Borderline House

The residential complex that Nikita Yavein built in Kronstadt is low-rise and cost-efficient but, at the same time, it has a lot of unusual and interesting points to it, all the more so if we are to consider this project in the context of the "standardization" trend that is so characteristic of the Russian residential construction today.

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

25 May 2016

Object

The city of Kronstadt is a place that is unusual in itself. This island strung on the dam supporting the Saint Petersburg Ring Road is a garrison town and at the same time historical and architectural monument. A fragment of Saint Petersburg, pristine and upright, even if a little bit battered, but its miniature version, very much like a scale model, mostly three stories high… At the same time, the outskirts of the town are spoiled a bit by the inclusions of the soviet-era silicon brick houses, crude fences, and checkpoints of a much-too-military appearance. It was exactly in such a place, between a long building of the so-called "defense barracks", built in the early XIX century, and the cozy Posadskaya Street - but also next to untidy fences and unkempt five-story affairs - that the new residential complex appeared, bearing the name of "Amazon", characteristic of our days but still not a wild fantasy of one of the developers but a namesake of one of the local water channels.

We shared about this residential project back in 2013 when its construction was drawing to a close. Now it is completed, and, judging by the photos, the deviations from the original idea are minimal.

The architecture of the complex is responsive to the peculiarities of the outskirts of the historical Kronstadt. First of all, the complex is only three stories high, with a one-level parking garage that (because of the place's complex hydrology) shows up a meter and a half above the ground, thus getting called "semi-underground". The three floors were, first of all, conditioned by the height restrictions of the protected zone that the town of Kronstadt is: they echo the height of the old barracks and the Posadskaya Street. However, I could venture a guess that "pulling up" the height of the buildings and increasing the number of floors would not be all that difficult in this case - with the already-mentioned five-story houses and the Stalin-era and a bit late-classicism house of the officers' families standing nearby. There are four-story houses even in the next yard. However, Nikita Yavein got back to the "roots" scale of the Posadskaya Street and "stretched" the building typology that it sets westward where, behind a fence though it is, the sea is spread. And the low-rise houses of the same kind that stand next to the sea remind of Holland where such two and three-story townhouses are quite a common sight at the of outskirts of many cities. In a word, as if following the dream of Peter the Great, a fan of all things Dutch, from boots to boats, this place got yet another contrast shade - the historical and geographical one. God only knows whether this fragment of a sea fortress will turn into a "piece of Holland" - but, as far as the scale of the project goes, this can already be considered a good start.

zooming — "Amazon" residential complex. Side facade. Construction, 2015 © Studio 44

The plan of the complex is a direct descendant of Saint Petersburg's courtyards and it follows the contemporary "quarter planning trend". The yards, however, are unusually long, two of them being closed almost completely with the exception of a rear side pedestrian passage and an emergency driving entrance across from it; the middle yard being open to the Zosimova Street and looking like the court d'honeur of a large Saint Petersburg tenement of the early XX century. The axial "square" courtyard, however, interacts with the Posadskaya Street as well that stops the quarter from the east side: if one is to exit the complex, turn right, then right again, and look at the Posadskaya Street from the point where it crosses the Surgina Street, he will see a similar lineup of houses, long lawns, and a fronton in the perspective. This place, however, is pretty far away, so the architectural rhymes turn out to be not visual but rather speculative and contextual; this looks like an "inside charade" for those who is ready to guess that the architect sort of "grew" a semblance of the "provincial Saint Petersburg" inside the nucleus of his project.

But let us take a look at the complex from the inside. In this day and age, when experimenting with typology seems to be left in the past, ousted by the standardized residential projects, this house is virtually a daring experiment. It's not that something entirely new and groundbreaking was invented here - but the apartment range here is rather wide, as if designed in the spirit of the modern European ideal that strives to bring the various social levels closer together.

The most spacious apartments, from 70 to 100 square meters, are placed in the quietest transverse volumes between the court d'honeur and the inside yards. In this part of the complex, the three floors have in them to apartment tiers, three half-levels each, connected with staircases. The apartments on the first floors are accessed from the "square" courtyard on a level with the city pavement; the doors are hidden in deep niches. Getting inside, one passes from the entrance lobby to a room of the first tier or goes up the staircase a meter and a half up to a larger room that provides an exit to the courtyard resting on top of the underground garage that stands up and out, as we remember, a meter and a half above the ground. In the yard, these apartments have their own little gardens, the entrance to which is designed in the form as a deep stanza balcony from where, hopefully, people will comfortably watch the Kronstadt warm summer rain. The room that has an exit to the yard is in fact a drawing room with a kitchen adjoining it. Ascending the staircase another meter and a half, we find ourself in the master bedroom, already on the second floor. It takes up but three rooms all in all.

