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Taganka Gate

This multifunctional complex that Aleksey Ginsburg has been designing for more than seven years now is going to occupy a land site on the outside part of the Garden Ring right before the tunnel entrance, and become a vis-à-vis of the building of the Taganka Theater.

15 August 2016
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Aleksey Ginsburg has already shared a bit about this project of his in an interview with Archi.ru - the building's proximity to the Taganka Theater, a fine example of Moscow "brutalist" architecture is something that he considers particularly important. "I would bring brick samples in my car and I would put them down next to the theater walls to make sure that their tone matches the theater's - but is still not exactly the same" - the architect shares - I did not want it to be a 100% match". But then again, the context of the Taganskaya Square is pretty diverse, and the theater building is not the only element in it, even though one of the main ones. 

The complex form of the land site leans toward a rectangular triangle whose hypotenuse stretched along the red line of the Zemlyanoy Val Street, the right angle being there in the depth of the site. This form is convenient for organizing retail stores here because it will allow for making a huge line of shop windows stretching along the street. This same triangular shape will provide for the necessary square footage for the storage space and maintenance premises: inside, there are five floors of retail stores, a supermarket, a food court, and a movie theater - all grouped around a predictably triangular atrium. Its comparatively small space - the fact that it is small is plainly visible on the section-view drawings - is tilted a little, not unlike the Tower of Pisa: floor after floor it shifts off center in the direction of the Garden Ring - toward a flat and gently sloping street light whose glass is tilted southward. This way, the glass-covered courtyard, which is almost the inevitable part of a modern shopping center, gets maximum possible sunlight. There is a two-level parking garage underground.

Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects
Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Location plan. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Plan of the 1st floor © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Plan of the 2nd floor © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Section view © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Needs analysis. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


Right now, the site is empty for the exception of a small parking lot in a corner of a grass-covered hill. Formerly, however, it was occupied by the Taganka shopping arcade, a building that was ascribed by some architectural historians to Osip Bove himself. The trapeze-shaped contour of the arcade almost completely coincided with the now-empty triangle, even though there were plenty of bazaar stores beyond its confines as well. The arcade was taken down in the 1960's; right about that time they dug a tunnel underneath the square, turning the square itself into one of the most spacious and at the same time most confusing road junctions a-la "Moscow highway" style. The place remained an empty spot, especially vivid by the contrast with the large volume of the Taganka Theater that was built in the 1980's. The new multifunctional complex was to occupy exactly the stead of the former arcade, and it is the arcade's descendant not only because it revives the retail function in this place but also because of, let's say, the architectural and generic factors: the space between the partitions on the main façade of the new building is literally copied from the Taganka Shopping Arcade.  

Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Search for rhythm. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


One should mention that even the soviet power in its pre-collapse period recognized that the Taganskaya Square is not only about theater but about shopping as well - the panel buildings in this area are all equipped with very broad floor-to-ceiling windows on their ground floors. In the free-market 1990's, this theme was picked up by the various shops and kiosks next to the exits from the metro station - most of them have also fallen victim to the "hunt for outlaw construction". Never really dying, Taganka's shopping culture would move from the organized shops in the old Moscow arcade with its arches and inevitable courtyards - to the soviet over-regulated "fish bowls" - and to the raunchy charm of the retail wildlife of the 1990's. Now the time has come for a shopping center. Whether or not we should lament the sad demise of the small shops and kiosks is everyone's personal choice (I am sorry they are gone) but it was still pretty obvious anyway that sooner or later these unpretentious affairs in the center of the nation's capital must give way to something else. But then again, we will remind you that Aleksey Ginsburg's work on this project has nothing to do with the demolition of these kiosks - because it started still under the former city mayor.   

I will stress that when he was in the process of getting all the necessary permits and approvals, Aleksey Ginsburg was able to insist on the "Moscow" format of the store, with large shop windows and a street promenade. A store akin to European malls and large department stores, very much like the Parisian Le Bon Marché, and his "relative", the GUM department store at Moscow's red square, whose predecessor, incidentally, was also built by Osip Bove.

Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Entrance form the taganskaya Square. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


The third important part of the context - after the theater and the shopping arcade - is the small houses built back in the XIX century that stretch on the same side of the Zemlyanoy Val in an almost unbroken line in the direction of the Yauza River. In order not to "crush" them with a massive volume, the architect divided the main façade of the complex into three projections. These three are separated by the glass entrances recessed inside in a triangular way - which is clearly visible on the floor plan. In an almost mirror-like fashion, they respond to the theater building across the street that also has two brick triangular projections of similar size. The plan clearly shows: the two buildings are pieces of one and the same jigsaw puzzle, their projections and recessions being the clue that prompts to bring them together. However, they are separated by the Garden Ring, and the new building's main façade turned out to be porous, as we were looking at the section view of the building.

Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Master plan. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


Paired with the theater, the new building forms propylaea of the entrance to the square - and this is what its town-planning meaning is all about: it will become the second (now missing) pylon of the new version of the Taganka gate.

