По-русски

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.

28 August 2025
Object
mainImg
Architect:
Andrey Romanov
Firm:
ADM http://adm-arch.ru

The fact that the Patriarch’s Ponds is a cult place in Moscow has been well known since at least the 1970s and 1980s, when those who had read The Master and Margarita in samizdat would come to the house on Sadovaya and cover the stairwell of “Apartment #50” with romantic poems, lines, and drawings. Around the same time, Soviet generals and other members of the CPSU Central Committee began settling here, and the once-quiet district became home to the “party nomenclature”. Unsurprisingly, it later gentrified quickly and thoroughly. Today it is home both to the “golden youth” and to more serious older residents. As a local historical note puts it: “A network of elite schools sprang up here”, and, moreover, “anyone who considers themselves part of the city’s chosen crowd must regularly be seen at venues on Malaya Bronnaya to maintain their image”. One can only imagine what Mikhail Bulgakov, the author of the iconic novel, would have said about all this.

And yet the fact remains: despite my personal distaste for the cutesy nickname of “Patriki” (yak!), redolent of endless TV series about the dramas of the beautiful life, the area has indeed become exceptionally prestigious and popular. Very much so. In the evenings, Malaya Bronnaya is so packed with people that you can hardly squeeze through – just like Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg. Practically the Champs-Élysées of the Belle Époque.

From the Patriarch’s Ponds, it’s a short walk to many places: Pushkinskaya Square, the planetarium, the Moscow Art Theatre, and more. But there’s another feature too. Sometimes the bustling social life, especially at night, spreads across the whole district. At other times, the central streets may be noisy while the nearby lanes stay calm. If you want to go out, all the so-called “attractors” are just steps away; if you want to hide away instead – welcome home.

It is no surprise, then, that over roughly 25-30 years, through the 1990s and 2000s as the district gained and consolidated its popularity, many new houses were built here. The most famous is, of course, the “Patriarch” house on the Garden Ring. But there are plenty of others. A closer look reveals that almost a third of the buildings are relatively new – some blending into the streetscape, others designed by Sergey Tkachenko (these are different), and still others flamboyantly postmodern in the Yuri Luzhkov era style: sometimes in the shape of a ziggurat, sometimes a lily. There are also more recent insertions, though not so numerous.

All the more intriguing, then, is the project by Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova designed for Sminex in Bolshoy Palashevsky Lane – fragmentary mentions of it have only recently surfaced in various sources. Now we have the opportunity to examine the design more closely, if not in every detail, and to understand what exactly is planned for Bolshoy Palashevsky, numbers 11-15.

First of all, the site is just steps away from Tverskoy Boulevard and Novopushkinsky Square, where a large restaurant and cultural complex by Tsimailo, Lyashenko & Partners is currently under construction. Second, the location itself is interesting: Palashevsky Lane takes a sharp 45-degree turn here, eventually becoming Sytinsky Lane, which, in turn, leads directly to the boulevard.

And finally, we see that the plot is currently occupied by three small plastered houses in bright colors – bright yellow, green, and pale yellow – complete with rustication and mansards, each just two stories tall.

At first glance, turning into the lane, one might think these are remnants of old Moscow, while in fact nothing could be further from the truth.

Rather, these houses belong – if one may put it this way – to the fairy tale of Old Moscow. That fairy tale was shaped in the 1970s and 1980s through magazines, paintings, memoirs, and cartoons. It was later developed further, including in regeneration projects: new buildings erected on sites emptied by earlier demolitions. The goal was to regenerate the urban fabric, so the architecture itself could be almost anything, with only height restrictions to keep it in check. Thus, in the early 1990s, three office buildings appeared on the site of demolished income houses of the Moscow type – buildings that resembled townhouses, but with the characteristic bulkiness of postmodern form. They were designed, as far as one can tell from available information, by a team led by Andrey Meerson, including Massimo Cademartori, Massimo Polidori, and Marco Farolfi.