The entrance to the apartments on the second floor is organized on the side of the "square" yard as an tambour sticking out, from where a two-flight stairway leads to a landing for two apartments, left and right. These apartments have four rooms each, and they are larger. First we get into the living room overlooking the yard, just like on the first floor, then ascend the stairs to the two rooms overlooking the square (these can be possibly used as bedrooms); still a little bit higher, there is yet another spacious room that can also be used as the living room or the master study, the room has a balcony overlooking the yard. The apartments on the first floor are perceived as the Italian piano terreno, while the upper ones - as piano nobile; they look like the top deal of this residential project, even if difficult to get to by the staircase. The structure of the inside "elite" units is sectional.

The structure of the outside units is designed in a more fractured manner; a-room-and-a-kitchen apartments alternate here with tiny "pencil-box" studios. To compensate, this section has an elevator, and the apartments of the first floor are raised above the ground to the height of the yard pavement level; the street is commanded by quite tiny stanza balconies. The narrow "fence" building that separates the complex from the unkempt neighboring territory also has planning peculiarities of its own. It includes an elevator, three-room and two-level apartments, connected inside by an almost-spiral staircase. The northeast sidewall of this unit, one that is turned to the Surgina Street and adjoining the jagged border of the land site, has a Saint Petersburg-style cutaway - which, again, forms a "pencil-box" apartment, only a double-room this time and enriched by a comparatively large stanza on its sidewall. The longitudinal units, especially the "fence" house, show elements of "corridor" gallery planning.

Some diversity of the plans in combination with their predominant modesty, to the point of being self-effacing at times, fully correlates with the notion of a historical city, both Saint Petersburg where one can encounter lots of different things, and the Dutch or maybe even British examples with their abundance of inside staircases. But also, somewhere at the back of one's mind, there lurk the avant-garde experiments with their love of corridors and miniature studios, diversity of combinations and planning options. One should hardly mention that in the current Russian situation, very obstructive to any experiments, this project looks very much like one of its kind - more, it looks like it was born out of some weird combination of conditions of a Kronstadt (military?) commission, some "borderline" specifications because it stands literally on the windowsill of Russia's "window to Europe", as Saint Petersburg is commonly called in this country. Some part here, of course, must have been played by the beliefs of Nikita Yavein, an architect who is very much into avant-garde and experiments.

From the point of view of its outward appearance, the project looks rather ordinary at first sight. Furthermore, the combination of red brick with frontons and the jagged, sometimes to the point of being rough, outlines will quite possibly scare a snob away. What the architectural snob will see first of all will be the project's resemblance to Moscow-area "wannabe" castles - which will drive him away, disgusted. He would be wrong to run away, though. The most "scary" thing here is the red color of the bricks - yes, over the recent years we've grown allergic to it. However, taking a closer look, one will see that this red has in fact two shades of color: higher up, at the attic level, it is lighter. The railings are painted gray, and one would want the opaque glitter of pure metal; the rainwater pipes are exposed. In addition if one is to compare the complex to the original project he will see that some of the details were sacrificed in the construction process in order to cut costs. One can only lament the absence of the wooden inserts and the striped shutters that could have manifold enhance the feeling of class and quality of the decoration job and European associations. And – show me a Russian architect who has not run into such problems! But then again, the framework of the original idea is undoubtedly there.

To my mind, this is exactly the case when a not at all glamorous house is truly rich in high-quality architecture. In addition to the already described diversity of the apartments, the façades are interested in their polyrhythms of recessions, protrusions, niches, and cutaways. The proportions of the windows change from the narrow verticals, gathered in a square "lath" pattern in the bottom part to the ones devoid of fascias on the third floor and covered with the flat cornice or the roof very much like the teeth of a fortress wall; the latter are echoed by the attics in the yards - all these devices put together play the inevitable "fortress" theme of Kronstadt.

