Life around the Freezer

In the city of Vladivostok, ABD architects are reconstructing the historical cold storage warehouse, are designing the culture and business center, and are organizing the comfortable public territories between these two buildings.

Written by:
Anna Starostina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

10 June 2015

Object

Architect:

Firm:

ABD architects https://www.abd-architects.ru

This sophisticated multitask project is currently in its approval stage. In spite of the fact that, by the standards of ABD Architects, this work is unusually small-scale, the proposed solutions can have a considerable impact on the set routine of the city's life in this part of Vladivostok. The rectangular plot in the very center of the city has such a complex terrain that finding the successful location of the building was quite a tough call. As difficult was inscribing it into the context of the local urban texture.

zooming — Culture and business center "Union" © ABD architects

Originally, a few tasks were posed before the architects, the first of them being returning to the city the now-derelict building of the cold storage. Exactly one hundred years ago it was built by the company "Union" for keeping the frozen meat brought in from Australia. Supposedly, one of the participants of that project was one of the key figures of Vladivostok, architect and engineer Vladimir Planson. So, this is indeed an important monument for the city. Handling the specific issues that the building, totally unfit for contemporary needs and many times rebuilt, presented was also quite a chore.

The rectangular volume, with a clearly readable on the plan administrative part at the side end and the added later "outstanding" substation (total area about 2700 square meters), will be stuccoed and painted the historically correct white. The freezer, in fact, has completely blind walls: the windows were only there in the office premises situated in the north part of the building. Making new openings in the walls that had the official status of an architectural monument was out of the question. As a result, only one wall, the one that is turned to the yard, upon the approval of the historical monuments conservation committee, will have any windows in it - really large ones. However, thanks to the small depth of the building they will be quite capable of providing the sufficient level of ambient light. The top floors will be occupied by the quite unusual for Vladivostok type of office space - the creative co-working: the work tables will be placed near the windows, and the meeting rooms will be moved over to the blind wall, along with the kitchen, the restrooms, and other premises that do not require the ambient light.

The dark basement floor will house extra expo spaces. The original metallic structures of the historical building will be by all means preserved. The outdated frequent rhythm of the supports, on the one hand, makes the inside space slightly inconvenient for the usual office but, on the other hand, adds to the building's historical authenticity.

In its shape and size (practically the same 2700 square meters, the same four floors, and the same gable roof), the new building to its historical neighbor. Their interrelation are about a respectful dialogue, and close mutual work, and some argument, and even a bit if competition. "We wanted the new building to be as laconic as possible and not really bold in color: the buildings around it look too motley as it is, and they are different in height, too. When we came to this place, absolute chaos ruled here, and we needed to bring it to order, organize it somehow" - says one of the authors of the project Anton Savelyev. The two underground tiers occupying the space under the paved courtyard are the parking garage. The first floor will house a restaurant, small shops, and the exhibition gallery of Vladimir Lanin - the famous local photographer of the late XIX century. The top three floors will be completely rented out as the office of one company.

The shape of the building was practically dictated by its surroundings - the architects simply "listened" to it carefully. For example, besides the cold storage warehouse, there is also the historical water tower standing next to the land plot. There was no task of highlighting this object or take its dimensions into consideration in any way but nevertheless the architects deemed it necessary to pay homage to it lowering the height of the new building's roof in its direction. The result is a subtle, almost invisible, "courtesy". For the same reason, the attractive-looking cutaway of the side wall appeared: it was just "turned" a little bit in the direction of the tower. Part of the "empty" casing of the building, however, the architects preferred to keep intact. The resulting asymmetrical "marquee" and the interesting-looking "screen" wall accentuate the entrance still more, protecting the territory of the courtyard from the wind and the rain, and help to separate and organize the pedestrian flows.

The "screen marquee", however, is by far not the only element of this visual play that the architects introduced into the neutral and calm image of the new building. First of all, the size of the windows changes all the time. While on the main facades, as one's gaze goes up, they grow wider, turning from the narrow slit-like kind to large, almost panoramic, windows, on the side walls, conversely, they grow narrower, threatening to disappear completely. The authors of the project say that they ultimately got quite a jigsaw puzzle here. The second technique is combining two differently textured materials on the facades. Initially, it was planned that in the main facade a cozy type of wood would be used, the type that would look like the soft warm "undergrowth" covered on top by the coarse fur of the natural stone, with the "undergrowth" showing through it. However, on second thought, the architects considered this solution too rash, and opted for the more reserved but as contrastive and sophisticated combination of metal of a warm tone on the main facade and stone everywhere else.

