Seven Hills of Moscow

Seven installations for Moscow Fireworks Festival and a multistory raft in the city of Vyksa – these and other projects were realized by the team of interns of the 4th internship of Wowhaus.

Written by:
Alla Pavlikova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

07 December 2017

Overview

The Wowhaus internship is an educational project that helps young architects to immerse themselves into the profession, not in the routine, but in a creative way – honing, and sometimes implementing their ideas in collaboration with practicing architects of the firm, including its leaders Oleg Shapiro and Dmitry Likin. According to the Wowhaus architects, the fourth internship proved to be the most fruitful one. Over a short period of time, a team of seven young lady architects who came from all over the country was able to design and build the project of a raft for Vyksa’s Art-Ovrag (“Art-Ravine”) Festival, and take part in many large-scale projects of the firm.

The interns recall that they got down to their first task in less than an hour after their initial interview. A schedule just as tight was applied to the whole studying course: workshops, lectures, brainstorming sessions, sleepless nights, participation in construction work and author supervision.

Marina Pakhomova
Intern of the fourth internship;
currently a junior architect of Wowhaus:

“Figuratively speaking, I was lucky to catch the last train on that project, submitting my portfolio an hour before the deadline. After I got back to Moscow from Germany, where I finished graduate school, I dreamed of finding a job that I could really enjoy. Wowhaus seemed to me the most interesting option. But when I was submitting my application I did not expect the competition to be so tough – seven applicants per place. I was lucky enough to become a part of a large team with its own philosophy and its own attitude towards the profession. I was also lucky with the team of interns – we were all thinking in the same lines, and we were able to find common ground very quickly, and do interesting projects together”.

Maybe, due to the fact that the team was a very close-knit one, the Wowhaus leaders made a decision to invite all the interns to work for the firm in the capacity of junior architects. Below, we are covering a few projects that were done with the input from Wowhaus interns 2017.

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The “Paradox” raft in Vyksa

zooming — Oleg Shapiro and the interns at the Art-Ovrag Festival in Vyksa. Photograph © Dmitry Chebanenko

Rotating one element consisting of two flights of stairs helped the architects to create a tight spatial knot on a small floating island, mastering the whole of it. Although the raft was on the rocky side, and the guests had to duck now and then, it could still take aboard a record number of people and sail them around. After the festival, all the rafts, including “Paradox”, were transferred into the city ownership, and are now used as pleasure boats on a local creek.

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Hills for the Fireworks Festival

The International Fireworks Festival took place in Moscow in mid-August. Before the festival, the interns, who by that time already had the status of the architects of the firm, developed, under the guidance of Anastasia Izmakova, concepts for seven art objects that were meant to symbolize the seven hills of the nation’s capital – Borovitsky, Tagansky, Strastnoy, Sretensky, Invanovskaya and Pskovskaya mounts, and the Vorobyevy (“Sparrow”) Hills. Every intern was commissioned with one location. The work of the project began with profound historical studies – a two-hour lecture delivered by the Moscow history expert Philipp Smirnov, which allowed the interns to get a maximum of information not only about the hills but about Moscow in general.

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The Borovitsky Hill
Sophia Zhukova

This installation was presented as a symbolic city square circled by a red wooden fence, in the center of which stands a swing 12 meters tall. Painted red, just as the fence, this swing looked more like a tower. As for the square, in spite of the fact that its coverage was grass, it still put the visitors in the mind of the Red Square with its Kremlin walls, while the material that the author of the project chose for the fence – pieces of timber of different sizes – served as a reminder of a pine-tree forest that used to be here centuries ago. Hence, the name of Borovitsky (which can be loosely translated as “Forest” – translator’s note) Hill.

“The Red Square is a steady association, from which we wanted to break away as much as possible – explains the author of the project Sophia Zhukova – The only thing that literally refers to it is the color. Historically, the Red Square has always been the place of people’s gatherings, and this is pretty much why I chose the idea of the people’s unity to base my project upon. Hence, the image of a swing as a universal uniting element that is loved by children and adults alike”.