However, what brings out the best in these façades is, to my mind, the white stone inserts. Some of them - the small obviously decorative ones – also had to go. The reserved and brutalist conception tilted once again in the direction of simplification. However, what remained was the cornice that separated the attic floor from the rest of the building and the large snow-white "slabs" that visually support both the arches of the emergency driving entrances and the bay windows. What is important here is the fact that the authors were able to keep the snow-white coating on the entrance tambours clad in Nikita Yavein's favorite "anti-rock-face" where the smooth polished stone alternates with what indeed is the "rock-face" coating. In conjunction with the sun tubes that light the staircases (originally, they were not there in the project, they got added along the way) - the main courtyard took on some unexpected Rome-like quality. These rugged strips fill the project with a whole new meaning framing both the "square" yard and the wall of the complex that runs along the Zosimova Street.

Saying that the house is not that simple would probably be an understatement. It is mesmerizing. It reminds of the postwar construction that the legend ascribes to "captive Germans": such houses are quite common in many Russian cities, for example, in Tver; they are two or three stories high, some of them sport frontons. It puts one in the mind of the suburbs of European cities, not just Dutch, and even not just overbuilt with townhouses - for example, the district of Vaksali in the Estonian city of Tartu with its Alvar Aalto memorial house is resonant with the complex under study with its combinations of glass vertical with tiny square windows, wide range of shapes, and the hints at the classic elements of the avant-garde "inside-out". In a word, it is an interesting house. It stands up against the Russian tradition of inside simplification of the dwelling combined with its outward brightness; which, probably makes it ultimately so valuable.

25 May 2016

Headlines now

The Mirror of Your Soul

We continue to publish projects from the competition for the design of the Russian Pavilion at EXPO in Osaka 2025. We are reminding you that the results of the competition have not been announced, and hardly will ever be. The pavilion designed by ASADOV Architects combines a forest log cabin, the image of a hyper transition, and sculptures made of glowing threads – it focuses primarily on the scenography of the exhibition, which the pavilion builds sequentially like a string of impressions, dedicating it to the paradoxes of the Russian soul.

Part of the Ideal

In 2025, another World Expo will take place in Osaka, Japan, in which Russia will not participate. However, a competition for the Russian pavilion was indeed held, with six projects participating. The results were never announced as Russia’s participation was canceled; the competition has no winners. Nevertheless, Expo pavilion projects are typically designed for a bold and interesting architectural statement, so we’ve gathered all the six projects and will be publishing articles about them in random order. The first one is the project by Vladimir Plotkin and Reserve Union, which is distinguished by the clarity of its stereometric shape, the boldness of its structure, and the multiplicity of possible interpretations.

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The Fortress by the River

ASADOV Architects have developed a concept for a new residential district in the center of Kemerovo. To combat the harsh climate and monotonous everyday life, the architects proposed a block type of development with dominant towers, good insolation, facades detailed at eye level, and event programming.

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In the Rhombus Grid

Construction has begun on the building of the OMK (United Metallurgical Company) Corporate University in Nizhny Novgorod’s town of Vyksa, designed by Ostozhenka Architects. The most interesting aspect of the project is how the architects immersed it in the context: “extracting” a diagonal motif from the planning grid of Vyksa, they aligned the building, the square, and the park to match it. A truly masterful work with urban planning context on several different levels of perception has long since become the signature technique of Ostozhenka.

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Generational Connection

Another modern estate, designed by Roman Leonidov, is located in the Moscow region and brings together three generations of one family under one roof. To fit on a narrow plot without depriving anyone of personal space, the architects opted for a zigzag plan. The main volume in the house structure is accentuated by mezzanines with a reverse-sloped roof and ceilings featuring exposed beams.

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Three Dimensions of the City

We began to delve into the project by Sergey Skuratov, the residential complex “Depo” in Minsk, located at Victory Square, and it fascinated us completely. The project has at least several dimensions to it: historical – at some point, the developer decided to discontinue further collaboration with Sergey Skuratov Architects, but the concept was approved, and its implementation continues, mostly in accordance with the proposed ideas. The spatial and urban planning dimension – the architects both argue with the city and play along with it, deciphering nuances, and finding axes. And, finally, the tactile dimension – the constructed buildings also have their own intriguing features. Thus, this article also has two parts: it dwells on what has been built and what was conceived

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New “Flight”

Architects from “Mezonproject” have developed a project for the reconstruction of the regional youth center “Polyot”(“Flight”) in the city of Oryol. The summer youth center, built back in the late 1970s, will now become year-round and acquire many additional functions.

