Wooden Stones

The conceptual project by Totan Kuzembaev and the Sokolsky woodworking integrated plant is meant to demonstrate the diversity of design solutions that use wooden CLT panels, and the possibilities for combining these panels with concrete structures, including the field of renovating the Soviet-era five-story houses instead of tearing them down completely.

Written by:

Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

26 April 2018

Object

The concept of a multistory wooden cluster named “Wood City” was developed by Totan Kuzembaev Architectural Studio at the request of the Sokolsky woodworking integrated plant, part of Segezha Group. The project is of the “paper” kind to some extent, its purpose being to demonstrate, at the example of a specific platform, the potential of wooden multistory housing construction with the use of the CLT (cross laminated timber) panels. It is not accidental that the name of this visionary project echoes that of the famous Finnish project “Wood Town”, which was developed in 1997 by the University of Oulu; it was about popularizing wooden construction in Finland, and the project was a success: today, Finland builds multistory residential houses with a large share of wooden structures used in their construction. In Russia, however, the idea of multistory wooden construction is still waiting for the amendments to the existing construction rules and regulations, as well as for steady production of the building materials.

As a demonstration platform, the architects chose a Moscow micro-district named “Kamushki” (which literally translates as “Little Stones”), lying north of the Moscow City business center. In 2006, the Creative Union “Reserve” designed a housing and business complex here; today, the brick five-stories got into the housing renovation program – in their stead, Totan Kuzembaev designed houses of his own, and for some buildings on the corner he even proposed a possibility of reconstruction (without being torn down) by building new independent structures – wooden casings for the old buildings – and improving the living conditions by expanding the floor space and adding a mansard floor. This in fact was the development of the idea that was widely discussed in 2017 immediately after the renovation program was announced: why tear things down if we can reconstruct them? It is clear that not everyone is chuffed at the prospect of getting his beloved home torn down.

The opportunities for reconstruction combined with widening of the floor space are demonstrated in houses #20, 18, 3 and 5 in the southern part of the territory, between the 1st and 2nd Krasnogvardeiskiy drives and the Antonova-Ovseenko Street: a few five-story houses, which form here the perimeter of a large yard, are turned by Totan Kuzembaev into a city block united by a concrete public first floor. At first, the five-story houses are reconstructed, and after that they get a buildup of wooden mansards or penthouses; the spaces between the buildings are filled with wooden structures which close the perimeter and take this city block to the scale of “Stalin-construction” houses.

zooming — Wood City housing complex © Totan Kuzembaev Architectural Studio

In his project, Totan Kuzembaev deliberately proposes different types of structures and layouts. In the north corner, in the area where houses #33, 31 and 11 are situated, there is a concrete parking lot with an apartment building, which in terraced steps “cascades” down its roof – pretty much the way BIG did it in the Guide to the Ørestad district of Copenhagen, only in this instance the originality of Totan Kuzembaev’s idea consists in a combined construction plan of wood and concrete.

Nevertheless, it is not only the parking lot that is made of concrete. All the houses here rest upon the podiums of concrete ground floors that contain public functions: cafés, shops, children’s clubs and everything that is naturally expected from the modern urban environment.

The houses that are made fully from wood, barring the first concrete floor, are subdivided into several types in accordance with their construction: panel type – made from CLT panels, modular – made from prefabricated modules, panel/modular and panel/framework ones – the latter combine panels and beams of glued wood.

And, if we are to speak about the layouts, the western part, which is closer to the Third Transport Ring, gets yet another city block of varying height, built with a panel/modular technology, which completes the group of renovated houses. This is a sectional house, and at the joints its sections are separated by concrete firewalls in order to make the building really fireproof. But then again, CLT panels are fireproof as it is because this is a massive structure – says the Vice President of Segezha, Dmitry Rudenko.

The western block, unlike the southern one, is of ostentatiously varying height: it sports romantic pitched roofs, separated by green terraces on the level of the fifth floor. Glittering from behind the tree trunks, the glass of the window panes on the bottom floors creates an effect of a “hanseatic town” hovering in a cloud of greenery.

