Pioneering the Environment

In their project of MITTE club house, the architects proposed a model for developing the territory adjacent to the main land site, proceeding from the method of working with the urban environment in the namesake district of Berlin and the characteristic features of Moscow architecture of the brink of the XX–XXI centuries.

Written by:
Elena Petukhova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

25 January 2019

Object

The north part of the Danilovsky district of Moscow, delineated by the Letnikovskaya Street and the bend of the Moskva River, can serve as a fine example of town planning chaos of the “rusty belt” of the nation’s capital. Like a mighty wave, the transformations are spreading away from the Garden Ring, and after they join forces with the program of reconstructing the embankments of the Moskva River – with quays and new riverside recreation areas – this district will turn into one of the most prestigious and quickly developing ones. Thus, it comes as no surprise that the forward-looking developers are already initiating on both banks of the river new top-class projects, one of which is the club house with apartments, designed on the Letnikovskaya Street by APEX project bureau for Hutton Development – the house got a name of MITTE.

zooming — View of the apartment complex from the yard © APEX project bureau

In this area, which is now gaining the momentum of the conversion transformations, the architects saw an analogue of Berlin’s Mitte – hence the name of the complex. Famous worldwide for its creative and comfortable atmosphere and mottled environment consisting of residential and office buildings mixed with shopping and entertainment centers, this district gradually filled in all of the lacunae in the city fabric of East Berlin. In the chaos of the Moscow area in question, the architects saw a similar potential and suggested that the developer give this house a name that is symbolic of modern standards of comfortable life in a megalopolis.

The only fragment that bears any resemblance, if any, with a street front, is in fact a series of three houses built in the early 2000’s on the even side of the street, right across from the land plot that was allotted for the construction of the MITTE club house, and this proximity gave the APEX architects an opportunity for creating a model of the future project, the way they saw it by analogy with its Berlin’s namesake. The future club house will become the missing link, thanks to which a starting point for the future projects will appear – in fact, it will become cornerstone of the future construction.

There were several ways of designing and positioning the house on the trapeze-shaped land site that the architects ultimately got (in the shape of a cylinder, a prism with rounded corners, a three-faceted block, etc.), and all of them were considered but ultimately the logic and rational approach prevailed. The designers opted for an L-shaped building with one skewed corner overlooking the never-built highway and forming a dramatic volumetric effect in the spirit of the “Pressing Iron House” on Moscow’s Khitrovka Street.

In order to make sure that no useful floor space goes to waste, the architects designed the building as closely to the borders of the land site as possible. There is but one exception: from the skewed side, they had to step back 4.2 meters in order to provide the mandatory fire lane. Yet another recession from the perimeter, this time on two upper floors, at a level that coincides with the cornice mark of the building standing across from MITTE, was needed for building up a more balanced town planning dialogue.

The floor plans of the L-shaped buildings could be considered rather traditional, if it were not for the fact that the architects introduced into the project a few solutions aimed at optimizing the use of the floor space and based on the recently-changed preferences of the buyers of such type of property.

What does not at once meet the eye is the original approach to positioning the staircases inside the stairway and elevator nucleus. According to the safety regulations, the house must have two staircases in it, but at the first glance at the plan you see only one. In actuality, however, one staiwell has two staircases with cross-crossing flights of stairs in it, each of which is meant to serve the residents of one of the wings. By Moscow standards (and by the Russian standards, for that matter), this kind of two-flight staircase is quite a rarity but the architects were still able to procure the appropriate approvals both from the developer and the EMERCOM.

On either side of the L-shaped corridor in the center there are apartments, whose floor space ranges from 27–28 square meters for a studio to 45–48 square meters for a double-room block, and a little over 60 square meters for a three-room block. In addition, each customer is entitled to buy a few blocks and join them together. A distinctive feature of the floor plans of the residential blocks is the inclusion of kitchens into the public zones, and in the most compact apartments the kitchen is situated in a pass-through corridor that leads from the anteroom to the living room. By sacrificing a private kitchen, the architects were able to allot more space to the sleeping zone that is essentially an alcove with a king-size bed. While quite recently such shift in the priorities could shock and scare many buyers away, what really matters for the target group of MITTE is good night’s sleep, and not some culinary experiments at the stove, all the more so because the modern “young and active” generation prefers to use food delivery services.

