По-русски

OSA: “We are excited to work with human habitat”

The Ekaterinburg-based firm “OSA” presents itself as a freethinking community of creative personalities with equal rights to self-realization.

19 September 2017
Interview
mainImg
We met one of its co-founders, Stanislav Belykh, and interviewed him about the ratio of the standardized and the individual in modern housing construction, the urge of architecture to submit humans, and the necessary skill to see things through the eyes of the end consumer of your product.

Buildings in the city of Tumen © OSA


Archi.ru:

– An inevitable question: why is your company called “OSA”? Is this connected in any way with the strong constructivist line in the architecture of Ekaterinburg?

Stanislav Belykh:

– I may surprise you but the name was the first thing that we came up with – we like it because it was so sharp, so resonant, and so stinging (“osa” is the Russian for “wasp”) – and it was only the next day that we remembered that back in the 1920’s there was the so-called “Obyedinenie Sovremennykh Arkhitektorov” (“Union of Modern Architects”) in this city. It was, of course, rather cheeky of us to just go ahead and borrow this acronym for our name, but our moral justification is that we wanted to follow in their footsteps and created the “Obyedinenie Samostoyatelnykh Arkhitektorov” (“Union of Independent Architects”), each of whom has the right to go their own way proving by his results that his way is the right way to go. Placing your bets on just one talent, even if it’s a great one, means subjecting the firm to a certain risk, and we wanted to create a strong and stable company. But, of course, all the members must share some common values – not stylistic, stylistic unity is not a rule – but at least some shape-making fundamentals.

zooming


Inside perspective © photograph by Maxim Loskutov


– And what does the structure of your bureau look like in this case? Is there any kind of inside hierarchy?

– Today we have 30 members in our company. The steady core consists of 5 partners. But it is already clear that about 5 or 6 employees are capable of going upwards once they accumulate the necessary knowledge and show their competence and skills. We don’t have a goal of creating and maintaining a caste of two, five or six chosen ones – it’s not about the numbers, it’s about the quality. You need a certain amount of time to go by for the person to “grow” into his profession and start using the design algorithms on the subconscious level – then he will become a part of the orchestra.

We started with designing small entrance groups, and now we design huge residential areas and large-scale housing projects virtually all over Russia. We deliberately try to stay away from going into some narrow specialization, and when we interview new people for the job we specifically stress that an architect must be a jack of all trades – only in this case he will be able to appreciate all the complexity and diversity of human life that he has to organize. At first this task seemed to us totally insurmountable but, at the example of the guys who came to work with our firm (we call them associate partners) we found that this task is quite achievable. After about five years of such active practice the architects can achieve the necessary level of versatility and successfully react to any challenges.

– Still, how close to you are the ideas of constructivism and functionalism? Do you see yourself as successors to a tradition?

– Only partially. You cannot call us “neo-constructivists” – we try to understand and feel different styles of architecture. What we try to borrow from our predecessors is the sense of purpose in our decision making and constant search for something new. When you work on something for a really long time you inevitably get tired and accumulate negative emotions, and it’s really important to keep up the positive attitude, not to lose this expectation of something new and beautiful with which we come into architecture when we’re young. The constructivists, by the way, were populists in the good sense of this word: they felt the social commission and they responded to it. In those maximalist years it was an easy thing to do. Today, when our society shows both the desire for law and order and at the same time appetite for destruction, search for something new and attention to tradition, this task is much more complex and much more interesting. We always try to intuitively find the style that our client needs. And, saying “client”, I don’t necessarily mean “developer” but the end buyer of the apartment or the end renter of the office. In many ways, we have to be actors – we have to imagine ourselves as a grandmother, a child, an elderly man, a young man who has just bought his first car, or a young family that has to pay off the mortgage. When you run all this through yourself, you start creating the environment seeing the world through the eyes of different social roles, and your chances for success are skyrocketing.