However, neither the austere and dense block that is reconstructed from the surviving five-story buildings, nor the light winsome little city with pitched roofs come close to the towers that the architect placed in the middle: three Aztec pyramids with a cutoff top are (panel) and four panel/framework houses with “dancing” floors (the framework is needed to support the dance) and panoramic windows on all of the floors. And five modular houses, in which many of the volumes stand out like building blocks in a toy construction set, making a parade of the possibilities of the wooden cantilevered structures, which are definitely richer than those of concrete. These buildings look like avant-garde structures, whose purpose is to surprise people with their diversity. However, in addition to the spectacular plastic solutions – and we are stressing it here – each of them is tied to a specific type of construction elements set, demonstrating its advantages and potential.

The play of the volumes is further supported by the children’s playgrounds/art objects in the yards.

***

“It was the architects’ initiative to propose several types of houses, and now we can see the new housing units, built in the spaces between the already existing buildings, organically turn this micro-district, built back in the 1960’s, into a modern city block. There was no question about who should become the author of this project. Totan Kuzembaev is a true virtuoso in the field of wooden construction, he understands it and he feels it like nobody else does – Dmitry Rudenko says – In this country, there has been a lot of talk about wooden housing construction but this notion most of the time comes down to a single cottage built with the use of traditional technology from logs, or, at best, from glued timber, while wooden structures have been long since been used in the housing construction all over the globe, just as in the construction of public and office buildings. In order to showcase the real potential, we decided to take a venue in Moscow and use it as an example of a city block, in which modified wood is extensively used, specifically, CLT as the most promising material, whose operational properties are as good as those of concrete. We want to show that it’s about modern architecture, and not about village huts. The Wood City project is a part of the global strategy because just coming up with the idea of a city block does not yet mean building it. It is necessary not only to change the construction rules and regulations with regard to the new materials but, in the light of the prospects for such changes, launch the production of such materials by building new integrated house construction factories that would make houses from wood instead of concrete”.

“So far, we are only dreaming of wooden high-rises, and in many countries they are a reality. For our company, which has been working in the field of wooden architecture for a long time, this project became an opportunity to work with “quite different wood”. The new wood-based materials, just environmentally friendly as wood itself, and the appearance of a modern wooden city block are just as important as the appearance of a new park in the city” – Totan Kuzembaev says.

Oh, and by the way, about ecology! Wood as such is an environmentally friendly and sustainable material. In addition, the modular structures are capable of making the very construction process more ecological: due to the fact that they are only assembled together on the construction site, there will be neither dust nor dirt around. About the abundance of greenery that the project provides for: it is there in the yards, on the new roofs and even on the balconies, in accordance with the Singapore principle “place green plants wherever possible”. This must enhance the environmental message of the project: according to estimates, within twenty four hours the Earth grows enough trees to provide building materials for the construction of a wooden city block eight stories high. This green wooden block looks against the contrastive background of the Moscow City business center as a welcome oasis. According to the project, trees are also planted along the perimeter of the block, creating a “green screen” between the houses and the busy city highways.

Therefore, Wood City became an alternative, though slightly utopian, to the traditional Moscow approach to renovation. The height here only reaches 9 floors.

***

“We have material classification standards for metal, brick, concrete, and even glass – says the coauthor of the project Olzhas Kuzembaev – However, so far, there are no such classification standards for wood, it is only being developed now. When the construction rules include the classification for wooden structures and materials, this will hail the beginning of the new era of industrial-scale wooden construction.

All of the technologies that we proposed are basically ready to be used on an industrial construction scale. Which, in addition to the obvious economic benefits, contains a positive social aspect as well: it decreases the need for unskilled labor. Besides, this country currently exports more than 90% of industrial wood; abroad, it already considered as a high-technology material. And this in inefficient from the macroeconomic standpoint. In this project, our mission was to show that the industry of wooden housing construction can be just as up-to-date as the construction of any other materials, and in some aspects, even surpass them”.