An interesting case indeed! Still, the three buildings of the early 1990s are not officially listed as monuments, and cannot claim protected status. Accordingly, two or three years ago work began on larger-scale concepts for the site, in keeping with the height of neighboring houses from the 1910s.

In 2023, Sminex held a closed-door competition. The winning design was submitted by Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova of ADM architects.

  • zooming
    Luxury residential development in Bolshoy Palashevsky Lane 11-13, project
    Copyright: © ADM architects / Sminex
  • zooming
    Luxury residential development in Bolshoy Palashevsky Lane 11-13, project
    Copyright: © ADM architects / Sminex


Andrey Romanov, «ADM»

From the very beginning, we built on the principle first tested in our project with the same client at Malaya Ordynka 19: we divided the volume into three distinct facades to make its perception livelier, more engaging, more varied, and also more appropriate for the city center, where different architectural solutions have historically coexisted side by side. Yes, this is a postmodernist approach: there is no “modernist honesty” of a precise match between interior and exterior. Instead, there is diversity, attention to detail, and, finally, a rhythmic organization of urban space – the division of a building into several volumes, each conveying different images and ideas.

We also pay great attention to details, textures, and materials, and to how they are perceived at the pedestrian level.

In this case, one of the three volumes had to be set back from the red line due to the insolation requirements of neighboring buildings. By retreating deeper into the site, this block gained spacious, asymmetrical terraces – a rare, practically unique solution; nothing like it exists either at the Patriarch’s Ponds or elsewhere in central Moscow. We plan to finish the undersides of these terraces with crystallized glass.

The second façade is more “material”, but its corner folds at the top so that the French balconies gradually transition into balcony-loggias.

The third façade – the one everyone particularly liked from the very beginning – will be built from glass in its natural tint, with greenish glass semi-columns. These will be manufactured according to our original sketches, with transparent joints, from six or eight whole horseshoe-shaped “shell” blocks fixed to the façade.


  • zooming
    Luxury residential development in Bolshoy Palashevsky Lane 11-13, project
    Copyright: © ADM architects / Sminex
  • zooming
    Luxury residential development in Bolshoy Palashevsky Lane 11-13, project
    Copyright: © ADM architects / Sminex


What sets their proposal apart from all the other entries is its tripartite structure – a solution that, as the architect rightly notes, recalls the luxury residential development at 19 Malaya Ordynka, a building that has already become a fixture of contemporary architecture tours and earned considerable fame. It is almost surprising that no one but ADM thought to suggest it, since the site historically – and even now – consists of three distinct fragments.

On Ordynka, Romanov and Kuznetsova combined three different materials. Here, it is clear that the main role will be played by the façade of the eastern volume, visible in the perspective of the lane when approaching from the boulevard.

This is a highlight, meant to catch the eye: what is it there that glimmers and gleams? Although the volume itself is slightly shifted – angled eastward for better sunlight access – this very deviation adds a sense of plasticity. The columns and small terraces rise in a stepped pattern, one above the other, with a restrained logic and yet, in truth, in a wholly unexpected way. The green-tinted glass too – a thick, palpable volume with its natural hue – contributes to the effect.

  • zooming
    Luxury residential development in Bolshoy Palashevsky Lane 11-13, project
    Copyright: © ADM architects / Sminex
  • zooming
    Luxury residential development in Bolshoy Palashevsky Lane 11-13, project
    Copyright: © ADM architects / Sminex


There are no capitals or bases to these columns, nor, as the architects explain, should there be any visible joints. Each column will be made of six to eight glass blocks, horseshoe-shaped segments attached to the façade. The result is an impressive solution – a kind of glass sculpture in the natural, “ferrous” shade of the material. It is beautiful.

