From a Co-mmune House to Co-living

In the apartment complex CO_LOFT, designed by DNK ag, the industrial heritage of the 1930’s is reinterpreted through the ideas of the 1920’s, when the search for new types of housing was one of the main branches of architecture.

Written by:

Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

17 December 2018

Object

Architect:

Firm:

DNK Architectural Group http://www.dnk-ag.ru/

The name of the apartment complex CO_LOFT, situated near the Tulskaya metro station, reflects two paradigms – its former industrial function and the idea of a commune house, which is essentially close to the modern idea of “co-living” that is becoming ever more popular nowadays.

A rather compact land site, which includes 3 and 4-story buildings, is situated near the Serpukhovskoy Val. Until recently, this place hosted the electrical measuring instrument factory, whose history can be traced back to 1935 when the first typewriter and adding machine repair shops were opened here. The first buildings of the complex are known to refer to the break of the 1920-1930’s. There was also a boiler house, the remnant of which is a tall chimney – a peculiar centerpiece of the entire block. Most likely, the boiler house was a part of the housing project designed for the workers of the factory “Novaya Zarya” built in 1928–1930 by the project of the architects Ivan Zvezdin and Mikhail Motylev.

Over the long time of their existence, the workshops expanded, the buildings were reconstructed, and the complex got numerous annexes. This chaotic construction cannot be called an ensemble by any stretch of imagination: the different sizes and colors of the annexes, combination of panels and all kinds of other construction materials make it impossible to speak about any prominent architectural character.

However, it is the history of the place, as well as the constructivist tradition of this area of Moscow, that became for DNK ag one of the sources of inspiration for coming up with the concept of the apartments. The neighboring residential area designed by Zvezdin and Motylev was devised as an ensemble that presupposed the creation of a few housing communities – neighbors connected by common day-to-day interests, working routine, and spending their spare time together. The idea of joint pastime of the residents constituted the basis for the project of redeveloping the industrial factory complex, and to a large extent defined the functional zoning of CO_LOFT, while the rescript of buildings of different characters and ages was turned by the architects into an exciting play of volumes and textures.

“Working in the conditions of a living urban environment, we wanted to find some theme, some source to draw inspiration from, because these buildings do not really look like they have any visual value or attractiveness – shares the architect Natalia Sidorova – The context, and, specifically, the numerous constructivist projects in this area of the city – the area of the Khavsko-Shabolovsky complex and “Novaya Zarya”, together with the Shukhov Tower – gave us one of the starting points for designing the inner structure of the complex, in which an important part is played by the public function. At the same time, it was important for us reflect today’s identity and the diversity of life. And all of this turned out to be quite resonant with the client’s desire to create something unusual and modern, and at the same time having historical ties”.

A Song About the New Way of Life

The approach towards reinterpreting the industrial territory under the new realities, proposed by DNK ag, allowed the company to win the invitation-only competition, and coincided with the client’s desire to develop the concept of a residential complex with elements of co-living in it, a new housing format, which in many respects resembles the soviet “commune houses” of the 1920’s, the difference being that it offers more comfort and satisfaction of individual needs.

Back in the day, the new “way of life” of the young socialist state required new solutions for the housing construction. The commune houses or “house-communes” with their communal education of children, food preparation, household chores and recreation, whose purpose was “to get rid of the yoke of the household economy’, were essentially a response to the fast-paced industrialization and urbanization: the lack of useful floor space of the housing “cells” was more than outweighed by the “socialized” public spaces – the habitual kitchen gave way to a canteen, and the questions of spending one’s free time were solved by a public library and playrooms for children. Paradoxically, today, almost a hundred years later, the ideas of socialized way of life became relevant again. The technological development, the information revolution, and the global spreading of homesourcing brought some major changes to the public/private ratio. Similar actions performed on one common platform are the sign of modern times.

DNK ag are interpreting the theme of a commune house in an extremely graceful way, delicately entwining the platform for joint activities into the fabric of the complex. Caused by a multitude of random factors, the complex configuration of the project resolves into singling out the central nucleus with public spaces and placing the apartments or “housing cells”, as they would have been called a century ago, along the perimeter.

Two historical buildings – one made of prefab panels, the other from brick – come together at a right angle, the third standing away from them. Together, they once formed a semi-open yard, which was filled, already in the 1960’s, with a volume of metallic structures coated with profiled sheeting – they formed a transition block between the buildings. According to the project, now this place hosts a co-working space, a reception, a gym, and a laundromat – everything that one needs for fruitful joint actions. One can get here through the main entrance passing through a little square.

The basement floor of the four-story-high building also includes spaces for commercial premises adjacent to the public nucleus. The combination of business and housing functions that you would naturally expect from a loft is viewed in this specific instance as an opportunity to do some kind of business that would unite all of the residents of the complex.

The central nucleus also includes a parking garage with a convenient driving entrance on the first and basement floors. The underground levels of the residential units are also equipped with storage lockers. It is also planned to make the residents’ life more diverse at the expense of various services, the operations of some of which is supervised by the community manager who also acts as a community moderator.

