Loft Triumph

Not far away from the famous artist village in the north of Moscow, "T+T Architects" is designing a new apartment complex executed in the aesthetics of the contemporary European summer home.

Written by:
Anna Martovitskaya
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

19 June 2013

Object

Architect:

Firm:

Т+Т Architects

Object:

Loft-residence Studio #8
Russia, Moscow, Airport Driveway, 8

Project Team:
S. Trukhanov, A. Brovkin, P. Voevodina, N. Makarov, J. Parfenova, A. Tolmacheva, S. Slyshenkov, A. Dergunov, A. Babushkin, O. Trusova

2012 — 2013 / 2015

KR Properties

The apartments will be built in the vicinity of the Leningrad Avenue, on the territory of the former Pilot Plant #408. The plant that occupies a little over a hectare has already been taken out of operation, and its buildings are standing in wait of reconstruction work. One cannot help but recognize the location of the former plant as very convenient - a 10 minutes' walk away from the "Airport" metro station, literally next to the Leningrad Avenue and the Third Transport Ring - so it was "doomed" to be renovated. It was almost at once that the investor made up his mind about the new function of the complex - the "overcrowded" territory and the rather high housing density would not have allowed for building either an office center or a fully-fledged housing project with its mandatory infrastructure. For developing the concept of the future reconstruction project, the company KR Properties invited its long-standing partners - "T+T Architects" Studio. The project grew far beyond the mere renovation job, though: the architects were issued a challenging task to come up with a new typology of the apartments.

The idea to come up with something extraordinary sprang not (only) from the commissioner's vanity. The thing is that the nearest neighbor of the former plant is the residential complex "Triumph-Palace" - the 260-meter-high skyscraper that claims to be stylistically close to the famous "Stalin" high-rises. The future apartments are only separated from "Triumph-Palace" by a narrow in-block driveway, and it is plain to see that there is no rivaling this high-rise either in the dimension category or in the housing class. However, the idea of making it clear that the new complex has a completely different origin was still on the commissioner's mind, and this is exactly how he formulated his specifications to the architects - the project must become a "chamber" and cozy city block that would hopefully offset, in an unobtrusive manner, the aesthetics of the "elite" and "dwellers-only" residential complex "Triumph-Palace". "The solution suggested itself: because of the difference in the number of floors, our complex is turned to "Triumph-Palace" with its roof, so what we did was turn it into its fifth facade" - shares the leader of "T+T Architects" Sergey Trukhanov.

For inspiration the architects also turned to the immediate surroundings - the five-minutes-drive-away artist village "Sokol" with its two-storey housing, gable roofs, and quiet little streets became one of the main starting points in creating the image of the new complex. As Sergey Trukhanov explains, "T+T Architects" borrowed from the famous village not some specific techniques and solutions but the very aesthetics of the old "dachas" and country pastime. At the same time, the industrial origin of the project prompted the loft style, while the decision to turn the roof into the fifth facade made the architects turn to the contemporary Dutch architecture that is in the habit of experimenting with the shapes of the mansards. These presuppositions gave birth to the ideology of the complex: from "Sokol" the authors are taking the peacefulness and the quality of being "human-friendly", as well as the rhythm of the gable roofs, reconsider them in the new materials and enrich them with the carefully renovated brickwork. This is how Plant 408 turned into the loft block "Studio8": the past gets a new life, gracefully growing into the future.

Yet another challenge was about the fact that the factory buildings turned out to be vastly different in their depth and configuration. One can see here quite compact volumes of a square layout, the thin elongated little "train cars", and a very large building in the center of the site with a huge floor depth. This is why making a rough sketch of the style of the future complex would not have been enough - the architects searched for a very specific solution for each of the volumes. Part of the territory is cleared of the old garages and dilapidated structures in favor of creating the public space, an inner pedestrian-only square of Studio8, and organizing the parking lot (although the architects were only able to get the necessary number of car stalls at the expense of the more expensive automated parking garages).

The buildings of the complex form a self-sufficient composition, some sort of a city within a city that has in it, besides the main square, a few nice little yards, alleys, and driveways. A particular role is played by the so-called "Building B" - the narrow building of a strongly elongated shape that in fact performs the function of the wall that separates Studio8 from Triumph-Palace: of course, there is no getting away from the direct visual contact with the skyscraper - but on the ground level this building helps demarcate the territory of the new complex. In much the same way, works the elongated volume of the multilevel parking garage. This position at the junction of two fundamentally different styles also left its mark on the architecture of these two volumes: the car park faces the neighboring high-rise with its neutral blind wall, while the facade of the residential building is securely protected by the overhanging aluminum roof. Probably, this volume would have looked as a blind zinc-plated wall, had the architects not fractured it into separate sections that they deliberately placed in a staggered fashion. The "friendly" appearance of the building is also enhanced by the grand-scale glazing of its side facade.

