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​Moscow Architectural Institute: 10 School Building Projects

A school for children with disabilities, a juvenile correctional facility, an orphanage… the students of Moscow Architectural Institute are creating a new image of modern education.

05 June 2019
Overview
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In the past academic year of 2018/2019, the students of the industrial architecture course of Moscow Architectural Institute, under the guidance of Vsevolod Medvedev, Mikhail Kanunnikov, and Elisaveta Medvedeva, worked on their projects of youth educational institutions. The teachers offered the students three project options to choose from: a school for children with disabilities, a juvenile correctional facility, and an orphanage.

Vsevolod Medvedev
The leader of the architectural company “Fourth Dimension”, assistant professor of the undustrial architecture department of Moscow Architectural Institute:

“We decided to develop projects of special schools. Each of these projects is interesting for its own peculiarities. For example, a juvenile correctional facility is a school with a strict division of groups of teenagers and a professional training center, as well as a guarded perimeter of the entire territory. An orphanage is a complex combination of school and home. And a school for children with disabilities is a complex of rigorous communication, social, and sanitary rules and regulations.

As the venues for design, we chose real land sites in Moscow and its nearest suburbs: derelict “young pioneer camps”, juvenile correctional facilities that are in need of reconstruction, unused school and orphanage buildings.

As for the lineup of the project, we traditionally decided to expand it in relation to the basic task given by institute. The main message of each of the projects is a search for the new image of the school and its planning structure. The students had to understand, feel, and find their own approach to solving the problem of interaction between special children and society, even if at the expense of being at odds with some of the construction norms. They are subject to change. The approach to education is always changing, the construction technologies and structures are constantly improved. And it makes perfect sense that schools must also change – starting from the school building and ending with the methods of teaching special children”.

Below, we are publishing the top 10 School Building Projects prepared by the students:

Anna Vorobyeva:

A school for children with autistic spectrum disorders


A school for children with autistic spectrum disorders. Author: Anna Vorobyeva


The main idea of the project is creating a positive environment for successful education of autistic children. The main tool here is a special approach to forming and filling the inside space or the school.

The classrooms have a calm and secluded character, which makes it possible to focus as much as possible on the educational process. All the classrooms are different in their shape and size. The commonly used classrooms look more like traditional ones. The special laboratory-equipped classrooms and creative studios for music and drawing lessons have rounded or curvilinear profiles. Customized design solutions developed for each of the premises allow the children to easier get their bearings.

A school for children with autistic spectrum disorders. Author: Anna Vorobyeva


The classrooms are equipped with transformable furniture and pull-out partitions. This way, the space adjusts to the needs of a specific child. An important detail is the so-called “seclusion islands”, sensor rooms that are meant to give the child an opportunity to stay alone with himself or herself.

The classrooms are joined by the lounges – also transformable – with winter gardens, communication territories and “seclusion islands”.

A school for children with autistic spectrum disorders. Author: Anna Vorobyeva


The educational part is connected to the so-called “zone of urban adaptation”, a glass atrium, where all the games and entertaining activities are vertically placed. According to the author’s concept, this is a peculiar window to the outside world that at the same time keeps up the feeling of security.

The architectural image of the building is also highlighted by its transparency. Autistic children do not always make contacts with people easily. And it looks as though the building itself is trying to make up for it. Its laconic rectangular body is literally sliced with glass concave parabolic skylights. And only the façade surface of perforated panels makes some sort of borderline between the school and the city, allowing the children to feel safe and comfortable.

A school for children with autistic spectrum disorders. Author: Anna Vorobyeva
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Yana Kurilova

Hidden School


Hidden School. Author: Yana Kurilova


This project of a forest school was developed for children with respiratory diseases. The land site is situated in a healthy environment – in a pine forest in the territory of Bykovo Township in the Moscow Region. Currently, there is an active educational orphanage there.

Hidden School. Author: Yana Kurilova


The author of the project tried to keep all the trees growing on the land site. Therefore, the body of the school building turned out to be rather prostrate, with a noticeable shift of some of its elements. The bulk of the building with a flat roof is raised one floor above the ground on slender legs that also look like the trunks of pine trees. The façades are made of glass and mirror panels. All this minimizes the architectural “intrusion” into the forest.

Hidden School. Author: Yana Kurilova


Inside, the building is divided into self-sufficient modules of classrooms and auditoriums. It was the shift of these modules that made it possible to keep the pine forest virtually intact. The classrooms are connected by a single lounge. It is turned into a large library with bookshelves running along the walls, secluded corners for reading and zones for communicating with friends.