Indeed, it does not look probable that Wood City can be implemented any time soon but the future is being brought closer to us by the issued in the late March of 2018 second edition of set of rules for the multi-apartment and public buildings with the use of wooden structures (rules for design and construction), which already cover the new wood-based materials. Still, the question remains open about certifying the modified wood-based materials, which are widely used in construction in many countries, such as CLT (that Wood City is built from), LVL and MXM. While all of these Issues are being settled, the wooden high-rises could be built on project specific technical conditions – in any case, our architects are ready for this.

26 April 2018

Written by:

Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

Headlines now

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?

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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.

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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.

Report

Campus within a Day

In this article, we talk about what the participants of Genplan Institute of Moscow’s hackathon were doing at the MosComArchitecture booth at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition. We also discuss who won the prize and why, and what can be done with the territory of a small university on the outskirts of Moscow.

Overview

Vertical Civilization

Genpro considered the development of the vertical city concept and made it the theme of their pavilion at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition.

Interview

Marina Yegorova: “We think in terms of hectares, not square meters”

The career path of architect Marina Yegorova is quite impressive: MARHI, SPEECH, MosComArchitectura, the Genplan Institute of Moscow, and then her own architectural company. Its name Empate, which refers to the words “to draw” in Portuguese and “to empathize” in English, should not be misleading with its softness, as the firm freely works on different scales, including Integrated Territorial Development projects. We talked with Marina about various topics: urban planning experience, female leadership style, and even the love of architects for yachting.

Interview

Andrey Chuikov: “Optimum balance is achieved through economics”

The Yekaterinburg-based architectural company CNTR is in its mature stage: crystallization of principles, systematization, and standardization helped it make a qualitative leap, enhance competencies, and secure large contracts without sacrificing the aesthetic component. The head of the company, Andrey Chuikov, told us about building a business model and the bonuses that additional education in financial management provides for an architect.

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The Fulcrum

Ostozhenka Architects have designed two astonishing towers practically on the edge of a slope above the Oka River in Nizhny Novgorod. These towers stand on 10-meter-tall weathered steel “legs”, with each floor offering panoramic views of the river and the city; all public spaces, including corridors, receive plenty of natural light. Here, we see a multitude of solutions that are unconventional for the residential routine of our day and age. Meanwhile, although these towers hark back to the typological explorations of the seventies, they are completely reinvented in a contemporary key. We admire Veren Group as the client – this is exactly how a “unique product” should be made – and we tell you exactly how our towers are arranged.

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Crystal is Watching You

Right now, Museum Night has kicked off at the Museum of Architecture, featuring a fresh new addition – the “Crystal of Perception”, an installation by Sergey Kuznetsov, Ivan Grekov, and the KROST company, set up in the courtyard. It shimmers with light, it sings, it reacts to the approach of people, and who knows what else it can do.

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The Secret Briton

The house is called “Little France”. Its composition follows the classical St. Petersburg style, with a palace-like courtyard. The decor is on the brink of Egyptian lotuses, neo-Greek acroteria, and classic 1930s “gears”; the recessed piers are Gothic, while the silhouette of the central part of the house is British. It’s quite interesting to examine all these details, attempting to understand which architectural direction they belong to. At the same time, however, the house fits like a glove in the context of the 20th line of St. Petersburg’s Vasilievsky Island; its elongated wings hold up the façade quite well.

The Wrap-Up

The competition project proposed by Treivas for the first 2021 competition for the Russian pavilion at EXPO 2025 concludes our series of publications on pavilion projects that will not be implemented. This particular proposal stands out for its detailed explanations and the idea of ecological responsibility: both the facades and the exhibition inside were intended to utilize recycled materials.

