Millennium House office complex
Copyright: Photograph © Alexey Naroditsky / provided by Ostozhenka Architects
For its time, it was indeed forward-looking architecture: a form that was both minimalist and responsive to context – particularly to the site’s topography, its relief and the interweaving of streets; ribbon windows scattering across the façade, referencing both constructivism and the then-fashionable examples of Western European architecture, seemingly twisting and stirring the surrounding space; the mint-green plaster, so uncharacteristic of Moscow architecture in the Yuri Luzhkov era – all of this stirred the minds of the professional community, weary of postmodern dominance, and provoked speculation about an imminent modernist comeback.
-
![zooming]( "Millennium House office complex Copyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by Ostozhenka Architects")
Millennium House office complexCopyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by Ostozhenka Architects
-
![zooming]( "Millennium House office complex Copyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by Ostozhenka Architects")
Millennium House office complexCopyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by Ostozhenka Architects
Today, years later, when questions of style have largely receded to the background (though in the past couple of years there have been calls to bring them back into professional discourse), and when the era of heated stylistic debates is long gone, it is much easier to assess landmark buildings of the millennium’s turn – such as the office on Trubnaya that we are examining here – more objectively.
This is undoubtedly one of Ostozhenka’s creative manifestos, developing its concept of the “unobtrusive statement”: the building mimics its surroundings to such an extent that even the zigzag configuration of the plinth – described by the architects themselves as the “key compositional element” – is determined solely by the terrain and the desire to connect with it as tactfully as possible. The only emotion this building seems to evoke in its environment – if we think of the observer – is perhaps gratitude for its courtesy: “thank you for not disturbing us”.
In their project description, the architects wrote: “Our building was designed behind the House of Political Education, which then seemed eternal but has since been demolished. This teaches us that architecture passes, while the landscape remains”. This phrase can be seen as a concise expression of Ostozhenka’s method and values.
