbors, it reconciles them within a shared architectural language rooted in contemporary façade design. Let’s take a closer look at how this is done.
An Interior for a New Format of Education
The design of the new building for Tyumen State University (TyumSU) was initially developed before the pandemic but later revised to meet new educational requirements. The university has adopted a “2+2+2” system, which eliminates traditional divisions into groups and academic streams in favor of individualized study programs. These changes were implemented swiftly – right at the start of construction. Now that the building is complete, we are taking a closer look.
Penthouses and Kokoshniks
A new residential complex designed by ASADOV Architects for the Krasnaya Roza business district responds to its proximity to 17th-century landmarks – the chambers of the Hamovny Dvor and St. Nicholas Church – as well as to the need to preserve valuable façades of a historic rental house built in the Russian Revival style. The architects proposed a set of buildings of varying heights, whose façades reference ecclesiastical architecture. But we were also able to detect other associations.
Centipede Town
The new school campus designed by ATRIUM Architects, located on the shores of a protected lake in the Imeretian Lowland Ornithological Reserve, represents an important and ambitious undertaking for the team: this is not just a school, but a Presidential Lyceum for the comprehensive development of gifted children – 2,500 students from age 3 through high school. At the same time, it is also envisioned as a new civic hub for the entire Sirius territory. In this article, we unpack the structure and architecture of this “lyceum town”.
Warm Black and White
The second phase of “Quarter 31”, designed by KPLN and built in the Moscow suburb town of Pushkino, reveals a multifaceted character. At first glance, the complex appears to be defined by geometry and a monochrome palette. But a closer look reveals a number of “irregular” details: a gradient of glazing and flared window frames, a hierarchy of façades, volumetric brickwork, and even architectural references to natural phenomena. We explore all the rules – and exceptions – that we were able to discover here.
​Skylights and Staircase
Photos from March show the nearly completed headquarters of FSK Group on Shenogina Street. The building’s exterior is calm and minimalist; the interior is engaging and multi-layered. The conical skylights of the executive office, cast in raw concrete, and the sweeping spiral staircase leading to it, are particularly striking. In fact, there’s more than one spiral staircase here, and the first two floors effectively form a small shopping center. More below.
The Whale of Future Identity
Or is it a veil? Or a snow-covered plain? Vera Butko, Anton Nadtochy, and the architects of ATRIUM faced a complex and momentous task: to propose a design for the “Russia” National Center. It had to be contemporary, yet firmly rooted in cultural codes. Unique, and yet subtly reminiscent of many things at once. It must be said – the task found the right authors. Let’s explore in detail the image they envisioned.