The most challenging task was finding the optimum solution for the largest "Building A" that is almost 50 meters deep. In order to provide for the comfortable insolation of its every room, as well as the insolation of the closely adjacent "Building B", the architects deliberately shifted the crests of both roofs and used the technique of under-the-roof stained-glass. The attic windows designed as sleek metallic braces, enhance this dynamism: they look like a headdress that is about to slip down your forehead unless you hold your head up high. So, this house also, while facing the Airport driveway with its main facade, does not stop at "turning its nose up" a little bit: its monumental neighbor does not embarrass it in the least, making it, if anything, choose its dress and accessories more carefully. So it was not by chance that at the last "Golden Section" the project Studio8 was awarded the special diploma for "Particularly successful solutions in the dense housing conditions".

By the way, the word "accessories" is not a metaphor here. In their reconstruction project for the former plant, T+T Architects made provisions for every little detail: the options of the facade finish, interior design, and even the system of navigation around the complex. Even in the tiniest detail, be that the parking post, the fencing of the waste collection area, or the street sign, the authors carefully observed the "loft" style that they originally chose. The visiting card of the block will be the wall graffiti that will enhance its "industrial" origin probably even more eloquently that the traditional brutal brick walls.

Architect:

Firm:

Т+Т Architects

Object:

19 June 2013

Headlines now

Object

A Paper Clip above the River

In this article, we talk with Vitaly Lutz from the Genplan Institute of Moscow about the design and unique features of the pedestrian bridge that now links the two banks of the Yauza River in the new cluster of Bauman Moscow State Technical University (MSTU). The bridge’s form and functionality – particularly the inclusion of an amphitheater suspended over the river – were conceived during the planning phase of the territory’s development. Typically, this approach is not standard practice, but the architects advocate for it, referring to this intermediate project phase as the “pre-AGR” stage (AGR stands for Architectural and Urban Planning Approval). Such a practice, they argue, helps define key parameters of future projects and bridge the gap between urban planning and architectural design.

Review

Living in the Architecture of One’s Own Making

Do architects design houses for themselves? You bet! In this article, we are examining a new book by TATLIN publishing house. This book – unprecedented for Russia – features 52 private homes designed and built by contemporary architects for themselves. It includes houses that are famous, even iconic, as well as lesser-known ones; large and small, stylish and eccentric. To some extent, the book reflects the history of Russian architecture over the past 30 years.

Object

A City Block Isoline

Another competition project for a residential complex on the banks of the Volga in Nizhny Novgorod has been prepared by Studio 44. A team of architects led by Ivan Kozhin concluded that using a regular block layout in such a location would be inappropriate and developed a “custom design” approach: a chain of parceled multi-section buildings stretching along the entire embankment. Let’s explore the features and advantages of this unconventional method.

Report

Competition: The Price of Creativity?

Any day now, we’re expecting the results of a competition held by the “Samolet” development group for a plot in Kommunarka. In the meantime, we share the impressions of Editor-in-Chief Julia Tarabarina, who managed to conduct a public talk. Though technically focused on the interaction between developers and architects, the public talk turned into a discussion about the pros and cons of architectural competitions.

Object

Terraced Design

The “River Park” residential complex has confidently and securely shaped the Nagatinsky Backwater shoreline. Featuring a public embankment, elevated courtyards connected by pedestrian bridges, and brick façades, the development invites exploration of its nuanced response to the surrounding context, as well as hints of the architects’ megalithic design thinking.

A Kremlin’s Core and Meteorite Fragments

We continue our coverage of the competition projects for the residential district that the development company GloraX plans to build along the embankment of the Rowing Channel in Nizhny Novgorod. ASADOV Architects approached the concept through a deep dive into local identity, using storytelling to pinpoint a central idea for the design: the master plan and composition are imagined as if a meteorite had struck a “proto-Kremlin”. Sounds weird? Find more details below!

Contest Results

The Volga Regatta

GloraX plans to develop a residential complex spanning 14 hectares along the Volga River in Nizhny Novgorod. The winning design in a closed-door competition, created by GORA Architects, features housing typologies ranging from townhouses to terraced high-rise slabs, a balance of functions, diverse ways of engaging with the water, and even a dedicated island (no less!) for the city residents.

Object

Life Plans

The master plan for the residential district “Prityazheniye” (“Gravity”) in Naberezhnye Chelny was developed by the architectural company A.Len, taking into account the specific urban planning context and partially implemented solutions of the first phase. However, the master plan prioritized its own values: a green framework, a system of focal points, a hierarchy of spaces, and pedestrian priority. After this, the question of what residents will do in their neighborhood simply doesn’t arise.

