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A Hard Luck Project

A story of a project based upon an equitable dialogue between a new building and the remodeled façade of a demolished tenement being able to maintain its right to sport the contemporary-style design in the new part of the building.

24 December 2015
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The land site in question is located within the industrial park of the Petrograd Side, not far away from the old Tram Depot #3. Running in the vicinity of the Avstriyskaya ("Austrian") Square, the neat and tidy Mira Street turns at this point into something crumbly and incoherent: the remains of what historical buildings are left here neighbor on soviet-era panel "slabs" and structures of a purely utilitarian nature. Recently, such places become increasingly attractive to developers which manifests itself in the growing number of inclusions of modern architecture and even greater quantity of architectural proposals and concepts based upon this idea.

One of such proposals is the project of a residential complex prepared by the studio of Anatoliy Stolyarchuk and due to be implemented at the crossing of Mira and Kotovsky streets. The project had a fair share of hard luck: first of all, it was the necessity of demolishing (and subsequently restoring the facade of) the historical building designed by Dmitry Krzhyzhanovsky. And, although the old tenement was recognized to be a hazard building and all of the people living in it had long since moved into new apartments, the city preservation activists made repeated attempts to challenge in court the municipality's decision about demolishing it. Second of all, finding an understanding with the customer was also far from easy. 

Multiapartment building at Mira Street. Project, 2014 © Anatoliy Stolyarchuk Architectural Studio
Multiapartment building at Mira Street. Project, 2014. Location plan © Anatoliy Stolyarchuk Architectural Studio


Multiapartment building at Mira Street. Project, 2014. Location plan © Anatoliy Stolyarchuk Architectural Studio


First about the project itself, though! The authors had a high-responsibility task of "tying in" the new building to the historical one - a humble specimen of Saint Petersburg's tenements with characteristic Art Nouveau features. In town planning terms, the architects were to visually fasten the corner of the crossroads - completely unstructured as yet - and give the amorphous housing a more regular character. The disappearance of the green yard opened up to the Kotovsky Street, will be made up for at the expense of taking down a two-story annex standing in the yard.

The project of Stolyarchuk studio included this recreated historical volume as a part of a balanced composition with an almost symmetrical plan in the shape of giant "double L" stretched hugely apart, this historical volume given the role of one of the risalits. The first floor will perform public functions, just as the two floors of the building along the Kotovsky Street. Higher up, the typical residential floors are situated. At a height of 23 meters, the wall stands out a little: this is where the sightseeing platform for the people living in the loft is situated (the cornice running at a height of 28 meters). Formed by the risalits, the compact yard has two passages in it: along the Mira Street and along the Kotovsky Street.

Multiapartment building at Mira Street. Project, 2014. © Anatoliy Stolyarchuk Architectural Studio


Multiapartment building at Mira Street. Plan of the 1st floor. Project, 2014 © Anatoliy Stolyarchuk Architectural Studio


Multiapartment building at Mira Street. Plan of the typical floor. Project, 2014 © Anatoliy Stolyarchuk Architectural Studio


While the construction plan is to a large extent conditioned by the shape of the land site, the choice of the style for the new building was open and was also the more challenging part because of its Art Nouveau facade. The idea of historical stylization - considering the increase in the scale and considering the overall changes in the composition - was pretty soon discarded by the authors to give way to the modern vocabulary, rather neutral, but still not altogether alien to Krzhizhanovsky's architecture. 

The building's main façade that towers three floors above the old cornice, looks at the Kotovsky Street with its austere gray surface dissected by a graphic pattern of punctured lines. The general symmetry of its axial composition is distracted by a protrusion of one of the side walls of the former tenement adjoining the building's firewall. This corner junction of the two side walls got a design solution based upon the contrast of simple geometric volumes, as well as their texture and color, which perfectly matches the key town-planning part that it is meant to play. Through the corner cutaway of its lateral entrance, the theme of the tenement continues over at the main façade. Considering it dimensions, increased in comparison with its historical neighbor, the authors looked to balance out the overall impression with neutral style and light color of the finish. The part of the main accents here is played by the central arch with a modernized lunette and a red-brick figure stanza uniting the two top floors. Their color and axial position match the central bay window in the Krzhizhanovsky's building. 

Multiapartment building at Mira Street. Project, 2014 © Anatoliy Stolyarchuk Architectural Studio


Out of the multitude of the existing ways of interacting with the historical context out there, the authors of the project chose the way of, though respectful, equitable and open stylistic dialogue between the modern and the historical. However, it was the style of the building that became the stumbling block in the architects' relationship with the customer, in the result of which the project winning a silver award at "Arkhitekton-2013" was turned down by the customer who then invited a different company to design the project.