During the whole festival, the swing, in which, in accordance with the old Russian tradition, one could only swing in an upright standing position, did enjoy great popularity. The interns are recalling that even the construction workers who assembled the swing in the park could not resist the temptation to take a swing after their work was done.

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Shvivaya Mount. The Tagansky Hill

Ekaterina Kovbashina

The Shvivaya Mount was the place where crafts were developed. For centuries, this part of the city hosted weavers’ workshops, so, creating her installation, Ekaterina Kovbashina proceeded from the image of a weaving loom. The weaving loom, which, according to the author’s idea, was to be used to its direct purpose during the festival, occupied the central position in the installation. What grew up around it looked something like a tower assembled from its individual elements and parts. The visitors could step inside the tower and even try to weave a strip of canvas.

“I originally planned that the construction of the tower would be metallic but it was ultimately made of wood – Ekaterina Kovbashina says – another thing that I wasn’t able to do was have the threads backlit and include the interactive part. But generally, all the elements of the project are there: the object was a big hit with children, while adults would examine it from different angles and play the game of associations – someone compared it with a butterfly’s cocoon, someone – with a penguin. This is my first project implemented on such a grand scale”.

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Sparrow Hills
Kristina Rykova

Designing her project, Kristina Rykova drew inspiration from the high-rise building of the Moscow State University – she took the star that crowns the high-rises’s spear as the starting point. Its real size is quite impressive – a whopping 8 meters in diameter. One cannot conceive that fact, however, because we all are used to seeing this star from a distance. What Kristina proposed to do was get this star down from heaven to earth, and she came up with a wooden structure whose plan repeats the contour of the star on a real-size scale. The opening that the structure has in its roof is of the same shape only it is smaller. It was also planned that stars would be used for decorating the walls as well. The idea was that, coming inside, the visitor would see the stars above, below, and even all around him.

“The project underwent significant changes in the course of the construction – Kristina Rykova explains – Initially, I planned to build my project from wood but this idea turned out to be prohibitively expensive. The wooden parts were ultimately replaced with red ribbons”. Nevertheless, the image of the star is easily readable in the altered project as well.

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Ivanovskaya Mount
Alina Malysheva

The Ivanovskaya Mount is connected with the image of the Saint Peter and Paul Cathedral. However, Alina Malysheva decided to base her project not on the image of the cathedral itself, but on the organ whose sound filled its walls since 1837. The installation explores the bright artistic image of the organ that consists of numerous pipes. In this particular instance, however, the pipes, wrapped in white semitransparent perforated film, are placed in a rather chaotic fashion and have a huge scale – from giant ones, inside of which you can step like you would into a room to tiny decorative ones. In the windy weather, with the air blowing through the pipes of different diameter, the entire installation will be livened up by musical accompaniment.

In addition to the fact that the installation is essentially a musical instrument, Alina proposed to place musical instruments of her original design inside of each of the larger pipes – for example, a makeshift xylophone, a church bell, or a communication tube. She was not able to realize this idea, though, and, instead, came up with a new one: an interactive installation that would allow the visitors to add effects to the sound of their voices. “This playful aspect of the installation was something that our visitors liked very much – Alina Malysheva recalls – People would hit the keys, run from one pipe to another like they would in a labyrinth, they would shout and stomp, creating a constant echo”.

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The Sretensky Hill
Alina Rakhmatullina

The Lubyanka Square once had on it a large water-supplying fountain: people would come here with barrels and buckets to get water from the Mytishchi aqueduct. It was this specific image that constituted the basis for the art object designed by Alina Rakhmatullina. The young architect proposed to make a fountain from numerous intertwining water pipes painted different bright colors. The water flows through the pipes in a cyclic fashion, filling a reservoir at the base of the structure. In order to make the water fill the reservoir, one has to push the button. What makes the whole process more fun is the fact that after one pushes the button the water can issue from any of the pipes, and you never know which pipe it will be next.

During the festival, the fountain occupied its due place in the food court zone, and got yet another functional purpose: Alina Rakhmatullina recalls that people would use it to wash their hands before meals. As for the little guests of the festival, they most of all enjoyed the button pushing game.

