An Open House School

Designed by Archimatika, the gymnasium A+ on the territory of Kiev’s housing complex “Comfort Town” is remarkable not only for its architecture that can best be described as a “friendly fortress” but also for its openness: it is designed in such a way that both students and their parents can have a comfortable time here, and other children and adults as well.

Written by:
Alyona Kuznetsova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

12 October 2018

Object

The gymnasium A+ opened its doors on the territory of the housing complex “Comfort Town”, also designed by Archimatika. This place also features yet another project designed by this firm: the complex of “Academy of Modern Education A+”, which consists of a kindergarten, a school of fine arts, and a junior high school. Gymnasium A+ will teach students from third to twelfth grade.

From a formal standpoint, a gymnasium or a high school is one of the “necessary evils” for the developers that you cannot avoid building in order to provide the required amount of student places for a residential area. Originally, it was planned that the place would get a regular state-run high school but it turned out that the city had no funds to enter it in its books – and then KAN Development invited a private school to be accommodated here. Ultimately, the housing complex ended up getting one of the best educational institutions in Kiev in all respects: in terms of architecture, educational program, and technical equipment.

zooming — Gymnasium A+, project © Archimatika

The architects chose the location at the edge of “Comfort Town” – at the crossing of Berezneva and Vifleemskaya streets. Not far away, there is a railroad line that by default gave a 100-meter sanitary protection zone. Because of this, the construction could only be carried out on a small strip of land but on the other hand there was a large vacant territory around it, on which the architects made a park, playgrounds, sports fields, and a stadium. Calculating the insolation requirements, the architects came to the most efficient possible form – a square-plan building with a courtyard.

The architects wanted to make their gymnasium building look pristine – not only for the sake of contrast with the bright-colored houses of “Comfort Town” but also in order to highlight the fundamentality of education as such. At the same time, it was meant to look friendly and open. All of these tasks are solved by the form, color, and materials used.

The budget did not allow the architects to make the façades 100% stone, so they had to look for a compromise. According to the architects, the only suitable kind of stucco that could do the trick was Baumit: “because of the naturally chaotic inclusions of black and gray”. The stone was also selected to match the stucco: ultimately, they settled for the Armenian basalt – this material is not really widely spread and recognizable, and, therefore, as the authors say, it does not bring any associations with museums or memorials. As one of the chief architects of the project, Olga Chernova, put it, this stone is “soft and friendly, just like Armenians are who tend to treat everyone as part of their family”. Yet another shade of gray is given by the metallic gabled roof.

The first floor is executed of prominent chunks of basalt – the massive foundation, like the ruins of some ancient monastery, from which rock-face stuccoed tiles of varying thickness sprout upwards.

Making the building completely gray was something that the architects were unable to do – because they had to place on the main façade the marsala-colored A+ logo. It turned out that it looked quite harmonious, and then the architects added some color over the entire façade – they used the ultra-opaque paint of the same color to paint the window frames.

The reserved and pristine image of the gymnasium that the architects came up with automatically set before them the task of “making the building look as unlike Château d’If as possible”, making it calm but not frowning, noble-looking but not gloomy. Rather, according to the authors’ idea, the outline of the gabled roof must bring associations with mountains, the arch must bring associations with a cave; maybe even evoke some romantic cinematic and literary pictures of meeting your mentor – like in Star Wars and in many other films and books.

As for the main façade of the gymnasium, from an almost “blind” wall it switches over to a “crystal” stained glass window almost the entire height of the building, then it gets slit by the classroom windows, and then follows a 25-meter span of an unsupported arch – it invites and almost sucks you right into the yard with an amphitheater. It is planned that the yard will host school assemblies, concerts, performances by the student theater, and sometimes even lessons.

The windows of the first floor on the main façade belong to the parents’ cafeteria, separated from the school premises by an access system. Next to it, there is a library that has its own individual exit into the courtyard – should such need arise, the library can also be shut out from the rest of the school for conducting public events, coaching seminars, book presentations and open readings in it. According to the architects and the school administration’s plans, the library must become the cultural “hub” of the entire neighborhood. Also, on the first floor, there is a FIFA-certified gym, a cafeteria, an open-space teachers’ common room, a cloakroom, a first-aid station, and a few rooms of computer science and technology.

The second floor has an auditorium for 200 people in it, a gym, classrooms of mathematics, chemistry, physics and biology. One of the wings is occupied by the junior high – the third and fourth grade students will have a recreation area of their own – they will be able to roll about on the grass, hide in a “cabin” or swing from the lianas.

On the third floor, there is an art studio, a multifunctional black box rehearsal hall, and a lecture hall with 150 seats that can be easily turned into a movie theater. On all of the floors, the corridors create a closed-circuit quadrant around the classrooms and rehearsal halls. The interior design was developed in collaboration between Archimatika and Svoya Studio.

The school has an autonomous system of heating and air conditioning: underneath the football field, there are 170 wells for a geothermal heat pump. The street lights work on photovoltaic batteries; the parking lot has sockets for EV’s. There is also a small greenhouse and a vegetable garden on the territory of the gymnasium. According to the leader of the creative team Alexander Popov, the energy efficient solutions are not just a tribute to fashion. Since Ukraine raised the utility tariffs, such things have started bringing return on investment, and the demand for them is on the rise.

One of the main features of A+ that was implemented, among other things, by architectural means, is its openness. The lecture hall designed for a round of two or three classes hosts presentations by TV anchors, statesmen, artists, and athletes who lead lectures or do seminars. The auditorium, which, should such need arise, can be shut off from the other premises and used as a chamber theater, its sound and lighting systems conforming to the applicable standards. It is planned that this will be the place for performances given by the students and by the artist of the theater laboratory “Review”. The 60x40 meters football field will be used as the home arena by the youth football club “Vulkan”. In summer, the school will be turned into a summer camp full of various creative studios from the kids. The parents will be able to make use of the cafeteria, in the evenings – of the sports fields and the coach’s services; they can also sign up for the theater studio. The school also invites them to other activities and events – like the Vienna Opera Ball, for which you need to learn how to waltz and come up with costumes of your own design. The residents of “Comfort Town”, incidentally, get a little discount for their kids’ education.

***

Designing school buildings seem to become the by-specialty of Archimatika. This, although it makes perfect sense, is a rather rare case: like it was said above, schools and kindergartens are often designed by the architects simply because they have to be there, without getting the attention that they deserve. But then again, comparing private educational institutions and state-run ones is not quite a correct thing to do, the educational program of the latter still lagging behind the modern pedagogy.

In Kiev, Archimatika has designed and built the корпус Печерской международной школы and the already-mentioned Academy of Modern Education A+ for younger kids. The company is planning to build its next school in “Fayna Town” residential area, then there will be a sports school in the housing complex “Respublika”, both under the brand of A+.

12 October 2018

Headlines now

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.

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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.

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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”.

Overview

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”.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.