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Vladimir Plotkin. Interview by Grigory Revzin

We continue to publish texts of interview with architects - participants of an exposition of the Russian pavilion on XI Venetian biennial

17 July 2008
Репортаж
In Moscow you have a reputation as an extravagant character; journalists call you ‘the first dandy of Russian architecture’.

That’s their problem.

My point is this. At the same time, you are a committed fan of contemporary architecture, but not of distortion of space or non-linearity but of rectilinear Neomodernism – of structuralist architecture, I would say.

I don’t really know what Neomodernism is. But I could agree to Neostructuralism – if there is such a term.

It’s the kind of architecture in which everything is simple and clear. Here it’s difficult to say something new after the founding fathers of Modernism.

It’s generally the case that a building is something new. An unrepeatable combination of circumstances. And then, contemporary architecture is bound up with progress. There’s always something new appearing.

Yes, I understand: new square metres, new technologies, new functions, contemporary materials, unrepeatable combinations of electricity networks, water supplies, sewerage systems, and radically new management systems. It’s all extremely fascinating. But it’s not exactly where you’d expect to come across dandyism. Aestheticism, that is.

I don’t at all think that technology is what’s most important. Although, of course, you can’t help wanting to be up to standard, in the vanguard of progress. But it’s in this that we encounter difficulties deriving from our economy, the lack of steady knowledge and skill in working with modern materials and components. In our projects technological innovation has not yet become a natural part of the artistic concept. I’m sure this will come in time, but if we today take the view that innovative technology is what’s most important, that means that we Russians shall have to do without architecture. Management is a separate subject, being subordinate to architecture. I don’t consider myself a skilled negotiator, and this is something that holds no interest for me. But what is unrepeatable is form, above all.

But what exactly can be unrepeatable here? What new forms have arisen in modern architecture compared with Constructivism or Modernism in general. Respect for context? The contextual approach?


No, it’s not a matter of context either. In general, I think that orientation on contextuality is where we go wrong today. It leads to dullness, stagnation, and, most unpleasantly of all, progressive deterioration of the context. If you try to be more modest, less conspicuous than your neighbour, the next step thing to happen will be that your (very modest) work of architecture will become the context, the next architect will create something even more modest, and so on. Buildings will become increasingly less conspicuous – and worse. I can agree that today’s Modernism, including its superior versions, is based on very, very easily reproducible techniques. Techniques that are so easy that they can be turned into a canon. Or, at the very least we might formulate and classify those persistent techniques and combinations of forms which have become standards over the course of time and which are beloved of absolutely the entire architectural establishment. And it hardly needs to be said that canonicity must contradict the idea of newness…

But where, then, is there room for quest? A canon is like military uniform. Everyone is dressed identically.

No, the exact opposite is true. It’s precisely at this point that you get space in which to conduct a quest. You have to change your point of view. Take, for instance, Classical architecture. I grew up in St Petersburg, and my first architectural impressions relate to Classicism. In Classicism no one looks for new forms. They look for perfection in forms that have already been found. Proportions, relations between masses, textures, and spaces – within the canonical Classical prototypes. Perhaps it would be worth looking at modern architecture from this point of view.
 
Would it look any different?

In fact, yes! Radically different. Take Constructivism. Strangely enough, Russian Constructivism has never been much of an influence on me. Of course, we are justly proud of it. But the Constructivists were inventors. They invented a new form, but did not manage to find the correct proportions of windows, apertures, columns. Their work is very raw. Apart from Leonidov, who had a real feeling for architecture, but never had anything actually built. [The architecture critic] Khan-Magamedov once wrote that modern architecture is still only beginning and Constructivism and Modernism are like ancient classics. Like the first Doric temples of the 7th-6th centuries BC – they’re very expressive, but very coarse. They established the canon, but were followed by the architecture of the age of the Parthenon. This is a direction that I would consider worth moving in.

Yes, there are still plenty of places to head for. A long journey ahead of us.

You’re being ironic. In actual fact, there were architects who took decisive steps. Incidentally, for me Le Corbusier is not so much an inventor as someone with unique aesthetic intuition. He is, of course, innovator No. 1, but he nevertheless has an amazing sense of harmony and proportion. And when he began having ideas on the subject of the modulor, this was simply his desire to receive mathematical confirmation of his artistic intuition. There is another person like him – Mies. I adored Mies van der Rohe until I was weak in the knees. I am not at all a sentimental person and always thought that nothing could melt me, but when I first found myself in Barcelona and saw his pavilion, I could no longer understand the point of our doing architecture!

