Julius Borisov: UNK Project: western principles in Russian architecture.

"UNK Project" Bureau that celebrated its 15th birthday last year is the rare example of a Russian company that was organized and that operates according to the western model - operates successfully. Which fundamentals were borrowed by the Russian architects from their western colleagues and how the Russian architects were able to implement these fundamentals into the domestic practice - about this we are talking with one of the founders of the company, architect Julius Borisov.

Interviewed by:
Anna Martovitskaya
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

09 April 2013

Interview

Archi.ru: Julius, your company was founded by three architects - you, Nikolai Milovidov, and Julia Tryaskina. When I read your CV's the first thing that caught my eye was the fact that you all have an experience of working in foreign companies, and in all the three cases this is basically how you started your careers. Do I get it right that this experience was crucial for you in the creation of a company of your own, that you deliberately used the western model of organizing your architectural business?

Julius Borisov: Yes, we did spend some of our formative years in the West. Nikolai Milovidov used to work in a Swiss company named "Fela Plannings AG", Julia Tryaskina - in the American company NOK Architecture, and I myself graduated from Bauhaus, Dessau, and started my career in Berlin's Smidt&Partners. While we were learning the basics of our profession over there, here, in Moscow, the so-called "Luzhkov" style was still blossoming which resulted in the wild surge of real estate prices, the main criterion of the building quality being the very opportunity to get all the necessary approvals to build your square footage. Regretfully - or perhaps luckily - we were completely spared this experience. Quite the contrary - one of the most fundamental things we leaned when working in western companies was that the quality of your building can only be measured by a sum total of its architectural, functional, and operational values. And we decided that here we would work in exactly the same way. And, while all around us there was the square-footage binge going on, what we did was work on smaller projects where we could implement our principles. These were private little houses, flats, office interiors, and retail spots. Now that the quality architecture is gradually getting back into demand, we are starting to take on the objects of a greater scale.

UNK Project HQ

Private house in the settlement of Zhukovka XXI

Archi.ru: What do you mean by "quality architecture"?

Julius Borisov: Quality architecture is architecture that you are ultimately not ashamed of at the end of the day. The kind that does not make you feel resentful, the kind that does not make you want to immediately change something or at least make a correction. Quality - it is when people use the building day by day and stop noticing that it is even there. From the point of view of the end consumer, quality of architecture is simply getting his money's worth.

Archi.ru: In other words, the functionality of the designed project prevails over its form for you?

Julius Borisov: You cannot judge by this or that property alone. In the best of the worlds, I think, the building should be built in such a way that, in spite of the contemporary image and up-to-date construction materials, it would look as if it had always stood there. A different issue is that functionality is always opposed to the beauty of forms, and if we speak about this dichotomy, then, yes, functionality is definitely something that we put on top of everything else. The question of form and style is really secondary; everything starts off from the specifications and the givens, and everything is created with them in mind and for them. We are deeply convinced that in any style you can do a great job and a really poor job. There are plenty of examples of mediocre classics out there, just as there are of the mediocre hi-tech. This is exactly why "UNK Project" does not have a specific recognizable style; it is far more important for us to stick to our initial principles of logic, rationality, and integrity of our projects.

Private house in the settlement of Zhukovka XXI

Archi.ru: UNK Project won several industry awards for the projects of office interiors, retail objects, and housing projects over the last year alone. Does that mean that your company avoids not only stylistic preferences but also preferences of some specific typology?

Julius Borisov: Our main specialty is human being. In all of its various aspects: homo sapience, homo resting, homo working, homo living. We had an experience of building an industrial object - we built a plant of a very sophisticated structure but that was a single case. Generally, we work with humans and for humans, designing housing projects, offices, shopping malls, showrooms, and whole settlements. Lucky for us, the modern humans prefer multifunctional space, so specializing in only one particular technology is simply unnecessary.

Archi.ru: Among the three of you, the leading architects of the bureau, are there any typology preferences?

Julius Borisov: Julia, as often is the case, is responsible for the sectors of beauty and retail, Nikolai is a great expert in offices, and I am more keen on the 3D design. This does not mean, though, that each of us works strictly in one genre: our favorite method is synergy, and we always share our experience with one another. This is why we do not have any steady teams of architects - for each project, we form a dedicated author collective. One thing remains the same though: we work each of our projects down to the last detail - such keen attention to detail has become our habit and at the same time our credo particularly because for a long time we mostly worked with smaller projects. Each member of our team has acquired a wealth of knowledge - figuratively speaking, somebody is a virtuoso designer of door handles, somebody - of stained glass, and now this knowledge helps us work out large scale projects in as much detail as possible, giving them individuality.