The last but not least constituent part of the work was the task of forming comfortable city territories between the two buildings of the complex. Such territories are practically non-existent in Vladivostok now. Every day, this area has people going through it towards the central railway station located nearby, and back again, so the architects had to, first of all, divide the pedestrian flows: because what kind of "comfortable" territory can you create in a pass-through yard? It was possible to achieve by using the complex terrain of this territory, supplying it with a sophisticated system of stairs and landings. As a result, the space between the two buildings turned into a practically isolated courtyard.

Securely protected from the wind, the paved territory that provides a separate entrance to the restaurant, will allow for organizing an open-air terrace in the summertime; it will also give the office workers an opportunity to go out for a breath of fresh air. And the steep green slope can be used, for example, as an open-air movie theater, of course, weather permitting. The noise of the big city life and the local strong sea winds are additionally fenced off by that same fragment of the new casing of the building that forms this cozy and protected micro-world.

The saturated functional program in combination with the surrounding houses and the challenging terrain made the architects deftly navigate through a lot of underwater stones. And, as strange as it may seem, it was this necessity of navigating that prompted the most interesting and bright solutions. And the seeming lack of logic in some of the applied techniques goes a long way to draw close attention to the building. "This project is not at all as simple as one might think at first sight. Yes, you can criticize some of our solutions, for example, the fact that the location of the entrances to the new buildings is not really obvious, but we are quite certain that all of our solutions are the best possible under the given circumstances. I think we have been able to create a balanced project and solve all the issues we had to solve" - says Anton Savelyev.

Architect:

Firm:

ABD architects https://www.abd-architects.ru

10 June 2015

Headlines now

Object

Health Factory

While working on a wellness and tourist complex on the banks of the Yenisei River, the architects at Vissarionov Studio set out to create healing spaces that would amplify the benefits of nature and medical treatments for both body and soul. The spatial solutions are designed to encourage interaction between the guests and the landscape, as well as each other.

Object

Grace and Unity

Villa “Grace”, designed by Roman Leonidov’s studio and built in the Moscow suburbs, strikes a balance between elegant minimalism and the expansive gestures of the Russian soul. The main house is conceived as a sequence of four self-contained volumes – each could exist independently, yet it chooses to be part of a whole. Unity is achieved through color and a system of shared spaces, while the rich plasticity of the forms – refined throughout the construction process – compensates for the near-total absence of decorative elements.

Object

Daring Brilliance

In this article, we are exploring “New Vision”, the first school built in the past 25 years in Moscow’s Khamovniki. The building has three main features: it is designed in accordance with the universal principles of modern education, fostering learning through interaction and more; second, the façades combine structural molded glass and metallic glazed ceramics – expensive and technologically advanced materials. Third, this is the school of Garden Quarters, the latest addition to Moscow’s iconic Khamovniki district. Both a costly and, in its way, audacious acquisition, it carries a youthful boldness in its statement. Let’s explore how the school is designed and where the contrasts lie.

Object

A Twist of the Core

A clever and concise sculptural solution – rotating each floor by N degrees – has created an ensemble of “dancing” towers: similar yet different, simple yet complex. The designers meticulously refined a single structural node and spent considerable effort on the column construction – after that, “everything else was easy”. The architects also rotated the core walls on each floor to maximize the efficiency of the office spaces.

Object

The Sculpting of Spring Forest Matter

We’ve been observing this building for a couple of years now: seemingly simple, perhaps even unassuming, it fits in remarkably well with the micro-district context shaped by the Moscow MCD road junctions. This building sticks in the memory of everyone who drives along the highway, even occasionally. In our opinion, Sergey Nikeshkin, by blending popular architectural techniques and approaches of the 2010s, managed to turn a seemingly simple structure into a statement “on the theme of a house as such”. Let’s figure out how this happened.

Object

Water and Wind Whet the Stone

The Arisha Terraces residential complex, designed by Asadov Architects, will be built in a district of Dubai dedicated to film and television production. To create shaded spaces and an intriguing silhouette, the architects opted for a funnel-shaped composition and nature-inspired forms of erosion and weathering. The roofs, podium, and underground spaces extend leisure opportunities within the boundaries of a man-made “oasis”.

Object

Elevation 5642

The Genplan Institute of Moscow has developed a comprehensive development project for three ski resorts in the Caucasus, which have been designated as special economic zones of the tourism and recreation type. The first of these zones is Elbrus. The project includes the construction of new ski runs, cable cars, and hotels, as well as the modernization of stations and improvements to the Azau tourist meadow. To expand the audience and enhance year-round appeal, a network of eco-trails is also being developed. In this article, we provide a detailed breakdown of each stage.