The screen of the façade, very much like a giant shop window, is positioned alongside the Garden Ring like a shield resting on a triangular base of the building. Its surface is even stretched a little between north and south angles of the triangle that a play a role of important accents turned to the people driving down the thoroughfare. The form of the pointed and sophisticatedly faceted sides of the building is enough to attract people's attention as it is but in addition there will be two media screens playing commercials set on each of the corners. The pointed nose of the north side-end gets suspended in space - conflicting the inertia of the slope with an elegant grace. Underneath it, there is a slim concrete stairway that leads to the second floor straight through the tall glass that is also backlighted at night. Below the stairway, there is the entrance/exit of the underground parking garage: the architect took advantage of the slope both from a functional and a plastique standpoint.

Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


The height difference of the land site is eight meters which is neither much nor little - Aleksey Ginsburg's portfolio includes project built on even steeper slopes, and, furthermore, the architect says he likes working with sloping terrain because he considers it to be more of an interesting challenge than an issue. Our case is no exception: the building does not crawl down the slope but soars up to end in a perfectly horizontal cornice. From a practical standpoint, this means that the north end of the building gets two extra floors. From the plaza side, the building has four floors in it, although, if we are to take into consideration the delicate contextual cutaway on top, then there are but three floors, while on the north Yauza side there are six of them which makes quite a different "flying" impression. The pattern of the façades also evolves: the south projection is finely chopped, floor by floor, responding to the scale of the historical city, the central projection - the one directly opposite to the theater - gets a steady rhythm, its floors grouped in twos and even threes vertically. The north one, which is the tallest, gets a second horizontal lintel block. But then again, the varied rhythm is united by the overall structure and logic of the project.

Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoi Val Street. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. View from the Zemlyanoy Val. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. View from the Taganskaya Square. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


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Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


The work on the project took a long time, the authors considering many coating versions. In this case, the final version was indeed a lucky, well-deserved, and an up-to-date one. The main decorative element is the slope steepers - their arrays neatly stand out one after another half the width of the bond-stone. This deceptively simple technique looks really great with the play of light and shade: the façade gazes westward, and the slanting rays of the setting sun will enhance the texture in a really cool way. 

To say that the task that this project posed was a challenging one and that it incurred great responsibility would be an understatement. A high-profile place, a monument of modernist architecture that, as he confesses, Aleksey Ginsburg studied while still a student... And, generally speaking, this is a key place for the Moscow history of the 1970's - after all, it's the famous "Taganka", and this is where Moscow followed Vladimir Vysotsky to his grave. The city space in this area is so over-saturated with different layers of meaning that even the few empty spaces are just as eloquent; at the same time building something devoid of any character, or, worse still, some historical stylization, would have been the poorest possible choice. In this case, it seems to me, the architect was able to find a good balance and at the same time avoid any unnecessary timidity, opting for the best possible resonant solution - a "mirror" shield that deserves to be a match for the famous theater and interpret the current epoch in a unique way of its own. Yes, our "shopping" epoch that is comfort-twisted but one that hopefully has not forgotten itself altogether. 

Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Fragment of the facade. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Facade versions. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. facades and development drawings. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Development drawings. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. View from the Taganskaya Square. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


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Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Facade © Ginsburg Architects


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Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Facade © Ginsburg Architects


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Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


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Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Facade © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Location plan. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Master plan. Project, 2014 © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Plan of the -1st floor © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Plan of the -2nd floor © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Plan of the -3rd floor © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Plan of the 3rd floor © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Plan of the 4th floor © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Plan of the basement floor © Ginsburg Architects


Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Plan of the roof © Ginsburg Architects


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Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. Section view © Ginsburg Architects



15 August 2016

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
The Arisha Terraces residential complex, designed by Asadov Architects, will be built in a district of Dubai dedicated to film and television production. To create shaded spaces and an intriguing silhouette, the architects opted for a funnel-shaped composition and nature-inspired forms of erosion and weathering. The roofs, podium, and underground spaces extend leisure opportunities within the boundaries of a man-made “oasis”.
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
The Stone Khodynka 2 office complex, designed by Kleinewelt Architekten for the company Stone, is built with an ergonomic layout following “healthy building” principles: natural light, ventilation, and all the necessary features for an efficient office environment. On the outside, it resembles – like many contemporary buildings – an iPhone: sleek, glowing, glass-and-metal, edges elegantly rounded. Yet, it responds sensitively to the Khodynka context, where the main theme is the contrast between vertical and horizontal lines. The key intrigue lies in the design of the “stylobate” as a suspended passage, leaving the space beneath it open for free pedestrian movement.
Grigory Revzin: “It Was a Bold Statement Made on the Sly. Something Won”
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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
The new project by the architectural company PNKB (an acronym for “Design, Research, and Advisory Bureau”), led by Sergey Gnedovsky and Anton Lyubimkin, for the Kulikovo Field Museum is dedicated to the field as a concept in its own right. The field has long been a focus of the museum’s thorough and successful research. Accordingly, the exterior of the new museum building is gentler than that of its predecessor, which was also designed by PNKB and dedicated specifically to the historic battle. Inside, however, the building confidently guides the visitor from a luminous atrium along a spiral path to the field – interpreted here as a field of life.
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.