По-русски

​Evgeny Gerasimov: “Each land site has an intrinsic need for change; you need to learn to hear the whisper of the place”.

Saint Petersburg’s Krestovsky Island has seen the completion of “Verona” house designed by Evgeny Gerasimov architects. In this issue, we are speaking to the architect about why he likes building in historical styles and how he manages to do that on such a high quality level.

Alyona Kuznetsova

Interviewed by:
Alyona Kuznetsova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

11 September 2018
Interview
mainImg

Archi.ru
When we first analyzed the project of “Verona” house a couple of years ago, we discovered a lot of allusions: the Palladian order in combination with flutes, which are characteristic of historicism, the Saint Petersburg rock-face façades, the entrance stanza of lowered proportions, also characteristic of the northern Art Nouveau, the “Mussolini” approach toward combining brick and white stone on the side façades... What was the primary thing for you back then, and how did you build up the image of a palazzo house, which, obviously, in accordance with the client’s brief, was to look very much like the neighboring “Venice”?

Evgeny Gerasimov: 

It was important for our client to boost the momentum of the commercially successful “Venice” house. What is Venice, anyway? As Brodsky put it, it is all about “huge wood-carved trunks standing alongside a channel”. And this is exactly what we got in our case. The aspect ratio of the width and the height of the building is two to one. Together with its reflection in the water, it becomes a quadrant – a totally Venetian technique. There is a staircase that survived from the Sportivnaya Hotel, which stood where the house was built; it descends down to the water, and there are posts sticking out of the water – you can tie gondolas to them.

"Venice" residential house © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners
"Verona" housimg complex © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners


First, while designing “Verona” house, we took into account the stylistic preferences of our client: “historicism” in a broad sense. Second, we proceeded from the land site; it became our starting point. Its trapeze-like shape prompted us the ideas of baroque architecture. We clearly saw the main façade overlooking the Morskoy Prospect, and the secondary ones from the side of the Prozhektornaya Street and the parks lying nearby. Hence the idea to do something in the vein of an Italian house. A few Italian churches also came to mind, such as San Giorgio Maggiore, houses on the Via del Corso, whose main façades are made of stone, while the lateral and the rear ones are made of brick. It was a practice usual for those days. As far as the building materials for both houses are concerned, we use the locally produced materials, manufactured in the Leningrad region: the Klinker brick is produced by the LSR Company; in the “Venice” project, Jurassic marble was used, while in “Verona” we used Gatchina Plaster.

"Verona" housimg complex © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners


"Verona" housimg complex © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners


How would you define the stylistic character of “Venice” and “Verona”: is it Palladian architecture, historicism, Venetian style?

I would not go as far as to narrow this whole thing down to Palladian architecture, and I would not call it neoclassical architecture either. This is historicism, our meditation on the subject of the traditional “order” architecture. We have been observing this process all throughout the history. It was originated by Palladio, then it was picked up by Quarenghi, who is known to have jokingly sign his works as “Shadow of Palladio”. Or take Ivan Fomin, for example – isn’t he neoclassical? If classics are Greece and Rome, then Palladio is neoclassical, Quarenghi is neo-neoclassical, and Ivan Fomin, well, you get it. The Stalin-era architecture is already the fourth or fifth revision of this tradition – if we are to divide the Stalin architecture into the prewar of the 1930’s and the postwar of the 1950’s. So, why not get back to this process in the beginning of the XXI century? As Alexander block would say, no art is “not new”.

"Verona" housimg complex © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners


There are architects who preach classics as the only possible principle, such as Mikhail Filippov, Maxim Atayants, Mikhail Belov... There are also those who deliberately break up from the classical tradition. And there are very few architects out there who do sturdy historicism, and who are equally at home with Art Nouveau. How do you manage to do that?

A professional architect is supposed to be able to work in a variety of styles. Whether or not it is interesting to him is a different question. Speaking about historicism doesn’t yet mean that you are able to work in this style. Knowing notes alone does not make you a composer, and if you draw Piranesi Paestums, this doesn’t mean that you can design buildings. To me, words mean nothing and the result means everything. There are no taboos for me. In this day and age of pluralism, thank God, nobody owes anybody anything, and this is equally applicable to architecture. And art does not owe anyone anything either, it is self-sufficient. Good historicism is better than amateurish art nouveau, and vice versa. I vote for quality.