All of the former factory buildings consist of apartments. The architects are preserving the dimensions and the numbers of floors, at the same time modifying the façades in full accordance with their new function.

The range of the apartments in the complex is quite diverse; almost each of the apartments is endowed with some unique qualities, which brings us back to experiments of the 1920’s aimed at crash testing various life scenarios in such houses and various arrangements of their premises. The first floor of one of the buildings will include double-side two-level apartments with a cute little garden of their own – a curious analogue of a townhouse. In another building, single level apartments will have patios of their own; these little gardens form something like a street writhing the block.

The apartments of the studio type – with a small floor space of 20 square meters – are essentially modular cells that can be joined together within the framework of the bearing structure.

The apartments with an unusually elongated floor plan, whose configuration was conditioned by the width of one of the units, are comparatively small in terms of their floor space but they still have an advantage of numerous windows, which makes it possible to zone the space in different ways, forming a few “rooms”. Most of the apartments have balconies, sometimes of the “French” type, sometimes regular ones.

Another feature of the complex is the usable roof of the residential buildings and the underground parking garage. The residents of the upper floors and the apartments adjoining the inner patio are able to walk out on it, thus getting a “hanging garden” of their own.

The project is also not without two-level apartments – as we remember, the housing cells of the experimental houses of the 1920’s also oftentimes had two levels, as, for example, the K-type cell in the famous Narkomfin Building. In the modern Moscow design, two-level apartments are a disappearing rarity, and these certainly add the complex’s “typological” charm.

The New Look of Factory Clothes

The subsequent layers of time also got reflected in the coating textures, as well as the materials of the outside walls. The most “recent” block of metallic structures – the heritage of the recent soviet past – got glass façades, which serve as a link between the two “more material” brick buildings.

The four-story building, the oldest in the complex, whose first floor hosts various businesses, is the brightest reminder of the industrial past of this place. Its red-brick walls will be cleared up, while the new residential function is signified by the balconies and bay windows. The tall chimney of the boiler-house is turned into an artifact, also reminding us of the original function of this place.

The small brick building with little gardens is decorated in dark-gray colors. The architects added low window sills and glass bay windows with sideshift slide frames of various proportions that came together to form a rhythmic composition defining the individual character of each of the cells. The main peculiar feature of this unit is a mosaic panel picture that survived from the times when this building hosted the electrical devices factory. This is the heritage of another period in the life of the complex – the epoch of modernism.

Amazingly, the subject matter of the picture – innovative technologies, a community of people of different professions – is resonant with today’s way of life and the concept of the project.

The third building, alongside of which also stretches an array of little gardens, has original façades that highlight its original structure. According to the project, it panels are to be dismantled altogether to be replaced by brick.

The two-level apartments stand out thanks to the different color of their bricks; the flat-surface solution is diluted by windows or different width and bay windows.

The third level with single-story apartments and a corridor that unites them inside (and on the façade) is designed as a single-cut one, which gives it a mansard character, strengthened thanks to the use of the terrain – the vertical rhythm of the brick ribs visually stretches this level up.

“What we wanted to do was preserve in this complex its history that has been naturally formed – says Natalia Sidorova – It was very important for us not only to gracefully introduce the new functions but also highlight the legacy and historical individuality not just through preserving the artifacts – the chimneys and the mosaic panels that we, of course, regard as important elements of implementing our idea – but also by demonstrating the architectural layers of many year”.

Architect:

Firm:

DNK Architectural Group http://www.dnk-ag.ru/

17 December 2018

Written by:

Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

Headlines now

Object

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.

Object

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.

News

Resort on the Kama River

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

Object

Nests in Primorye

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

Object

The Angle of String Tension

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

Object

How Historic Tobolsk Becomes a Portal to the Future

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

Object

St. Petersburg vs Rome

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

Object

On the Wave

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

Interview

Valery Kanyashin: “We Were Given a Free Hand”

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

Object

The Keystone

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

send.project

Perpetuum Mobile

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

Object

Water and Light

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

Object

Champions’ Cup

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

send.project

Semi-Digital Environment

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

Object

History never ends

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

Object

A Deep, Crystal Shine

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

Interview

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

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

Overview

A Roadside Picnic of Urban Planning Theorists

Marina Egorova, head of Empate Architectural Bureau, brought together urban planning theorists – the successors of Alexey Gutnov and Vyacheslav Glazychev – to revive the substance and depth of professional discourse. At the first meeting, much ground was covered: the participants revisited the theoretical foundations, aligned their values, examined a cutting-edge case of the Kazan agglomeration, and concluded with the unfathomable intricacies of Russian land demarcation. Below, we present key takeaways from all the presentations.

Object

Perspective View

CNTR Architects has designed a business center for a new district in Yekaterinburg, aiming to reduce the need for commuting and make the residential environment more diverse. The architectural solutions are equally focused on creating spatial flexibility, comfortable working conditions, and a memorable image that could allow the building to become a spatial landmark of the district.