According to the developers, Sminex has the means to execute the project in the highest quality materials – a “sore spot” in Moscow, as everyone knows. Still, if we look at the façade of the aforementioned Malaya Ordynka 19, or at the Lavrushinsky project now being realized by the SPEECH Architects with the same developer, there are grounds for confidence in the quality of execution. These are elite-class buildings, and the value of their façades depends directly on the integrity of the materials.

The solution is truly remarkable, though a few parallels can certainly be drawn. Take, for instance, the glass “curtains” on Malaya Ordynka. At the same time, glass as a greenish mass is itself a popular medium in contemporary art and design: one might recall the Hermes store in Amsterdam by MVRDV, with a façade assembled from glass bricks. Or the columns of the Kutuzovsky-XII building by TLP – granted, they are entirely different, and the building itself is of a different character, but they are still glass columns, and thus belong in the same lineage. One might even place them in the broader series of contemporary experiments hovering between historicism and modernism – distant from both, and therefore charged with heightened tension, which makes them compelling. Consider, for example, the 19th century and the Art Nouveau period: the latter loved green majolica, and what is majolica if not glass on a ceramic base? The 19th century also made liberal use of bronze, including its natural patina – and in the neighboring building by Pavel Andreyev we see precisely a blend of references to both Art Nouveau and historicism.



The building will include a lounge, a playroom, and a fitness center – all reserved for residents. The developer describes this integration of community functions as a principle. And indeed, if we look at the building reconstructed by Ilya Utkin at Chistye Prudy, there too is a “community hub”, designed by APREL architects by adapting a historic annex.
 
***

If we consider the context of the Patriarch’s Ponds neighborhood more broadly, the following can be said. The area contains much late-19th and early-20th-century architecture – primarily utilitarian rental housing. It also includes many 1990s-2000s buildings in the cheerful postmodernism of Sergey Tkachenko. In places, one finds “Mossovet” construction of the 1920s and, apart from the Satire Theater, not the most sophisticated Constructivism. The impression arises that history is moving in circles – or even in spirals, like Tatlin’s Tower perched as the “cherry” on top of the Patriarch house. From simple to complex, from playful fantasy to serious repetition, and back again to something simple yet executed with costly, exclusive craftsmanship. So finely executed that passersby will want to stop to take in the details and puzzle over how it was done – solutions of this kind, I suspect, will draw the gaze of future generations just as we, as children, were fascinated by any ceramic tile we spotted on a Moscow façade.

The project was cleared by Moskomarkhitektura – just a few days ago.