We do have conditionally “constructivist” projects, like “Malevich” housing complex where we took the modular idea to the level of aesthetic principle, totally stripping the architecture of any frills. This is a pretty scary thing to do for an architect. And there is also this apartment-hotel at Gorkogo, 79, and this housing project at Pervomaiskaya, 60, in our home city of Ekaterinburg, in which we resorted to quite a different pristine style and tried to feel how powerfully architecture can influence humans on every level. This is not, of course, the Stalin Empire style with its proverbial turrets but still a kind of architecture that makes humans unconditionally surrender to it. Today this style is not popular at all but it has some sort of historical integrity to it. Architecture possessed first power for thousands of years and it still didn’t lose it. Yes the ideas of constructivism and the social approach are more in trend today but we still wanted to remember that feeling and feel this limits of such influence. This is like an alternating shower if you like.

"Malevich" housing complex. OSA. Photograph © Maxim Loskutov


"Malevich" housing complex © OSA


Pervomaiskaya, 1 © OSA


Business-class apart-hotel "Everest" © OSA


– OK, and how important it is for you that identity of the city? To what extent are you a Ekaterinburg firm? 

– Of course, studying in a city with a rich cultural later and a strong school of the 1980’s helped us a lot. But today a significant part of our work is about analytics, accumulating information and analyzing the international expertise, and I do not want to say that we have “outgrown” this city, because this would be an ungrateful thing to say. It’s just that our interests have become broader; it’s interesting for us to have a taste of different cities, in Russia and abroad. We are already actively working in Tumen, there are projects for Novosibirsk, Sredneuralsk, Vologda, Perm, Moscow’s Odintsovo, but we are still hungry for more. Yes, this is a slightly consumerist approach: we love eating and we love the taste of new dishes.

– What can you generally say about the town planning situation in Ekaterinburg?

– The situation is difficult, as it’s difficult all over Russia. As sad as it may sound but we – and I am deliberately using “we” – so far cannot offer our society and our cities town planning, compositional and aesthetic solutions that we might be proud of. And as paradoxic as it may sound, this degradation was triggered by the ultimate freedom that the architects got. We as architects were told “go ahead and do as you please” and it turned out that we really had little to say.

– To what extent will the program of organizing the territories developed by “Strelka” together with Housing Mortgage Finance Agency for 40 Russian cities (in which, by the way, you are taking part) help to improve the situation?

– It surely can make a positive difference, in spite of the fact that Strelka’s very ideology – as rude as this may sound – is ultimately slightly offensive to Russia: it turns out that a huge 150-million country cannot create megalopolises that are capable of so much as developing and landscaping their own land. And it turns out that the 25 years of freedom failed to form people who are ready to make decisions and take responsibility for them. We all sit around and wait hoping that some Strelka will come along or some foreign experts will teach us what to do with our cities.

To do Strelka justice, I must say that it really makes an effort to get as much feedback as possible from the local people, let them have their say. For example, our project of the waterfront of the Iset River underwent significant changes based upon public discussion. Never mind the fact that all these comments and suggestions often sound unprofessional, are hard to implement and are contrary to the good of the majority. The important mechanism – that is a habitual thing in Europe and the rest of the world – is still having a hard time getting implemented here but it’s great that they’ve started listening to people, and, possibly, at the next stages they will be more active, and they will get across their ideas more effectively.

Project of organizing the waterfront of the Iset River from the Malysheva Street to Kuybysheva Street © Strelka+OSA


Project of organizing the waterfront of the Iset River from the Malysheva Street to Kuybysheva Street © Strelka+OSA


Project of organizing the waterfront of the Iset River from the Malysheva Street to Kuybysheva Street © Strelka+OSA


– The solutions that Strelka comes up with are basically the same for any geographical location. Is there a danger that the cities, and specifically Ekaterinburg, will lose its identity, even in spite of the fact that numerous local firms take part in developing the projects?