The second floor is belted by a balcony. In warm weather, one can step outside on it to get a breath of fresh air. In addition, the classrooms are equipped with pull-out glass partitions. With their help, the classrooms are transformed into open-air summer premises. There are also three greenhouses installed on the level of the ground floor for winter walks.

Hidden School. Author: Yana Kurilova
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Varya Nebolsina

A school for children with hearing, seeing, and speech disorders

Author: Varya Nebolsina


The main idea of the project consists in creating an integrated educational space for healthy children and children with hearing, seeing, and speech disorders. The joint education, according to the author of the project, is an important socialization experience, which will prepare the children for independent life in the future.

The school is situated in Moscow, on the Vosmogo Marta Street, next to a rehabilitation center for children with disabilities. According to the author of the project, such vicinity will allow the school to work in cooperation with the center.

Author: Varya Nebolsina


The school building is essentially an elongated volume covered by a gable roof. On the plan, it looks like an incomplete infinity sign. One of the “tails” of the sign hosts the elementary school, closer to the Vosmogo Marta Street. The other wing hosts a junior high school with an independent entrance from the yard. The wings of the school are joined by a common yard.

Author: Varya Nebolsina


Inside, there are no stairways. One can get from the first floor to the second by walking down a “ramp” corridor. Thanks to the gradual increase of the floor level, the loop-like two-story building reaches a four-story height in its highest point.

The zigzagged trajectory of the walls in the wing of the junior high school makes it easier for the children with eyesight disorders to find their bearings. For the students of the elementary school, on the other hand, the walls are rounded, and there are no corners at all.

Besides the school itself, the territory of the school hosts buildings on it, where after classes the children can also study painting, sculpture, robot science, dancing, and zoology. They can also study Braille or sign language here.

Author: Varya Nebolsina
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Denis Omelchenko

The School of Performance for Problem Teenagers

Performance school. Author: Denis Omelchenko


The juvenile correctional facility is situated next to the “Rechnoi Vokzal” metro station. It is planned that the building will provide board, lodging, and education to 272 teenagers aged from 11 to 14.

Performance school. Author: Denis Omelchenko


The six-story building of the school looks like a fragment of a giant bridge, from which ten glass cubes of auditoriums are suspended. The cubes are hovering over the ground. According to the author, this is meant to inspire in the problem teenagers a feeling of being detached from the problems and bad thoughts. In the glass auditoriums, the kids will be able to meditate, master anger management, and do sports. For juvenile offenders, this is the best way to come to grips and overcome their hardships.

Performance school. Author: Denis Omelchenko


The “support of the bridge” contains the students’ dormitory. The entire sixth floor is occupied by classrooms for general education. On the first floor, there is an entrance zone and amphitheater, where various performances are staged. For the students, this is an opportunity to make a statement and express their identity.

Performance school. Author: Denis Omelchenko
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Alena Sorokina

Orphanage school


Orphanage school. Author: Alena Sorokina


A vertical school for orphans is designed on the Povarskaya Street in Moscow. Its main bulk is broken into three large blocks towering one above another. The lower block contains the elementary school. The next one contains classrooms of the junior high. In the top part of the building, specialized classrooms are situated for chemistry, physics, biology, and computer science. This level also contains the teachers’ room and the management offices. One floor of each blocks contains two classrooms.

Orphanage school. Author: Alena Sorokina


The space of the floors between the glass blocks is occupied by winter gardens. This is a place where the children can spend their free time after the classes or during the breaks. The horizontal of the first floor, from which the multistory trunk of the school grows, contains the entrance group, the cafeteria, a gym, and an auditorium.

Orphanage school. Author: Alena Sorokina


The building itself motivates the children to learn and grow. Each year, going over to the next level of knowledge, the children get one floor higher, opening up new horizons.

Orphanage school. Author: Alena Sorokina
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Sasha Terekhova

“Tree” Orphanage School


The “Tree” project – an orphanage school. Author: Sasha Terekhova


The educational orphanage is situated near the Moscow-area town of Istra. The author of the project depicted the plan of the school as a tree, where a complex root system is the school building, while the large oval fruits on the branches are residential “capsules”.

The “Tree” project – an orphanage school. Author: Sasha Terekhova


The shape of the four-story school building is complex and curvilinear, looking like mountain terrain. Each next floor is shifted in respect to the previous one. In the places where floors are shifted, open-air terraces are formed.

