With a Swedish Accent

To design “Skandinavsky” UP-quarter, FSK “Lider” invited a Swedish architectural firm Semrén & Månsson.

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina, Natalya Muradova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

02 August 2017

Object

The UP-quarter “Skandinavsky” is being built three kilometers outside of the Moscow Ring Road, northwest of Mytishchi, on the territory of the former village of Borodino (just one of the several Russian namesakes of the famous village that witnessed the Napoleon battle in 1812). This place is but a 15 minutes’ bus ride away from Medvedkovo metro station. And, although Mytishchi, as is known, is already densely overbuilt, just outside the confines of Moscow’s satellite we see quite a different picture: this land is dominated by villages filled with private residences and forests that are quite abundant despite the proximity of the megalopolis. If we are to broaden our gaze, Mytishchi’s Borodino is but six kilometers away from the Pirogovskoe Lake; next to the village we will find the Khlebnikovsky and Pirogovsky parks, but the closest woodland is a forest belonging to the Mytishchi Forestry Station. As we can see, in spite of its proximity to the Moscow Ring Road (which is definitely a downside by Moscow standards), this place is still quite green and – due to the proximity of the famous Pirogovskoe Lake – almost boasting a resort status. Nearby, a few shopping malls have been built already, and new ones are being built as well. So it comes as no surprise that the FSK “Lider” developers chose this place for the construction of a large housing complex belonging to a new housing format that this company has been recently promoting on the market: formally referring to the comfort-class, it is endowed with a range of extra features that are sure to become a pleasant surprise for the consumer. To design this housing complex, FSK “Lider” invited the Swedish firm Semrén & Månsson – hence the name of “Skandinavsky”. Still, though, there are also Russian architects working for this firm.

Thus, on the twelve hectares of land stretching from north to south alongside the Ostashkovskoe Highway (incidentally, it is this highway that leads to the Pirogovskoe Lake), some forty to ninety meters away from the highway itself, there has already begun the construction of two residential buildings out of planned four, designed to house 80 000 square meters of apartments. These apartments constitute the first stage of construction. The second stage of construction will include another two buildings, a school and a kindergarten.

“This will be a small town yet completely self-sufficient” – says Maria Broman, the chief project architect of Semrén+Månsson. Three large sectional buildings are designed as blocks with an open-circuit plan. “As is known, blocks or “quarters” are becoming a hot trend in Moscow – the architects explain – But in Sweden they never seemed to lose popularity at all. So, in a sense, this is a Scandinavian trait”. However – and this is also common knowledge – the “pure” version of the block town planning is only good for houses no higher than 6 or 8 floors, which makes perfect sense because in this particular instance the planning is of mixed type. The circuits of the blocks are open; the night of the sections varies from 8 to 16 floors making the skyline uneven. It is planned that there will be underground parking garages beneath the three buildings. In front of the side wall of the third building, there is a 16-story centerpiece tower that faces the highway with its slightly tapering southeast corner. There is a two-story property sales office behind it – together with the overland guest parking lot they complete the image of the housing complex as seen from the highway.

zooming — UP-quarter "Skandinavsky" © Semrén & Månsson

Further on north, the highway is separated from the complex by other private residences. One should say that in this particular instance this separation is a rather lucky circumstance. “Skandinavsky” is chiefly oriented toward its own internal boulevard that starts at the tower of Building 4 on the south side and stretches inside the housing complex forming its inside axis. The boulevard is open to vehicles but only ones belonging to residents and their guests. It separates a row of residential buildings and the territory that will be occupied by the second stage of construction: two residential buildings, a kindergarten, a school, and a stadium. In addition, the closed parts of the block are turned on the boulevard and form a city-type building front stretching along it, with cafés, shops, and – this was expressly specified – beauty salons in the first floors. There are no arches in the buildings but the entrance lobbies are designed in such a way that they can be entered from either side: one can enter such a lobby both from the yard and from the street, which significantly increases the porosity of the complex and provides a number of convenient shortcuts. The entire territory will be security guarded, so there will be no risk of evil-meaning strangers penetrating the complex.