The hotel at the Ostrovsky Square © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners


Do you perceive your historicist and modernist projects as equal? Which projects are more comfortable for you to work with, and which are more interesting?

It’s interesting to me to do creative search in both fields. I feel stale within just one paradigm, and I don't understand why I must narrow the field of my creative interests. Call this a lack of integrity if you want to but you can also remember Oscar Wilde who said “I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world”. It’s the same way as it is with food: you cannot eat one dish during your whole life, even if it is your favorite. There are brilliant architects out there, like Richard Meier, for example, who do just one thing throughout their whole life – in his specific case, architecture that solely consists of white squares. But I’d be bored to death if I found out that my whole life I would only be drawing pilasters. I definitely want more.

To me, historicism is one of the branches of modern architecture that has a market segment of its own. Our company is also interested in rethinking and revisiting the traditional techniques in new building materials and technologies; we are interested in drawing and meditating. In addition, everyone thinks that something is beautiful is he or she is used to thinking that it’s beautiful. If we ask a hundred people what they like better: the neoclassical architecture of Ivan Fomin or August Perret or, say, a neo-constructivist building, the answer will be quite predictable. In this connection, Leon Krier asked himself a question: in which houses do “star” architects live, like Norman Foster or Jean Nouvel? You will find that nine out of ten will live in houses built in the XVIII and XIX centuries. And we as a company (and I as an architect) enjoy this search in both modernist and traditional architecture that rests on the human-friendly scale and the fundamentals that our ancestors found back in the day.

The residential house in the Kovensky Lane © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners


As a continuation of the previous question – possibly, the house in the Kovensky Alley is indeed the perfect solution of a reserved regard to the context and the modern glass?

This area of the city includes a timeless heritage site – the Church of the Lourdes God’s Mother, designed by Leontiy Benoit and Matian Petetyatkovich. Competing with it in any way seemed to us the wrong thing to do. This place already had a gem in it – what we did was we came up with a worthy frame for it: we convinced the client to lower the building’s height, step back from the red line and make a piazzetta in the vacated room – the gem of the project. As a result, we opened up the west façade of the church, light started streaming through the windows into the central nave, and the stained glass windows came alive – this is something that this place had not seen before. The residential part, which steps out on the red line, is executed in the rhythm of Saint Petersburg: the pier is equal to the width of the window. The sunken-in part was also treated as a “Saint Petersburg firewall”: it is slightly higher, more flat, its windows are more chaotic, and there is less details upon it.

The residential house in the Kovensky Lane © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners


What do you think of the very notion of “stylization”? Because you basically can stylize anything – including the modernist techniques.

Pretty much everything that came after the Ancient Greece and Rome is essentially stylization. It’s only a matter of whether it is appropriate or not. We see stylizations of gothic things, romanticism, and whatnot. Or take something that Matvey Kazakov did in Moscow. Try and open any modern magazine – what will you see in it if not stylization? Will you see anything that wasn’t done in the 1930’s or the exploits of the modernists of the 1960-1970’s? All the modern architecture comes down to a handful of techniques. Students from Finland to Portugal draw in the same way.

The residential house in the Kovensky Lane © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners


If we are to take today’s stylizations, we will see an odd note of Stalin architecture showing through now and then. What is your attitude towards it? Do you try to chase it away without much success, or do you accept it as a historical given?

I am quite happy with it, in fact. One of the characteristic features of the Stalin architecture is the constant floor height. In classicism before the First World War, in the Russian empire style, and in the works by Quarenghi, the first floor inevitably performs the auxiliary function, while the second floor is a grander one with halls and luxury apartments. As you went higher up, the height of the floors would shrink, and, finally, the mansards were inhabited by students and small-time clerks. Then, as the social structure was leveled out by the October Revolution, the floor height was standardized as well. The floors became equally high, usually from the second to the last-but-one: while in the past century the mansards were for the Raskolnikovs, today the top floors are penthouses. This typology makes today’s architects akin to the Stalin’s.

The residential house, Pobedy, 5 © Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners


The Stalin-era architecture, whether we like it or not, is one of the greatest successes of this country. When we turned our backs on it, the great architects of the modernist tradition were surprised, to put it mildly: you Russians are weird, they’d say, you have such a great achievement, and you throw it overboard without thinking twice about it.
Take the acclaimed herzog & de meuron, who say: your Stalin architecture is so chic! It’s the apogee that most of today’s architects don’t even come close to.

