"Garden neighborhoods": anti-crisis upgrade

Today, "Garden neighborhoods" is one of the most famous Moscow projects. It’s notable due to it its location in Hamovniki, on site of "Kauchuk" factory, and it’s totally unique concept "design code", developed by Sergey Skuratov. Today we discuss the process of project realization and changes made because of the economic crisis with the author of its concept.

Written by:
Anna Martovitskaya

21 May 2010

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Architect:

Firm:

Sergey Skuratov architects

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“Garden neighborhoods” project
Russia, Moscow

Project Team:
Skuratov S.A., the head of the authors group. A. Alendeev, N. Asadov, A. Barklyanski, E. Guskova, M. Kiryanova, J. Levina, V. Obvintsev, D. Chernyshov, A. Churadaev, K. Haritonova. At different stages were involved architects: I. Ilin, A. Belenkova, R. Gilmutdinov, I. Marinin, A. Dmitriev, J. Klevakin, J. Frolov, A. Hasanov, A. Egerev, A. Ivanova

2006 — 2014 / 2010 — 2015

OOO USK "Metalloinvest Development"

Arhi.ru: Sergey Aleksandrovich, please, tell us about the block-city 473 in Hamovniki. What stage the project is on today? Sergey Skuratov: Construction of the first project stage, that is the 1st and the 4th city-blocks, has been started. Buried wall is being raised. Unfortunately, our studio was not chosen as a general contractor of the "Garden neighborhood.” We did not win the tender, we suppose there two reasons behind that. First, it did not offer the lowest cost of our services, we knew well there would be really a lot work, second, we have always been principle and tough in defending their design solutions. Officially, we are responsible only for architecture of construction, but we really root for the entire project. Initially it was designed as an example of solving problems on modern architectural on the city planning level, and we find ourselves its guardians. Arhi.ru: Are there any changes done to the public buildings in the project? Sergey Skuratov: The school building has changed a lot. In short, it is not glass anymore. The volume was designed as a phantom, light and weightless building on the background of the surrounding brick buildings, representing the future. However, the Local Education Authority rejected it because it was unsafe and hard in exploitation. They also wanted the console to be rested on supports. The last they managed to save: we provided them with all the needed calculations proving the construction did not had have the additional support. Glass we had to replace by the copper without patina, rubbed and brown-rusty. Surrounded by the brick buildings it looks fine. Well, for the four years the normative basis was radically changed a few time and this certainly impacted on the project. For example, the access roads for fire engines had be placed from all the building sides. This resulted in a huge amount of compositional and planning adjustments, in particular, almost all the pedestrian bridges became more curved so that fire engines would be able to drive under them. Insolation standards for yards of the residential buildings are tougher now. In particular, all the children playgrounds in nursery schools have to have two hours of insolation, so we lifted them closer to the sun, thus the relief and landscaping of all the blocks considerably changed.

Leaflet

Architect:

Firm:

Sergey Skuratov architects

Object:

21 May 2010

Headlines now

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