The elementary, the junior high, and the senior high schools occupy an independent tier each. Everywhere, the classrooms and auditoriums open up to a common lounge. The lounge areas provide all sorts of pastime scenarios – from entertaining to educational. There are also creative studios and trade shops.

The interiors of the school rooms are spacious and light. The panoramic windows with automatically controlled shutters fill the classrooms with ambient light.

The “Tree” project – an orphanage school. Author: Sasha Terekhova


The children’s homes are designed as oval capsules of different sizes and housing capacity. The younger students have larger capsules designed for 18-20 children with individual rooms for the teachers. For the junior high students, the capsules house 6-12 people. The most compact houses are designed for the high school students – they house from 2 to 4 people. This way the author of the project solves the problem of socializing the children who grow without parents.

The school and the housing block are separated by a large yard with sports fields and playgrounds.

The “Tree” project – an orphanage school. Author: Sasha Terekhova
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Masha Cheltsova-Bebutova

An orphanage school in the North Tushino


zooming
Orphanage school. Author: Masha Cheltsova-Bebutova


The educational orphanage is situated in Moscow’s district of North Tushino. The land site lies on the border between the city and a large park. The location defined the main idea of the project to unite urban and rural space in one place.

Orphanage school. Author: Masha Cheltsova-Bebutova


The city side is faced by the façade of the school that constitutes the front of the street. This main façade is about 300 meters long. It recreates a fragment of the construction that consists of low-rise houses with stained glass windows standing next to one another. The silhouette is formed by the rooftops: the pitched gable ones, chamfered, flat, and even semicircular. The park is faced by small two or three-story houses. They create an atmosphere of peaceful rural life.  

Orphanage school. Author: Masha Cheltsova-Bebutova


At school, the children study in two shifts, do research work in the laboratories, and do extracurricular activities in art class, finding like-minded kids of the same age, thus making up for the lack of communication with the family. 

The residential and the academic parts are united by a common yard. The yard is crossed by a man-made brook, over which a few pedestrian bridges are thrown. The brook is a conditional border between town and country. The “city-side” bank of the brook is occupied by sports fields and playgrounds, while the green rural bank is created for rural pastime activities.

Orphanage school. Author: Masha Cheltsova-Bebutova
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Dima Chudaev

Boarding school for juvenile delinquents


Boarding school for juvenile delinquents. Author: Dima Chudaev


The juvenile correctional facility for 288 delinquents is situated at the western suburb of the South Butovo, in the stead of the existing ravine. The author of the project proposes to fill this ravine with water. Very much like a moat, it will encircle the five-story school building. It is planned that the connection with the city will be kept up at the expense of four drives that will be coming together in the center of the site.

zooming
Boarding school for juvenile delinquents. Author: Dima Chudaev


According to the author of the project, the architectural image was born “from associations with barb and proneness to conflict of delinquent children”. Therefore, the elongated rectangular volume is literally sliced with vertical bristling plates of rusty metal. At the same time, there are panoramic windows installed in the classrooms and children’s residential cells. And this is also an attempt to overcome the conflict with the outside world.

The boys and girls live and study separately. Their residential and training zones are placed at different floors. The third floor is occupied by 18 residential blocks for boys. In each block, there are two bunk spaces, four students sharing each one. The classrooms for boys are situated one floor below. Similarly, only for girls, the fourth residential level is designed. The girls’ classrooms are situated on the top fifth floor.

The only tier that is common for all the students is the ground floor that includes a hall, a canteen, an auditorium, a gym, and meeting rooms for parents. The promenade area is organized on the usable roof. The lack of space around the building is made up for by the cold walking galleries on each of the residential levels.

Boarding school for juvenile delinquents. Author: Dima Chudaev


An important part of the project is classrooms for creative-minded children and teenagers. The unheated galleries have special spaces for graffiti in them. There is also a small expo center on the territory of the facility, where the children’s creations will be exhibited on a permanent basis. According to the author’s idea, it art that will break the barrier between the children and society.

Boarding school for juvenile delinquents. Author: Dima Chudaev
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Evgeny Chumachenko

School for children with cerebral palsy


Boarding school for juvenile delinquents. Author: Dima Chudaev


The school for children with cerebral palsy will be built on the Vosmogo Marta Street in Moscow. The building will function not just as a school but also as a rehabilitation center, where the children will live on a permanent basis during the academic year and get all the treatment they need.

School for children with cerebral palsy. Author: Evganiy Chumachenko


The three-story volume with slanted stained glass windows is divided into three main sectors: the academic, the residential, and the medical one. The smoothly outlined buildings are connected by a heated glass gallery.