It really stood the test of time. As for the Soviet architecture of the 1960-1970’s, which seemed to be advanced at the time, we now dismissively call it “khrushchevki” (“Khrushchev hacks”) – it did not stand the test of time. The Stalin architecture, on the other hand, is still standing strong; it does not annoy you, and this factor alone is quite a lot – not to annoy people with your appearance.

None


You have almost completed your “Russian House” project from the same historicist series. Which parts of this project do you consider to be successful and which could require some improvement?

The task was to build a big complex on a big land site. Essentially, its typology can be traced back to the Saint Petersburg tenement house: like the ones that you can see on Mokhovaya 27-29, Kamennoostrovsky 26-28, or like the Tolstoy House on the Rubinshteina Street. What we designed was one open courtyard and two private yards, from where the residents make it to their homes – the most traditional Saint Petersburg technique, really.

Multi-apartment building with integrated premises in Baskov Alley © Eugene Gerasimov and partners


The house is symmetrical from end to end, it has a main axis, each element and sub-element having an axis of its own, according to the same principle that the buildings of the Senate and Synod are designed upon. It’s flesh and blood Saint Petersburg.

The façades are essentially an attempt to rethink the pre-Peter the Great architecture, the so-called à la russe, on the Petrograd Side, on the Staronevsky Prospect, like the church built for the 300 anniversary of the Romanovs Royal House, or the Fedorovsky Gorodok in Tsarskoe Selo. 

Saint Petersburg has always been trying to “rethink” its pre-Peter the Great architecture; we are getting back to the tradition that was broken for a hundred years for obvious reasons. This was provocative to the point of being risky: it’s easy to stoop down to kitsch in such cases. But we hope that we were ultimately able to keep the good manners.

Multi-apartment building with integrated premises in Baskov Alley © Evgeny Gerasimov and Partners


When I walk past this building, I see genuine interest: people are taking their pictures against the background of this building, examine its façade, and try to make out what it is made of. A person feels it in his gut, you cannot make somebody have their picture taken against the background of a black quadrant – even if a dozen critics explain that this is the latest big thing. And in this case, people come around of their own free will, without us having to talk to them and convince them. This means that there is something to it.



Do you have plans for developing this historicism theme? You have in your portfolio Renaissance historicism, the new-Russian style, and northern Art Nouveau, and even a “Stalin” house on the Pobedy Street – do want to give preference to any particular direction?

There is no such a given like “you need to develop this” carved in stone – we always proceed from the land site and from that fleeting feeling when you just see the right thing in a flash, from our intuition. We keep walking around the future construction site for a long time, looking and trying to imagine just what will be the right thing for the customer, and what will also be an exciting thing for us to do. Each land site has a latent need for change in it; you need to be able to hear the whisper of the place.

11 September 2018

Alyona Kuznetsova

Interviewed by:

Alyona Kuznetsova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov
Headlines now
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.
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.
Architecture and Leisure Park
For the suburban hotel complex, which envisages various formats of leisure, the architectural company T+T Architects proposed several types of accommodation, ranging from the classic “standard” in a common building to a “cave in the hill” and a “house in a tree”. An additional challenge consisted in integrating a few classic-style residences already existing on this territory into the “architectural forest park”.
The U-House
The Jois complex combines height with terraces, bringing the most expensive apartments from penthouses down to the bottom floors. The powerful iconic image of the U-shaped building is the result of the creative search for a new standard of living in high-rise buildings by the architects of “Genpro”.
Black and White
In this article, we specifically discuss the interiors of the ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh. Interior design is a crucial component of the overall concept in this case, and precision and meticulous execution were highly important for the architects. Julia Tryaskina, head of UNK interiors, shares some of the developments.
The “Snake” Mountain
The competition project for the seaside resort complex “Serpentine” combines several typologies: apartments of different classes, villas, and hotel rooms. For each of these typologies, the KPLN architects employ one of the images that are drawn from the natural environment – a serpentine road, a mountain stream, and rolling waves.
Opal from Anna Mons’ Ring
The project of a small business center located near Tupolev Plaza and Radio Street proclaims the necessity of modern architecture in a specific area of Moscow commonly known as “Nemetskaya Sloboda” or “German settlement”. It substantiates its thesis with the thoroughness of details, a multitude of proposed and rejected form variants, and even a detailed description of the surrounding area. The project is interesting indeed, and it is even more interesting to see what will come of it.
Feed ’Em All
A “House of Russian Cuisine” was designed and built by KROST Group at VDNKh for the “Rossiya” exhibition in record-breaking time. The pavilion is masterfully constructed in terms of the standards of modern public catering industry multiplied by the bustling cultural program of the exhibition, and it interprets the stylistically diverse character of VDNKh just as successfully. At the same time, much of its interior design can be traced back to the prototypes of the 1960s – so much so that even scenes from iconic Soviet movies of those years persistently come to mind.
The Ensemble at the Mosque
OSA prepared a master plan for a district in the southern part of Derbent. The main task of the master plan is to initiate the formation of a modern comfortable environment in this city. The organization of residential areas is subordinated to the city’s spiritual center: depending on the location relative to the cathedral mosque, the houses are distinguished by façade and plastique solutions. The program also includes a “hospitality center”, administrative buildings, an educational cluster, and even an air bridge.
Pargolovo Protestantism
A Protestant church is being built in St. Petersburg by the project of SLOI architects. One of the main features of the building is a wooden roof with 25-meter spans, which, among other things, forms the interior of the prayer hall. Also, there are other interesting details – we are telling you more about them.
The Shape of the Inconceivable
The ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh brings to mind a famous maxim of all architects and critics: “You’ve come up with it? Now build it!” You rarely see such a selfless immersion in implementation of the project, and the formidable structural and engineering tasks set by UNK architects to themselves are presented here as an integral and important part of the architectural idea. The challenge matches the obliging status of the place – after all, it is an “exhibition of achievements”, and the pavilion is dedicated to the nuclear energy industry. Let’s take a closer look: from the outside, from the inside, and from the underside too.
​Rays of the Desert
A school for 1750 students is going to be built in Dubai, designed by IND Architects. The architects took into account the local specifics, and proposed a radial layout and spaces, in which the children will be comfortable throughout the day.
The Dairy Theme
The concept of an office of a cheese-making company, designed for the enclosed area of a dairy factory, at least partially refers to industrial architecture. Perhaps that is why this concept is very simple, which seems the appropriate thing to do here. The building is enlivened by literally a couple of “master strokes”: the turning of the corner accentuates the entrance, and the shade of glass responds to the theme of “milk rivers” from Russian fairy tales.
The Road to the Temple
Under a grant from the Small Towns Competition, the main street and temple area of the village of Nikolo-Berezovka near Neftekamsk has been improved. A consortium of APRELarchitects and Novaya Zemlya is turning the village into an open-air museum and integrating ruined buildings into public life.
​Towers Leaning Towards the Sun
The three towers of the residential complex “Novodanilovskaya 8” are new and the tallest neighbors of the Danilovsky Manufactory, “Fort”, and “Plaza”, complementing a whole cluster of modern buildings designed by renowned masters. At the same time, the towers are unique for this setting – they are residential, they are the tallest ones here, and they are located on a challenging site. In this article, we explore how architects Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova tackled this far-from-trivial task.
In the spirit of ROSTA posters
The new Rostselmash tractor factory, conceptualized by ASADOV Architects, is currently being completed in Rostov-on-Don. References to the Soviet architecture of the 1920’s and 1960’s resonate with the mission and strategic importance of the enterprise, and are also in line with the client’s wish: to pay homage to Rostov’s constructivism.
The Northern Thebaid
The central part of Ferapontovo village, adjacent to the famous monastery with frescoes by Dionisy, has been improved according to the project by APRELarchitects. Now the place offers basic services for tourists, as well as a place for the villagers’ leisure.
Brilliant Production