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The Strastnoy Hill
Nina Stepina

The Strastnoy Hill and the Tverskaya Street situated on it are all about locomotion. This street has always been the city’s main artery: this road was ridden upon by the first horse-drawn streetcar, diligences, and the first tramway. However, the most interesting thing that ever happened to this place was the widening of this street in the 1930’s. This was the time when whole buildings came in motion – they were moved over to the new red line on rails.

The Nina Stepina installation also has rails in it, upon which trolleys run. A peculiar 25-meter railway is decorated by a lightweight structure of numerous rectangular arches. Viewed in perspective, they resemble a portal which looks particularly mind-blowing at night thanks to its backlights. The portal ends in a large screen which plays nonstop historical movies about Moscow and the Tverskaya Street.

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Pskovskaya Mount
Ekaterina Sporykhina

The Pskovskaya Mount used to be situated in the east part of the Zaryadye area, and today there is little left of it – a memory in the park buildings and a high position of the Saint George Church. Rich history of this district of Moscow yielded a lot of images for the creation of an installation: at different times, this place was a commercial and a residential area, a Jewish ghetto, and an English estate. Then all of the buildings were taken down to make room for the construction of the eighth Stalin high-rise, and this was the time when the mount disappeared – the terrain was leveled out.

Ekaterina Sporykhina, an architect of Wowhaus, who had to replace one of her interns on this project, decided to recreate in her installation the “Rossiya” hotel on a 1:10 scale in order to remind about this undisputed milestone in the development not only of the Pskovskaya Mount but of the whole city as well. The light wooden installation of thin planks accurately repeats the dimensions and the structure of the torn-down hotel with a large inner yard and a tower in the middle. The author even kept up the hotel function of the project, organizing inside something in the way of hotel rooms with hammocks and soft poufs.

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Wowhaus takes in new interns several times a year, make sure to follow the updates and announcements.

07 December 2017

Headlines now

Object

The Golden Crown

The concept for a dental clinic in Yekaterinburg, developed by CNTR Studio, revolves around the idea of a “mouth full of gold”: pristine white porcelain stoneware walls are complemented by matte brass details. To avoid an overly literal interpretation, the architects focused on the building’s proportions, skillfully navigating between sunlight requirements and fire safety regulations.

News

Flexibility and Integration

Not long ago, we covered the project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential complex, designed by APEX. Now, we’ve been shown different fence concepts they developed to enclose the complex’s private courtyards, incorporating a variety of public functions. We believe that the sheer fact that the complex’s architects were involved in such a detail as fencing speaks volumes.

Object

A Step Forward

The HIDE residential complex represents a major milestone for ADM architects and their leaders Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova in their quest for a fresh high-rise aesthetic – one that is flexible and layered, capable of bringing vibrancy to mass and silhouette while shaping form. Over recent years, this approach has become ADM’s “signature style”, with the golden HIDE tower playing a pivotal role in its evolution. Here, we delve into the project’s story, explore the details of the complex’s design, and uncover its core essence.

Object

Gold in the Sands

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

Object

Layers and Levels of Flight

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

Object

Light and Shadow

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

View

Casus Novae

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

Report

Treasure Hunting

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

Object

Depths of the Earth, Streams of Water

In the Malaya Okhta district, the Akzent building, designed by Stepan Liphart, was constructed. It follows a classic tripartite structure, yet it’s what you might call “hand-drawn”: each façade is unique in its form and details, some of which aren’t immediately noticeable. In this article, we explore the context and, together with the architect, delve into how the form was developed.

Object

Fir Tree Dynamics

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

Object

A Brick Shell

In the process of designing a clubhouse situated among pine trees in a prestigious suburban area near Moscow, the architectural firm “A.Len” did the façade design part. The combination of different types of brick and masonry correlates with the volumetric and plastique solutions, further enhanced by the inclusion of wood-painted fragments and metal “glazing”.