The block on the first floor is designed for the studies of the younger ones. For them, the author of the project provided an independent exit into the yard and playgrounds. Also, the first floor contains specialized classrooms for high school students. The children’s multifunctional hall is placed in a single outdoor volume but it can also be accessed from the building on the level of the second floor. The classrooms of the junior high school and the auditorium occupy almost the entire second floor. The third floor includes a library and a gym. The central nucleus of the school is a large atrium with a few lounges.

School for children with cerebral palsy. Author: Evganiy Chumachenko


The residential sector contains 8 rooms per floor. The children live in groups of 4 (2 children and two monitors). In addition, there is a small movie theater and a cafeteria. The housing block is linked to the medical with a heated overpass.

For permanent and prompt medical attention, in all the parts of the school, so-called “relaxation capsules” are created – places where a child will not only get medical help but also will be able to be alone with himself if he or she chooses to. There are also lots of game lounges and playgrounds inside the building.

School for children with cerebral palsy. Author: Evganiy Chumachenko
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Anna Shikova

An orphanage school


Orphanage school. Author: Anna Shikova


The orphanage is situated in the district of Metrogorodok, next to the enormous Losiny Ostrov (“Elk Island”) Park. The complex consists of three parts: the academic block and residential rooms for the little children, a junior high school and homes for teenagers, and a youth center. A common yard and a walking zone serve as a link to the Losiny Ostrov.

Orphanage school. Author: Anna Shikova


In her project, Anna Shishkova is trying to solve the problem of the “guest complex” that orphans develop, devoid of their own homes. The new orphanage is not only meant to become a real home for the students but also an attraction center for students of other schools from other neighborhoods. The main centers of attraction are sports fields that are there on the territory of the orphanage, a rope park, and the youth center.

The residential space is organized in such a way that the children can easily invite guests in. For this, in their rooms, designed for four people each one, there are cozy living rooms.

Orphanage school. Author: Anna Shikova


The school also has transformable classrooms and multifunctional auditoriums. The heated underground corridor connects the senior high school with the youth center. Also, in this corridor, there are studies for secluded music practices.

