Continuing What Was Once Started

The project of an office-and-hotel complex located on the first kilometer of the Rublevo-Uspenskoe Highway develops their old ideas and responds to the architecture of the buildings that “Sergey Kisselev and Partners” had built earlier in this area.

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

21 February 2018

Object

Architect:

Firm:

Sergey Kisselev & Partners http://www.sk-p.ru/

The land site at the beginning of the Rublevo-Uspenskoe Highway has been explored by “Sergey Kisselev and Partners” for more than a decade now. In 2015, its south part saw the completion of the office center Pallau RB, the designing of which had been started still before the economic crisis of 2007. The north part of the territory lies vacant so far; it is meant to be used in another project that is now being considered by the government of the Moscow region.

This place, in spite of the proximity of Moscow’s main thoroughfare, is rather quiet: it is separated from the highway by two buildings of car dealerships; it is 170 away from the Moscow Ring Road, its north part borders on the villa community “Rublevo-10”, and its south part borders on the Romashkovsky Forest. For this reason, it was planned very early on that, in addition to offices, a hotel would be built here as well. Ultimately, the territory was divided into two parts: the part that is closer to the Moscow Ring Road got the office buildings “А” and “Б”, while the part that is closer to the forest got the hotel buildings “В” and “Г”; each pair of the buildings is linked by a podium. Beneath the entire territory of the complex, there is single-level underground parking garage. The two pairs of volumes that stand in a fan-like fashion from north to south are separated by a landscaped triangle with a small pedestrian promenade. It is planned that the hotel complex will be built first; the offices and the landscaping part will become the second stage of construction and will appear later on down the line.

zooming — Hotel and business complex on the Rublevo-Uspenskoe Highway. Photo visualization. View from the Rublevskoe Highway © Sergey Kisselev and Partners

The two office buildings form a visual transition and follow the outlines of the Pallau buildings, inheriting not only the business function, but also the abundance of glass and the angles of the sloping planes, including those of the roofs – inwards from the outside, as if all the slabs turn their noses up before the formal border of the nation’s capital – the Moscow Ring Road. If one is to look from the southeast, the office buildings line themselves up as an incremental rhythmic array, alternating glittering glass and yellowish façades. But then again, while the façade panels of Pallau are metal, and their delicate metallic glitter can be traced back to the original concept of a glass volume clad in golden casing, it is planned that the new buildings will utilize Jurassic stone: its color and texture is different but, if viewed from a distance, they would still look pretty similar.

The glass casing is also designed in a “reverse” way to a certain degree: the new buildings will also have glass façades, only these will be the side ends instead of the longitudinal walls. Their pixel-like pattern, dark on the downside and light on the upside, is provided by this simple technique: instead of conjuring with various shades of blacked out glass (which inevitably leaves the building’s without some of the ambient light), the architects proposed to take some of the glass sections with the same UF-protection coefficient, and reverse them 180º – this way, the protective properties remained just as effective, while the sunlight reflection angle became different, which is meant to create an effect of soft pixel “dissolution” of the glass surfaces and a smooth transition to the sky. This is a technique that is cost-efficient and elegant at the same time.

Thanks to the chamfers of the roofs – together they go 5 meters upwards – the architects were able not only to hide mechanical rooms but also to make the western part of the roofs usable – they will serve as venues for the office parties. According to the chief architect of the project, Anastasia Khomyakova, this place is sure to command fine forest views. The usable parts of the roofs are fenced off from the Moscow Ring Road by the overhangs of the mechanical rooms.

The other three façades are subjugated to a large-cell grid that vertically groups from three to five floors, the inner side wall sporting a regular grid with constant horizontals and verticals becoming denser but more slender with each upward step. As for the outer side façades, their horizontals are displaced: the result looks like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle or a simplified picture of some tectonic shift. The depth of the ribs also grows downwards, strengthening the geological or maybe gothic associations.

The two hotel buildings that stand in the western part of the territory look more conservative. The façades of the one that is closer to the center of the construction site are designed in dark brick, the architects planning to use hand-formed solid brick with a grisaille effect, which is created by the strips of lighter bricks running along the vertically grouped windows that make visible the sunlit chamfers – in order to raise people’s spirits and enhance the volume of the windows. Here, though to a smaller scale than on the office façades, the play of horizontals is also visible: the interfloor lintels are sometimes thinner and sometimes wider, and thus they form a semblance of a small wave. The lintels in the groups of windows are made of dark-brown brick; the frequent hollows of the stanza balconies are clad in dark metal bars, and all of this, put together, creates deep volumetric chocolate-colored façades. The tall 5-meter (as is the hot trend of today) ground floors are occupied by a cafe turned in the direction of the small park.