Yes, of course, this is aesthetic architecture. Everything in it has been reduced to incredibly elegant formula. And it’s the elegance that’s the main thing; the formula itself is fairly elementary. On this subject I have a question for you. In the 70s criticism of Modernism and the rejection of it were a reaction to this elementariness, to the desire to reduce complexity and contradiction to, as Venturi put it, an elementary rectangular grid. And even the return to contemporary architecture that we experienced in the 90s was based on a rejection of this elementariness. This is where our non-linear architecture comes from. But your take is that all we need to do is merely polish the formulae of the simple Modernist grid?


No. That’s not it. In fact, everything is much more complex. First, not a grid. At least, not for me today – not a grid. A matrix, more like. A multidimensional matrix – two-, three-, or four-dimensional. Function, construction, urban-planning situation, physical space, human behaviour – all this has dimensionality; each element has its own – so you get a multitude of grids with different dimensionalities. The objective is to discover these grids, organize them, relate them to each another, and lay them on one another. The result is a multidimensional object with many different scales – relating to distance, time, function, structural elements. Each unit is a complex number. And it’s very important at this level to find the right scale of proportions to ensure that all units relate to one another harmoniously. These are complex harmonies where a single element fits into several harmonic sequences at the same time. As in classical music.

So you end up with a complex order instead of a simple one. Instead of a multiplication table, you get a table of logarithms. But it’s still a table. As for the essence of the Neomodernist revolution – although you’re not fond of this term, – it lay in an attempt to introduce the principle of indeterminacy, chance, unpredictability into modern architecture. An attempt to step away from the table into the chaos of the non-linear process.

Exactly. I’ve been talking only about what comes first. First, the matrix. But this is not yet architecture. It has neither beginning nor end; it’s the law for constructing a world for a given particular case, but it is not that world itself. There are laws of physics and there is the earth, which exists in accordance with these laws. And, when you know the laws, you can say a lot about the properties of the earth, but you cannot predict what it will look like. It’s the same here. For me the principle of dualism is important. There is both matter and spirit. The matrix is matter, the laws by which matter is constructed. And then there is life itself, which is unpredictable, incidental; this is spirit. It’s how an object lives. First, the matrix, and then life, which is the most interesting part!  It’s precisely the unpredictable, unexpected, incidental movement of architectural matter that is the sign of the spirit. It’s important not to lose it, not to drown it in the grid. You have to contain this unpredictability, non-logicality in the rigid logic of the matrix that you have yourself created. Miss out a cell. Permit something not to be part of the matrix, to live its own life. Emphasize the weak beat, as in music. Here there’s a whole host of possibilities; it’s fascinating. When you arbitrarily fill in a proper matrix with various beautiful things, it can lead to unexpected, unpredictable, surprising results. In my projects I always try to surprise. There’s no art without surprise.

Are you a philosopher?

 No, I’m an architect. For some reason, critics are fond of defining architects by other professions, seeing them as artists, businessmen, academics, or politicians. I’m an architect. In my opinion, this is the very essence of the architectural profession – to find the laws of life in the space that has been allocated to you, to impart to them the refined precision of the golden section, and then allow life to flow through the space in whatever way it will. This is difficult to describe; but you can see it immediately in the design for a building.

Have any contemporary foreign architects been an influence on you?


No, I don’t think so. Le Corbusier, of course, but you’re asking about contemporary architects. I have somehow never needed such influences. I worked for Bofill’s office in Paris, but Bofill has very different tastes from me. I don’t try to create architecture that would resemble anyone else’s, even if a client likes a particular prototype. And I don’t try to create architecture that doesn’t resemble anyone else’s. I simply look for what needs to be done and do it.

So your architecture is your own, Russian?

No, that’s not true either. I don’t try to create specifically Russian architecture. I simply create contemporary architecture. In Russia – although I could also create it somewhere else.


