A Habitable Galaxy

APEX has headed the project of a large-scale residential complex in the north of Moscow, in which modern housing construction methods are combined with thought-out planning solutions, a recognizable image and an original landscaping concept.

Written by:
Elena Petukhova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

29 April 2019

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The Team Approach

One of the modern popular ways to diversify the construction within the framework of a large-scale project is the method of team work when several architectural companies are invited to design individual buildings. The developers try to create a really hard-packed, yet at the same time comfortable, urban environment with a highly developed recreational and social infrastructure, landscaping and thought-out public spaces.

All of these principles are implemented and taken to a new level in the new housing project called “ILOVE” from the KORTOS Group. The design work is done by four leading architectural firms that specialize in housing and multifunctional construction. APEX is the chief designer and project developer of Buildings 1 and 2. The company AECOM developed the planning concept and the design code of the complex, and is responsible for the project of Building 5. Ostozhenka and Reserve Union are working on Buildings 3 and 4 respectively.

zooming — ILOVE housing complex. View from the Godovikova Street

Copyright © APEX Project Bureau

A Universe from Nothing

The territory of the future housing complex ILOVE is essentially 7 hectares of a former industrial park. The facilities of the meat processing factory that used to occupy it were of no historical or architectural value, there was no need to preserve them, and the work was done “from scratch”, which, of course, simplified things a little but left the architects no opportunity to use the genius loci for the subject matter of the future complex.

Nowadays, the architects endow nearly every architectural project with an imagery solution that has to do more with marketing strategy than with project documents. The architects really enjoy being able to become involved in the process of inventing a “legend”, coming up with new romantic names and design techniques that open up the associations that the project is meant to evoke, building up in their minds not only volumetric and planning parameters of the future buildings but also modeling the future living scenarios for the future residents. “We believe that this is an exciting thing to do, and it helps a lot in our work – says the president of APEX Anton Bondarenko – Because it stimulates our imagination and inspires our people to search for new and unconventional solutions. I suggest to my boys that they come up with a name for the complex, to draw a logo and a brand book, whose elements can be used in designing the façades, doing the landscaping part, as well as the graphic presentation of the concept. This helps us to get our idea across to the client, and get him involved in modeling a new world”.

In the case of ILOVE, the starting point for the brand legend was found in the history of this area, where many streets have names related to space exploration. The project was interpreted as some kind of a space galaxy where all the volumetric elements – the façade design, the landscaping concept, and the lighting – are all based on stellar associations.

A Maximum of Everything

The configuration of the land site does look like a galaxy spiral with a “protuberance”. Capital Group, together with the partner of the project KORTOS, for the planning part, in order to get the required output of square meters, invited AECOM that has an extensive experience in devising land development concepts.

Singling out the main trapeze-shaped part of the territory, the AECOM architects, who developed the master plan, ran through it a boulevard that on the plan looked like a pentagon pointing southwest with its sharpest angle. This is the main promenade and the main thoroughfare of this area. In the center, there is a pedestrian zone and a green public square. The boulevard is surrounded by sectional houses that form open squares and brackets; on the plan, they look very much like the famous “book” houses of the Novy Arbat. Underneath the entire complex, there is an underground parking garage for 1.5 cars. Thanks to the thought-out configuration of the plans and the though-out mutual arrangement of the buildings, each of the houses got a green yard. The remaining peripheral “protuberances” were turned into green areas and occupied by a school building for 300 students. The target audience of the complex is young families with children.

Most of the sections are ten stories high, some of them soaring upwards as 35-story towers – a hybrid high-rise / city block construction technique popular nowadays, which helps to keep up a human-friendly scale, at the same getting the required amount of useful floor space. The high-rise parts are spaced out – the distance between the towers is no less than 200 meters, which makes it possible to keep up optimum insolation and views from the windows.

Different Visions, One Approach

The development of the project on the basis of the master plan prepared by AECOM was conducted in collaboration with all of the architectural companies involved in the project. The chief designer APEX was preparing the initial permit documentation, coordinated the extremely complex operation of the whole team and brought together all of the proposals tying them in with the stipulated economic requirements and construction norms.

The chief architect of the project from the side of APEX, Irina Volenko, comments on the challenges and benefits of team work: “Collaborative work of several independent project organizations is significantly different from a situation when you do a project singlehandedly. Each member of the team has an opinion based on their experience and you have to find a way together to implement these opinions and approaches in the project. In this specific case, considering the size of the complex and the dramatic design solutions proposed by the team members, we preferred to keep the individuality of the planning and façade design solution for each of the buildings. I think that this practice is so efficient that it’s worth using it even when the project is led by a single organization. You can distribute the buildings among project groups and give them an opportunity to search for their own creative solution within the framework of a single method”.