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The Yauza Towers

In Moscow, there aren’t that many buildings or projects designed by Nikita Yavein and Studio 44. In this article, we present to you the concept of a large multifunctional complex on the Yauza River, located between two parks, featuring a promenade, a crossroads of two pedestrian streets, a highly developed public space, and an original architectural solution. This solution combines a sophisticated, asymmetric façade grid, reminiscent of a game of fifteen puzzle, and bold protrusions of the upper parts of the buildings, completely masking the technical floors and sculpting the complex’s silhouette.

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Architecture and Leisure Park

For the suburban hotel complex, which envisages various formats of leisure, the architectural company T+T Architects proposed several types of accommodation, ranging from the classic “standard” in a common building to a “cave in the hill” and a “house in a tree”. An additional challenge consisted in integrating a few classic-style residences already existing on this territory into the “architectural forest park”.

Overview

The U-House

The Jois complex combines height with terraces, bringing the most expensive apartments from penthouses down to the bottom floors. The powerful iconic image of the U-shaped building is the result of the creative search for a new standard of living in high-rise buildings by the architects of “Genpro”.

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Black and White

In this article, we specifically discuss the interiors of the ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh. Interior design is a crucial component of the overall concept in this case, and precision and meticulous execution were highly important for the architects. Julia Tryaskina, head of UNK interiors, shares some of the developments.

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The “Snake” Mountain

The competition project for the seaside resort complex “Serpentine” combines several typologies: apartments of different classes, villas, and hotel rooms. For each of these typologies, the KPLN architects employ one of the images that are drawn from the natural environment – a serpentine road, a mountain stream, and rolling waves.

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Opal from Anna Mons’ Ring

The project of a small business center located near Tupolev Plaza and Radio Street proclaims the necessity of modern architecture in a specific area of Moscow commonly known as “Nemetskaya Sloboda” or “German settlement”. It substantiates its thesis with the thoroughness of details, a multitude of proposed and rejected form variants, and even a detailed description of the surrounding area. The project is interesting indeed, and it is even more interesting to see what will come of it.

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Feed ’Em All

A “House of Russian Cuisine” was designed and built by KROST Group at VDNKh for the “Rossiya” exhibition in record-breaking time. The pavilion is masterfully constructed in terms of the standards of modern public catering industry multiplied by the bustling cultural program of the exhibition, and it interprets the stylistically diverse character of VDNKh just as successfully. At the same time, much of its interior design can be traced back to the prototypes of the 1960s – so much so that even scenes from iconic Soviet movies of those years persistently come to mind.

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The Ensemble at the Mosque

OSA prepared a master plan for a district in the southern part of Derbent. The main task of the master plan is to initiate the formation of a modern comfortable environment in this city. The organization of residential areas is subordinated to the city’s spiritual center: depending on the location relative to the cathedral mosque, the houses are distinguished by façade and plastique solutions. The program also includes a “hospitality center”, administrative buildings, an educational cluster, and even an air bridge.

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Pargolovo Protestantism

A Protestant church is being built in St. Petersburg by the project of SLOI architects. One of the main features of the building is a wooden roof with 25-meter spans, which, among other things, forms the interior of the prayer hall. Also, there are other interesting details – we are telling you more about them.

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The Shape of the Inconceivable

The ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh brings to mind a famous maxim of all architects and critics: “You’ve come up with it? Now build it!” You rarely see such a selfless immersion in implementation of the project, and the formidable structural and engineering tasks set by UNK architects to themselves are presented here as an integral and important part of the architectural idea. The challenge matches the obliging status of the place – after all, it is an “exhibition of achievements”, and the pavilion is dedicated to the nuclear energy industry. Let’s take a closer look: from the outside, from the inside, and from the underside too.

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Rays of the Desert

A school for 1750 students is going to be built in Dubai, designed by IND Architects. The architects took into account the local specifics, and proposed a radial layout and spaces, in which the children will be comfortable throughout the day.

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The Dairy Theme

The concept of an office of a cheese-making company, designed for the enclosed area of a dairy factory, at least partially refers to industrial architecture. Perhaps that is why this concept is very simple, which seems the appropriate thing to do here. The building is enlivened by literally a couple of “master strokes”: the turning of the corner accentuates the entrance, and the shade of glass responds to the theme of “milk rivers” from Russian fairy tales.

