Evgeny Podgornov: “You need to make your projects visible”

The leader of Saint-Petersburg’s architectural company Intercolumnium explains why his company’s portfolio includes projects ranging from hi-tech to historicism, discourses upon high-rise landmarks, about the clients, and about the sources of the drive that the city needs.

Interviewed by:
Alyona Kuznetsova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

20 December 2019

Interview

Archi.ru:
It’s been 27 years since Intercolumnium was founded; now the company has more than a hundred employees. How did it all begin? You surely must have a story to tell.

Evgeny Podgornov:
Yes, we’ve been around for quite a while; one could do a prison sentence within this time, and get released... (laughs). After I graduated from the architectural department, I worked in the LenNIIP Gradostroitelstva institute, which fell into decline in the 1990’s; there were no federal orders, and we were all disbanded. And it came as no surprise that we decided to start an architectural company of our own. I was having a drink with a friend of mine, and we suddenly had such an idea. That guy emigrated to the USA later on...

The name is Latin, and it doesn’t start with an “A” – is that because you were buzzed when you came up with it?

This name is a test of sorts. I believe that your company’s name must be either as simple as possible, just like any of the world’s biggest brands, so that people can remember it easily – or it must be something that a person must make an effort to pronounce and memorize, so that this word would intrigue them. Intercolumnium is essentially a space between the columns, a term from the classical architecture. In the Russian terminology, there is no special word for it, so we keep using the Latin term. And, along the way, people would mispronounce our name in all sorts of hilarious ways! At one time, our employees even kept a list of those mispronunciations: “intercommunism”, “intercolumbism”, and so on.

So, how did your independent career begin?

Just like it did for many others – we did a couple of private residences, and a couple of interior design projects. Then we got our first big client: there was a new development company that needed a project, and this is how we got into business. Back then, starting was easier because nowadays the clients are more exacting and they rarely trust young architects. Step by step, we increased our volumes, our equipment, and our staff. I must say that it’s hard to organize your first ten people, and then you develop a single principle of your work, and numbers don’t matter because this principle applies for everyone: we regularly discuss all of our projects, sit down together, consider them from different viewpoints, and such like.

zooming — “Krestovsky De Lux” housing complex

Copyright: © Intercolumnium

Are these multiple projects in your portfolio also part of your principle? How do you achieve such versatility: thanks to different clients, different “hands” in your company, or just thanks to the breadth of your horizon?

Probably, because of the latter. I do not perceive architecture as a means of self-realization within the limits of this or that branch. Architecture is like fashion: it changes every 10-20 years: we see the hot trends come and go, and we see the clients’ tastes going through cycles, we see the epochs and movements. Pretty much everyone wants to do new trendy projects, but the architect first of all must proceed from the location, and from the task that the client sets for him. It’s about creating an interesting high-quality product, and not get stuck in a rut of this or that style, endlessly replicating it. Based upon this principle, you will get the desired versatility.

Can you describe your working routine? Are there any set processes for going from a sketch to a full-fledged project? What is your starting point: the context, the limits imposed by the land site, or your own idea, drawn on a napkin?

Many of our projects are thoroughly checked in terms of their imagery, and some do get born at once, literally drawn on a napkin, like you said. A vivid example of the latter is the housing complex “Fusion”, and the client is still keeping that napkin. A lot of our sketches are indeed done momentarily, and there is a lot of kick and drive about it. And I really enjoy it because otherwise it’s getting quite boring if nobody calls you for a week, asking to come and see the land site and voice your thoughts on it.

An architect basically works to order: we are not artists; we do not create concepts and then run around the city trying to sell them. But then again, sometimes it is indeed the case: at our risk – we sometimes can afford it – we can develop this or that project and approach the potential client showing him how it could be. Sometimes it does work out.

As part of my creative method, I sometimes use this technique: I try to put myself in the position of the end consumer – would I want to live in such a place? And sometimes after that a tremendous transformation occurs – both stylistically and in other respects.

Which of your projects would you consider to be your signature ones?

Out of the recent projects, these are the housing complexes “Krestovsky DeLux” and “Privilegia”; I also think that the brick yacht club on the Bezymyanny Island was important to us.

Another successful project was the housing project “Mendelson”, near the “Krasnoe Znamya” factory. In that project, we really did a thorough job of creating constructivist architecture: we made mosaic panels next to the entrance, rock-face-in-concrete elevator lobbies, a thousand and a half suprematist printed pictures in the corridors, and we even designed the doorbells – we ultimately got a very stylish thing.

Out of our earlier projects, I would name the entertainment center Piterland, which still to this day boasts the largest glued-wood dome in Europe, 90 meters in diameter.

