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

Review

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A City Block Isoline

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Competition: The Price of Creativity?

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Terraced Design

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Contest Results

The Volga Regatta

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Object

A New Track

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Report

Four Different Surveys

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Report

Scheduled Evolution

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The Golden Crown

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News

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A Step Forward

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Object

Gold in the Sands

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Object

Layers and Levels of Flight

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Object

Light and Shadow

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View

Casus Novae

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Report

Treasure Hunting

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Object

Depths of the Earth, Streams of Water

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Object

Fir Tree Dynamics

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Object

A Brick Shell

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Report

Word Forms

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Object

Flexibility and Acuteness of Modernity

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Interview

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

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Object

Moscow’s First

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Object

Looking at the Water

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Object

The White Wing

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Object

Urban Dunes

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Object

Proportional Growth

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Object

The “Staircase” Building

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Object

Projection of the Quarter

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​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