– I do not see any danger in implementing what you might call “Strelka aesthetics”, this is just the trend of the times. This project of organizingg waterfronts that we are taking part in, as a matter of fact, was discussed as early back as in the 1970’s. Already at that time there was a desire to build the city’s main green artery from the Verkhneisetsky to the Nizhneisetsky creeks. In the soviet time they tried to solve this problem by applying town-planning fundamentals, i.e. building classic embankments and surrounding houses, which was to take a long time and was expensive. And now it turned out that at the first stage it is enough to simply bring people here and provide them with comfortable recreation at the riverside – and this doesn’t incur any huge expenses. As for the prospect of losing the city’s identity, I don't think this is something to be afraid of because the local character is sure to show through anyway. Curiously, in the soviet time even the images of Lenin were slightly different from one republic to another under the influence of the local traditions, and Strelka’s projects will not lose the local character either, even in spite of the fact that all the architects will work along the same aesthetic lines. 

– Your desire to try your hand at different projects is quite understandable but still what typology is interesting to you most of all? 

– Most of all we like working with housing projects – not even with housing projects as such but with the human habitat, if you like. And if this doesn’t necessarily have to be architecture but any abstract meditation on where and how we as humans feel comfortable... At the end of the day it all comes down to the material implementation anyway but the philosophical rationale is still very important for us.

And today this theme has stepped into the foreground. For example we are really interested in the problem of standardization of housing – including the corporate type. Large developers are trying to understand how to structure their product better, how to make it more typological and ultimately more affordable. And from our side we have an opportunity to sit down with ourselves and just think – people of today, people that buy the housing – what are they like? How do we reconcile the requirements of tomorrow with the necessary standardization? By the way, this subject always comes up during the major cultural turnarounds. Slowly, step-by-step we are trying to convince the developers that we work with in the necessity of applying the city-block approach and in the necessity of developing a line of what we could call “housing cells”. The housing market is extremely conservative in Russia.

– And how exactly are you going to reconcile the standardization process and a very clear demand of the modern people for individuality?

– As a matter of fact there is no contradiction here. Talking to our clients we came to a slightly and expected conclusion: by “individuality” creative people mean the freedom of self-expression, but for most people, come right down to it, this word means “security” or minimum influence of the world outside of their lives. If you feel secure if your needs are met, you feel strong and you perceive yourself as an individual. This is what matters.


19 September 2017

Headlines now
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
CNTR Architects has designed a business center for a new district in Yekaterinburg, aiming to reduce the need for commuting and make the residential environment more diverse. The architectural solutions are equally focused on creating spatial flexibility, comfortable working conditions, and a memorable image that could allow the building to become a spatial landmark of the district.
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.
A Twist of the Core
A clever and concise sculptural solution – rotating each floor by N degrees – has created an ensemble of “dancing” towers: similar yet different, simple yet complex. The designers meticulously refined a single structural node and spent considerable effort on the column construction – after that, “everything else was easy”. The architects also rotated the core walls on each floor to maximize the efficiency of the office spaces.
The Sculpting of Spring Forest Matter
We’ve been observing this building for a couple of years now: seemingly simple, perhaps even unassuming, it fits in remarkably well with the micro-district context shaped by the Moscow MCD road junctions. This building sticks in the memory of everyone who drives along the highway, even occasionally. In our opinion, Sergey Nikeshkin, by blending popular architectural techniques and approaches of the 2010s, managed to turn a seemingly simple structure into a statement “on the theme of a house as such”. Let’s figure out how this happened.
Water and Wind Whet the Stone
The Arisha Terraces residential complex, designed by Asadov Architects, will be built in a district of Dubai dedicated to film and television production. To create shaded spaces and an intriguing silhouette, the architects opted for a funnel-shaped composition and nature-inspired forms of erosion and weathering. The roofs, podium, and underground spaces extend leisure opportunities within the boundaries of a man-made “oasis”.