Orphanage school. Author: Anna Shikova
***


05 June 2019

Headlines now
The Golden Crown
The concept for a dental clinic in Yekaterinburg, developed by CNTR Studio, revolves around the idea of a “mouth full of gold”: pristine white porcelain stoneware walls are complemented by matte brass details. To avoid an overly literal interpretation, the architects focused on the building’s proportions, skillfully navigating between sunlight requirements and fire safety regulations.
Flexibility and Integration
Not long ago, we covered the project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential complex, designed by APEX. Now, we’ve been shown different fence concepts they developed to enclose the complex’s private courtyards, incorporating a variety of public functions. We believe that the sheer fact that the complex’s architects were involved in such a detail as fencing speaks volumes.
A Step Forward
The HIDE residential complex represents a major milestone for ADM architects and their leaders Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova in their quest for a fresh high-rise aesthetic – one that is flexible and layered, capable of bringing vibrancy to mass and silhouette while shaping form. Over recent years, this approach has become ADM’s “signature style”, with the golden HIDE tower playing a pivotal role in its evolution. Here, we delve into the project’s story, explore the details of the complex’s design, and uncover its core essence.
Gold in the Sands
A new office for a transcontinental company specializing in resource extraction and processing has opened in Dubai. Designed by T+T Architects, masters of creating spaces that are contemporary, diverse, flexible, and original, this project exemplifies their expertise. On the executive floor, a massive brass-clad partition dominates, while layered textures of compressed earth create a contextually resonant backdrop.
Layers and Levels of Flight
This project goes way back – Reserve Union won this architectural competition at the end of 2011, and the building was completed in 2018, so it’s practically “archival”. However, despite being relatively unknown, the building can hardly be considered “dated” and remains a prime example of architectural expression, particularly in the headquarters genre. And it’s especially fitting for an aviation company office. In some ways, it resembles the Aeroflot headquarters at Sheremetyevo but with its own unique identity, following the signature style of Vladimir Plotkin. In this article, we take an in-depth look at the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) headquarters in the Moscow agglomeration town of Zhukovsky, supplemented by recent photographs from Alexey Naroditsky – a shoot that became only recently possible due to the fact that improvements were finally made in the surrounding area.
Light and Shadow
In this article, we delve into the architectural design of the “Chaika” house by DNK ag architects, which was recently completed in 2023 as part of the collection of signature designs at ZILArt. As is well-known, all the buildings in this complex follow a design code, yet each one is distinct. This particular building stands out not only for its whiteness and minimalism but also for the refined use of a limited number of techniques that, together, create what can confidently be called synergy.
Casus Novae
A master plan was developed for a large residential area with a name of “DNS City”, but now that its implementation began, the plan has been arbitrarily reformatted and replaced with something that, while similar on the surface, is actually quite different. This is not the first time such a thing happens, but it’s always frustrating. With permission from the author, we are sharing Maria Elkina’s post.
Treasure Hunting
The GAFA bureau, in collaboration with Tegola and Arkhitail, organized an expedition to the island of Kilpola in Karelia as part of Moskomarkhitektura’s “Open City” festival. There, amidst moss and rocks, the students sought answers to questions like: what is the sacred, where does it dwell, and what sustains it? Assisting the participants in this quest were landscape engineer Evgeny Levin, artist Nicholas Roerich, a moose, and the lack of cellular connection. Here’s how the story unfolded.
Depths of the Earth, Streams of Water
In the Malaya Okhta district, the Akzent building, designed by Stepan Liphart, was constructed. It follows a classic tripartite structure, yet it’s what you might call “hand-drawn”: each façade is unique in its form and details, some of which aren’t immediately noticeable. In this article, we explore the context and, together with the architect, delve into how the form was developed.
Fir Tree Dynamics
The “Airports of Region” holding is planning to build an airport in Karachay-Cherkessia, aiming to make the Arkhyz and Dombay resorts more accessible to travelers. The project that won in an invitation-only competition, submitted by Sergey Nikeshkin’s KPLN, blends natural imagery inspired by the shape of a conifer seed, open-air waiting spaces, majestic large trees, and a green roof elevated on needle-like columns. The result is both nature-inspired and WOW.
​A Brick Shell
In the process of designing a clubhouse situated among pine trees in a prestigious suburban area near Moscow, the architectural firm “A.Len” did the façade design part. The combination of different types of brick and masonry correlates with the volumetric and plastique solutions, further enhanced by the inclusion of wood-painted fragments and metal “glazing”.
Word Forms
ATRIUM architects love ambitious challenges, and for the firm’s thirtieth anniversary, they boldly play a game of words with an exhibition that dives deep into a self-created vocabulary. They immerse their projects – especially art installations – into this glossary, as if plunging into a current of their own. You feel as if you’re flowing through the veins of pure art, immersed in a universe of vertical cities, educational spaces – of which the architects are true masters – and the cultural codes of various locations. But what truly captivates is the bold statement that Vera Butko and Anton Nadtochy make, both through their work and this exhibition: architecture, above all, is art – the art of working with form and space.
Flexibility and Acuteness of Modernity
Luxurious, fluid, large “kokoshniks” and spiral barrel columns, as if made from colorful chewing gum: there seem to be no other mansion like this in Moscow, designed in the “Neo-Russian-Modern” style. And the “Teremok” on Malaya Kaluzhskaya, previously somewhat obscure, has “come alive with new colors” and gained visibility after its restoration for the office of the “architectural ecosystem” as the architects love to call themselves. It’s evident that Julius Borisov and the architects at UNK put their hearts into finding this new office and bringing it up to date. Let’s delve into the paradoxes of this mansion’s history and its plasticity. Spoiler: two versions of modernity meet here, both balancing on the razor’s edge of “what’s current”.
Yuri Vissarionov: “A modular house does not belong to the land”