Object

A New Track

We took a thorough look at D_Station, a railcar repair depot dating back to 1906, recently reconstructed while preserving its century-old industrial structure, upon the project by Sergey Trukhanov and T+T Architects. Though work on the interiors – set to house restaurants and public spaces – is still underway, the building’s exterior already offers plenty to see. Visitors can explore the blend of old and new brickwork, appreciate the architect’s unique interpretation of ruin aesthetics, and enjoy the newly built pedestrian route that connects the Citydel Business Center’s arches to Kazakova Street.

Report

Four Different Surveys

The “Explore the City” competition, organized this year by the Genplan Institute of Moscow, stands out as a pretty unconventional one for the architectural field but aligns perfectly well with the character of urban planning work. The winning project analyzed contemporary residential complexes, combining urban planning insights with a realtor’s perspective to propose a hybrid approach. Other entries explored public centers, motivations for car ownership, and housing vacancy rates. A fifth participant withdrew. Here’s a closer look at the four completed works.

Report

Scheduled Evolution

ASADOV Architects unveiled the EvyCenter pavilion, a microcultural hub for fostering personal growth, organizing workshops, and doing gymnastics. Additionally, this pavilion serves as a prototype for a scalable country house, drawing inspiration from the “Loskutok” project, and constructed from CLT panels in a factory. This marks the beginning of a developer project initiated by the architectural firm (sic!), which is seeking partners to expand both small Evy settlements and even larger Evy cities, which are, according to Andrey Asadov, aimed at fostering the “evolutionary” development of the people who will inhabit them.

Object

The Golden Crown

The concept for a dental clinic in Yekaterinburg, developed by CNTR Studio, revolves around the idea of a “mouth full of gold”: pristine white porcelain stoneware walls are complemented by matte brass details. To avoid an overly literal interpretation, the architects focused on the building’s proportions, skillfully navigating between sunlight requirements and fire safety regulations.

News

Flexibility and Integration

Not long ago, we covered the project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential complex, designed by APEX. Now, we’ve been shown different fence concepts they developed to enclose the complex’s private courtyards, incorporating a variety of public functions. We believe that the sheer fact that the complex’s architects were involved in such a detail as fencing speaks volumes.

Object

A Step Forward

The HIDE residential complex represents a major milestone for ADM architects and their leaders Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova in their quest for a fresh high-rise aesthetic – one that is flexible and layered, capable of bringing vibrancy to mass and silhouette while shaping form. Over recent years, this approach has become ADM’s “signature style”, with the golden HIDE tower playing a pivotal role in its evolution. Here, we delve into the project’s story, explore the details of the complex’s design, and uncover its core essence.

Object

Gold in the Sands

A new office for a transcontinental company specializing in resource extraction and processing has opened in Dubai. Designed by T+T Architects, masters of creating spaces that are contemporary, diverse, flexible, and original, this project exemplifies their expertise. On the executive floor, a massive brass-clad partition dominates, while layered textures of compressed earth create a contextually resonant backdrop.

Object

Layers and Levels of Flight

This project goes way back – Reserve Union won this architectural competition at the end of 2011, and the building was completed in 2018, so it’s practically “archival”. However, despite being relatively unknown, the building can hardly be considered “dated” and remains a prime example of architectural expression, particularly in the headquarters genre. And it’s especially fitting for an aviation company office. In some ways, it resembles the Aeroflot headquarters at Sheremetyevo but with its own unique identity, following the signature style of Vladimir Plotkin. In this article, we take an in-depth look at the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) headquarters in the Moscow agglomeration town of Zhukovsky, supplemented by recent photographs from Alexey Naroditsky – a shoot that became only recently possible due to the fact that improvements were finally made in the surrounding area.

Object

Light and Shadow

In this article, we delve into the architectural design of the “Chaika” house by DNK ag architects, which was recently completed in 2023 as part of the collection of signature designs at ZILArt. As is well-known, all the buildings in this complex follow a design code, yet each one is distinct. This particular building stands out not only for its whiteness and minimalism but also for the refined use of a limited number of techniques that, together, create what can confidently be called synergy.

View

Casus Novae

A master plan was developed for a large residential area with a name of “DNS City”, but now that its implementation began, the plan has been arbitrarily reformatted and replaced with something that, while similar on the surface, is actually quite different. This is not the first time such a thing happens, but it’s always frustrating. With permission from the author, we are sharing Maria Elkina’s post.

Report

Treasure Hunting

The GAFA bureau, in collaboration with Tegola and Arkhitail, organized an expedition to the island of Kilpola in Karelia as part of Moskomarkhitektura’s “Open City” festival. There, amidst moss and rocks, the students sought answers to questions like: what is the sacred, where does it dwell, and what sustains it? Assisting the participants in this quest were landscape engineer Evgeny Levin, artist Nicholas Roerich, a moose, and the lack of cellular connection. Here’s how the story unfolded.