Report

Word Forms

ATRIUM architects love ambitious challenges, and for the firm’s thirtieth anniversary, they boldly play a game of words with an exhibition that dives deep into a self-created vocabulary. They immerse their projects – especially art installations – into this glossary, as if plunging into a current of their own. You feel as if you’re flowing through the veins of pure art, immersed in a universe of vertical cities, educational spaces – of which the architects are true masters – and the cultural codes of various locations. But what truly captivates is the bold statement that Vera Butko and Anton Nadtochy make, both through their work and this exhibition: architecture, above all, is art – the art of working with form and space.

Object

Flexibility and Acuteness of Modernity

Luxurious, fluid, large “kokoshniks” and spiral barrel columns, as if made from colorful chewing gum: there seem to be no other mansion like this in Moscow, designed in the “Neo-Russian-Modern” style. And the “Teremok” on Malaya Kaluzhskaya, previously somewhat obscure, has “come alive with new colors” and gained visibility after its restoration for the office of the “architectural ecosystem” as the architects love to call themselves. It’s evident that Julius Borisov and the architects at UNK put their hearts into finding this new office and bringing it up to date. Let’s delve into the paradoxes of this mansion’s history and its plasticity. Spoiler: two versions of modernity meet here, both balancing on the razor’s edge of “what’s current”.

Interview

Yuri Vissarionov: “A modular house does not belong to the land”

It belongs to space, or to the air... It turns out that 3D printing is more effective when combined with a modular approach: the house is built in a workshop and then adapted to the site, including on uneven terrain. Yuri Vissarionov shares his latest experience in designing tourist complexes, both in central Russia and in the south. These include houseboats, homes printed from lightweight concrete using a 3D printer, and, of course, frame houses.

Object

Moscow’s First

“The quality of education largely depends on the quality of the educational environment”. This principle of the last decade has been realized by Sergey Skuratov in the project for the First Moscow Gymnasium on Rostovskaya Embankment in the Khamovniki district. The building seamlessly integrates into the complex urban landscape, responding both to the pedestrian flow of the city and the quiet alleyways. It skillfully takes advantage of the height differences and aligns with modern trends in educational space design. Let’s take a closer look.

Object

Looking at the Water

The site of Villa Sonata stretches from the road to the water’s edge, offering its own shoreline, pier, and a picturesque river panorama. To reveal these sweeping views, Roman Leonidov “cut” the façade diagonally parallel to the river, thus getting two main axes for the house and, consequently, “two heads”. The internal core – two double-height spaces, a living room and a conservatory, with a “bridge” above them – makes the house both “transparent” and filled with light.

Object

The White Wing

Well, it’s not exactly white. It’s more of a beige, white-stone structure that plays with the color of limestone – smoother surfaces are lighter, while rougher ones are darker. This wing unites various elements: it absorbs and interprets the surrounding themes. It responds to everything, yet maintains a cohesive expression – a challenging task! – while also incorporating recognizable features of its own, such as the dynamic cuts at the bottom, top, and middle.

Object

Urban Dunes

The XSA Ramps team designed and built a three-part sports hub for a park in Rostov-on-Don, welcoming people of all ages and fitness levels. The skate plaza, pump track, and playground are all meticulously crafted with details that attract a diverse range of visitors. The technical execution of the shapes and slopes transforms this space into a kind of sculptural composition.

Object

Proportional Growth

The project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential area has been announced. The buildings are situated on an elongated plot – almost a “ray” that shoots out from the center of the area towards the river. Their layout reflects both a response to Moscow’s architectural preferences over the past 15 years, shifting “from blocks to towers”, and an interpretation of the neighboring business park designed by SOM. Additionally, the best apartments here are not located at the very top but closer to the middle, forming a glowing “waistline”.

Object

The “Staircase” Building

In designing the “Details” residential complex in New Moscow, Rais Baishev spiced up the now-popular Moscow theme of a “courtyard” building with an idea drawn from the surrealist drawings by Maurits Escher. He envisioned the stepped silhouettes and descending slopes as a metaphysical mega-staircase, creating a key void within the courtyard that gave the project an internal “spine”. This concept is felt both in the building’s silhouette and on its façades.