A considerable portion of your implemented projects is situated in the historical center of Saint Petersburg, and in the Krestovsky Island – one way or another, these are high-end projects, each one of them. Does that mean that you are more interested in designing for the elite classes?

I am interested in designing lots of things, but there are subtleties in everything. When it comes to mass construction, the architect’s task is to create the environment and the objects inside of it that are in harmony with one another. I believe it’s better to build pinpoint high-rises, making sure that there is more air, more greenery, and more unbroken routes between them. Here, however, it’s pretty rarely the case: they build crazy square-shaped courtyards, building as densely as possible on the land plot that they’ve got, then the yard may get a piece of a school or a kindergarten, which may make it look nice and spacious, but the territory is still locked along the perimeter, so it’s a hoax anyway.

The new highways, and, specifically, the Western High-Speed Diameter, did a lot of positive difference to this city, giving it more drive. A think it would be a great thing if next to the Lahta Center appeared a whole cluster, like Defence in Paris or Moscow City in Moscow. A city needs high-rise landmarks. A tower is a great thing as such because if you, let’s say, find yourself in a remote neighborhood, such as Kamenki or Pargolovo, you see this landmark, and you at once get your bearings, which is convenient. Yet another business center like this, with a stadium, could appear in the area of the Vantovy Bridge, it wouldn’t hurt anyone.

High-end housing construction, on the other hand, is quite a different thing. What matters here is the location. The problem with our city is that there are land plots lying next to each other and owned by different people, but there is no common understanding of their development. It’s very seldom that somebody tries to take into account what his neighbors did. This “early bird” principle is, regretfully, pretty effective, and it leaves its mark on the aura of Saint Petersburg construction. One positive example here is the house on the Esperova Street. This is like homage, as well as a game and a joke: since Evgeny Gerasimov built his “Venice” house here, I thought that “Catalonia” would be just as appropriate. I think that project was quite a success.

Small houses of such kind are essentially craftwork, and they cannot be duplicated. The classic Saint Petersburg consists of bright buildings with a prominent style, and a frontal construction, all joined by firewalls. The most important thing here is to understand the tectonics and the scale. Ruining the consistency of the scale is bad, of course, but buildings of different styles within one street sure lighten things up.

What other principles do you use for working in the historical center?

Designing for the city center, it is important not to obscure your neighbors, comply with all of the rules and regulations, and at the same time be able to make your own architectural statement. It was believed at one time that the best construction for the city center must be as neutral as possible. Law 820, for example, has a passage in it to the effect that “the new buildings must not be visible from open city spaces”. But what is it that we must design then, making it “invisible”? Phantom houses? You need to make you projects visible, and you need to make them into something that you can be proud of. With time you begin to realize that a reserved ascetic building is sometimes more valuable than a bright one, all covered in decoration work. But then again, there is another extremity – to think that decor is “bad taste” for a modern architect, and that everything needs to be done solely in modern forms. There are buildings that, because of the lack of decoration, look like sketches or like they are incomplete, I do not understand that. It’s just that you don’t have to overdo it.

If you take half of the buildings in the center of Saint Petersburg, and strip them of their entire decor, what you will get is just a wall with windows, where used to be rock-face patterns, fasciae, and cornices, and you’ll be left with the window-to-pier proportions 2:1. In a modern building, you always want to make the windows as big as possible, preferably reaching down to the floor, and reduce the mass of the walls – but if you are neighboring on the historical construction, these things are no good, it’s better to make to double windows. Today each floor is meant to make money, and the ceilings get lower, the piers get narrower, and the proportions become more constricted – and it just does not make any sense to decorate them the way they used to. The classic version of the facade does not work anymore; you need to be looking for something else.

Yet, at the same time, this trend to smother any project just in order to keep the city the way it was a hundred years ago does not make much sense to me. And, again, for a fact, a little over a hundred years ago, this city was being rebuilt very actively: let’s say, the land owner became richer, wanted a better house, and he would tear the old one down without thinking twice about it. Once the new technologies appeared – concrete intermediate floors, for example – the entire Petrograd side was rebuilt beyond recognition within twenty years. And after that the historical buildings were constantly built up. And now they want to ban virtually any new construction and freeze this city. But this is wrong – a city must develop.

How do you work with your clients? Do you argue with them sometimes, do you stand your ground?

The clients became more exacting, they’ve been around the world, they’ve seen things, and many of them know exactly what they want. There is also a positive trend for simplification; now everyone calculates the economic performance of their projects, and all these ideas of cottages on the sloping roofs, and other crazy-expensive things are history now, thankfully.

