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.

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

15 August 2016

Object

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.

zooming — Multifunctional complex on the Zemlyanoy Val Street. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

15 August 2016

Headlines now

Review

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.

Object

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.

Report

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.

Object

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!

Contest Results

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.

Object

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.

Report

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.

Report

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.

Object

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.

News

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.

Object

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.

Object

Gold in the Sands

A new office for a transcontinental company specializing in resource extraction and processing has opened in Dubai. Designed by T+T Architects, masters of creating spaces that are contemporary, diverse, flexible, and original, this project exemplifies their expertise. On the executive floor, a massive brass-clad partition dominates, while layered textures of compressed earth create a contextually resonant backdrop.

Object

Layers and Levels of Flight

This project goes way back – Reserve Union won this architectural competition at the end of 2011, and the building was completed in 2018, so it’s practically “archival”. However, despite being relatively unknown, the building can hardly be considered “dated” and remains a prime example of architectural expression, particularly in the headquarters genre. And it’s especially fitting for an aviation company office. In some ways, it resembles the Aeroflot headquarters at Sheremetyevo but with its own unique identity, following the signature style of Vladimir Plotkin. In this article, we take an in-depth look at the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) headquarters in the Moscow agglomeration town of Zhukovsky, supplemented by recent photographs from Alexey Naroditsky – a shoot that became only recently possible due to the fact that improvements were finally made in the surrounding area.

Object

Light and Shadow

In this article, we delve into the architectural design of the “Chaika” house by DNK ag architects, which was recently completed in 2023 as part of the collection of signature designs at ZILArt. As is well-known, all the buildings in this complex follow a design code, yet each one is distinct. This particular building stands out not only for its whiteness and minimalism but also for the refined use of a limited number of techniques that, together, create what can confidently be called synergy.

View

Casus Novae

A master plan was developed for a large residential area with a name of “DNS City”, but now that its implementation began, the plan has been arbitrarily reformatted and replaced with something that, while similar on the surface, is actually quite different. This is not the first time such a thing happens, but it’s always frustrating. With permission from the author, we are sharing Maria Elkina’s post.

Report

Treasure Hunting

The GAFA bureau, in collaboration with Tegola and Arkhitail, organized an expedition to the island of Kilpola in Karelia as part of Moskomarkhitektura’s “Open City” festival. There, amidst moss and rocks, the students sought answers to questions like: what is the sacred, where does it dwell, and what sustains it? Assisting the participants in this quest were landscape engineer Evgeny Levin, artist Nicholas Roerich, a moose, and the lack of cellular connection. Here’s how the story unfolded.

Object

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.

Object

Fir Tree Dynamics

The “Airports of Region” holding is planning to build an airport in Karachay-Cherkessia, aiming to make the Arkhyz and Dombay resorts more accessible to travelers. The project that won in an invitation-only competition, submitted by Sergey Nikeshkin’s KPLN, blends natural imagery inspired by the shape of a conifer seed, open-air waiting spaces, majestic large trees, and a green roof elevated on needle-like columns. The result is both nature-inspired and WOW.

Object

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”.

Report

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.

Object

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”.

Interview

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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”.

Object

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.

Object

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.