This was not how the story ended, however. The "alternative" project fell under hard criticism from the city council: the new designer tried to take the path that Stolyarchuk had originally discarded - meaning, he decorated the new buildings with eclectic "historicism" elements. Ultimately, the customer was forced to turn back to Anatoliy Stolyarchuk for compromise. At the end of the day, Stolyarchuk's studio got the commission for designing the facades and getting them approved in the Committee for City Planning and Architecture and the Committee on State Control, Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Landmarks. 

Multiapartment building at Mira Street. Development drawing along the Kotovsky Street. Project, 2014 © Anatoliy Stolyarchuk Architectural Studio


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Multiapartment building at Mira Street. Development drawing along the Mira Street. Project, 2014 © Anatoliy Stolyarchuk Architectural Studio


This story, in spite of its somewhat softened end, is rather sad, and, what's more upsetting, not quite unique. There are lots of cases out there when a customer, upon getting a concept from a renowned company with a long-standing reputation, hands that concept over for further elaboration (or, should we say "fed to the lions", not to put too fine a point on it) to a different company with a task to cut the costs as much as possible. Although in this particular case the situation is a little bit different, it still goes a long way to illustrate just how vulnerable the architect (and, ultimately, the end consumer) is in the face of the overall decline in the demand for high-quality architecture.

The economic crisis did things to the construction schedule but we will hope that the place where once the demolished historical ruin stood will ultimately get a new up-to-date complex keeping the memory of the place and at the same time matching today's standards of what urban environment must be like.
Multiapartment building at Mira Street. Plan of the loft. Project, 2014 © Anatoliy Stolyarchuk Architectural Studio