Object

Malevich and Bathhouses, Nature and High-Tech

The Malevich Bathhouse complex is scheduled to open in the fall of 2025 on the Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Highway. The project, designed by DBA-GROUP under the leadership of Vladislav Andreev, is an example of an unconventional approach to the image of a spa in general and of a bathhouse in particular. Deliberately avoiding any kind of allusion, the architects opted for streamlined forms with characteristic rounded corners, a combination of wood with bent glass, and restrained contemporary shapes – both inside and out. Let’s take a closer look at the project.

Object

Rather, a Tablecloth and a Glass!

After many years, the long-abandoned Horse Guards Department building in St. Petersburg has finally received the attention it deserves: according to a design by Studio 44, the first restoration and adaptation works are scheduled to begin this year. Both the intended function and the general scope of works imply minimal alteration to the complex, which has preserved traces of its three-century history. All solutions are reversible and aimed, above all, at opening the monument to the city and immersing it in a lively social scene – hence the choice of a cultural center scenario with a strong gastronomic component.

Object

Materialization of Airflows

The Nikolai Kamov International Airport in Tomsk opened at the end of August last year. We have already written about the project – now we are taking a look at the completed building. Its functionality is reinforced by symbolic undertones: the architects at ASADOV sought to reflect local identity in the architecture as fully as possible.

Object

The City as a Narrative

Sergey Skuratov’s approach to large urban plots could best be described as a “total design code”. The architect pays equal attention to the overall composition and the smallest of details, striving to ensure that every aspect is thoroughly thought out and subordinated to the original vision. It’s a Renaissance-like approach, really – a titanic effort demanding remarkable willpower and perseverance. The results are likewise grand – architecture that makes a statement. This article looks at the revived concept for the central section of the Seventh Heaven residential district in Kazan, a composition so thoroughly considered that even the “gradient of visual emphasis” (sic!) across the facades has been carefully worked out. It also touches on the narrative idea behind the project – and even the architect’s own doubts about it.

A Garden of Hope for Freedom

In October, at the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery in Suzdal, the Prison Yard Garden opened on the site that had served as a prison from the 18th century until the Khrushchev Thaw. The architectural concept was developed by NOῨD Short Film, and the landscape design by the MOX landscape bureau. In fact, there are two gardens here – very different ones. We try to understand whether they evoke the right emotions in visitors, while also showing the beauty of June’s ruderal plants in bloom.

Object

A Laconic Image of Time

The Time Square residential complex, built on the northern edge of St. Petersburg, appears more concise and efficient than its neighbor and predecessor, the New Time complex. Nevertheless, the architect’s hand is clearly felt: themes of “black and white”, “inside and outside”, and most notably, the “lamellar” quality of the facades that seems to visibly “eat away” at the buildings’ mass – everything is played out like a well-written score. One is reminded of both classical modernism and the so-called “post-constructivism”.

Object

The Flower of the Lake

The prototype for the building of the Kamal Theater in Kazan is an ice flower: a rare and fragile natural phenomenon of Lake Kaban “froze” in the large, soaring outlines of the glass screens enclosing the main volume, shaping its silhouette and shielding the stained-glass windows from the sun. The project, led by the Wowhaus consortium and including global architecture “star” Kengo Kuma, won the 2021/2022 competition and was realized close to the original concept in a short – very short – period of time. The theater opened in early 2025. It was Kengo Kuma who proposed the image of an ice flower and the contraposition of cold on the outside and warmth on the inside. Between 2022 and 2024, Wowhaus did everything possible to bring this vision to life, practically living on-site. Now we are taking a closer look at this landmark building and its captivating story.

Object

Peaceful Integration on Mira Avenue

The MIRA residential complex (the word mir means “peace” in Russian), perched above the steep banks of the Yauza River and Mira Avenue, lives up to its name not only technically, but also visually and conceptually. Sleek, high-rise, and glass-clad, it responds both to Zholtovsky’s classicism and to the modernism of the nearby “House on Stilts”. Drawing on features from its neighbors, it reconciles them within a shared architectural language rooted in contemporary façade design. Let’s take a closer look at how this is done.

Object

An Interior for a New Format of Education

The design of the new building for Tyumen State University (TyumSU) was initially developed before the pandemic but later revised to meet new educational requirements. The university has adopted a “2+2+2” system, which eliminates traditional divisions into groups and academic streams in favor of individualized study programs. These changes were implemented swiftly – right at the start of construction. Now that the building is complete, we are taking a closer look.

Object

New Aeroflot Office: Lightness, Play, Comfort

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

Object

Penthouses and Kokoshniks

A new residential complex designed by ASADOV Architects for the Krasnaya Roza business district responds to its proximity to 17th-century landmarks – the chambers of the Hamovny Dvor and St. Nicholas Church – as well as to the need to preserve valuable façades of a historic rental house built in the Russian Revival style. The architects proposed a set of buildings of varying heights, whose façades reference ecclesiastical architecture. But we were also able to detect other associations.