Also important is the fact that the first stage that is currently under construction is bordering (almost side by side) on a small coppice, while in its north part there is a small natural creek. In the land organization project, there is a path leading to it which is accessible to all residents. This way, it turns out that the axis of the public space of the UP-quarter “Skandinavsky” is strung between the coppice and the creek – which must provide a diverse range of experiences here.

Working with the façades, the architects tried to “customize” the space as much as possible: the sections are not only of different height but their façades are also designed in different colors – from a reserved “north-European” tone varying from white to gray to yellow beige and brick red. However, the architects stopped short of taking this fashionable technique of imitating a city street to its limit: the façades are laconic and subjugated to a single common theme. “We had sort of a toolbox of different elements: windows, balconies, colors... We would mix them up, and then each section would get its own identity – explains the chief architect of the project Maria Broman – We think that it is important for the residents to be conscious of living, let’s say, in this particular brown house. Second, this individuality of separate buildings is important for the scale of the complex. This way, an impression is created that the complex is a lot smaller than it actually is”.

The reduction of scale is also partially enhanced by the fact that the top and bottom floors are designed differently than the façades of the main part. The buildings get a brick base, this base including three tiers on the side of the boulevard and offering a comfortable city scale to the pedestrian’s eye: a shop window plus two stories. However, the height of the base varies, just as the design of the upper floors does: in Building 3, they are only highlighted with color, and in Buildings 2 and 1 (which are to be built later) the two top floors are united by a slanted metal-sheet wall that gives them a likeness to a somewhat overblown mansard. At some points, the mansards form an elevated ledge, and at some places they alternate with recessions of modernist terraces, which also help the authors to create an illusion of a spontaneously developing city street. Inside the mansard stories, two-level apartments are designed.

The tower of Building 4, which, as we remember, is situated closer to the highway than the other buildings are, is significantly different: it is completely devoid of the light retro-fleur that is distinctively felt in the “quarter” buildings, and, while the quarters are reservedly conservative, the tower can be described as “reservedly innovative”. Its façades are “shrouded” by a mesh of white network – its slim ribs, otherwise sparse but dense where the staircases are, make this volume particularly slender and elegant. The gray color of the sunken-in surfaces forms a background – all this looks a bit like the Renaissance scratch-work technique of adoring façades, only on a significantly greater scale.

The authors also paid a lot of attention to the organization of the adjoining territory. The trees on the boulevard, the children’s playgrounds, the benches and flowerbeds – all this became the “101 kit” of our days, just as vehicle-free yards. The pedestrian zone – the bottom parts of the façades abs the hallway entrances – are elaborated down to the last detail, which is meant to render the immediate, almost tactile, perception of the territory by the people both comfortable and rich in emotion. In addition, the architects also provided for a lot of pleasant little things – for example, the entrance lobbies have not only rooms for go-carts and strollers but also places for washing the pets’ paws after the walk.

As for apartment layouts, the salespeople call them “typically Scandinavian”: square rooms and inbuilt closets. The apartments range from studios to three-room ones, each having a stanza balcony, either sunken in or standing out and glazed. The stanzas come with boxes for air conditioning units – it should be said that their grilles, looking as if they were made of wood, serve as a nice façade decoration. In sectional buildings small corridors are inevitable, while the tower, according to the architects, boasts particularly Swedish layouts: without corridors, with a large kitchen-and-living-room, from where one can get into the bedrooms. None of the apartments have either beating walls or columns inside of them – which will make any possible planning changes much easier.

It is pretty obvious that in Sweden such huge housing complexes are a rare thing to be seen. But if we are to speak about the realities of the Russian cities, and particularly the realities of the Moscow area – it IS built with large-scale housing complexes, and any attempt to give their appearance a noble touch and organize their inside space is already something worth noting – just as the development of the housing market in the direction of UP-quarter ideas, the meaning of which, as proceeds from the very self-explanatory term, consists is “raising” a certain class of housing.

02 August 2017

Headlines now

Object

Office on Trubnaya

We continue publishing projects by Valery Kanyashin. A building once described, a quarter century ago, as an example of “quiet modernism” has remained just that in some people’s memory. According to Anatoly Belov, its main quality is its unobtrusiveness. The architects from Ostozhenka say the leading role here is played by context and landscape – the change in elevation. Yet is it really so inconspicuous?

