City Block of High Culture

In this issue, we are showcasing the four projects which took part in the competition that was held in the beginning of 2017 and was dedicated to renovating the complex of buildings of the former Sytin printing house into a residential complex.

Written by:
Lilya Aronova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

11 December 2017

Contest Results

The construction territory is essentially a city block delineated by the Pyatnitskaya and Valovaya Streets, and the 2nd and 3rd Monetchikovsky alleys, for the exception of the building standing on the corner of the Pyatnitskaya Street and the Garden Ring and the Lighthouse business center. Currently, this is the property of the “First Exemplary Printing Works”, the heir of the once-famous Sytin’s printing company. This very part of the Zamoskvorechye district is one of Moscow’s most “prayed-in” spots: suffice it to say that long before the printing house was built here, this was the place where the playwright Alexander Ostrovsky lived; as for the buildings themselves, they witnessed many historic moments, including the bloody ones – it was here that the Moscow strike of 1905 started, during which the place was almost burned down to the ground. Its role as a cultural heritage site is just as important: this printing house printed nearly a quarter of all the Russian publications, and was visited at one time or another by all the key figures of the Silver Age of the Russian literature. The complex that was supposed to be renovated into a premium class residential city block consists of three buildings erected at the brink of XIX-XX centuries, one building that was built in the 1930’s, and a few minor ones of no historical value, in whose stead new construction was going to take place. The main building – 71, Pyatnitskaya Street, with a gothic entrance and figured attics, an acclaimed masterpiece of Moscow’s Art Nouveau style, built in 1903 – was originally designed by the architect Adolph Erichson and the engineer Vladimir Shukhov; in the soviet time, its fourth floor got a buildup that significantly distorted the authors’ original idea. These two people also designed the red-brick Building 3 which stands inside the yard – it appeared in 1912 and housed the apartments of the employees of the company; the building that stands along the Valovaya Street was built by the architects Rybinsky and Voskresensky a little bit earlier, in 1888, and originally functioned as a tenement house. All the historical buildings were to be renovated with full reconstruction of their inside space into residential premises; the construction of mansards and penthouses was also planned. The building of soviet origin was to be renovated; its framework to be kept intact. All the later structures were to be replaced by new buildings.

Four Moscow-based architectural firms took part in the competition: Kleinewelt, ABV, DNK, and Wall. The competition was won by Kleinewelt Architekten. Then the construction was canceled.

Kleinewelt

zooming — Competition project for renovating the Sytin Printworks into a premium-class apartment and housing complex. Sytin Printworks Museum © Kleinewelt Architekten

The concept of this literature-oriented project is built upon the combination of different imagery systems based on the creative works of five Russia’s greatest men of letters – Tolstoy, Gogol, Esenin, Mayakovsky, and Blok – within the framework of a single city block. According to the authors’ idea, such saturated cultural content must take the complex to a whole new level, as far as its premium quality is concerned, which proceeds from the interpretation of material and emotional comfort, and the possibility for each of the potential clients to choose the kind of atmosphere that appeals personally to him. Based on serious scientific research, the restoration of the historical façades is tactfully augmented by laconic buildups of penthouses; the authors design the plastique of the new buildings in broad strokes, putting together large cubes with sunken-in recessions, or hefty stone slabs that symbolize the new epoch and new artistic statement. As for the center of public life of this city block, it must become the yard space devoted to Diaghilev Russian Seasons.

More on the project by Kleinewelt Architekten

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ABV

Together with restoring the appearance of the historical buildings, the authors of the project laid stress on developing a diverse range of apartments. As for the difficult charade formed by the Shukhov columns, Erichson windows, vaulted ceilings, and modern requirements for residential property, the architects were only able to solve it by stepping away from the technical specifications. The architects brought the silhouette of the main building back to its original outline by shifting the mansard inwards; the façade was designed in gray and beige tones with intricate sculptured decor. The extended façade of the building standing on the 2nd Monetchikovsky Alley was divided into four parts that can be visually perceived as independent buildings; the new building on the corner of the block, quite new in its architecture, is decorated with colorful Art Nouveau ornaments which refer us to the epoch when the historic buildings of the complex were built.