17 July 2008

Headlines now
Champions’ Cup
At first glance, the Bell skyscraper on 1st Yamskogo Polya Street, 12, appears strict and laconic – though by no means modest. Its economical stereometry is built on a form close to an oval, one of UNK architects’ favorite themes. The streamlined surface of the main volume, clad in metal louvers, is sliced twice with glass incisions that graphically reveal the essence of the original shape: both its simplicity and its complexity. At the same time, dozens of highly complex engineering puzzles have been solved here.
History never ends
The old railway station in Kapan, a city in southern Armenia, has been given new life by the Paris-based design firm Normal Studio. Today, it serves as a TUMO center.
A Deep, Crystal Shine
A new luxury residential development by ADM architects is set to rise in the Patriarch’s Ponds district, not far from Novopushkinsky Square. It will replace three buildings erected in the early 1990s. The project authors, Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova, have placed their bets on the variety among the three volumes, modern design solutions, and attention to detail: one of the buildings will feature smoothly curved balconies with a ceramic sheen on their undersides, while another will be accented by glass “sculpture” columns.
A Roadside Picnic of Urban Planning Theorists
Marina Egorova, head of Empate Architectural Bureau, brought together urban planning theorists – the successors of Alexey Gutnov and Vyacheslav Glazychev – to revive the substance and depth of professional discourse. At the first meeting, much ground was covered: the participants revisited the theoretical foundations, aligned their values, examined a cutting-edge case of the Kazan agglomeration, and concluded with the unfathomable intricacies of Russian land demarcation. Below, we present key takeaways from all the presentations.
Perspective View
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Malevich and Bathhouses, Nature and High-Tech
The Malevich Bathhouse complex is scheduled to open in the fall of 2025 on the Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Highway. The project, designed by DBA-GROUP under the leadership of Vladislav Andreev, is an example of an unconventional approach to the image of a spa in general and of a bathhouse in particular. Deliberately avoiding any kind of allusion, the architects opted for streamlined forms with characteristic rounded corners, a combination of wood with bent glass, and restrained contemporary shapes – both inside and out. Let’s take a closer look at the project.
Rather, a Tablecloth and a Glass!
After many years, the long-abandoned Horse Guards Department building in St. Petersburg has finally received the attention it deserves: according to a design by Studio 44, the first restoration and adaptation works are scheduled to begin this year. Both the intended function and the general scope of works imply minimal alteration to the complex, which has preserved traces of its three-century history. All solutions are reversible and aimed, above all, at opening the monument to the city and immersing it in a lively social scene – hence the choice of a cultural center scenario with a strong gastronomic component.
​Materialization of Airflows
The Nikolai Kamov International Airport in Tomsk opened at the end of August last year. We have already written about the project – now we are taking a look at the completed building. Its functionality is reinforced by symbolic undertones: the architects at ASADOV sought to reflect local identity in the architecture as fully as possible.
The City as a Narrative
Sergey Skuratov’s approach to large urban plots could best be described as a “total design code”. The architect pays equal attention to the overall composition and the smallest of details, striving to ensure that every aspect is thoroughly thought out and subordinated to the original vision. It’s a Renaissance-like approach, really – a titanic effort demanding remarkable willpower and perseverance. The results are likewise grand – architecture that makes a statement. This article looks at the revived concept for the central section of the Seventh Heaven residential district in Kazan, a composition so thoroughly considered that even the “gradient of visual emphasis” (sic!) across the facades has been carefully worked out. It also touches on the narrative idea behind the project – and even the architect’s own doubts about it.
A Garden of Hope for Freedom
In October, at the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery in Suzdal, the Prison Yard Garden opened on the site that had served as a prison from the 18th century until the Khrushchev Thaw. The architectural concept was developed by NOῨD Short Film, and the landscape design by the MOX landscape bureau. In fact, there are two gardens here – very different ones. We try to understand whether they evoke the right emotions in visitors, while also showing the beauty of June’s ruderal plants in bloom.
A Laconic Image of Time