From the economic standpoint, however, the situation in this country is pretty tense: there is a feeling of depression, the laws keep changing all the time, and it takes the clients forever to make a decision. In order to make it to the implementation stage, you need to have a financial reserve, and you need to be able to do things very quickly – I mean both to design and to build. If you start a construction without having a clear plan, you are sure to run into enormous expenses. And you need to make absolutely sure that the client is ready to invest in the facade decoration solutions – be that in the historical center, or anywhere else, for that matter. Quite often this is precisely the case: the building is all but ready, we start the decoration work, and it suddenly turns out that we’ve run out of money. And then you start cutting the costs and saving on everything.

Another thing that is important is a sturdy concept. If there is a prime idea, everything falls into place very quickly; if there isn’t, you may fuss about until the end of time, still getting nowhere. A vivid example: the landscaping of the Ushaika River in the center of Tomsk.

For three years, Gasprom was rummaging Tomsk for a suitable architect, and they kept drawing pictures on the level of some caricature palaces and rail posts... We came up with an ultramodern concept within a month, showed it to the main architect of the city, and he was delighted, they immediately began to implement it. All because there was a prime idea that everyone took to.

How would you characterize your current working situation: where are you going to, and what’s your end game?

Our end game is to keep on doing various interesting projects! And it’s very important that each project must ultimately have a message, a clue to making it noticeable and interesting.

20 December 2019

Headlines now

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.

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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.

Object

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”.

Object

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.

send.project

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

Three-Part Task: St. Petersburg’s Mytny Dvor

The so-called “Mytny Dvor” area lying just behind Moscow Railway Station – the market rows with a complex history – will be transformed into a premium residential complex by Studio 44. The project consists of three parts: the restoration of historical buildings, the reconstruction of the lost part of the historical contour, and new houses. All of them are harmonized with each other and with the city; axes and “beams of light” were found, cozy corners and scenic viewpoints were carefully thought out. We had a chat with the authors of the historical buildings’ restoration project, and we are telling you about all the different tasks that have been solved here.

Object

The Color of the City, or Reflections on the Slope of an Urban Settlement

In 2022, Ostozhenka Architects won a competition, and in 2023, they developed and received all the necessary approvals for a master plan for the development of Chernigovskaya Street for the developer GloraX. The project takes into account a 10-year history of previous developments; it was done in collaboration with architects from Nizhny Novgorod, and it continues to evolve now. We carefully examined it, talked to everyone, and learned a lot of interesting things.

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A Single-Industry Town

Kola MMC and Nornickel are building a residential neighborhood in Monchegorsk for their future employees. It is based on a project by an international team that won the 2021 competition. The project offers a number of solutions meant to combat the main “demons” of any northern city: wind, grayness and boredom.

Object

A New Age Portico

At the beginning of the year, Novosibirsk Tolmachevo Airport opened Terminal C. The large-scale and transparent entrance hall with luminous columns inside successfully combines laconism with a bright and photogenic WOW-effect. The terminal is both the new façade of the whole complex and the starting point of the planned reconstruction, upon completion of which Tolmachevo will become the largest regional airport in Russia. In this article, we are examining the building in the context of modernist prototypes of both Novosibirsk and Leningrad: like puzzle pieces, they come together to form their individual history, not devoid of curious nuances and details.

Object

A New Starting Point

We’ve been wanting to examine the RuArts Foundation space, designed by ATRIUM for quite a long time, and we finally got round to it. This building looks appropriate and impressive; it amazingly combines tradition – represented in our case by galleries – and innovation. In this article, we delve into details and study the building’s historical background as well.

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Molding Perspectives

Stepan Liphart introduces “schematic Art Deco” on the outskirts of Kazan – his houses are executed in green color, with a glassy “iced” finish on the facades. The main merits of the project lie in his meticulous arrangement of viewing angles – the architect is striving to create in a challenging environment the embryo of a city not only in terms of pedestrian accessibility but also in a sculptural sense. He works with silhouettes, proposing intriguing triangular terraces. The entire project is structured like a crystal, following two grids, orthogonal and diagonal. In this article, we are examining what worked, and what eventually didn’t.

Object

An Educational Experiment for the North

City-Arch continues to work on the projects that can be termed as “experimental public preschools”: private kindergartens and schools can envy such facilities in many respects. This time around, the project is done for the city of Gubkinsky, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. A diverse educational and play environment, including a winter garden, awaits future students, while the teachers will have abundant opportunities to implement new practices.

​Evgeny Podgornov: “You need to make your projects visible”

The leader of Saint-Petersburg’s architectural company Intercolumnium explains why his company’s portfolio includes projects ranging from hi-tech to historicism, discourses upon high-rise landmarks, about the clients, and about the sources of the drive that the city needs.

Evgeny Podgornov: “You need to make your projects visible”