Object

The First International

With this publication, we begin a series of texts dedicated to works by the late Valery Kanyashin, one of the founders of Ostozhenka Architects. As it happens, the projects he was involved in largely illustrate our understanding of the firm and its history. The first project in this series is the International Moscow Bank on Prechistenskaya Embankment.

in memoriam

In Memory of Valery Kanyashin

On Friday, February 27, architect Valery Kanyashin passed away – co-founder of Ostozhenka Architects and the author of many significant buildings in Moscow. We publish a text by Anatoly Belov in memory of Valery Kanyashin.

Report

Hypertext in Space

As part of the exhibition “What We Have We (Do Not) Keep”, Sergey Tchoban, the Museum of Architecture, and the CHART studio experiment with an eco-conscious approach to exhibition design, with thematic cross-references and even with publicistic reflections on the necessity of preserving modernism, the roots of contemporary architecture, and the birth of ideas. All of this makes the exhibition, with its light and transparent design, look quite innovative. The elements – both “material” and conceptual – are familiar, yet their combination is far from conventional.

Object

The Outline of “Foundation”

In their competition proposal for the Fili transport hub, the consortium led by Alexey Ilyin proposed an “inhabited arch” – a form that is simple yet complex. The architects emphasize that even at the competition stage, the project’s feasibility was fully calculated, taking into account the minimal nighttime closures of Bagration Avenue. How was this achieved? With what functions? Let us take a closer look. In our view, the building would have suited the heroes of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels perfectly.

Object

The Flying Horizontal

“A house in the spirit of Wright”, as architect Roman Leonidov describes it, pointing to his source of inspiration, was built on a challenging wedge-shaped site. To achieve a sense of intimacy and secure good views from the windows, the entire volume had to be shifted toward the far boundary, turning the house “back” to the neighboring mansions. The main façade demonstrates time-tested techniques often employed by the company: articulated horizontals, a weightless roofline, and a triad of materials – light plaster, dark slate, and warm wood.

Object

Needles of Horizon Contemplation

The “House of Horizons”, designed by Kleinewelt Architekten in Krylatskoye, is carefully thought out at the stereometric level – from the logic of how the volumes interlock (and, conversely, how gaps are articulated between them) to the triangular balconies that give the building its striking, slightly bristling silhouette.

News

The Red Thread

A linear park project prepared by Alexey Ilyin studio for the improvement of a riverbank in one of the residential districts seeks to reconnect people with nature. Two levels of the embankment invite visitors to contemplate the landscape while at the same time protecting the riverbank from excessive human impact. The “aerial street” links functional zones and the opposite banks, creating new points of attraction along the way: balconies, bridges, and even a “grotto”.

Object

Spindle and Thread

The concept of the Waver residential complex in Yekaterinburg draws inspiration from the past of the Parkovy district. In order to preserve the memory of the late-19th-century flax spinning mill once located here, the architectural company KPLN turns to the theme of textiles and weaving. The project’s main expressive device is a system of ribbons made of perforated weathering steel – a material that, in such volumes, has arguably not yet been used in Russian residential projects.

Object

Woven Into Sokolniki

Over the past few years, high-rise residential construction in former industrial zones has become the main theme of Moscow architecture. Towers are springing up here and there – but the question is what kind of towers they are. The residential complex CODE Sokolniki, designed by Ostozhenka Architects, is a project where every detail has been taken care of. The authors are attentive to the history of the site, the continuity of the urban fabric, the skyline, and visual corridors. They also proposed a motif with the lyrical name “scarf”. We take a closer look at the volumetric composition and the large-scale décor “woven”, in this case, out of terraces and balconies.

Interview

Stepan Liphart and Yuri Gerth: “Our Program Is Aesthetic”

The studio of Stepan Liphart, an architect known for his distinctive signature style and one-off projects, now has a partner. Yuri Khitrov, a specialist with a broad range of competencies, will take on the part of the work that distracts one from creativity but drives the business forward. One of the aims of this partnership is to improve the urban environment through dialogue with clients and officials. We spoke with both sides about their ambitions, the firm’s development strategy, shared values, and the need for pragmatism. And why the studio is called “Liphart & Gerth” only became clear at the very end of the interview.