Architect:
Andrey Romanov
Firm:
ADM http://adm-arch.ru

28 August 2025

Headlines now
Object
Home Base
Working on the new building for Letovo Junior School – opened to students in autumn 2025 in the MSU Valley – the architects of UNK, following the client’s vision, subordinated both façades and interiors to the theme of “home”. Multiple variations of pitched roofs, a city skyline traced across glass balustrades, wooden textures, and a whole series of micro-spaces for retreat within public areas are all at the disposal of primary and middle school students. We take a closer look at the new school building – and at how it interprets current trends in educational environments.
Object
Doubles Match
The architecture of the Tennis Palace built in Luzhniki Olympic Complex, designed by Arena Design Institute, was shaped by three factors: the proximity of the brutalist Druzhba Arena, the closeness of the Moskva River and the metro bridge overpass, as well as the specifics of the function – tennis courts require large spans, abundant light, yet at the same time protection from direct sunlight. The architects divided the building into several blocks, playing on contrast, which is further emphasized by the façades developed in collaboration with TPO Reserve and Vladimir Plotkin.
Object
Microdynamics of Macroprocesses
Given the proximity of the multifunctional complex SOLOS to Sokolniki Park and to a major transport hub, Kleinewelt Architekten embedded in the design of the two high-rise towers a sense of dynamism more characteristic of natural phenomena than of man-made objects. Without the authors’ diagrams, this logic is not easy to decipher, although the eye immediately detects a pattern and tries to grasp it. It seems to us that one tower contains the impulse of a bud about to open, while the other evokes the movement of a lithospheric plate. Let us try to unravel it together.
Report
The Space of Post-Cubism
Sergei Tchoban and Alexandra Sheiner, of Studio CHART, created for the exhibition of “post-cubist” sculpture by Beatrice Sandomirskaya – a talented and even “mainstream” artist, yet almost unknown even to art historians – a space akin to her sculptural language: solidly built, confidently stereometric, and subtly expressive. It curves, emphasizing the mass of the sculpture, envelops the viewer, and guides them from one perspective to another, from a generic “shrine” to a “Madonna”.
Object
The Value of Open Space
For the site near the Barrikadnaya Metro Station, Sergey Skuratov developed five projects between 2020 and 2025. Two of them were ones that won the client’s invitation-only competitions. The fifth was recently selected by the Mayor of Moscow for implementation. The project is vivid and sculptural, expressive, eye-catching, and engaging – very much in line with the spirit of our time. And yet, this project is mid-rise rather than tall. In its northwestern part, near the metro and Druzhinnikovskaya Street, it shapes a comfortable urban environment. On the opposite side, it opens up, allowing sunlight into the courtyard and creating a spatial pause within the dense city fabric. How it is organized, what geometric principles underlie it, and why it takes this form – all this is explored in our article.
Coming From the Cold
The ArchBukhta Festival remains one of the few events in Russia where participants go through the entire process of creating an architectural object – from concept to construction. And they do so on the shores of Lake Baikal, in dedication to it. This year, GAFA took part and shared its experience: a local legend, a team-specific design code, friendship, as well as ice skating and endurance in freezing temperatures all contributed to gaining something more than just an award.
Object
Symphony of Water and Brick
The Alter residential complex, designed by Stepan Liphart and built on a bend of the Okhta River, is an example of a “drawn house”: the number of original architectural details is virtually immeasurable. As a result, ribs, projections, and recesses create a picturesque silhouette even without a significant variation in height. Both composition and material respond to the proximity of the river and to the red-brick factory building dating back to the early 20th century. The project was also significantly shaped by recommendations from the city’s chief architect. More details in our article.
Object
The Penguin House
The building with a curved façade on Brestskaya Street is one of the manifestos of Russian neomodernism of the early 2000s, a sculpture – this is how Anatoly Belov interprets it, speaking of “breaking from the modernist canon and the contextual approach”. We do not fully agree with the author, but his perspective is an interesting one.
Object
Wave and Vertical
The premium residential complex designed by GAFA for a site in the Khoroshevsky District responds to multiple constraints – the arc of a planned roadway, the water protection zone of the Khodynka River, and insolation requirements – through inventive massing. The composition is built on the interplay of two spatial layers: an elongated perimeter block and three towers concealed behind it generate the silhouette and key viewpoints, while also adding semantic depth reinforced by the façade solutions. Another defining feature is a large private courtyard, complemented by a citywide linear park.
Object