24 December 2015

Headlines now
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.
​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”.
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.
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”.
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.
​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.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
The “Staircase” Building
In designing the “Details” residential complex in New Moscow, Rais Baishev spiced up the now-popular Moscow theme of a “courtyard” building with an idea drawn from the surrealist drawings by Maurits Escher. He envisioned the stepped silhouettes and descending slopes as a metaphysical mega-staircase, creating a key void within the courtyard that gave the project an internal “spine”. This concept is felt both in the building’s silhouette and on its façades.
Projection of the Quarter
No one doubted that the building that Vladimir Plotkin designed as part of the “Garden Quarters” would be the most modernist of all. And it turned out just that way: while adhering to the common design code, the building successfully combines brick and white stone, rhythmically responding to the neighboring building designed by Ostozhenka, yet tactfully and persistently making a few statements of its own. This includes the projection of the ideal urban development composition “14–9–6”, which can be found right next door, mathematical calculations, including those for various types of terraces (and perhaps the only reminder of the Soviet past of the Kauchuk rubber factory!), and the white “cross-stitch” pattern of the façade grid.
Domus Aurea
In this issue, we examine the “Tessinsky-1” house, designed by Sergey Skuratov and completed in 2023. Located in the middle of the Serebryanicheskaya Embankment district, at the intersection of its main streets, this house assumes a sort of “nodal” role: it not only responds to everything around it and preserves many memories of the former EMA factory within itself, but it weaves all this into a newly directed pattern, reconciling bright “gold” and dark-colored brick, largely with the help of the new, modern-yet-archaic Columba brick, which, come to think about it, is the most precious element here.
The Chimney of Nikola-Lenivets
In this issue, we are examining the “Obelisk House” designed by KATARSIS and built for the Arkhstoyanie 2023 festival. However, it was only finished later on, and this is why we are examining it now. It seems to us that after the “Obelisk House” appeared in Nikola-Lenivets, a dialogue and a few inner connections appeared between the temporary structures built here. These houses no longer look like “accidental neighbors”, more of which below.
​Periscope by the Bay
The jury awarded the second place in the competition for a public and cultural center in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the companies GORA (“Mountain”) and M4. In the consortium’s proposal, the building resembles a sperm whale with a calf swimming next to it or a periscope, whose lenses capture the most spectacular views from the surrounding landscape.
From Arcs to Dolmens
While working on the competition project for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, ASADOV Architects prioritized the value of the natural and urban environment, aiming to preserve the balance of the location while minimizing the resemblance of the volume that they designed to a “traditional building”. The task was challenging, and the architects created three versions, one of which having been developed after the competition, where their main proposal took third place. However, the point of interest here is not the competition result but the continuity of creative thinking.
Hide and Seek
The ID Moskovskiy house, designed by Stepan Liphart in St. Petersburg, in the courtyards near Moskovskiy Avenue beyond the Obvodny Canal and recently completed, is notable for several reasons. Firstly, it has been realized with considerable accuracy, which is particularly significant as this is the first building where the architect was responsible not only for the facades but also for the layouts, allowing for better integration between the two. On the other hand, this building is interesting as an example of the “germination” of new architecture in the city: it draws on the best examples from the neighborhood and becomes an improved and developed sum of ideas found by the architect in the surrounding context.
The Big Twelve
Yesterday, the winners of the Moscow Mayor’s Architecture Award were announced and honored. Let’s take a look at what was awarded and, in some cases, even critique this esteemed award. After all, there is always room for improvement, right?
Above the Golden Horn
The residential complex “Philosophy” designed by T+T architects in Vladivostok, is one of the new projects in the “Golubinaya Pad” area, changing its development philosophy (pun intended) from single houses to a comprehensive approach. The buildings are organized along public streets, varying in height and format, with one house even executed in gallery typology, featuring a cantilever leaning on an art object.
Nuanced Alternative
How can you rhyme a square and space? Easily! But to do so, you need to rhyme everything you can possibly think of: weave everything together, like in a tensegrity structure, and find your own optics too. The new exhibition at GES-2 does just that, offering its visitor a new perspective on the history of art spanning 150 years, infused with the hope for endless multiplicity of worlds and art histories. Read on to see how this is achieved and how the exhibition design by Evgeny Ace contributes to it.
Blinds for Ice
An ice arena has been constructed in Domodedovo based on a project by Yuri Vissarionov Architects. To prevent the long façade, a technical requirement for winter sports facilities, from appearing monotonous, the architects proposed the use of suspended structures with multidirectional slats. This design protects the ice from direct sunlight while giving the wall texture and detail.
Frozen Magma
A competition for the creation of a public and cultural center was held in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Three architectural companies made it to the final, and we consider it important to share about the work of each. Let’s start with the winner – the consortium led by Wowhaus.
Campus within a Day
In this article, we talk about what the participants of Genplan Institute of Moscow’s hackathon were doing at the MosComArchitecture booth at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition. We also discuss who won the prize and why, and what can be done with the territory of a small university on the outskirts of Moscow.
Vertical Civilization
Genpro considered the development of the vertical city concept and made it the theme of their pavilion at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition.
Marina Yegorova: “We think in terms of hectares, not square meters”
The career path of architect Marina Yegorova is quite impressive: MARHI, SPEECH, MosComArchitectura, the Genplan Institute of Moscow, and then her own architectural company. Its name Empate, which refers to the words “to draw” in Portuguese and “to empathize” in English, should not be misleading with its softness, as the firm freely works on different scales, including Integrated Territorial Development projects. We talked with Marina about various topics: urban planning experience, female leadership style, and even the love of architects for yachting.
Andrey Chuikov: “Optimum balance is achieved through economics”
The Yekaterinburg-based architectural company CNTR is in its mature stage: crystallization of principles, systematization, and standardization helped it make a qualitative leap, enhance competencies, and secure large contracts without sacrificing the aesthetic component. The head of the company, Andrey Chuikov, told us about building a business model and the bonuses that additional education in financial management provides for an architect.
The Fulcrum
Ostozhenka Architects have designed two astonishing towers practically on the edge of a slope above the Oka River in Nizhny Novgorod. These towers stand on 10-meter-tall weathered steel “legs”, with each floor offering panoramic views of the river and the city; all public spaces, including corridors, receive plenty of natural light. Here, we see a multitude of solutions that are unconventional for the residential routine of our day and age. Meanwhile, although these towers hark back to the typological explorations of the seventies, they are completely reinvented in a contemporary key. We admire Veren Group as the client – this is exactly how a “unique product” should be made – and we tell you exactly how our towers are arranged.
Crystal is Watching You
Right now, Museum Night has kicked off at the Museum of Architecture, featuring a fresh new addition – the “Crystal of Perception”, an installation by Sergey Kuznetsov, Ivan Grekov, and the KROST company, set up in the courtyard. It shimmers with light, it sings, it reacts to the approach of people, and who knows what else it can do.
The Secret Briton
The house is called “Little France”. Its composition follows the classical St. Petersburg style, with a palace-like courtyard. The decor is on the brink of Egyptian lotuses, neo-Greek acroteria, and classic 1930s “gears”; the recessed piers are Gothic, while the silhouette of the central part of the house is British. It’s quite interesting to examine all these details, attempting to understand which architectural direction they belong to. At the same time, however, the house fits like a glove in the context of the 20th line of St. Petersburg’s Vasilievsky Island; its elongated wings hold up the façade quite well.
The Wrap-Up
The competition project proposed by Treivas for the first 2021 competition for the Russian pavilion at EXPO 2025 concludes our series of publications on pavilion projects that will not be implemented. This particular proposal stands out for its detailed explanations and the idea of ecological responsibility: both the facades and the exhibition inside were intended to utilize recycled materials.