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Portentous and Polite

Kazakhstan's city of Uralsk is seeing the completion of the construction of a business center designed by UNK project. The building merges with the sky and interacts as a peer with the historical environment of the city.

21 March 2016
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The not-too-favorable economic situation made all the market players pay attention not only to high-profile projects but also to those that, if judged solely by their parameters, could look nothing but ordinary - and it must be said that it is such "low-profile" projects that constitute the bulk of the city fabric. A seemingly utopian question - how to build inexpensively, simply, up to quality standards, functionally and attractively - obviously gets different (and sometimes even practicable!) answers. UNK project proposed its own new solution for administration buildings in small remote areas and built the business center "Zhaikmunai" in Uralsk. 

The city of Uralsk is situated at the border between Russia and Kazakhstan, and, modest though it may seem, back in the day it used to be widely known as an important Cossack center (it was from this city that Pugachev's uprising once started). By the second half of the XIX century it became a large trade and commerce center. Actually, it is these low-rise buildings (generally 3 to 5 floors max) that still prevail in the central part of the town. In addition, this place preserved a few red-brick merchant houses of the late XIX century; they are located quite near the new business center. 

The building with an area slightly over 5000 square meters was initially meant to be occupied by a single leaseholder: TOO "Zhaikmunai", the daughter company of Nostrum Oil & Gas. The size and the main parameters of the building were already defined by the project prepared by the local architects, and they even got all the appropriate approvals. However, the proposed solutions did not quite satisfy the "advanced" customer. Commenting to do the work, the architects of UNK project found themselves in an uneasy situation: they were to revise the project to make it answer the requirements of A-Class business centers, at the same time making no changes to the already-approved figures and values, and inscribing the building gracefully into the existing (rather patriarchal) surroundings. "The size of the approved volume was strongly overstated, and looked like a clumsy misplaced "suitcase" - says the chief architect of the project, Julius Borisov - Making it interact with the city environment was only part of the task; what we ultimately were after was setting the quality level of architecture, capable of making a positive difference to the further development of the city. Add to this the remoteness of the project, and the absence of reliable manpower - which limited our choice of materials and technologies: everything was to be done as simple as possible". 

It was decided that "marrying" the complex with the surrounding buildings would be done by using the basic of the basics of all building materials - the brick. In addition, despite the modest budget, the architects opted out of trying to save up on the main material of construction and artistic expression, settling on the Dutch hand-formed brick. "The quality of the building is to a large extent defined not by its volumes and lines alone - Julius Borisov explains - but by its tactile feel. We did a thorough research of Uralsk's historical buildings but we refrained from so much as attempting to imitate their brickwork or façade finish. The brick that we're using is totally different but it also possesses a pronounced texture, an identity of its own, a certain warmth, if you like. Thanks to this, a certain dialogue develops, also supported by the habitual details such as pylons or the tell-tale pilasters on the façades". 

"Zhaikmunai" buiness center. Construction, 2015. Photo © Maxim Pismenov
"Zhaikmunai" buiness center. Construction, 2015. Photo © Maxim Pismenov


"Zhaikmunai" buiness center. Construction, 2015. Photo © Maxim Pismenov


Solving the issue of the dimensions of the building being at odds with the surroundings was made possible by using a few tricks at once. The architects singled out into a peculiar "mansard" the topmost VIP-floor and the maintenance premises above it. Thanks to its unexpected rounding, the volume of the building grew more sophisticated, and there appeared even an open terrace on the corner. This entire topmost part got "clad" in vertical lamellae of anodized aluminum capable at some moments to merge with the sky, especially when it is of a light-gray color; this makes the building look lower. Also important is the fact that the management of the company got the required level of visual protection from the windows of the neighboring buildings situated at a close range. 

"Zhaikmunai" buiness center. Construction, 2015. Photo © Alexander Khokhlachev


The main volume of the business center has five floors in it. However, the windows of the second and third, as well as fourth and fifth stores are paired together, and the façade reads as a three-level one. In addition, the architects fractured the elongated volume vertically by covering the central part above the entrance with aluminum lamellae, and "shortened" it by using the same lamellae to cover the side section of the wall (behind it, the restrooms are actually situated, so this solution is also a functional one). The lateral wall is also covered in lamellae - when viewed from this vantage point, the building completely disappears against the sky. The sudden curve of the outer shell that conceals the firewall with a fire escape continues the "disguise" - the boring and bulky parallelepiped disappears without so much as leaving a trace. 

"Zhaikmunai" buiness center. Construction, 2015. Photo © Maxim Pismenov


To cap it all, the open brick and the aluminum will not require of the owner of the building any excessive expenses to maintain them even in the realities of the local seasonal inland climate with its huge temperature drop, harsh winds, severe frosts in winter, and unbearable heat in summer. According to Julius Borisov, this peculiarly is also indicative of the quality of the project. "Our architects have learned the trick of mobilizing all of their resources and coming up with some truly brilliant project; what we are still missing, however, is the sturdy ordinary houses - he says - And this is particularly sad in view of the fact that such "average" buildings make up 85% of architects' work around the world. This is especially vital for small towns where high-quality up-to-date buildings are virtually non-existent. And one should stop complaining about the far distances, the absence of competent manpower, materials, and infrastructure - ultimately, this is all about professional design and effective management. Having thought out, while still in the preparation stage, all the elements, we were able to implement the project without in fact so much as leaving our office, only delegating our colleagues from the technical supervision department to the construction site. And this is quite a normal working situation. I think this economic recession will go a long way to "sober up" all the market players - actually, this is what's happening already".
"Zhaikmunai" buiness center. Construction, 2015. Photo © Maxim Pismenov
"Zhaikmunai" buiness center. Construction, 2015. Photo © Maxim Pismenov
"Zhaikmunai" buiness center. Construction, 2015. Photo © Alexander Khokhlachev
"Zhaikmunai" buiness center. Plan of the 1st floor. Construction, 2015. Photo © UNK Project
"Zhaikmunai" buiness center. Plan of the typical floor. Construction, 2015. Photo © UNK Project


21 March 2016

Headlines now
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.
Birds and Streams
For the competition to design the Omsk airport, DNK ag formed a consortium, inviting VOX architects and Sila Sveta. Their project focuses on intersections, journeys, and flights – both of people and birds – as Omsk is known as a “transfer point” for bird migrations. The educational component is also carefully considered, and the building itself is filled with light, which seems to deconstruct the copper circle of the central entrance portal, spreading it into fantastic hyper-spatial “slices”.
Faraday Grid
The project of the Omsk airport by ASADOV Architects is another concept among the 14 finalists of a recent competition. It is called “The Bridge” and is inspired by both the West Siberian Exhibition of 1911 and the Trans-Siberian Railway bridge over the Irtysh River, built in 1896. On one hand, it carries a steampunk vibe, while on the other, there’s almost a sense of nostalgia for the heyday of 1913. However, the concept offers two variants, the second one devoid of nostalgia but featuring a parabola.
Midway upon the Journey of Our Life
Recently, Tatlin Publishing House released a book entitled “Architect Sergey Oreshkin. Selected Projects”. This book is not just a traditional book of the architectural company’s achievements, but rather a monograph of a more personal nature. The book includes 43 buildings as well as a section with architectural drawings. In this article, we reflect on the book as a way to take stock of an architect’s accomplishments.