По-русски

​Transforming a Suburb

Giving the new housing complex in the village of Mostets in the Yaroslavl region the name of “Preobrazhenie” (which translates as “Transfiguration”), its authors set for themselves a task of changing not only the image of the place but the psychology of its residents as well.

05 December 2018
Object
mainImg

“What the architect does is create a scenario for the life of a whole city block – contends Rustam Kerimov, the chief architect of the project – It sets the tone that is expressed through the façades and the spaces between the buildings, not just in the floor plans of individual apartments. This is why we pay so much attention to interacting with our client, trying to find the best possible solutions that answer the modern requirements for creating a comfortable environment, as well as to the economic aspect of the project”.

"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets © ATOM ag + A-GA
"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets © ATOM ag + A-GA


The land site in question is situated at the eastern outskirts of Yaroslavl. Back in the soviet time, the 200-hectare rectangle between the Tveritsky and Yakovlevsky forests hosted six prefabricated city blocks, averaged ten stories high – and now this place feels nothing like either a part of the old Russian town or even a Volga bank village: the privately owned cottages are grouped closer the west end of the site, and here one can hardly ever feel the presence of the Volga River because it is still four kilometers away.

The new housing complex is being built on the borderline between the old city blocks (or “micro-districts”) and the forest, picking up the scale of the former and counting on the recreational opportunities provided by the latter. In addition, the Yaroslavl Central Clinic is situated nearby.

zooming
"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets © ATOM ag + A-GA


The architects started working on this project from studying the nearby city blocks consisting of prefabricated houses and their yards. It turned out that the yards, as is often the case in many post-soviet cities, are used as parking lots, while whatever landscaping work had been there was gone without a trace. Therefore, among other things, the architects wanted to come up with an alternative to the unwelcoming and bleak yards of the late-Soviet construction.

The basis of the project was constituted by the concept of good neighbourliness, in which the yard is essentially the place of the residents’ common activities. Based on the placemaking theory, the architects tried to take into account all the components of this area’s attractiveness and incorporate them in a single city block.

zooming
"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets © ATOM ag + A-GA


Lined up along the perimeter of the trapeze-shaped land site, the buildings designed by the architects made it possible to create a chain of yards, different in their function but still interconnected. The L-shaped four-section building forms a construction front turned to the forest and the clinic, the single-section towers rhythmically standing along the Ordzhonikidze Street. The composition is completed by a two-section building that forms a large yard, which is the center of the block.

"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets. Plan of the 1st floor © ATOM ag + A-GA


The parking lot borders immediately on the block, helping the yards get rid of the cars, which is conducive to creating a vehicle-free in-block environment, which, according to the architects, must ultimately bring the residents together and help them form a community of their own.

"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets. Master plan © ATOM ag + A-GA


It is common knowledge nowadays that the development of local communities depends to a large extent on the density of construction. While solving this problem, the architects convinced their client to refrain from building houses over 12 stories high. Recently, it was said at the “Comfortable City” conference that the upper threshold of the population of a yard, after which it actually stops being comfortable, is 4000 people; the new complex is expected to host a total of 1500 residents, which figure the authors consider to be the optimum one for supporting stable hobby communities, as well as development and implementation of joint projects.

This way, while still in the planning stage, the authors think about the future management of the territory. 

"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets. Scheme of the facades © ATOM ag + A-GA


"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets. Scheme of the facades © ATOM ag + A-GA


Another factor that matters for the future buyers of the apartments is the quality of the façades and other external features of the building: in “Preobrazhenie”, the architects used porous Flemish brick, a highly reputable water resistant material. The architects proposed to use hand-molded brick with a texture that enhances the tactile effect, of four different shades of color.

"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets. Fragment of the facade © ATOM ag + A-GA


"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets. Fragment of the facade © ATOM ag + A-GA


However, using the Flemish brick on all of the façades turned out to be prohibitively expensive, and the authors came up with another solution: instead of refraining from using the brick altogether, they combined it with metallic cassettes. They found a domestic manufacturer, proposed their own design solutions for the cassettes – and ultimately the price of one square meter of such façade ended up being about 9000 rubles, which is not too expensive. Various combinations of neutral shades of gray, chestnut and brown bricks, coupled with the smooth surfaces of the color cassettes, as well as the ledges of the bay windows, liven up the façades.

zooming
"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets © ATOM ag + A-GA


zooming
"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets © ATOM ag + A-GA


zooming
"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets © ATOM ag + A-GA


"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets © ATOM ag + A-GA


As was already said, the authors practice a placemaking approach, according to which an important role in the organization of the yards is played by the residents themselves. In this specific instance, of course, the architects can only form the prerequisites for that, based on the portrait of an average future buyer.