Office on Trubnaya
We continue publishing projects by Valery Kanyashin. A building once described, a quarter century ago, as an example of “quiet modernism” has remained just that in some people’s memory. According to Anatoly Belov, its main quality is its unobtrusiveness. The architects from Ostozhenka say the leading role here is played by context and landscape – the change in elevation. Yet is it really so inconspicuous?
Object
The First International
With this publication, we begin a series of texts dedicated to works by the late Valery Kanyashin, one of the founders of Ostozhenka Architects. As it happens, the projects he was involved in largely illustrate our understanding of the firm and its history. The first project in this series is the International Moscow Bank on Prechistenskaya Embankment.
in memoriam
In Memory of Valery Kanyashin
On Friday, February 27, architect Valery Kanyashin passed away – co-founder of Ostozhenka Architects and the author of many significant buildings in Moscow. We publish a text by Anatoly Belov in memory of Valery Kanyashin.
Report
Hypertext in Space
As part of the exhibition “What We Have We (Do Not) Keep”, Sergey Tchoban, the Museum of Architecture, and the CHART studio experiment with an eco-conscious approach to exhibition design, with thematic cross-references and even with publicistic reflections on the necessity of preserving modernism, the roots of contemporary architecture, and the birth of ideas. All of this makes the exhibition, with its light and transparent design, look quite innovative. The elements – both “material” and conceptual – are familiar, yet their combination is far from conventional.
Object
The Outline of “Foundation”
In their competition proposal for the Fili transport hub, the consortium led by Alexey Ilyin proposed an “inhabited arch” – a form that is simple yet complex. The architects emphasize that even at the competition stage, the project’s feasibility was fully calculated, taking into account the minimal nighttime closures of Bagration Avenue. How was this achieved? With what functions? Let us take a closer look. In our view, the building would have suited the heroes of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels perfectly.
Object
The Flying Horizontal
“A house in the spirit of Wright”, as architect Roman Leonidov describes it, pointing to his source of inspiration, was built on a challenging wedge-shaped site. To achieve a sense of intimacy and secure good views from the windows, the entire volume had to be shifted toward the far boundary, turning the house “back” to the neighboring mansions. The main façade demonstrates time-tested techniques often employed by the company: articulated horizontals, a weightless roofline, and a triad of materials – light plaster, dark slate, and warm wood.
Object
Needles of Horizon Contemplation
The “House of Horizons”, designed by Kleinewelt Architekten in Krylatskoye, is carefully thought out at the stereometric level – from the logic of how the volumes interlock (and, conversely, how gaps are articulated between them) to the triangular balconies that give the building its striking, slightly bristling silhouette.
News
The Red Thread
A linear park project prepared by Alexey Ilyin studio for the improvement of a riverbank in one of the residential districts seeks to reconnect people with nature. Two levels of the embankment invite visitors to contemplate the landscape while at the same time protecting the riverbank from excessive human impact. The “aerial street” links functional zones and the opposite banks, creating new points of attraction along the way: balconies, bridges, and even a “grotto”.
Object
Spindle and Thread
The concept of the Waver residential complex in Yekaterinburg draws inspiration from the past of the Parkovy district. In order to preserve the memory of the late-19th-century flax spinning mill once located here, the architectural company KPLN turns to the theme of textiles and weaving. The project’s main expressive device is a system of ribbons made of perforated weathering steel – a material that, in such volumes, has arguably not yet been used in Russian residential projects.
Overview
From Ski Resorts to Year-Round Recreation Clusters
In mid-December, several architectural firms gathered to discuss a “seasonal” topic: the prospects for the development of domestic ski tourism. Where is modern infrastructure already in place, where do only remnants of the Soviet legacy remain, and where is there still nothing – but projects are underway and soon to be completed? This article explores these questions.
Object
Woven Into Sokolniki
Over the past few years, high-rise residential construction in former industrial zones has become the main theme of Moscow architecture. Towers are springing up here and there – but the question is what kind of towers they are. The residential complex CODE Sokolniki, designed by Ostozhenka Architects, is a project where every detail has been taken care of. The authors are attentive to the history of the site, the continuity of the urban fabric, the skyline, and visual corridors. They also proposed a motif with the lyrical name “scarf”. We take a closer look at the volumetric composition and the large-scale décor “woven”, in this case, out of terraces and balconies.
Interview
Stepan Liphart and Yuri Gerth: “Our Program Is Aesthetic”