Object

The Copper Mirror

The varied-toned sheen of “unsealed” copper, painterly streaks and fingerprints, exposed concrete, and the unusual proportions – when you study the ZILART Museum building by Sergei Tchoban and SPEECH architects, there is plenty to talk about. However, it seems to us that the most interesting thing is how the museum’s composition responds to the realities of the district itself. The residential district has been realized as an open-air exhibition of façade statements by contemporary architects – but without public access to the inner courtyards of the blocks. This building – that is, the museum – is exactly the opposite: on the outside, it is deliberately restrained, while inside it shines spectacularly, creating its own sunbeams in any weather.

View

“Strangers” in the City

We asked Alexander Skokan for a comment on the results of 2025 – and he sent us a whole article, moreover one devoted to the discussion we recently began on the “appropriateness of high-rises” – or, more broadly speaking, “contrasting insertions into the urban fabric”. The result is a text that is essentially a question: why here? Why like this?

Interview

Dmitry Ostroumov: “To use the language of alchemy, we are involved in the process of “transmutation...

What we ended up having was an extremely unusual conversation with Dmitry Ostroumov. Why? At the very least, because he is not just an architect specializing in the construction of Orthodox churches. And not just – which is an extreme rarity – a proponent of developing contemporary stylistics within this still highly conservative field. Dmitry Ostroumov is a Master of Theology. So in addition to the history and specifics of the company, we speak about the very concept of the temple, about canon and tradition, about the living and the eternal, and even about the Russian Logos.

Interview

MB-PROJECT: “Every new project is a challenge”

In this issue, we speak with Dmitry and Oleg Shurygin, founders of the company MV-PROJECT, which has extensive experience in designing theater and entertainment buildings as well as working with cultural heritage sites.

Object

A Glazed Figurine

In searching for an image for a residential building near the Novodevichy Convent, GAFA architects turned to their own perception of the place: it evoked associations with antiquity, plein-air painting, and vintage artifacts. The two towers will be entirely clad in volumetric glazed ceramic – at present, there are no other buildings like this in Russia. The complex will also stand out thanks to its metabolic bay-window cells, streamlined surfaces, a ceremonial “hotel-style” driveway, and a lobby overlooking a lush garden.

Report

A Knight’s Move via the Cour d’Honneur

Intercolumnium Architects presented to the City Planning Council a residential complex project that is set to replace the Aquatoria business center on Vyborgskaya Embankment. Experts praised the overall quality of the work, but expressed reservations about the three cour d’honneurs and suggested softening the contrast between the facades facing the embankment and the Kantemirovsky Bridge.

Object

A Small Country

Mezonproekt is developing a long-term master plan for the MEPhI campus in Obninsk. Over the next ten years, an enclave territory of about 100 hectares, located in a forest on the northern edge of the city, is set to transform into a modern center for the development of the nuclear energy sector. The plan envisions attracting international students and specialists, as well as comprehensive territorial development: both through the contemporary realization of “frozen” plans from the 1980s and through the introduction of new trends – public spaces, an aquapark, a food court, a school, and even a nuclear medicine center. Public and sports facilities are intended to be accessible to city residents as well, and the campus is to be physically and functionally connected to Obninsk.

Object

Pearl Divers

GAFA has designed an apartment complex for Derbent intended to switch people from a work mode to a resort mindset – and to give the surrounding area a much-needed jolt. The building offers two distinct faces: restrained and laconic on the city side, and a lushly ornate façade facing the sea. At the heart of the complex, a hidden pearl lies – an open-air pool with an arch, offering views of a starry sky, and providing direct access to the beach.

Object

A Satellite Island

The Genplan Institute of Moscow has prepared a master plan for the development of the Sarpinsky and Golodny island system, located within the administrative boundaries of Volgograd and considered among the largest river islands in Russia. By 2045, the plan envisions the implementation of 15 large-scale investment projects, including sports and educational clusters, a congress center with a “Volgonarium”, a film production cluster, and twenty-one theme parks. We explain which engineering, environmental, and transportation challenges must be addressed to turn this vision into reality. The master plan solutions have already been approved and incorporated into the city’s general development plan.