More on the project by ABV

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DNK ag

The imagery of the project is based on the theme of a printing house in its most direct meaning – a place where books are printed. The relief as the basis of book printing, the structure of a letter case, fragments of engraved plates and ornaments – all these attributes of book-printing business turned into architectural and decorative techniques that unite the historical and newly-built buildings of the complex into a single whole. The building which stands on the 2nd Monetchikovsky Alley embodies the link of time: the framework that the authors keep intact looks as though it “breaks through” the new façade that has been dressed upon it. In order to make sure that the building is not perceived as a monotonous one, the architects proposed three different versions of arranging the coffers on the façade, while on the mansard level the building’s silhouette is broken into three parts by the cutaways of the terraces. As for the building that stands inside the yard, the authors propose to build it up with a mansard of ostentatiously modern shape with a jagged line of the façade, which would thematically connect this city block to the neighboring buildings, while the yard landscaping is graced with elements of castle architecture.

More on the project by DNK ag

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Wall

The authors of the project propose to use such a new by Moscow standards technique as “semi-private space”. Leaving part of the yard in full power of the residents of the complex, they turn the rest of the territory into the so-called “black path”, marked by contrastive paving. Starting from the Garden Ring, it leads to a newly-built sculpture of a building that the architects treat as the cornerstone of this city block defining its identity. This is a trapeze-plan glass volume with a slanting roof, dissected into slender verticals by black pylons. The same kind of plastique is applied to the façades of the renovated “soviet” building on the 2nd Monetchikovsky Alley. As far as the historical buildings are concerned, the architects are planning to restrict themselves to maximum preservation and restoration of the aesthetics of the existing construction.

***

11 December 2017

Written by:

Lilya Aronova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

Headlines now

News

CinemaHologram

Not long ago, the Moscow authorities approved the project for a new House of Cinema complex by Kleinewelt Architekten. The original 1968 building could not be preserved – yet the architects managed to save its stained-glass panels, metal reliefs, and even the volumetric parameters of the structure, which will continue to house the Union of Cinematographers and cinema halls. The project’s main focal point, however, will be a residential tower. We examine its sculptural qualities and its allusions within the Moscow context.

Contest Results

Form as Method: TPO Reserve

At the core of the concept developed by Vladimir Plotkin and TPO Reserve lies an unconventional morphology that addresses functional challenges beyond purely formal concerns. Above all, however, it serves expressiveness and creates a rare kind of spatial and emotional experience, as becomes evident when examining the project’s key solutions. We studied it in detail, and it was all worth it. Our interpretation is that what drives this project is neither style nor even metaphor, but rather a method.

Object

Mound of Memory

The competition proposal for a memorial complex on the Pulkovo Heights by Studio 44 will not be realized, yet it deserves attention as an intriguing example of how architecture can symbolize traumatic events and thereby contribute to their processing and integration into human experience. The architects also succeed in combining memorial and recreational functions without slipping either into excessive dramatization or oversimplification. The project develops ideas explored in two earlier competition entries that likewise remained unbuilt – the Museum of the Siege of Leningrad and the Tuchkov Buyan park. It also recalls the mound-like hill that Alexander Nikolsky embodied in the form of the now-lost stadium on Krestovsky Island.

Object

Home Base

Working on the new building for Letovo Junior School – opened to students in autumn 2025 in the MSU Valley – the architects of UNK, following the client’s vision, subordinated both façades and interiors to the theme of “home”. Multiple variations of pitched roofs, a city skyline traced across glass balustrades, wooden textures, and a whole series of micro-spaces for retreat within public areas are all at the disposal of primary and middle school students. We take a closer look at the new school building – and at how it interprets current trends in educational environments.

Object

Doubles Match

The architecture of the Tennis Palace built in Luzhniki Olympic Complex, designed by Arena Design Institute, was shaped by three factors: the proximity of the brutalist Druzhba Arena, the closeness of the Moskva River and the metro bridge overpass, as well as the specifics of the function – tennis courts require large spans, abundant light, yet at the same time protection from direct sunlight. The architects divided the building into several blocks, playing on contrast, which is further emphasized by the façades developed in collaboration with TPO Reserve and Vladimir Plotkin.

