A district between Savvinskaya embankment and Pirogov streets is a curiously mixed place that is having been actively redeveloped. Here constructivists had worked; in the 1980s pink apartment blocks of brick were constructed. The area was built on in the 1990s; one of the interesting recent additions is ‘Savvinkoe podvorie’ (town house) by Sergey Kisselev, built in the last year.
The Dmitry Alexandrov’s project is intended for a nearby plot of land that is situated slightly far from the river, in the midst of yards overlooking the 1rst Truzhenikov lane. The plot is on the high spot on the slope; the building would be viewed from numerous perspectives
The set consists of two building that are placed next to each other, with the distance on only 15 m. One of the buildings is higher – 13 stores. It would be decorated by bright tiles that would create an effect of mosaics: a chaotic combination of yellow and yellowish-green tiles makes it look as a bright carpet surface. The other building is slightly lower – only 10 stores; it is decorated with dark brick, and its colour ranges from brown to reddish. Thus the dazzling effect of colours creates texture: the walls would seem to be rougher than they would be in reality
The coloured ‘roughness’ that takes a viewer out of the zone of strict geometry, is strengthened by the windows rhythm: it is intentionally chaotic, narrow windows are placed to the wide ones, and the middle-sized windows - to those slightly wider. All widows are outlined by protruding white frames that draw attention to themselves and to their composition.
The windows gravitate towards corners, and some of them are turned into deep loggias; thus the south façade windows of the top stores get a view on the Moscow river. On the north-eastern wall embrasures are made into thin vertical lines that closer to penthouses are turned into panoramic stained glass windows.
Both buildings – called male & fenale by the architects, - are united in indivisible composition. Inner walls – those that look at each other – are plane, and the ‘outer’ corners are cut off. The existence of the two buildings is a necessity. The plot is almost square so it is impossible to build one large edifice on it: first, building density would have been too high; second, there would have been too many halls with no daylight in such building. Therefore there was created an image of the two buildings linked by the glass passages on the level of the 7th and 10th stores.
The passages would house conservatoires. From the outside they would be embraced by metal frames and would remind a crane gibbet that got stuck within a house.
Buildings would have fantastic views in the river, Kiev station and Kutuzov prospect on one side, and on the other – on the square of Devichie Pole and Sadovoe koltso (ring road).