The second building, i.e. the one that stands closer to the woodland, is notable for its light-colored brick which is even closer to the color of white stone. The bricks here are also hand-formed, with crumpled “white-clay” texture – finding the right brick manufacturer turned out to be quite a chore. Neither verticals nor horizontals prevail here; rather, they are mixed up: the textured stripes put one in the mind of constructivist city blocks, and the dark inserts between the windows look as if they were borrowed from the neighboring building. The resulting hybrid is akin to a fragment of a strip of lace blown out of size – everything looks rather cozy, countryside-style, like a dappled shade on a summer terrace. But then again, let’s not forget that the warmth of the sepia grisaille is meant to compensate for the scale of the complex: each building here has 17 floors in it, and is 60 meters high, although, by the standards of buildings situated just beyond the Moscow Ring Road, this falls short of the notion of a “giant scale”, the common number of floors here being 25.

As we remember, the two hotel buildings are linked to each other by a podium which is the same 5 meters high as the public and commercial ground floors. It will host a fitness center with a spa; its landscaped roof will be turned into a walking promenade. This complex is interesting as the continuation of the work that “Sergey Kisselev and Partners” started here long ago. In this sense, their own creation (which, we have to admit, underwent some significant changes during the design process but still retained the architects’ original idea) becomes an important contextual fragment for the authors, requires a response, even some sort of resonance, to enhance and explore this theme even further. A keen observer may see here a kind of gothic tapering of the roofs of the office buildings that overlook the highway with two of their walls – and, at the same time, a slight transition to a different theme, which is homely, palpable, and is connected, let’s say, with the signs of the times; a theme which is defined by the functional requirements, and, possibly, by the relevance of the “Manhattan-type” high-rise brick imagery. The three blocks of buildings, the first of which is already complete, come together, one way or another, to form a certain chain, grow, turn around, change their materials, but remain parts of the same story.

Architect:

Firm:

Sergey Kisselev & Partners http://www.sk-p.ru/

21 February 2018

Headlines now

News

Resort on the Kama River

Wowhaus has developed a project for the reconstruction of Korabelnaya Roshcha (“Mast Grove”), a wellness resort located on the banks of the Kama River.

Object

Nests in Primorye

The eco-park project “Nests”, designed by Aleksey Polishchuk and the company Power Technologies, received first prize at the Eco-Coast 2025 festival, organized by the Union of Architects of Russia. For a glamping site in Filinskaya Bay, the authors proposed bird-shaped houses, treehouses, and a nest-shaped observation platform, topping it all with an entrance pavilion executed in the shape of an owl.

Object

The Angle of String Tension

The House of Music, designed by Vladimir Plotkin and the architects of TPO Reserve, resembles a harp, and when seen from above, even a bass clef. But if only it were that simple! The architecture of the complex fuses two distinct expressive languages: the lattice-like, transparent, permeable vocabulary of “classical” modernism and the sculptural, ribbon-like volumes so beloved by today’s neo-modernism. How it all works – where the catharsis lies, which compositional axes underpin the design, where the project resembles Zaryadye Concert Hall and where it does not – read in the article below.

Object

How Historic Tobolsk Becomes a Portal to the Future

Over the past decade, the architectural company Wowhaus has developed urban strategies for several Russian cities – Vyksa, Tula, and Nizhnekamsk, to name but a few. Against this backdrop, the Tobolsk master plan stands out both for its scale – the territory under transformation covers more than 220 square kilometers – and for its complexity.

Object

St. Petersburg vs Rome

The center of St. Petersburg is, as we know, sacred – but few people can say with certainty where this “sacred place” actually begins and ends. It’s not about the formal boundaries, “from the Obvodny Canal to the Bolshaya Nevka”, but about the vibe that feels true to the city center. With the Nevskaya Ratusha complex – built to a design that won an international competition – Evgeny Gerasimov and Sergei Tchoban created an “image of the center” within its territory. And not so much the image of St. Petersburg itself, as that of a global metropolis. This is something new, something that hasn’t appeared in the city for a long time. In this article, we study the atmosphere, recall precedents, and even reflect on who and when first called St. Petersburg the “new Rome”. Clearly, the idea is alive for a reason.