Object

Projection of the Quarter

No one doubted that the building that Vladimir Plotkin designed as part of the “Garden Quarters” would be the most modernist of all. And it turned out just that way: while adhering to the common design code, the building successfully combines brick and white stone, rhythmically responding to the neighboring building designed by Ostozhenka, yet tactfully and persistently making a few statements of its own. This includes the projection of the ideal urban development composition “14–9–6”, which can be found right next door, mathematical calculations, including those for various types of terraces (and perhaps the only reminder of the Soviet past of the Kauchuk rubber factory!), and the white “cross-stitch” pattern of the façade grid.

Object

Domus Aurea

In this issue, we examine the “Tessinsky-1” house, designed by Sergey Skuratov and completed in 2023. Located in the middle of the Serebryanicheskaya Embankment district, at the intersection of its main streets, this house assumes a sort of “nodal” role: it not only responds to everything around it and preserves many memories of the former EMA factory within itself, but it weaves all this into a newly directed pattern, reconciling bright “gold” and dark-colored brick, largely with the help of the new, modern-yet-archaic Columba brick, which, come to think about it, is the most precious element here.

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The Chimney of Nikola-Lenivets

In this issue, we are examining the “Obelisk House” designed by KATARSIS and built for the Arkhstoyanie 2023 festival. However, it was only finished later on, and this is why we are examining it now. It seems to us that after the “Obelisk House” appeared in Nikola-Lenivets, a dialogue and a few inner connections appeared between the temporary structures built here. These houses no longer look like “accidental neighbors”, more of which below.

Periscope by the Bay

The jury awarded the second place in the competition for a public and cultural center in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the companies GORA (“Mountain”) and M4. In the consortium’s proposal, the building resembles a sperm whale with a calf swimming next to it or a periscope, whose lenses capture the most spectacular views from the surrounding landscape.

Contest Results

From Arcs to Dolmens

While working on the competition project for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, ASADOV Architects prioritized the value of the natural and urban environment, aiming to preserve the balance of the location while minimizing the resemblance of the volume that they designed to a “traditional building”. The task was challenging, and the architects created three versions, one of which having been developed after the competition, where their main proposal took third place. However, the point of interest here is not the competition result but the continuity of creative thinking.

Object

Hide and Seek

The ID Moskovskiy house, designed by Stepan Liphart in St. Petersburg, in the courtyards near Moskovskiy Avenue beyond the Obvodny Canal and recently completed, is notable for several reasons. Firstly, it has been realized with considerable accuracy, which is particularly significant as this is the first building where the architect was responsible not only for the facades but also for the layouts, allowing for better integration between the two. On the other hand, this building is interesting as an example of the “germination” of new architecture in the city: it draws on the best examples from the neighborhood and becomes an improved and developed sum of ideas found by the architect in the surrounding context.

The Big Twelve

Yesterday, the winners of the Moscow Mayor’s Architecture Award were announced and honored. Let’s take a look at what was awarded and, in some cases, even critique this esteemed award. After all, there is always room for improvement, right?

Object

Above the Golden Horn

The residential complex “Philosophy” designed by T+T architects in Vladivostok, is one of the new projects in the “Golubinaya Pad” area, changing its development philosophy (pun intended) from single houses to a comprehensive approach. The buildings are organized along public streets, varying in height and format, with one house even executed in gallery typology, featuring a cantilever leaning on an art object.

Report

Nuanced Alternative

How can you rhyme a square and space? Easily! But to do so, you need to rhyme everything you can possibly think of: weave everything together, like in a tensegrity structure, and find your own optics too. The new exhibition at GES-2 does just that, offering its visitor a new perspective on the history of art spanning 150 years, infused with the hope for endless multiplicity of worlds and art histories. Read on to see how this is achieved and how the exhibition design by Evgeny Ace contributes to it.

Object

Blinds for Ice

An ice arena has been constructed in Domodedovo based on a project by Yuri Vissarionov Architects. To prevent the long façade, a technical requirement for winter sports facilities, from appearing monotonous, the architects proposed the use of suspended structures with multidirectional slats. This design protects the ice from direct sunlight while giving the wall texture and detail.