Object

Microdynamics of Macroprocesses

Given the proximity of the multifunctional complex SOLOS to Sokolniki Park and to a major transport hub, Kleinewelt Architekten embedded in the design of the two high-rise towers a sense of dynamism more characteristic of natural phenomena than of man-made objects. Without the authors’ diagrams, this logic is not easy to decipher, although the eye immediately detects a pattern and tries to grasp it. It seems to us that one tower contains the impulse of a bud about to open, while the other evokes the movement of a lithospheric plate. Let us try to unravel it together.

Report

The Space of Post-Cubism

Sergei Tchoban and Alexandra Sheiner, of Studio CHART, created for the exhibition of “post-cubist” sculpture by Beatrice Sandomirskaya – a talented and even “mainstream” artist, yet almost unknown even to art historians – a space akin to her sculptural language: solidly built, confidently stereometric, and subtly expressive. It curves, emphasizing the mass of the sculpture, envelops the viewer, and guides them from one perspective to another, from a generic “shrine” to a “Madonna”.

Object

The Value of Open Space

For the site near the Barrikadnaya Metro Station, Sergey Skuratov developed five projects between 2020 and 2025. Two of them were ones that won the client’s invitation-only competitions. The fifth was recently selected by the Mayor of Moscow for implementation. The project is vivid and sculptural, expressive, eye-catching, and engaging – very much in line with the spirit of our time. And yet, this project is mid-rise rather than tall. In its northwestern part, near the metro and Druzhinnikovskaya Street, it shapes a comfortable urban environment. On the opposite side, it opens up, allowing sunlight into the courtyard and creating a spatial pause within the dense city fabric. How it is organized, what geometric principles underlie it, and why it takes this form – all this is explored in our article.

Coming From the Cold

The ArchBukhta Festival remains one of the few events in Russia where participants go through the entire process of creating an architectural object – from concept to construction. And they do so on the shores of Lake Baikal, in dedication to it. This year, GAFA took part and shared its experience: a local legend, a team-specific design code, friendship, as well as ice skating and endurance in freezing temperatures all contributed to gaining something more than just an award.

Object

Symphony of Water and Brick

The Alter residential complex, designed by Stepan Liphart and built on a bend of the Okhta River, is an example of a “drawn house”: the number of original architectural details is virtually immeasurable. As a result, ribs, projections, and recesses create a picturesque silhouette even without a significant variation in height. Both composition and material respond to the proximity of the river and to the red-brick factory building dating back to the early 20th century. The project was also significantly shaped by recommendations from the city’s chief architect. More details in our article.

Object

The Penguin House

The building with a curved façade on Brestskaya Street is one of the manifestos of Russian neomodernism of the early 2000s, a sculpture – this is how Anatoly Belov interprets it, speaking of “breaking from the modernist canon and the contextual approach”. We do not fully agree with the author, but his perspective is an interesting one.

Object

Wave and Vertical

The premium residential complex designed by GAFA for a site in the Khoroshevsky District responds to multiple constraints – the arc of a planned roadway, the water protection zone of the Khodynka River, and insolation requirements – through inventive massing. The composition is built on the interplay of two spatial layers: an elongated perimeter block and three towers concealed behind it generate the silhouette and key viewpoints, while also adding semantic depth reinforced by the façade solutions. Another defining feature is a large private courtyard, complemented by a citywide linear park.

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.

Overview

From Ski Resorts to Year-Round Recreation Clusters

In mid-December, several architectural firms gathered to discuss a “seasonal” topic: the prospects for the development of domestic ski tourism. Where is modern infrastructure already in place, where do only remnants of the Soviet legacy remain, and where is there still nothing – but projects are underway and soon to be completed? This article explores these questions.

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.

​City Block of High Culture

In this issue, we are showcasing the four projects which took part in the competition that was held in the beginning of 2017 and was dedicated to renovating the complex of buildings of the former Sytin printing house into a residential complex.

City Block of High Culture