The architects from London-based MOST Architecture have designed the space for the high-tech production of Charge Cars, a high-performance production facility for high-speed electric cars that are assembled in the shell of legendary Ford Mustangs. The founders of both the company and the car assembly startup are Russians who were educated in their home country.
Three-Part Task: St. Petersburg’s Mytny Dvor
The so-called “Mytny Dvor” area lying just behind Moscow Railway Station – the market rows with a complex history – will be transformed into a premium residential complex by Studio 44. The project consists of three parts: the restoration of historical buildings, the reconstruction of the lost part of the historical contour, and new houses. All of them are harmonized with each other and with the city; axes and “beams of light” were found, cozy corners and scenic viewpoints were carefully thought out. We had a chat with the authors of the historical buildings’ restoration project, and we are telling you about all the different tasks that have been solved here.
The Color of the City, or Reflections on the Slope of an Urban Settlement
In 2022, Ostozhenka Architects won a competition, and in 2023, they developed and received all the necessary approvals for a master plan for the development of Chernigovskaya Street for the developer GloraX. The project takes into account a 10-year history of previous developments; it was done in collaboration with architects from Nizhny Novgorod, and it continues to evolve now. We carefully examined it, talked to everyone, and learned a lot of interesting things.
A Single-Industry Town
Kola MMC and Nornickel are building a residential neighborhood in Monchegorsk for their future employees. It is based on a project by an international team that won the 2021 competition. The project offers a number of solutions meant to combat the main “demons” of any northern city: wind, grayness and boredom.
A New Age Portico
At the beginning of the year, Novosibirsk Tolmachevo Airport opened Terminal C. The large-scale and transparent entrance hall with luminous columns inside successfully combines laconism with a bright and photogenic WOW-effect. The terminal is both the new façade of the whole complex and the starting point of the planned reconstruction, upon completion of which Tolmachevo will become the largest regional airport in Russia. In this article, we are examining the building in the context of modernist prototypes of both Novosibirsk and Leningrad: like puzzle pieces, they come together to form their individual history, not devoid of curious nuances and details.
A New Starting Point
We’ve been wanting to examine the RuArts Foundation space, designed by ATRIUM for quite a long time, and we finally got round to it. This building looks appropriate and impressive; it amazingly combines tradition – represented in our case by galleries – and innovation. In this article, we delve into details and study the building’s historical background as well.
Molding Perspectives
Stepan Liphart introduces “schematic Art Deco” on the outskirts of Kazan – his houses are executed in green color, with a glassy “iced” finish on the facades. The main merits of the project lie in his meticulous arrangement of viewing angles – the architect is striving to create in a challenging environment the embryo of a city not only in terms of pedestrian accessibility but also in a sculptural sense. He works with silhouettes, proposing intriguing triangular terraces. The entire project is structured like a crystal, following two grids, orthogonal and diagonal. In this article, we are examining what worked, and what eventually didn’t.
An Educational Experiment for the North
City-Arch continues to work on the projects that can be termed as “experimental public preschools”: private kindergartens and schools can envy such facilities in many respects. This time around, the project is done for the city of Gubkinsky, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. A diverse educational and play environment, including a winter garden, awaits future students, while the teachers will have abundant opportunities to implement new practices.
Alexandra Kuzmina: “Working is easy when the rules are the same for everyone”
The subject matter of Moscow Region’s booth and presentations at Zodchestvo Festival was the concept of “Integrated Land Development”, and for a good reason: this task is very challenging, very relevant, and Moscow Region has already accumulated quite a formidable experience in this regard. In this article, we are speaking to the main architect of the region: about master plans and who makes them, about where you obtain resources for creating a comfortable environment, about her favorite projects, about why there are so few good architects, and what we should do with the bad ones.
The Cemetery: Inside and Outside
The workshop organized by the Genplan Institute of Moscow scored one of the two first places at the “Open City” festival. Its subject is reorganization of municipal cemeteries. Two action plans were proposed, diametrically opposite: one for the downtown and one for the suburbs.
Our Everything
Who is Alexey Shchusev? In the last couple of weeks, since the architect’s 150th birthday, different individuals have answered this question differently. The most detailed, illustrated, and elegantly presented response is an exhibition held in two buildings of the Museum of Architecture on Vozdvizhenka. Four curators, a year and a half of work performed by the entire museum, and exhibition design by Sergey Tchoban and Alexandra Sheiner – in this article, we take you on a tour of the exhibition and show what’s what in it.
For Mental Reboot
At the architectural competition held in 2023 in Novosibirsk, the project by GORA Architects – a pedestrian bridge leading to the town of Bor – was awarded the “Golden Capital” prize. In this country, more than a hundred pedestrian bridges are constructed each year. What makes the Bor bridge different?
Gold Embroidery
A five-story housing complex designed by Stepan Liphart in Kazan, responds to the stylistically diverse context with its form, both integral and agile, and as for the vicinity of the “Ekiyat” movie theater, the complex responds to it with a semblance of theater curtain folds, and active plastique of its balconies, that bear some resemblance to theater boxes. Even if excessively pompous a little bit, the complex does look fresh and modern. One will have a hard time finding Art Deco elements in it, even though the spirit of the 1930s, run through the filter of neo-modernism, is still clearly felt, just as a twist of the Occident.