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Pixelation of Mytnaya

Not far from Shukhov Tower, amid the already built new housing estates, the Sky House Towers – covered partly with transparent and partly with vivid autumn-colored pixel skin – has reached its final stage of construction.

06 November 2015
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The area north of Shukhov Tower and the working-class districts surrounding it has recently been significantly expanded with new large housing estates. In mid-2000’s, at Shabolovka Street 23, the architects of “Ostozhenka” built five towers of “Capital-1 Constellation”. About the same time, construction of “English Quarter” upon the project of Mikhail Belov was finished further east, on Mytnaya Street. The area where the construction of a multi-functional (but mostly residential) Sky House complex is now reaching completion is situated between two housing estates, on the right side of Mytnaya Street. The houses are erected in place of several buildings of “Red Proletarian” factory (half-ruined by that time), around “Trud” Stadium – once part of the factory. So it is also an example of reorganization of an industrial zone. By early 2000s the stadium had been fully neglected, covered with weeds and with an aboveground heating duct lying across the field. 

Multifunctional complex at Mytnaya Street © Ostozhenka
Multifunctional complex at Mytnaya Street. Location plan © Ostozhenka


The work on designing started more than ten years ago, in 2003 and the stadium was not planned for preserving then. Having an opportunity to use the whole site the architects have suggested connecting low-rise houses (up to 9 floors) into a closed composition, akin to a Roman arena built along the perimeter of the inner courtyard. In order to compensate for the football ground the architects proposed to create a sporting cluster inside the stylobate, with a mini-football field, fitness-club, universal gym and a pool. Besides, offices were included into the housing estate – an innovational idea for that time that became widely popular in Moscow only later.      

The project was welcomed both by the client, and the city. But after some time, the city government decided to save “Trud”, one of the oldest Moscow stadiums, to modernize it and make it a training football field. Surely, the whole project had to be completely reviewed – within other limits, sizes and sites. Having lost a considerable part of the construction site, the estate has immediately grown vertically – from nine to almost thirteen floors – and shifted deeper into the site. One of the architects – Valeriy Kanyashin – says that first the authors wanted to restore the building line with eliminating the “bay” of the stadium by construction of a low-rise office building along the frontage line. Later on, when the architects got into the spirit of the local history, they decided that the city has gotten used to this court of honor with a small park behind an old pre-war fence. To build a house here means to deprive the place of its history. As a result, the park has been preserved together with the stadium and the fence – renovated. The office center has been attached to the high residential towers of the complex at the back of the site.  

Multifunctional complex at Mytnaya Street. Development drawing along Mytnaya Street. At the background, the towers of "Constellation Capital 1" (built by Ostozhenka earlier) are to be seen © Ostozhenka

           
And it was the stadium with its grandstands that became the core of the final composition of the complex; it has become a bit smaller and is surrounded with buildings of varying heights. The long office center – rising higher as it approaches the tower buildings – is situated deep in the site, along its extended border. Four residential towers are densely composed in the northern part of the lot, taking up only about a hectare – a third of the territory. The similar towers, trapezoidal in plan, are placed evenly but broadly on the stylobate, whose “horseshoe” form opens towards Mytnaya Street. Yet months of work lie beyond the seemingly unobtrusive lightness of this picturesque arrangement. Valeriy Kanyashin explains that besides the challenges connected with providing comfortable insolation on a rather limited lot the architects had to consider all possible scenery spots, even the most distant ones. For instance, from a view on Vavilova Street, located rather far from Mytnaya, the towers were not supposed to screen the domes of Donskoy Monastery. And this is only one example. The authors turned the towers around, moved them, changed places, made them lower or higher. The final version satisfied everyone, including the future residents, since the visual deficiency in “air” and open spaces outside is not felt inside the apartments. The discovered configuration of houses and masterful planning of apartments provide the residents with views of the city. You can hardly see the neighboring buildings out of the windows.

Multifunctional complex at Mytnaya Street. Plan of the first floor © Ostozhenka


Multifunctional complex at Mytnaya Street © Ostozhenka


Despite the fact that in its foundation the complex steps back from the frontage line of the street, the tower tops fix this line anyway, forming a corridor of façade walls. The bend of the massive houses turning towards Mytnaya Street and reminding pillars of some gigantic bridge, reveals the authors’ wish to restore the city-planning justice. Of course, they had to preserve history and delicately step away. Such approach is typical for “Ostozhenka”. But we must not forget their skill of working with context, their fine sense of the city and ability to find the right architectural solutions. The slanting waving “flags” of the tower tops create a special intensity during movement along the street. The “cesure” of the stadium is not that obvious in the perspective.       