Object

On the Wave

The project of transforming the river port and embankment in the city of Cheboksary, developed by the ATRIUM Architects, involves one of the city’s key areas. The Volga embankment is to be turned into a riverside boulevard – a multifunctional, comfortable, and expressive space for work and leisure activities. The authors propose creating a new link with the city’s main Krasnaya (“Red”) Square, as well as erecting several residential towers inspired by the shape of the traditional national women’s headdress – these towers are likely to become striking accents on the Volga panorama.

Interview

Valery Kanyashin: “We Were Given a Free Hand”

The Headliner residential complex, the main part of which was recently completed just across from Moscow City, is a kind of neighbor to the MIBC that doesn’t “play along” with it. On the contrary, the new complex is entirely built on contrast: like a city of differently scaled buildings that seems to have emerged naturally over the past 20 years – which is a hugely popular trend nowadays! And yet here – perhaps only here – such a project has been realized to its full potential. Yes, high-rises dominate, but all these slender, delicate profiles, all these exciting perspectives! And most importantly – how everything is mixed and composed together... We spoke with the project’s leader Valery Kanyashin.

Object

The Keystone

Until quite recently, premium residential and office complexes in Moscow were seen as the exclusive privilege of the city center. Today the situation is changing: high-quality architecture is moving beyond the confines of the Third Ring Road and appearing on the outskirts. The STONE Kaluzhskaya business center is one such example. Projects like this help decentralize the megalopolis, making life and work prestigious in any part of the city.

send.project

Perpetuum Mobile

The interior of the headquarters of Natsproektstroy, created by the IND studio team, vividly and effectively reflects the client’s field of activity – it is one of Russia’s largest infrastructure companies, responsible for logistics and transport communications of every kind you can possibly think of.

Object

Water and Light

Church art is full of symbolism, and part of it is truly canonical, while another part is shaped by tradition and is perceived by some as obligatory. Because of this kind of “false conservatism”, contemporary church architecture develops slowly compared to other genres, and rarely looks contemporary. Nevertheless, there are enthusiasts in this field out there: the cemetery church of Archangel Michael in Apatity, designed by Dmitry Ostroumov and Prokhram bureau, combines tradition and experiment. This is not an experiment for its own sake, however – rather, the considered work of a contemporary architect with the symbolism of space, volume, and, above all, light.

Object

Champions’ Cup

At first glance, the Bell skyscraper on 1st Yamskogo Polya Street, 12, appears strict and laconic – though by no means modest. Its economical stereometry is built on a form close to an oval, one of UNK architects’ favorite themes. The streamlined surface of the main volume, clad in metal louvers, is sliced twice with glass incisions that graphically reveal the essence of the original shape: both its simplicity and its complexity. At the same time, dozens of highly complex engineering puzzles have been solved here.

send.project

Semi-Digital Environment

In the town of Innopolis, a satellite of Kazan, the first 4-star hotel designed by MAD Architects has opened. The interiors of the hotel combine elegance with irony, and technology with comfort, evoking the atmosphere of a computer game or maybe a sci-fi movie about the near future.

Object

History never ends

The old railway station in Kapan, a city in southern Armenia, has been given new life by the Paris-based design firm Normal Studio. Today, it serves as a TUMO center.

Object

A Deep, Crystal Shine

A new luxury residential development by ADM architects is set to rise in the Patriarch’s Ponds district, not far from Novopushkinsky Square. It will replace three buildings erected in the early 1990s. The project authors, Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova, have placed their bets on the variety among the three volumes, modern design solutions, and attention to detail: one of the buildings will feature smoothly curved balconies with a ceramic sheen on their undersides, while another will be accented by glass “sculpture” columns.

Interview

Grigory Revzin: “What we should do with the architecture of the seventies”

Soviet modernism came in two flavors: the good, author-driven kind, and the bad, standardized kind. The good kind was “on the periphery”, while the bad kind was in the center – geographically, in terms of attention, scale, and everything else. Can we demolish it? “That would be destroying public consensus out of thin air”. So what should we do? Preserve it, but creatively: “Bring architecture into places where it hasn’t yet appeared”. Treat these buildings not as monuments, but as urban landscape. Read our interview with Grigory Revzin on the pressing topic of saving modernism – where he proposes a controversial, yet really intriguing, way of preserving 1970s buildings.

Overview

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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”.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

New Aeroflot Office: Lightness, Play, Comfort

Even if you have no plans to fly with Aeroflot anytime soon, their new office at 2A 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street is still worth a visit for its interior design alone.

Object

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.

Object

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”.

Object

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.