The studio of Stepan Liphart, an architect known for his distinctive signature style and one-off projects, now has a partner. Yuri Khitrov, a specialist with a broad range of competencies, will take on the part of the work that distracts one from creativity but drives the business forward. One of the aims of this partnership is to improve the urban environment through dialogue with clients and officials. We spoke with both sides about their ambitions, the firm’s development strategy, shared values, and the need for pragmatism. And why the studio is called “Liphart & Gerth” only became clear at the very end of the interview.
Object
The Copper Mirror
The varied-toned sheen of “unsealed” copper, painterly streaks and fingerprints, exposed concrete, and the unusual proportions – when you study the ZILART Museum building by Sergei Tchoban and SPEECH architects, there is plenty to talk about. However, it seems to us that the most interesting thing is how the museum’s composition responds to the realities of the district itself. The residential district has been realized as an open-air exhibition of façade statements by contemporary architects – but without public access to the inner courtyards of the blocks. This building – that is, the museum – is exactly the opposite: on the outside, it is deliberately restrained, while inside it shines spectacularly, creating its own sunbeams in any weather.
View
“Strangers” in the City
We asked Alexander Skokan for a comment on the results of 2025 – and he sent us a whole article, moreover one devoted to the discussion we recently began on the “appropriateness of high-rises” – or, more broadly speaking, “contrasting insertions into the urban fabric”. The result is a text that is essentially a question: why here? Why like this?
Interview
Dmitry Ostroumov: “To use the language of alchemy, we are involved in the process of “transmutation...
What we ended up having was an extremely unusual conversation with Dmitry Ostroumov. Why? At the very least, because he is not just an architect specializing in the construction of Orthodox churches. And not just – which is an extreme rarity – a proponent of developing contemporary stylistics within this still highly conservative field. Dmitry Ostroumov is a Master of Theology. So in addition to the history and specifics of the company, we speak about the very concept of the temple, about canon and tradition, about the living and the eternal, and even about the Russian Logos.
Object
A Glazed Figurine
In searching for an image for a residential building near the Novodevichy Convent, GAFA architects turned to their own perception of the place: it evoked associations with antiquity, plein-air painting, and vintage artifacts. The two towers will be entirely clad in volumetric glazed ceramic – at present, there are no other buildings like this in Russia. The complex will also stand out thanks to its metabolic bay-window cells, streamlined surfaces, a ceremonial “hotel-style” driveway, and a lobby overlooking a lush garden.
Report
A Knight’s Move via the Cour d’Honneur
Intercolumnium Architects presented to the City Planning Council a residential complex project that is set to replace the Aquatoria business center on Vyborgskaya Embankment. Experts praised the overall quality of the work, but expressed reservations about the three cour d’honneurs and suggested softening the contrast between the facades facing the embankment and the Kantemirovsky Bridge.
Object
Mountains, Groves, and Ancestral Towers
The year-round mountain resort Armkhi situated in Russia’s Republic of Ingushetia is positioned as a destination for calm family recreation and has well-established traditions shaped by its hundred-year history and the culture of the region. The development program prepared by the Genplan Institute of Moscow preserves the resort’s identity while expanding its offerings and introducing new types of tourist leisure. In the near future, the resort will feature a balneological center, a thermal complex, an interactive museum, an extreme park, and, of course, new ski slopes.
Object
A Small Country
Mezonproekt is developing a long-term master plan for the MEPhI campus in Obninsk. Over the next ten years, an enclave territory of about 100 hectares, located in a forest on the northern edge of the city, is set to transform into a modern center for the development of the nuclear energy sector. The plan envisions attracting international students and specialists, as well as comprehensive territorial development: both through the contemporary realization of “frozen” plans from the 1980s and through the introduction of new trends – public spaces, an aquapark, a food court, a school, and even a nuclear medicine center. Public and sports facilities are intended to be accessible to city residents as well, and the campus is to be physically and functionally connected to Obninsk.
Object
Pearl Divers
GAFA has designed an apartment complex for Derbent intended to switch people from a work mode to a resort mindset – and to give the surrounding area a much-needed jolt. The building offers two distinct faces: restrained and laconic on the city side, and a lushly ornate façade facing the sea. At the heart of the complex, a hidden pearl lies – an open-air pool with an arch, offering views of a starry sky, and providing direct access to the beach.