Object

The Amber Gate

The Amber City residential complex is one of the redevelopment projects in the former industrial area located beyond Moscow’s Third Ring Road near Begovaya metro station. Alexey Ilyin’s studio proposed an original master plan that transformed two clusters of towers into ceremonial propylaea, gave the complex a recognizable silhouette, and established visual connections with new high-rise developments on both right and left – thus integrating it into the scale of the growing metropolis. It is also marked by its own futuristic stylistic language, based on a reinterpreted streamline aesthetic.

Object

A Theater Triangle

The architectural company “Chetvertoe Izmerenie” (“Fourth Dimension”) has developed the design for a new stage of the Magnitogorsk Musical Theater, rethinking not only theater architecture but also the role of the theater in the contemporary city.

Interview

Aleksei Ilyin: “I approach every task with genuine interest”

Aleksei Ilyin has been working on major urban projects for more than 30 years. He has all the necessary skills for high-rise construction in Moscow – yet he believes it’s essential to maintain variety in the typologies and scales represented in his portfolio. He is passionate about drawing – but only from life, and also in the process of working on a project. We talk about the structure and optimal size of an office, about his past and current projects, large and small tasks, and about creative priorities.

Interview

Sergey Tchoban: “My ideal model for shaping a museum space is the Uffizi Gallery. In the...

Yesterday, the ZILART Museum opened on the ZILART grounds with three exhibitions curated by well-known curators. We speak with Sergey Tchoban about the concept and its realization.

Object

A Golden Sunbeam

A compact brick-and-metal building in the growing Shukhov Park in Vyksa seems to absorb sunlight, transform it into yellow accents inside, and in the evening “give it back” as a warm golden glow streaming from its windows. It is, frankly, a very attractive building: both material and lightweight at the same time, with lightness inside and materiality outside. Its form is shaped by function – laconic, yet far from simple. Let’s take a closer look.

Architecton Awards

In 2025, the jury of the Architecton festival reviewed the finalist projects through live, open presentations held right in the exhibition hall – a rather engaging performance, and something rarely seen among Russian awards. It would be great if “Zodchestvo” adopted this format. Below, we present all the winning projects, including four special nominations.

send.project

Garden of Knowledge

UNK architects and UNK design created the interiors of the Letovo Junior campus, working together with NF Studio, which was responsible for developing the educational technology that takes into account the needs and perception of younger and middle school children.

The Silver Skates

The STONE Kaluzhskaya office quarter is accompanied by two residential towers, making the complex – for it is indeed a single ensemble – well balanced in functional terms. The architects at Kleinewelt gave the residential buildings a silvery finish to match the office blocks. How they are similar, how they differ, and what “Silver Skates” has to do with it – we explore in this article.

Overview

On the Dynastic Trail

The houses and townhouses of the “Tsarskaya Tropа” (“Czar’s Trail”) complex are being built in the village of Gaspra in Crimea – to the west and east of the palaces of the former grand-ducal residence “Ai-Todor”. One of the main challenges for the architects at KPLN, who developed the project, was to respond appropriately to this significant neighboring heritage. How this influenced the massing, the façades, and the way the authors work with the terrain is explored in our article.

Object

A New Path

The main feature of the Yar Park project, designed by Sergey Skuratov for Kazan, is that it is organized along the “spine” of a multifunctional mall with an impressive multi-height atrium space in its middle. The entire site, both on the city side and the Kazanka River embankment, is open to the public. The complex is intended not to become “yet another fenced enclave” but, as urban planners say, a “polycenter” – a new point of attraction for the whole of Kazan, especially its northern part, made up of residential districts that until now have lacked such a vibrant public space. It represents a new urban planning approach to a high-density mixed-use development situated in the city center – in a sense, an “anti-quarter”. Even Moscow, one might say, doesn’t yet have anything quite like it. Well, lucky Kazan!

​With a Swedish Accent

To design “Skandinavsky” UP-quarter, FSK “Lider” invited a Swedish architectural firm Semrén & Månsson.

With a Swedish Accent