Archi.ru: Do you still work with small projects? They must only be interesting to you as a testing ground of sorts for experimenting with your new creative ideas?

Julius Borisov: Frankly speaking, I do not like the term "testing ground". We don't make tests on our clients. When we examine a new offer, we make all sorts of evaluations, including evaluating it in terms of our self expression but the square footage never was the reason why we agreed to do this or that particular project or turned it down. Yes, we can take on a project with zero profit if we see interesting possibilities in it. But regardless of whether we design a big project or a small one, we inevitably keep up our commitment to excellence.

Private house in the settlement of "Zapadnaya Dolina" ("Western Valley")

Archi.ru: Recently, you started, on a long-term basis, working with the British architectural company Scott Brownrigg. What does this partnership give you?

Julius Borisov: At some stage we realized that we were lacking the knowledge of new building materials and modern technologies, the advanced experience, if you will. So we made an agreement about the joint work with our British partners. This partnership is a classic example of a "win-win" deal - we learn to apply new technologies and techniques, while our English colleagues now have the opportunity to work with greater confidence in Russia and the CIS.

Archi.ru: Do I get it correct that now you invite your British partners to work on almost all of your projects, and not only when it is necessary, say, according to contest specifications, to come as an international team?

Julius Borisov: Definitely. We invite our British colleagues every time that we have a reason to think that their participation in the project will bring about better results. Our clients readily agree with us - the joint Russian/British project may come out a bit more expensive but the end result, considering the terms, timing, construction expenses, and so on, brings a far better return on investment. The excellently designed project gives you the opportunity to save the operation costs later on - luckily, our clients either know this from their own experience or are capable of listening to our reasons.

UNK Project HQ

Archi.ru: Generally, do you often take part in bids and tenders?

Julius Borisov: We like closed tenders with clear and unambiguous rules of the game and a guarantee of the seriousness of the client's intentions. There are also such contests out there, participating in which and winning which is our point of honor. For example, last year's open contest for the "Technopark" housing project in Skolkovo. We feel so confident in the field of low-rise construction, we are such experts in it that we did not even need to be backed up by our western partners. Winning that contest was for us a matter of principle. Which we did. Now the project is starting to get implemented.

UNK Project HQ

Archi.ru: What is the number of your employees?

Julius Borisov: Over 50.

Archi.ru: I deliberately asked for numbers because a few years ago Julia in one of her interviews said that having an architectural company with a staff of over 25 people is not really a nice idea because things start to operate in an assembly line fashion...

Julius Borisov: We get more clients - we take in more people. Late last year we even moved to a bigger office in order to accommodate our growing staff. Our key values are still the same, though: we only invite to work at UNK Project those people that are capable of coming up with an original idea and an original concept. We are not running a Soviet-style "project institute", we have an architectural office that is all about mobility and creativity.

Archi.ru: As architects, how comfortable are you working in the contemporary Moscow?

Julius Borisov: Well, you know, this is such an ambiguous question... The poorer the quality of the city environment, the more work there is for the architects - and in this sense, today's Moscow is very comfortable. On the other hand, it is now that things are taking a turn for the better, the chase of square meters is already history, and both the developers and the city authorities are interested in the city getting quality and comfortable architecture. At least on the level of lip service the architectural authorities are trying to make it easier for the designers, simplify the approval proceduresand so on. So, generally we do not grudge working here and now.

Archi.ru: Your portfolio includes a large number of projects developed for various regions of the Russian Federation...

Julius Borisov: Yes, we designed for Saint Petersburg, Voronezh, Krasnoyarsk, and a number of other cities. Now there has formed a certain trend: Moscow clients look for western or "pro-western" architects, and the regional clients - for Moscow ones. Lucky for us, we feel confident in either of the two sectors.

Archi.ru: Do you think it necessary to educate your clients, develop their taste and thus help the quality architecture to come into being?

Julius Borisov: This sure sounds like an honorable mission, of course, but in real life it turns out that educating your clients is often hard and not really rewarding... We are not an educational center, after all. And we are not interested in clients that are only after their square footage. They do not need us either. Basically, we work with commercial organizations that are ready to invest in the long-term quality results. And, interacting with them, we stand up for the solutions that we think are right and sensible.

