House Turned Inside Out

In Moscow Area, Roman Leonidov designed a private residence called Hampton House, the insides of which echo its outer shell and continue it, thus making the architecture of the house not only laconic but also integral - in full accordance with the principles set by the gurus of modernism.

Written by:
Alla Pavlikova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

13 October 2016

Object

The house in which one can easily discern the signature techniques of Roman Leonidov Architectural Studio is built on an open and well-lit land site in one of Moscow-area villa communities. The considerable size of the site and the beautiful surroundings allowed the architects to create a horizontal composition placing the volume across the yard, opening the windows to the green lawns and the forest situated a bit off to the side. The clients that ordered the house are a young family couple with kids, they value minimalism, cleanness, and breathing space. These three qualities were embodied almost par excellence in its outward appearance, as well as in its interiors.

zooming — Hampton House. Country residence. Construction, 2016 © Roman Leonidov architectural bureau

The architects strictly followed the logic of building a house "from inside out", each projection or recession corresponding to an independent room. Just by looking at the outer shell of the building one can tell what's inside: the robust central block has in it a double-height living room; on the left, there is a large dining room; the right single-story elongated wing contains a swimming pool and a spa, on the roof of which there is an open-air terrace, while the left-side blind wing contains a garage and personnel's rooms. This way, form grows from content, not a single detail being accidental here. In their project, the authors see both constructivist and hi-tech traits. What first meets the eye, however, is the inherently modernist laconism and functionality.

The main entrance is not readable at once. It is shifted to the left, into the recession between the glass cube of the living room and the blind wing. The transparent doors merge with the glass wall surface. The entrance is not marked by an expectable marquee either, the protection from the rain provided by a small balcony on the second floor. At the same time, above the open-air terrace in front of the living room, there are even two marquees - pointed in different directions, growing one from beneath the other. The upper one correlates with the scale of the flat roof that covers the whole building; the lower one is visually lighter, made of glass and supported by wooden ribs. It is obvious that by designing in such a way the architects try to pull all of the observer's attention to the cube of the living room situated at the central axis of the land site. This technique helps them to achieve compositional balance of an asymmetric volume.

On entering the building, we realize that the design of its inner space is still a little bit more complex than it might seem from the outside. Behind the spacious sunlit veranda, there is a long corridor or, should we say, a gallery with floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows. Through this gallery, one can walk the building from end to end, bypassing the staircase lobby, the cloakroom, and the dining room - to make it directly to the spa complex. In addition to the swimming pool, it also has a sauna and a massage room. From the side of the yard, the wing of the spa complex is completely made of glass, thanks to which a visual connection to the living room is established. The excess of light is cut off by the Venetian blinds.

While the first floor is occupied by the spaces meant predominantly for social interaction and visiting with the guests, the second floor is private. It includes the masters and their kids' bedrooms, a study, and a playroom. The loft that is in the double-height space is turned into a library. A basement floor that the building has is also actively used. In addition to the maintenance rooms, it includes a movie theater, a mini-golf course, guests' bedrooms, and yet another living room designed in a "loft" style with an extremely reserved color solution interspersed with colorful furniture accents.

As was already said, the role of the nucleus of the building is played by the living room and the adjacent dining room. The zones of the first floor are separated from one another rather conditionally, by means of glass partitions that allow the sunlight to reach every nook and cranny virtually unhindered. The main centerpieces of the interior are the sculptural spiral staircase leading from the living room to the loft floor and a large fire place with a relax zone around it. The fireplace of a rich graphite color looks as if it doesn't touch the floor, gracefully hovering in the air. Just as striking looks the staircase - black, with exquisite metal railings. As the interior design artist, Elena Volgina, explains, most of the solutions were inspired by the 1950-1970's style - "the period when the furniture design and the search for new avant-garde forms was at their peak". Hence the intensive work with space - instead of decorating it and/or filling with various objects.

On the outside, most of the walls of this residence are made of glass and natural slate stone. Some of the façade fragments are made of larch wood. The same materials are used in the interior decoration - and because of this it may look as if the building was turned inside out. This trademark technique is to be traced in many of Roman Leonidov's works, but in this case, considering the clients' inclination towards minimalism, this technique is used particularly extensively. For example, the inside walls are decorated with the same slate as the outside ones, whilst the pavement of the outdoor terrace continues in the dining and the living rooms. The barely noticeable borderline between the indoor and the outdoor world is only the thin stained-glass window. The ceiling is covered in larch sheets. The glass partition behind the dining room table that separates it from the straight staircase is decorated with horizontal wooden planks that echo the planks on the façade. The same decoration fragments are used in the bedrooms and bathrooms.

The architects also deliberately replicated the outside colors in the interior of the house: the cold gray, graphite, beige, and white tones are diluted by warm wooden and honey hues of the wall and floor fragments made from solid Birman teak. It so coincided that this is a favorite color set with Elena Volgina and the clients as well. It is only the children's rooms that are designed in a different way. In them, the author stepped away from the main shades of color, splashing the walls and the furniture with all the colors of the rainbow.

An important role in forming the interior was played by the lighting. The modern spotlights together with tiny wall-mounted lamps set the rhythm of the bypass zones and the staircases, the linear and the inbuilt lights highlighting the austere structure of the different-level ceilings, and the recognizable designer lights accentuating the central rooms. The light became the final chord that breathed life and warmth into the reserved modernist spaces, and make them feel, in spite of their considerable size - and the total area of the floor space is 1500 square meters - cozy and warm.

13 October 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.

Object

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.

Object

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.