The Time Square residential complex, built on the northern edge of St. Petersburg, appears more concise and efficient than its neighbor and predecessor, the New Time complex. Nevertheless, the architect’s hand is clearly felt: themes of “black and white”, “inside and outside”, and most notably, the “lamellar” quality of the facades that seems to visibly “eat away” at the buildings’ mass – everything is played out like a well-written score. One is reminded of both classical modernism and the so-called “post-constructivism”.
The Flower of the Lake
The prototype for the building of the Kamal Theater in Kazan is an ice flower: a rare and fragile natural phenomenon of Lake Kaban “froze” in the large, soaring outlines of the glass screens enclosing the main volume, shaping its silhouette and shielding the stained-glass windows from the sun. The project, led by the Wowhaus consortium and including global architecture “star” Kengo Kuma, won the 2021/2022 competition and was realized close to the original concept in a short – very short – period of time. The theater opened in early 2025. It was Kengo Kuma who proposed the image of an ice flower and the contraposition of cold on the outside and warmth on the inside. Between 2022 and 2024, Wowhaus did everything possible to bring this vision to life, practically living on-site. Now we are taking a closer look at this landmark building and its captivating story.
Peaceful Integration on Mira Avenue
The MIRA residential complex (the word mir means “peace” in Russian), perched above the steep banks of the Yauza River and Mira Avenue, lives up to its name not only technically, but also visually and conceptually. Sleek, high-rise, and glass-clad, it responds both to Zholtovsky’s classicism and to the modernism of the nearby “House on Stilts”. Drawing on features from its neighbors, it reconciles them within a shared architectural language rooted in contemporary façade design. Let’s take a closer look at how this is done.
An Interior for a New Format of Education
The design of the new building for Tyumen State University (TyumSU) was initially developed before the pandemic but later revised to meet new educational requirements. The university has adopted a “2+2+2” system, which eliminates traditional divisions into groups and academic streams in favor of individualized study programs. These changes were implemented swiftly – right at the start of construction. Now that the building is complete, we are taking a closer look.
Penthouses and Kokoshniks
A new residential complex designed by ASADOV Architects for the Krasnaya Roza business district responds to its proximity to 17th-century landmarks – the chambers of the Hamovny Dvor and St. Nicholas Church – as well as to the need to preserve valuable façades of a historic rental house built in the Russian Revival style. The architects proposed a set of buildings of varying heights, whose façades reference ecclesiastical architecture. But we were also able to detect other associations.
Centipede Town
The new school campus designed by ATRIUM Architects, located on the shores of a protected lake in the Imeretian Lowland Ornithological Reserve, represents an important and ambitious undertaking for the team: this is not just a school, but a Presidential Lyceum for the comprehensive development of gifted children – 2,500 students from age 3 through high school. At the same time, it is also envisioned as a new civic hub for the entire Sirius territory. In this article, we unpack the structure and architecture of this “lyceum town”.
Warm Black and White
The second phase of “Quarter 31”, designed by KPLN and built in the Moscow suburb town of Pushkino, reveals a multifaceted character. At first glance, the complex appears to be defined by geometry and a monochrome palette. But a closer look reveals a number of “irregular” details: a gradient of glazing and flared window frames, a hierarchy of façades, volumetric brickwork, and even architectural references to natural phenomena. We explore all the rules – and exceptions – that we were able to discover here.
​Skylights and Staircase
Photos from March show the nearly completed headquarters of FSK Group on Shenogina Street. The building’s exterior is calm and minimalist; the interior is engaging and multi-layered. The conical skylights of the executive office, cast in raw concrete, and the sweeping spiral staircase leading to it, are particularly striking. In fact, there’s more than one spiral staircase here, and the first two floors effectively form a small shopping center. More below.
The Whale of Future Identity
Or is it a veil? Or a snow-covered plain? Vera Butko, Anton Nadtochy, and the architects of ATRIUM faced a complex and momentous task: to propose a design for the “Russia” National Center. It had to be contemporary, yet firmly rooted in cultural codes. Unique, and yet subtly reminiscent of many things at once. It must be said – the task found the right authors. Let’s explore in detail the image they envisioned.
Greater Altai: A Systemic Development Plan
The master plan for tourism development in Greater Altai encompasses three regions: Kuzbass, the Altai Republic, and Altai Krai. It is one of twelve projects developed as part of the large-scale state program bearing the simple name of “Tourism Development”. The project’s slogan reads: “Greater Altai – a place of strength, health, and spirit in the very heart of Siberia”. What are the proposed growth points, and how will the plan help increase the flow of both domestic and international tourists? Read on to find out.