Archi.ru: How topical for you is the issue of the construction quality? It is common opinion that in this country it ruins 90 percent of competent and sensible solutions...

Julius Borisov: As architects that work in Russia, we, of course, are confronted with this issue now and then. Still, the way I see it, very often the term "poor construction" is used to cover up the poorly developed projects. Because we execute our projects on a highly professional level, prepare the construction specification ourselves, and, not lastly to our British partners, offer are clients the best possible building materials, this guarantees the construction quality that is nothing but the best. Although, yes - and here I will be totally honest with you - now and then you have to spend colossal amounts of energy to convince your client to make a choice in favor of the quality materials. But we know that it is all worth it.

Contest project for Skolkovo

09 April 2013

Headlines now

Architecton Awards

In 2025, the jury of the Architecton festival reviewed the finalist projects through live, open presentations held right in the exhibition hall – a rather engaging performance, and something rarely seen among Russian awards. It would be great if “Zodchestvo” adopted this format. Below, we present all the winning projects, including four special nominations.

The Silver Skates

The STONE Kaluzhskaya office quarter is accompanied by two residential towers, making the complex – for it is indeed a single ensemble – well balanced in functional terms. The architects at Kleinewelt gave the residential buildings a silvery finish to match the office blocks. How they are similar, how they differ, and what “Silver Skates” has to do with it – we explore in this article.

Overview

On the Dynastic Trail

The houses and townhouses of the “Tsarskaya Tropа” (“Czar’s Trail”) complex are being built in the village of Gaspra in Crimea – to the west and east of the palaces of the former grand-ducal residence “Ai-Todor”. One of the main challenges for the architects at KPLN, who developed the project, was to respond appropriately to this significant neighboring heritage. How this influenced the massing, the façades, and the way the authors work with the terrain is explored in our article.

Object

A New Path

The main feature of the Yar Park project, designed by Sergey Skuratov for Kazan, is that it is organized along the “spine” of a multifunctional mall with an impressive multi-height atrium space in its middle. The entire site, both on the city side and the Kazanka River embankment, is open to the public. The complex is intended not to become “yet another fenced enclave” but, as urban planners say, a “polycenter” – a new point of attraction for the whole of Kazan, especially its northern part, made up of residential districts that until now have lacked such a vibrant public space. It represents a new urban planning approach to a high-density mixed-use development situated in the city center – in a sense, an “anti-quarter”. Even Moscow, one might say, doesn’t yet have anything quite like it. Well, lucky Kazan!

Object

Beneath the Azure Sky

A depository designed by Studio 44 will soon be built in Kenozersky National Park to preserve and display the so-called “heavens” – ceiling structures characteristic of wooden churches in the Russian North, painted with biblical scenes. For each of these “heavens”, the architects created a volume corresponding in scale and dimensions to the original church interior. The result is a honeycomb-like composition, with modules derived directly from the historic monuments themselves, allowing visitors to view the icons from the historically accurate angle – from below, looking upward. How exactly this works is the subject of our story.

Object

The Power of Lines

The building at the very beginning of New Arbat is the result of long deliberations over how to replace the former House of Communication. Contemporary, dynamic, and even somewhat zoomorphic in character, it is structured around a large diagonal grid. The building has become a striking accent both in the perspective of the former Kalinin Avenue and in the panorama of Arbat Square. Yet, unfortunately, the original concept was not fully realized. In 2020, the Moscow ArchCouncil approved a design featuring an exoskeleton – an external load-bearing structure, which eventually turned into a purely decorative element. Still, the power of the supergraphic “holds” the building, giving it the qualities of a new urban landmark with iconic potential. How this concept took shape, what unexpected associations might underlie the grid’s form, and why the exoskeleton was never built – all this is explored in our article.

News

Resort on the Kama River

Wowhaus has developed a project for the reconstruction of Korabelnaya Roshcha (“Mast Grove”), a wellness resort located on the banks of the Kama River.

Object

Nests in Primorye

The eco-park project “Nests”, designed by Aleksey Polishchuk and the company Power Technologies, received first prize at the Eco-Coast 2025 festival, organized by the Union of Architects of Russia. For a glamping site in Filinskaya Bay, the authors proposed bird-shaped houses, treehouses, and a nest-shaped observation platform, topping it all with an entrance pavilion executed in the shape of an owl.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Interview

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.

Object

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.

send.project

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

send.project

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Interview

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.

Overview

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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”.

Object

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.