One of the consequences of the team work was widening of the range of apartment types: they differ not only by the number of rooms but also by the planning methodology and mental tradition. A two-room or a three-room apartment can be planned in many different ways. There is a Russian tradition rooted back in the Soviet times, there is a European and even an American method. What makes them different is the way they address dozens of questions: how an apartment of this or that class should be organized, do you need a large anteroom or not, how must the kitchen be positioned, what is the difference between the square footage of the living room and the bedroom, how many bathrooms do you need and so on. Peculiarities of the design approach and the experience of each of the architectural companies got reflected in the planning solutions of the apartments in different buildings. Somebody placed their bets on functionality, somebody on the square footage, somebody gave priority to shared rooms, somebody to private ones. The architects gave to the future buyers an opportunity to choose the future plans of the apartments that matches best of all their lifestyles.

Each team proposed its own version of designing the volumetric composition consisting of 10-story multi-section part and a 35-story high-rise. Some designers interpreted it as a compound, yet integral, form with unified design of all of the façades. Some, like Ostozhenka, for example, highlighted the double-part composition of the complex and designed the low-rise and high-rise parts in two different ways.

Pillars of Creation

APEX is also designing two buildings on the northeast border of the site. These two will be built first: Building 1 is essentially an open square, whose northeast façade faces the Godovikova Street. Building 2, separated from Building 1 by a boulevard, is essentially a slab that consists of four sections. Both buildings consist of a main part – a 10-story podium – and a few high-rise parts: two towers in Building 1 and one tower in Building 2.

Developing the façade concept, the APEX architects analyzed all possible options – from fracturing the building visually into a low-rise and a high-rise part and making a single façade – and ultimately opted for the latter. The role of the massive podium for the white-gray mount of buildings is played by a stylized stylobate that unites two bottom floors – the public ground floor (with an enlarged height of 5.4 meters), and a residential one. The stylobate is slightly sunken in in relation to the main façade and coated with dark gray exposed concrete. Similar design technique is applied to the top floors of the 10-story buildings that got – as a bonus – an open air terrace running along the entire perimeter. The top floors of the high-rise sections are only accentuated by a slender cornice with a ledge.

The façades of both buildings form an intricate and seemingly random system created by window apertures of alternating width and height, dull glazing of tinted glass and light gray piers of exposed concrete. The pattern is based on the space-age imagery. One of the authors, an astronomy expert, proposed to use the image of Pillars of Creation, a photograph taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of elephant trunks of interstellar gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula. The architects designed a pixel pattern and applied it to the façade in 3-D Max. Then the APEX software developers wrote a plugin for Revit thar interpolated the image into the system of apertures and piers, based on the location and geometry of each of the sections.

This play with the sizes of windows does not affect either the comfort or the class of the apartments. All of the windows are “down to the floor”, the width of the narrowest aperture being 1.80 meters, the width of the room being 3.1 meters, the height of the floor 3.3 meters. The visual sensation of narrow apertures, almost “portholes”, appears because of the fact that the windows of neighboring floors are grouped height-wise. The towers display the following sequence from the bottom to the top: one floor, two pairs of floors, three groups of three floors, then four floors, and then three groups of five floors at the very top. In order to arrange the types and sizes of the windows, the architects introduced a basic openable window sections that is always located next to the pier that holds the common vertical in the overall pattern.

The Cosmic Gardens

Most of the vehicle-free territory of the complex will be turned into a park, where natural green zones will be combined with landscaped areas, and pedestrian and bicycle trails. The authors of the landscaping concept – the British Gillespies and APEX – also based themselves on the cosmic set of associations, developing the themes stipulated in the architecture of the housing project. The central boulevard got a name of “Poyas Asteroidov” (“Asteroid Belt”) and a matching design, the central area becoming “Sun”, the gravity center of the entire area, the neighboring pedestrian area becoming “Milky Way”. The five buildings are named: 1 – Earth, 2 – Jupiter, 3 – Mats, 4 – Mercury, and 5 – Saturn.

Each of the yards and landscaped areas were designed individually, with consideration for the degree of insolation, proximity to public and residential buildings, intended function and target audience. In the “Mars” zone, the most shaded area of the complex, the architects actively used bright shades of red. “Milky Way” is designed as dispersed environment, in which paved sections are mingled with green fragments. And the “Asteroid Belt” boulevard is divided into parallel pedestrian, bicycle, and automobile lanes, separated by parkways and ecoparking spots. For each of the zones, the architects together with landscape designers and dendrologists came up with a selection of plants that will be effective both in winter and in summer.

The lighting concept was also individually developed – the lighting not only performs a utilitarian function but it also is responsible for the creation of a cosmic image at nights. Some of the lights are designed to function very much like stage effects: in the “Earth” zone, for example, an illusion of moonlit ocean surface is created, from which green islands spring up.

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Searching for the right imagery and detailed elaboration of the “legend” of every project is not just a tribute to fashion but the architects’ urge to deliver an integrated harmonious product and find in the harsh conditions of modern life and rather rigid construction parameters some planning, architectural and design techniques to create a living environment that will be as comfortable as possible and will be enough to make the future residents of “Habitable Galaxy” happy.

29 April 2019

Headlines now

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.

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.

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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.

​A Habitable Galaxy

APEX has headed the project of a large-scale residential complex in the north of Moscow, in which modern housing construction methods are combined with thought-out planning solutions, a recognizable image and an original landscaping concept.

A Habitable Galaxy