Having found the best composition choice, the architects of “Ostozhenka” decided to fill the estate with contrasting vivid colors, despite the sizes of it. It should be mentioned that in the original version the houses were designed in cool coloring with prevailing grey and blue tones, quite suited for its realtor name Sky House. But in the end, the rich, colorful “fall” palette replaced the sky colors. It is the sandy ochre, burgundy brown and black pixels of tinted glass. This solution, according to Valeriy Kanyashin, comes from the impossibility to unite the whole diverse street development in one architectural concept. The contradictory proximity of intact old houses and the new ones – among those the early complex of “Ostozhenka” and “English Quarter” of Mikhail Belov and the panel housing of “P-44” – did not allow to follow one design and not come into collision with the others. “So we decided not to look back on what stands around, and not to repeat anything. A new complex is a contrastive gesture. The towers look too high and outstanding anyway, we could not hide them because we made them completely different altogether”, – says Valeriy Kanyashin.

Multifunctional complex at Mytnaya Street © Ostozhenka
       

Nevertheless, the vertically-oriented pixel mosaic of the facades fits in the environment in its way, and reacts to it conceiving the city landscape from the point of view of a pointillist painting: the warm red and yellow panels crowd together closer to the neighboring houses and become rarer at the top, towards the sky. When the sun comes out and the sky is reflected in the glass, this attempt of the large towers to dissolve will become more convincing – although we know that it is impossible to camouflage such volumes completely with any visual effects. But besides dissolving, the pixel coloring serves for another purpose – it fully confuses the rhythm of the windows, and so turning the house into a sculptural volume from a rational checked block. The architects of “Ostozhenka” already have some experience with such artistic camouflaging: think of the housing complex “Vesna” on Kievskoye Highway, or even better the residential complex “Panorama” in Presnenskiy District – all made of complicate patchwork of differently toned glass reflecting and dividing the city views. There is a different history here – the houses are sooner variegated than united and the glass is unevenly transparent which adds tinges to the impressionist picture: it is one view in the morning and another in the evening. The architect as project manager of all the three complexes is Valeriy Kanyashin which leads to certain conclusions about the development of his style. Today, a pixel coloring is nothing new – and due to the house building company it is even getting boring – but think of the fact that this housing estate was started long ago, and looks fresh even now, as if cut out of some colorful latticed aluminum material. 

Multifunctional complex at Mytnaya Street © Ostozhenka


Multifunctional complex at Mytnaya Street © Ostozhenka


The history of the project is a history of overcoming: the changing terms, requirements of the city and the clients that also kept changing – the project was started by “Capital Group” company and ended by MCG; the rejection of the sizes and colors by the citizens, the authors’ doubts and constant search of compromise. The design works and implementation were not done by “Ostozhenka”, but by “Mosproject”, although the authors tried to keep the task in sight. Despite all the challenges of the long process, the complex designed fifteen years ago meets all requirements of today. Maybe only apartments are much larger than today’s standard. The complex thoughtfully includes public functions and high-quality development of the adjacent area with a small park where cars can drive into only for passenger drop-off. In one of the towers there is a kindergarten connected by a bridge and a stylobate. There are playgrounds and sports areas on the green roof of the stylobate, inside it – there is a pool with a 25-meter bowl, a large multifunctional gym, shooting galleries, hobby groups, a mini-hotel, café, restaurant and shops. In a word – everything that ensures a comfortable life even inside a dense urbanized environment.        
Multifunctional complex at Mytnaya Street. Plan of the -1st floor © Ostozhenka
Multifunctional complex at Mytnaya Street. Plan of the 0 floor © Ostozhenka
Multifunctional complex at Mytnaya Street. Section view © Ostozhenka
Multifunctional complex at Mytnaya Street. Section view © Ostozhenka


06 November 2015

Headlines now
Daring Brilliance
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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.
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.
Water and Wind Whet the Stone
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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.
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.
The Heart Lies Within
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Magnetic Forces
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Orion’s Belt
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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.
Exposed Concrete
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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.
Chalet on the Rock
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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.
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.
Field of Life
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.