The Colorful City
While working on a large-scale project in Moscow’s Kuntsevo district – one that has yet to be given a name – Kleinewelt Architekten proposed not only a diverse array of tower silhouettes in “Empire-style” hues and a thoughtful mix of building heights, creating a six-story “neo-urbanist” city with a block-based layout at ground level, but also rooted their design in historical and contextual reasoning. The project includes the reconstruction of several Stalin-era residential buildings that remain from the postwar town of Kuntsevo, as well as the reconstruction of a 1953 railway station that was demolished in 2017.
In Orbit of Moscow City
The Orbital business center is both simple and complex. Simple in its minimalist form and optimal office layout solution: a central core, a light-filled façade, plenty of glass; and from the unusual side – a technical floor cleverly placed at the building’s side ends. Complex – well, if only because it resembles a celestial body hovering on metallic legs near Magistralnaya Street. Why this specific shape, what it consists of, and what makes this “boutique” office building (purchased immediately after its completion) so unique – all of this and more is covered in our story.
The Altai Ornament
The architectural company Empate has developed the concept for an eco-settlement located on a remote site in Altai. The master plan, which resembles a traditional ornament or even a utopian city, forms a clear system of public and private spaces. The architects also designed six types of houses for the settlement, drawing inspiration from the region’s culture, folklore, and vernacular building practices.
Pro Forma
Photos have emerged of the newly completed whisky distillery in Chernyakhovsk, designed by TOTEMENT / PAPER – a continuation of their earlier work on the nearby Cognac Museum. From what is, in essence, a merely technical and utilitarian volume and space, the architects have created a fully-fledged theatre of impressions. Let’s take a closer look. We highly recommend a visit to what may look like a factory, but is in fact an experiment in theatricalizing the process of strong spirit production – and not only that, but also of “pure art”, capable of evolving anywhere.
The Arch and the Triangle
The new Stone Mnevniki business center by Kleinewelt Architekten – designed for the same client as their projects in Khodynka – bears certain similarities to those earlier developments, but not entirely. In Mnevniki, there are more angular elements, and the architects themselves describe the project as being built on contrast. Indeed, while the first phase contains subtle references to classical architecture – light touches like arches, both upright and inverted, evoking the spirit of the 1980s – the second phase draws more distantly on the modernism of the 1970s. What unites them is a boldly expressive public space design, a kaleidoscope of rays and triangles.
Health Factory
While working on a wellness and tourist complex on the banks of the Yenisei River, the architects at Vissarionov Studio set out to create healing spaces that would amplify the benefits of nature and medical treatments for both body and soul. The spatial solutions are designed to encourage interaction between the guests and the landscape, as well as each other.
The Blooming Mechanics of a Glass Forest
The Savvinskaya 27 apartment complex built by Level Group, currently nearing completion on an elongated riverfront site next to the Novodevichy Convent, boasts a form that’s daring even by modern Moscow standards. Visually, it resembles the collaborative creation of a glassblower and a sculptor: a kind of glass-and-concrete jungle, rhythmically structured yet growing energetically and vividly. Bringing such an idea to life was by no means an easy task. In this article, we discuss the concept by ODA and the methods used by APEX architects to implement it, along with a look at the building’s main units and detailing.
Grace and Unity
Villa “Grace”, designed by Roman Leonidov’s studio and built in the Moscow suburbs, strikes a balance between elegant minimalism and the expansive gestures of the Russian soul. The main house is conceived as a sequence of four self-contained volumes – each could exist independently, yet it chooses to be part of a whole. Unity is achieved through color and a system of shared spaces, while the rich plasticity of the forms – refined throughout the construction process – compensates for the near-total absence of decorative elements.
Daring Brilliance
In this article, we are exploring “New Vision”, the first school built in the past 25 years in Moscow’s Khamovniki. The building has three main features: it is designed in accordance with the universal principles of modern education, fostering learning through interaction and more; second, the façades combine structural molded glass and metallic glazed ceramics – expensive and technologically advanced materials. Third, this is the school of Garden Quarters, the latest addition to Moscow’s iconic Khamovniki district. Both a costly and, in its way, audacious acquisition, it carries a youthful boldness in its statement. Let’s explore how the school is designed and where the contrasts lie.