Birds and Streams

For the competition to design the Omsk airport, DNK ag formed a consortium, inviting VOX architects and Sila Sveta. Their project focuses on intersections, journeys, and flights – both of people and birds – as Omsk is known as a “transfer point” for bird migrations. The educational component is also carefully considered, and the building itself is filled with light, which seems to deconstruct the copper circle of the central entrance portal, spreading it into fantastic hyper-spatial “slices”.

Faraday Grid

The project of the Omsk airport by ASADOV Architects is another concept among the 14 finalists of a recent competition. It is called “The Bridge” and is inspired by both the West Siberian Exhibition of 1911 and the Trans-Siberian Railway bridge over the Irtysh River, built in 1896. On one hand, it carries a steampunk vibe, while on the other, there’s almost a sense of nostalgia for the heyday of 1913. However, the concept offers two variants, the second one devoid of nostalgia but featuring a parabola.

Review

Midway upon the Journey of Our Life

Recently, Tatlin Publishing House released a book entitled “Architect Sergey Oreshkin. Selected Projects”. This book is not just a traditional book of the architectural company’s achievements, but rather a monograph of a more personal nature. The book includes 43 buildings as well as a section with architectural drawings. In this article, we reflect on the book as a way to take stock of an architect’s accomplishments.

Inverted Fortress

This year, there has been no shortage of intriguing architectural ideas around the Omsk airport. The project developed by the architectural company KPLN appeals to Omsk’s history as a wooden fortress that it was back in the day, but transforms the concept of a fortress beyond recognition: it “shaves off” the conical ends of “wooden logs”, then enlarges them, and then flips them over. The result is a hypostyle – a forest of conical columns on point supports, with skylights on top.

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Transformation of Annenkirche

For Annenkirche (St. Anna Lutheran Church in St. Petersburg), Sergey Kuznetsov and the Kamen bureau have prepared a project that relies on the principles of the Venice Charter: the building is not restored to a specific date, historical layers are preserved, and modern elements do not mimic the authentic ones. Let’s delve into the details of these solutions.

The Paradox of the Temporary

The concept of the Russian pavilion for EXPO 2025 in Osaka, proposed by the Wowhaus architects, is the last of the six projects we gathered from the 2022 competition. It is again worth noting that the results of this competition were not finalized due to the cancellation of Russia’s participation in World Expo 2025. It should be mentioned that Wowhaus created three versions for this competition, but only one is being presented, and it can’t be said that this version is thoroughly developed – rather, it is done in the spirit of a “student assignment”. Nevertheless, the project is interesting in its paradoxical nature: the architects emphasized the temporary character of the pavilion, and in its bubble-like forms sought to reflect the paradoxes of space and time.

The Forum of Time

The competition project for the Russian Pavilion at EXPO 2025 in Osaka designed by Aleksey Orlov and Arena Project Institute consists of cones and conical funnels connected into a non-trivial composition, where one can feel the hand of architects who have worked extensively with stadiums and other sports facilities. It’s very interesting to delve into its logic, structurally built on the theme of clocks, hourglasses and even sundials. Additionally, the architects have turned the exhibition pavilion into a series of interconnected amphitheaters, which is also highly relevant for world exhibitions. We are reminding you that the competition results were never announced.

Mirrors Everywhere

The project by Sergey Nebotov, Anastasia Gritskova, and the architectural company “Novoe” was created for the Russian pavilion at EXPO 2025, but within the framework of another competition, which, as we learned, took place even earlier, in 2021. At that time, the competition theme was “digital twins”, and there was minimal time for work, so the project, according to the architect himself, was more of a “student assignment”. Nevertheless, this project is interesting for its plan bordering on similarity with Baroque projects and the emblem of the exhibition, as well as its diverse and comprehensive reflectiveness.

Report

The Steppe Is Full of Beauty and Freedom

The goal of the exhibition “Dikoe Pole” (“Wild Field”) at the State Historical Museum was to move away from the archaeological listing of valuable items and to create an image of the steppe and nomads that was multidirectional and emotional – in other words, artistic. To achieve this goal, it was important to include works of contemporary art. One such work is the scenography of the exhibition space developed by CHART studio.