In spite of all the rationality of their approach to the town planning and design solutions, the architects did allow themselves to make a few rather radical experiments with the façades of the future house. As is the way with APEX, a few (in fact, more than 10) options were considered, exploring the possibilities rhythmic organization, plastic deformation, and stylistic adaptation.

The chief architect of the project, Sergey Senkevich, says: “In many of our projects, we try to use the façade grid. Probably, this is the influence of the school of thought of Vladimir Plotkin, for whom I worked after I graduated from the university, and to whom I am really grateful. And I am sure that designing in just one module does not limit the architect’s scope but, quite the opposite, gives him extra freedom and a guarantee of high-quality result. This principle never fails, it works for any architects, no matter what school they come from”.

As a result of the search, an interesting structure of two shells was formed: the massive outside grid made of bricks, and the inside system of stained glass windows, encased in a framework of metallic bronze-imitating lamellae that give protection from the sunlight. The space between the outside facets of both shells is only 1.5 meters but visually it looks greater at the expense of the perspective brick portals and their double height. In addition, one’s perception is also influenced by the 2-meter depth of the open-air galleries on the first floor, which lead to the public premises. The resulting cantilevered structure eliminated the need for the traditional awnings above the hallway entrances, for the sole exception of one that performs the role of the accent above the grand entrance.

The resulting structure echoes the façade design of the house that stands across the street, and remotely resembles the concrete “frameworks” and the anodized stained glass windows of the houses built here in the 1970-1990’s of the last century. Thanks to these associations, the perception of the house changes, and its “Berlin-style” reserved architecture get a fair bit of “Moscow” flavor, so vital for fitting with the context.

The use of the white color on the façade of the club house, as an offset to the rising trend of dark hues is also partially an homage to the image of a “guest from Berlin”, and yet another reiteration of echoing the neighboring house. In the case of MITTE, both the architects and the developer placed their bets on the high quality of the hand-molded brick manufactured by the Wasserstrich technology. According to the architects, this brick will look particularly beautiful in the perspective portals of the window apertures on the main façade of the building.

The architects also proposed to make a small garden on the roof, as well as recreation zones and an amphitheater, equipping it with gear for watching movies on a pull-out screen at night.

25 January 2019

Headlines now

The Big Twelve

Yesterday, the winners of the Moscow Mayor’s Architecture Award were announced and honored. Let’s take a look at what was awarded and, in some cases, even critique this esteemed award. After all, there is always room for improvement, right?

Object

Above the Golden Horn

The residential complex “Philosophy” designed by T+T architects in Vladivostok, is one of the new projects in the “Golubinaya Pad” area, changing its development philosophy (pun intended) from single houses to a comprehensive approach. The buildings are organized along public streets, varying in height and format, with one house even executed in gallery typology, featuring a cantilever leaning on an art object.

Report

Nuanced Alternative

How can you rhyme a square and space? Easily! But to do so, you need to rhyme everything you can possibly think of: weave everything together, like in a tensegrity structure, and find your own optics too. The new exhibition at GES-2 does just that, offering its visitor a new perspective on the history of art spanning 150 years, infused with the hope for endless multiplicity of worlds and art histories. Read on to see how this is achieved and how the exhibition design by Evgeny Ace contributes to it.

Object

Blinds for Ice

An ice arena has been constructed in Domodedovo based on a project by Yuri Vissarionov Architects. To prevent the long façade, a technical requirement for winter sports facilities, from appearing monotonous, the architects proposed the use of suspended structures with multidirectional slats. This design protects the ice from direct sunlight while giving the wall texture and detail.

Report

Campus within a Day

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

Overview

Vertical Civilization

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

Interview

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

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

Interview

Andrey Chuikov: “Optimum balance is achieved through economics”

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

Object

The Fulcrum

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

Object

Crystal is Watching You

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

Object

The Secret Briton

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

The Wrap-Up

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

Birds and Streams

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

Faraday Grid

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

Review

Midway upon the Journey of Our Life

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

Inverted Fortress

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

send.project

Transformation of Annenkirche

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

The Paradox of the Temporary

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

The Forum of Time

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

Mirrors Everywhere

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

Report

The Steppe Is Full of Beauty and Freedom

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

The Snowstorm Fish

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

The Mirror of Your Soul

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

Part of the Ideal

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

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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

Object

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.

Object

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.

​Pioneering the Environment

Pioneering the Environment