It belongs to space, or to the air... It turns out that 3D printing is more effective when combined with a modular approach: the house is built in a workshop and then adapted to the site, including on uneven terrain. Yuri Vissarionov shares his latest experience in designing tourist complexes, both in central Russia and in the south. These include houseboats, homes printed from lightweight concrete using a 3D printer, and, of course, frame houses.
​Moscow’s First
“The quality of education largely depends on the quality of the educational environment”. This principle of the last decade has been realized by Sergey Skuratov in the project for the First Moscow Gymnasium on Rostovskaya Embankment in the Khamovniki district. The building seamlessly integrates into the complex urban landscape, responding both to the pedestrian flow of the city and the quiet alleyways. It skillfully takes advantage of the height differences and aligns with modern trends in educational space design. Let’s take a closer look.
Looking at the Water
The site of Villa Sonata stretches from the road to the water’s edge, offering its own shoreline, pier, and a picturesque river panorama. To reveal these sweeping views, Roman Leonidov “cut” the façade diagonally parallel to the river, thus getting two main axes for the house and, consequently, “two heads”. The internal core – two double-height spaces, a living room and a conservatory, with a “bridge” above them – makes the house both “transparent” and filled with light.
The White Wing
Well, it’s not exactly white. It’s more of a beige, white-stone structure that plays with the color of limestone – smoother surfaces are lighter, while rougher ones are darker. This wing unites various elements: it absorbs and interprets the surrounding themes. It responds to everything, yet maintains a cohesive expression – a challenging task! – while also incorporating recognizable features of its own, such as the dynamic cuts at the bottom, top, and middle.
Urban Dunes
The XSA Ramps team designed and built a three-part sports hub for a park in Rostov-on-Don, welcoming people of all ages and fitness levels. The skate plaza, pump track, and playground are all meticulously crafted with details that attract a diverse range of visitors. The technical execution of the shapes and slopes transforms this space into a kind of sculptural composition.
Proportional Growth
The project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential area has been announced. The buildings are situated on an elongated plot – almost a “ray” that shoots out from the center of the area towards the river. Their layout reflects both a response to Moscow’s architectural preferences over the past 15 years, shifting “from blocks to towers”, and an interpretation of the neighboring business park designed by SOM. Additionally, the best apartments here are not located at the very top but closer to the middle, forming a glowing “waistline”.
The “Staircase” Building
In designing the “Details” residential complex in New Moscow, Rais Baishev spiced up the now-popular Moscow theme of a “courtyard” building with an idea drawn from the surrealist drawings by Maurits Escher. He envisioned the stepped silhouettes and descending slopes as a metaphysical mega-staircase, creating a key void within the courtyard that gave the project an internal “spine”. This concept is felt both in the building’s silhouette and on its façades.
Projection of the Quarter
No one doubted that the building that Vladimir Plotkin designed as part of the “Garden Quarters” would be the most modernist of all. And it turned out just that way: while adhering to the common design code, the building successfully combines brick and white stone, rhythmically responding to the neighboring building designed by Ostozhenka, yet tactfully and persistently making a few statements of its own. This includes the projection of the ideal urban development composition “14–9–6”, which can be found right next door, mathematical calculations, including those for various types of terraces (and perhaps the only reminder of the Soviet past of the Kauchuk rubber factory!), and the white “cross-stitch” pattern of the façade grid.
Domus Aurea
In this issue, we examine the “Tessinsky-1” house, designed by Sergey Skuratov and completed in 2023. Located in the middle of the Serebryanicheskaya Embankment district, at the intersection of its main streets, this house assumes a sort of “nodal” role: it not only responds to everything around it and preserves many memories of the former EMA factory within itself, but it weaves all this into a newly directed pattern, reconciling bright “gold” and dark-colored brick, largely with the help of the new, modern-yet-archaic Columba brick, which, come to think about it, is the most precious element here.
The Chimney of Nikola-Lenivets
In this issue, we are examining the “Obelisk House” designed by KATARSIS and built for the Arkhstoyanie 2023 festival. However, it was only finished later on, and this is why we are examining it now. It seems to us that after the “Obelisk House” appeared in Nikola-Lenivets, a dialogue and a few inner connections appeared between the temporary structures built here. These houses no longer look like “accidental neighbors”, more of which below.
​Periscope by the Bay
The jury awarded the second place in the competition for a public and cultural center in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the companies GORA (“Mountain”) and M4. In the consortium’s proposal, the building resembles a sperm whale with a calf swimming next to it or a periscope, whose lenses capture the most spectacular views from the surrounding landscape.
From Arcs to Dolmens
While working on the competition project for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, ASADOV Architects prioritized the value of the natural and urban environment, aiming to preserve the balance of the location while minimizing the resemblance of the volume that they designed to a “traditional building”. The task was challenging, and the architects created three versions, one of which having been developed after the competition, where their main proposal took third place. However, the point of interest here is not the competition result but the continuity of creative thinking.
Hide and Seek
The ID Moskovskiy house, designed by Stepan Liphart in St. Petersburg, in the courtyards near Moskovskiy Avenue beyond the Obvodny Canal and recently completed, is notable for several reasons. Firstly, it has been realized with considerable accuracy, which is particularly significant as this is the first building where the architect was responsible not only for the facades but also for the layouts, allowing for better integration between the two. On the other hand, this building is interesting as an example of the “germination” of new architecture in the city: it draws on the best examples from the neighborhood and becomes an improved and developed sum of ideas found by the architect in the surrounding context.
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?
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.
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.
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.