The Snowstorm Fish

The next project from the unfinished competition for the Russian Pavilion at EXPO 2025, which will be held in Osaka, Japan, is by Dashi Namdakov and Parsec Architects. The pavilion describes itself as an “architectural/sculptural” one, with its shape clearly reminiscent of abstract sculpture of the 1970s. It complements its program with a meditative hall named “Mendeleev’s Dreams”, and offers its visitors to slide from its roof at the end of the tour.

The Mirror of Your Soul

We continue to publish projects from the competition for the design of the Russian Pavilion at EXPO in Osaka 2025. We are reminding you that the results of the competition have not been announced, and hardly will ever be. The pavilion designed by ASADOV Architects combines a forest log cabin, the image of a hyper transition, and sculptures made of glowing threads – it focuses primarily on the scenography of the exhibition, which the pavilion builds sequentially like a string of impressions, dedicating it to the paradoxes of the Russian soul.

Part of the Ideal

In 2025, another World Expo will take place in Osaka, Japan, in which Russia will not participate. However, a competition for the Russian pavilion was indeed held, with six projects participating. The results were never announced as Russia’s participation was canceled; the competition has no winners. Nevertheless, Expo pavilion projects are typically designed for a bold and interesting architectural statement, so we’ve gathered all the six projects and will be publishing articles about them in random order. The first one is the project by Vladimir Plotkin and Reserve Union, which is distinguished by the clarity of its stereometric shape, the boldness of its structure, and the multiplicity of possible interpretations.

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The Fortress by the River

ASADOV Architects have developed a concept for a new residential district in the center of Kemerovo. To combat the harsh climate and monotonous everyday life, the architects proposed a block type of development with dominant towers, good insolation, facades detailed at eye level, and event programming.

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In the Rhombus Grid

Construction has begun on the building of the OMK (United Metallurgical Company) Corporate University in Nizhny Novgorod’s town of Vyksa, designed by Ostozhenka Architects. The most interesting aspect of the project is how the architects immersed it in the context: “extracting” a diagonal motif from the planning grid of Vyksa, they aligned the building, the square, and the park to match it. A truly masterful work with urban planning context on several different levels of perception has long since become the signature technique of Ostozhenka.

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Generational Connection

Another modern estate, designed by Roman Leonidov, is located in the Moscow region and brings together three generations of one family under one roof. To fit on a narrow plot without depriving anyone of personal space, the architects opted for a zigzag plan. The main volume in the house structure is accentuated by mezzanines with a reverse-sloped roof and ceilings featuring exposed beams.

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Three Dimensions of the City

We began to delve into the project by Sergey Skuratov, the residential complex “Depo” in Minsk, located at Victory Square, and it fascinated us completely. The project has at least several dimensions to it: historical – at some point, the developer decided to discontinue further collaboration with Sergey Skuratov Architects, but the concept was approved, and its implementation continues, mostly in accordance with the proposed ideas. The spatial and urban planning dimension – the architects both argue with the city and play along with it, deciphering nuances, and finding axes. And, finally, the tactile dimension – the constructed buildings also have their own intriguing features. Thus, this article also has two parts: it dwells on what has been built and what was conceived

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New “Flight”

Architects from “Mezonproject” have developed a project for the reconstruction of the regional youth center “Polyot”(“Flight”) in the city of Oryol. The summer youth center, built back in the late 1970s, will now become year-round and acquire many additional functions.

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The Yauza Towers

In Moscow, there aren’t that many buildings or projects designed by Nikita Yavein and Studio 44. In this article, we present to you the concept of a large multifunctional complex on the Yauza River, located between two parks, featuring a promenade, a crossroads of two pedestrian streets, a highly developed public space, and an original architectural solution. This solution combines a sophisticated, asymmetric façade grid, reminiscent of a game of fifteen puzzle, and bold protrusions of the upper parts of the buildings, completely masking the technical floors and sculpting the complex’s silhouette.

​Wooden Stones

Wooden Stones