Object

Depths of the Earth, Streams of Water

In the Malaya Okhta district, the Akzent building, designed by Stepan Liphart, was constructed. It follows a classic tripartite structure, yet it’s what you might call “hand-drawn”: each façade is unique in its form and details, some of which aren’t immediately noticeable. In this article, we explore the context and, together with the architect, delve into how the form was developed.

Object

Fir Tree Dynamics

The “Airports of Region” holding is planning to build an airport in Karachay-Cherkessia, aiming to make the Arkhyz and Dombay resorts more accessible to travelers. The project that won in an invitation-only competition, submitted by Sergey Nikeshkin’s KPLN, blends natural imagery inspired by the shape of a conifer seed, open-air waiting spaces, majestic large trees, and a green roof elevated on needle-like columns. The result is both nature-inspired and WOW.

Object

A Brick Shell

In the process of designing a clubhouse situated among pine trees in a prestigious suburban area near Moscow, the architectural firm “A.Len” did the façade design part. The combination of different types of brick and masonry correlates with the volumetric and plastique solutions, further enhanced by the inclusion of wood-painted fragments and metal “glazing”.

Report

Word Forms

ATRIUM architects love ambitious challenges, and for the firm’s thirtieth anniversary, they boldly play a game of words with an exhibition that dives deep into a self-created vocabulary. They immerse their projects – especially art installations – into this glossary, as if plunging into a current of their own. You feel as if you’re flowing through the veins of pure art, immersed in a universe of vertical cities, educational spaces – of which the architects are true masters – and the cultural codes of various locations. But what truly captivates is the bold statement that Vera Butko and Anton Nadtochy make, both through their work and this exhibition: architecture, above all, is art – the art of working with form and space.

Object

Flexibility and Acuteness of Modernity

Luxurious, fluid, large “kokoshniks” and spiral barrel columns, as if made from colorful chewing gum: there seem to be no other mansion like this in Moscow, designed in the “Neo-Russian-Modern” style. And the “Teremok” on Malaya Kaluzhskaya, previously somewhat obscure, has “come alive with new colors” and gained visibility after its restoration for the office of the “architectural ecosystem” as the architects love to call themselves. It’s evident that Julius Borisov and the architects at UNK put their hearts into finding this new office and bringing it up to date. Let’s delve into the paradoxes of this mansion’s history and its plasticity. Spoiler: two versions of modernity meet here, both balancing on the razor’s edge of “what’s current”.

Interview

Yuri Vissarionov: “A modular house does not belong to the land”

It belongs to space, or to the air... It turns out that 3D printing is more effective when combined with a modular approach: the house is built in a workshop and then adapted to the site, including on uneven terrain. Yuri Vissarionov shares his latest experience in designing tourist complexes, both in central Russia and in the south. These include houseboats, homes printed from lightweight concrete using a 3D printer, and, of course, frame houses.

Object

Moscow’s First

“The quality of education largely depends on the quality of the educational environment”. This principle of the last decade has been realized by Sergey Skuratov in the project for the First Moscow Gymnasium on Rostovskaya Embankment in the Khamovniki district. The building seamlessly integrates into the complex urban landscape, responding both to the pedestrian flow of the city and the quiet alleyways. It skillfully takes advantage of the height differences and aligns with modern trends in educational space design. Let’s take a closer look.

Object

Looking at the Water

The site of Villa Sonata stretches from the road to the water’s edge, offering its own shoreline, pier, and a picturesque river panorama. To reveal these sweeping views, Roman Leonidov “cut” the façade diagonally parallel to the river, thus getting two main axes for the house and, consequently, “two heads”. The internal core – two double-height spaces, a living room and a conservatory, with a “bridge” above them – makes the house both “transparent” and filled with light.

Object

The White Wing

Well, it’s not exactly white. It’s more of a beige, white-stone structure that plays with the color of limestone – smoother surfaces are lighter, while rougher ones are darker. This wing unites various elements: it absorbs and interprets the surrounding themes. It responds to everything, yet maintains a cohesive expression – a challenging task! – while also incorporating recognizable features of its own, such as the dynamic cuts at the bottom, top, and middle.

Object

Urban Dunes

The XSA Ramps team designed and built a three-part sports hub for a park in Rostov-on-Don, welcoming people of all ages and fitness levels. The skate plaza, pump track, and playground are all meticulously crafted with details that attract a diverse range of visitors. The technical execution of the shapes and slopes transforms this space into a kind of sculptural composition.

Object

Proportional Growth

The project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential area has been announced. The buildings are situated on an elongated plot – almost a “ray” that shoots out from the center of the area towards the river. Their layout reflects both a response to Moscow’s architectural preferences over the past 15 years, shifting “from blocks to towers”, and an interpretation of the neighboring business park designed by SOM. Additionally, the best apartments here are not located at the very top but closer to the middle, forming a glowing “waistline”.