Object

The IT Town

Taking the example of the first completed phase of the “U” district, we examine how the new neighborhood in Innopolis will be organized. T+T Architects and HADAA formed a well-balanced and ingenious master plan with different types of housing, a green artery, a system of squares, and a park in the town’s central part.

Object

The Heart Lies Within

The second-phase building of the Evgeny Primakov School already won multiple awards while still in the design stage. Now that it’s completed, some unfinished nuances remain – most notably, the exposed ceiling structures, which ideally should have been concealed. However, given the priority placed on the building’s volumetric composition, this does not seem critical. What matters more is the “Wow!” effect created by the space itself.

Object

Magnetic Forces

“Krylatskaya 33” is the first large-scale residential complex to appear amidst the 1980s “micro-districts” that harmoniously coexist with the forests, the river, the slopes, and the sports infrastructure. Despite its imposing scale, the architects of Ostozhenka managed to turn the complex into something that can be best described as a “graceful dominant”. First, they designed the complex with consideration for the style and height of the surrounding micro-districts. Second, by introducing a pause in its tallest section, they created compositional tension – right along the urban planning axis of the area.

Object

Orion’s Belt

The Stone Khodynka 2 office complex, designed by Kleinewelt Architekten for the company Stone, is built with an ergonomic layout following “healthy building” principles: natural light, ventilation, and all the necessary features for an efficient office environment. On the outside, it resembles – like many contemporary buildings – an iPhone: sleek, glowing, glass-and-metal, edges elegantly rounded. Yet, it responds sensitively to the Khodynka context, where the main theme is the contrast between vertical and horizontal lines. The key intrigue lies in the design of the “stylobate” as a suspended passage, leaving the space beneath it open for free pedestrian movement.

Interview

Grigory Revzin: “It Was a Bold Statement Made on the Sly. Something Won”

In this article, we discuss the debates surrounding the circus competition and the demolition of the CMEA building with the most renowned architectural critic of our time. A paradox emerges in the process: while nostalgia for the Brezhnev era seems to be in vogue in Russia, a landmark building – the “axis” of the Warsaw Pact – has been sentenced to demolition. Isn’t that strange? We also find out that wow-architecture has made a comeback as a post-COVID trend. However, to make a truly powerful statement, professionals still remain indispensable.

Object

Exposed Concrete

One of the stages of improving a small square in the town of Lermontov was the construction of a skatepark. Entrusting this part of the project to the XSA team, the city gained a 250-meter trick track whose features resemble those of land art objects – unparalleled in Russia in both scale and design. Here’s a look at how the experimental snake run in the foothills of the Caucasus was built.

Object

One Step Closer To the Dream

The challenges of getting all the mandatory approvals, an insufficient budget, and construction site difficulties did not prevent ASADOV Bureau from achieving its main goal in the realization of the school project in the town of Troitsk – taking another step away from outdated notions of educational spaces toward creating a fundamentally new academic environment.

Object

Chalet on the Rock

An Accor hotel in Arkhyz, designed by A.Len, will be situated at the gateway to the resort’s main tourist hubs. The architects reinterpreted the widely popular chalet style while adding an unexpected twist – an unfinished structure preserved on the site. The design team transformed this remnant into an exciting space featuring an open-air pool and a restaurant with panoramic views of the region’s highest mountain ridges.

Interview

Sergey Skuratov: “By and large, the project has been realized in line with the original ideas”

In this issue, we talk to the chief architect of Garden Quarters, looking back at the history and key moments of a project that took 18 years to develop and has now finally been completed. What interests us most are the transformations that the project underwent during construction, and the way the “necessary void” of public space was formed, which turned this remarkable complex into a fragment of a whole new type of urban fabric – not just at the horizontal “street” level but in its vertical structure as well.

Object

A Unique Representative

The recently concluded year 2024 can be considered the year of completion for the “Garden Quarters” residential complex in Moscow’s Khamovniki. This project is well-known and, in many ways, iconic. Rarely does one manage to preserve such a number of original ideas, achieving in the end a kind of urban planning Gesamtkunstwerk. Here is a subjective view from an architecture journalist, with an interview with Sergey Skuratov soon to follow.

Object

Field of Life

The new project by the architectural company PNKB (an acronym for “Design, Research, and Advisory Bureau”), led by Sergey Gnedovsky and Anton Lyubimkin, for the Kulikovo Field Museum is dedicated to the field as a concept in its own right. The field has long been a focus of the museum’s thorough and successful research. Accordingly, the exterior of the new museum building is gentler than that of its predecessor, which was also designed by PNKB and dedicated specifically to the historic battle. Inside, however, the building confidently guides the visitor from a luminous atrium along a spiral path to the field – interpreted here as a field of life.

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.