According to the survey, the future residents are young families and take out mortgages to buy apartments. The long-term investment is kind of a prerequisite for the fact that the people will perceive this place as their own and will make their own efforts to develop it.

"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets © ATOM ag + A-GA


In order to form such an environment, the architects are proposing to diversify the design solutions of the buildings’ bottom floors. The first floors, which run along the perimeter of the block, are occupied by commercial and public premises, while on the inside they are occupied by apartments with small gardens attached to them and a hedgerow.

"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets © ATOM ag + A-GA


"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets © ATOM ag + A-GA


"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets. Greenery © ATOM ag + A-GA


The augmented height of the ground floor – 4.5 meters versus the height of a standard floor of 3.15 meters – the panoramic windows, and the small gardens are meant, according to the architects’ plan, to help to develop neighborly relations between the residents and better organization of the yard territory. The individual little gardens border on a small strip of land that every resident of the complex will be able to use as a public garden or a vegetable garden.

"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets. Zoning in accordance with the age brackets of the residents © ATOM ag + A-GA


"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets © ATOM ag + A-GA


"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets. Playgrounds © ATOM ag + A-GA


The uniqueness of each of the yards is conditioned by the diversity of the landscape and its functions: one can see here playgrounds, sports fields, and a special sports field covered with sand.

The architects’ opting out of standardized playgrounds and sports filed in favor of individual solutions is yet another interesting feature of the project. Originally, they considered the option of organizing the territory that implied using the playgrounds made by a Dutch manufacturer but that exceeded the budget, and then the architects turned to Ivan Shchetinin, a landscape artist who has been for years designing landscape projects in Nikola-Lenivets. Currently, he is working on a less costly proposal – a “natural playground”: it is meant to make the environment unique, and it is designed for children of different age brackets.

There are seven playgrounds with seven solutions, where a lot of attention is paid to minor architectural shapes – benches, gazebos, and greenery. The playgrounds, which look like wooden sculptures, promenades decorated with arches, and the spots for meditation and recreation amidst trees and shrubs that will look attractive in the wintertime as well – all of this must be conducive to the psychological comfort of the future residents.
"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets © ATOM ag + A-GA
"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets © ATOM ag + A-GA
"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets. Facade in axis 9-1 © ATOM ag + A-GA
"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets. Facade in axis Г-А © ATOM ag + A-GA
"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets. Section scheme 3-3 © ATOM ag + A-GA
"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets. Plan of floors 3,5,7,9,11 © ATOM ag + A-GA
"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets © ATOM ag + A-GA
"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets. Plan of the 1st floor © ATOM ag + A-GA
"Preobrazhenie" residential complex in the village of Mostets. Draughts of the "units" © ATOM ag + A-GA
None


05 December 2018

Headlines now
Beneath the Azure Sky
A depository designed by Studio 44 will soon be built in Kenozersky National Park to preserve and display the so-called “heavens” – ceiling structures characteristic of wooden churches in the Russian North, painted with biblical scenes. For each of these “heavens”, the architects created a volume corresponding in scale and dimensions to the original church interior. The result is a honeycomb-like composition, with modules derived directly from the historic monuments themselves, allowing visitors to view the icons from the historically accurate angle – from below, looking upward. How exactly this works is the subject of our story.
​The Power of Lines
The building at the very beginning of New Arbat is the result of long deliberations over how to replace the former House of Communication. Contemporary, dynamic, and even somewhat zoomorphic in character, it is structured around a large diagonal grid. The building has become a striking accent both in the perspective of the former Kalinin Avenue and in the panorama of Arbat Square. Yet, unfortunately, the original concept was not fully realized. In 2020, the Moscow ArchCouncil approved a design featuring an exoskeleton – an external load-bearing structure, which eventually turned into a purely decorative element. Still, the power of the supergraphic “holds” the building, giving it the qualities of a new urban landmark with iconic potential. How this concept took shape, what unexpected associations might underlie the grid’s form, and why the exoskeleton was never built – all this is explored in our article.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
​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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
​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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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.