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The Road to the Temple

Under a grant from the Small Towns Competition, the main street and temple area of the village of Nikolo-Berezovka near Neftekamsk has been improved. A consortium of APRELarchitects and Novaya Zemlya is turning the village into an open-air museum and integrating ruined buildings into public life.

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Towers Leaning Towards the Sun

The three towers of the residential complex “Novodanilovskaya 8” are new and the tallest neighbors of the Danilovsky Manufactory, “Fort”, and “Plaza”, complementing a whole cluster of modern buildings designed by renowned masters. At the same time, the towers are unique for this setting – they are residential, they are the tallest ones here, and they are located on a challenging site. In this article, we explore how architects Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova tackled this far-from-trivial task.

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In the spirit of ROSTA posters

The new Rostselmash tractor factory, conceptualized by ASADOV Architects, is currently being completed in Rostov-on-Don. References to the Soviet architecture of the 1920’s and 1960’s resonate with the mission and strategic importance of the enterprise, and are also in line with the client’s wish: to pay homage to Rostov’s constructivism.

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The Northern Thebaid

The central part of Ferapontovo village, adjacent to the famous monastery with frescoes by Dionisy, has been improved according to the project by APRELarchitects. Now the place offers basic services for tourists, as well as a place for the villagers’ leisure.

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Brilliant Production

The architects from London-based MOST Architecture have designed the space for the high-tech production of Charge Cars, a high-performance production facility for high-speed electric cars that are assembled in the shell of legendary Ford Mustangs. The founders of both the company and the car assembly startup are Russians who were educated in their home country.

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Three-Part Task: St. Petersburg’s Mytny Dvor

The so-called “Mytny Dvor” area lying just behind Moscow Railway Station – the market rows with a complex history – will be transformed into a premium residential complex by Studio 44. The project consists of three parts: the restoration of historical buildings, the reconstruction of the lost part of the historical contour, and new houses. All of them are harmonized with each other and with the city; axes and “beams of light” were found, cozy corners and scenic viewpoints were carefully thought out. We had a chat with the authors of the historical buildings’ restoration project, and we are telling you about all the different tasks that have been solved here.

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The Color of the City, or Reflections on the Slope of an Urban Settlement

In 2022, Ostozhenka Architects won a competition, and in 2023, they developed and received all the necessary approvals for a master plan for the development of Chernigovskaya Street for the developer GloraX. The project takes into account a 10-year history of previous developments; it was done in collaboration with architects from Nizhny Novgorod, and it continues to evolve now. We carefully examined it, talked to everyone, and learned a lot of interesting things.

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A Single-Industry Town

Kola MMC and Nornickel are building a residential neighborhood in Monchegorsk for their future employees. It is based on a project by an international team that won the 2021 competition. The project offers a number of solutions meant to combat the main “demons” of any northern city: wind, grayness and boredom.

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A New Age Portico

At the beginning of the year, Novosibirsk Tolmachevo Airport opened Terminal C. The large-scale and transparent entrance hall with luminous columns inside successfully combines laconism with a bright and photogenic WOW-effect. The terminal is both the new façade of the whole complex and the starting point of the planned reconstruction, upon completion of which Tolmachevo will become the largest regional airport in Russia. In this article, we are examining the building in the context of modernist prototypes of both Novosibirsk and Leningrad: like puzzle pieces, they come together to form their individual history, not devoid of curious nuances and details.

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A New Starting Point

We’ve been wanting to examine the RuArts Foundation space, designed by ATRIUM for quite a long time, and we finally got round to it. This building looks appropriate and impressive; it amazingly combines tradition – represented in our case by galleries – and innovation. In this article, we delve into details and study the building’s historical background as well.

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Molding Perspectives

Stepan Liphart introduces “schematic Art Deco” on the outskirts of Kazan – his houses are executed in green color, with a glassy “iced” finish on the facades. The main merits of the project lie in his meticulous arrangement of viewing angles – the architect is striving to create in a challenging environment the embryo of a city not only in terms of pedestrian accessibility but also in a sculptural sense. He works with silhouettes, proposing intriguing triangular terraces. The entire project is structured like a crystal, following two grids, orthogonal and diagonal. In this article, we are examining what worked, and what eventually didn’t.