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​The Factory Formula

Designed by Alexandra Kuzmina, Ilia Mashkov, and Andrey Kolpikov, this house within ZILART residential complex seems to solve the eternal struggle of vertical versus horizontal, bringing the controversy to a minimum. The house is reminiscent of this factory’s golden age of the 1930’s.

Julia Tarabarina Lara Kopylova

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina, Lara Kopylova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

24 June 2019
Object
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Lot №4 is a part of the first stage of ZILART, the grand-scale housing project of LSR company curated by Yuri Grigoryan, who, as is known, defined the master plan as well as the design code of the construction on this formerly automotive peninsula. The design of the first stage of each of the city blocks was commissioned to one reputed architectural company. The lot of “Mezonproekt” is situated on the north border of the complex that coincides with the Likhachev Avenue. Counting from the Moskva River, it is the third behind the buildings designed by Sergey Skuratov and Evgeniy Gerasimov, lying before the city block designed by Sergey Tchoban. Diagonally, its neighbors are the lots designed by Urbis and Meganom. The nearest neighbor from the inner south side is the building designed by “Tsimailo, Lyashenko and Partners”: the architects of Mezonproekt frequently met with its authors discussing the insolation, the color, and the height of the buildings. As a result, an interesting volumetric dialogue appeared: the low-rise houses are placed alongside each other, mutually complementing each other and forming the low-rise construction front along the Shchuseva Street, while the 14-story towers of the two lots are echoing one another.



Yet another specification was the design code that regulated the city block planning, the number of floors, the height of the first floors and their public function. The code also defines the façade coating materials: 70 percent brick, 40 percent other materials and colors: red, white, and shades of gray: dark-colored window transoms. As for the brick, LSR group manufactures it at its own production facility; for ZILART it’s always designer brick, custom-produced by the sketches and requirements from the architects, for the unique texture of each of the lots.

Mezonproekt proposed a solution that was laconic to the point of brutal. The architects selected two kinds of bricks: one dark engobed brick with a glittering surface that reflects the sky, changing color from black-brown to bluish. The other was neutral gray, rugged and looking like sandstone. Together they create a grisailles effect of a sepia hue, like an old faded photograph or an old newsreel. The tone is neutral, even dark.



The third material will be ceramic granite: panels with a surface that looks like Corten steel, like old factory metal. This is the first analogy with ZIL. On the outside, all of the piers of the tall 6-meter high first floor consist of two “bellows” of such rusty-looking material: the bottom one slightly higher, the top one slightly shorter. The zigzagged line is deliberately broken to create an impression that the building is being supported by two belts of some kind of mechanism. At the corners, the intersections become more prominent, and the impression of an old apparatus that once came to a grinding halt but now woke up to support the weight of the house, is strengthened even more.



The “factory” allusions are supported by overnangs: their broad and short blocks with a concave surface backlit at nights look like hot metal molds.



In spite of its certain brutality, this theme is akin to window shop design, which requires either neutrality or some bold statement. Let us note that it is resonant with the modern context of ZILART: Corten steel covers the bottom floors and the “tail” of the comet house #1; a Corten zigzag is also to be seen in the inner building of Lot 2. Lot#4 continues the “factory” theme set by the architect’s colleague, Sergey Skuratov.

The third part of reminiscences about ZIL is to be found inside, and it has a totally graphic character; ceramic panels that display truck vividly remind not only about the factory, but also about Stalin metro stations or the postwar VDNKh exhibition.



Let’s get back outside, however, and raise our gaze. Using two shades of color, the architects act a play dedicated to interrelation between the vertical and horizontal, two main antagonist themes of the architecture of the XX century. The horizontal is to some extent known as the manifesto of avant-garde architecture, like a steam engine tearing down the track, a symbol of ultimate freedom. At the same time, the horizontal is also a characteristic feature of a metallurgical shop, a rolling mill or an assembly line – it’s just not practical to place such things into any kind of tower. The vertical, on the other hand, is a technique that belongs with Art Deco, the antagonists of avant-garde. In the XX century, this became a standard practice: once modernism prevails, the buildings become elongated, their windows turning into “ribbon” ones or at least rectangular, lying on the long side. Once they get tired of modernism, the vertical growth of the towers is supported by pillars, the windows stringing up like a guitar string.

And, while in the XX century the vertical and the horizontal are waging trench warfare, alternately prevailing, today their struggle is more and more often becomes the subject for reflection. So the architects of Mezonproekt gave a chance to speak to both of them. Their scheme explains it all: one 14-story tower, at the corner of the Golosova and Kandinskogo Streets (sic, the names of the ZILART streets will not let us forget about the art of the XX century) – asserts the vertical. The seven-story building on the Shchusev Street cultivates the horizontal, just as the two single-tier buildings that close the contour left and right of it. The house on the Likhachev Avenue combines both themes, the seven bottom floors being subjugated to the horizontal, and the higher floors being vertical.



The vertical tower vividly reminds us about the 1930’s, and about of the State Duma building, as well as about many American (particularly Chicago) examples. A characteristic detail – windows grouped in vertical pairs and divided by a thin metallic lintel – leave no doubt that what we are seeing is Chicago. We are brought back to contemporary by a bay window that asymmetrically embraces the corner – two thirds at the bottom, one third at the top – unobtrusively reminding the observers about the number of the current century so as stop us from being carried away by allusions.



In the horizontal building, the stripes of the flutes make a 90-degree turn and connect the windows with their strokes, highlighting the “ribbon” direction. This Is a technique that can be traced back to the 1960’s-1980’s just as the zigzag of the stripes between the floors. The façade at once becomes volumetric and sculptural; it gets a clear rhythm and a prominent resemblance with the modernist interpretation of the horizontal. Upwards grow two dark flattened floors similar to the neighboring vertical tower – they can be interpreted as a buildup or as the nucleus of the house, surrounded by a large belt of light-colored brick.



Thus, two essentially opposite techniques, belonging one to Art Deco and one to modernism, are brought to one common denominator: a simple relief technique of the “strings” of the stripes. It looks as though the architects were deliberately showing that the heated discussion of the XX century was essentially the fight of Swift’s Lilliput and Blefuscu. And, if we are to reach a high level of generalization, we will be able to add and subtract them, like in a mathematical formula.

And addition is exactly what takes place in the third building: at the bottom, the grooves are horizontal, and they belt the building; higher up, after the seventh floor, they are vertical, like two strokes of the plus sign. The entire façade is subjugated to their rigorous framework. In the upper part the vertical is supported by glass-and-metal “capsules” of the bay windows that look like elevators – it seems, especially if one is looking from below, that they are frozen in mid-motion, and are about to slide up or down. An interesting way to solve the problem of the bay windows looking like a giant thermometer (a common problem for high-rise buildings) was to turn them into a part of the building’s narrative. The bay windows also become an addition to the floor space of the apartments: they stand out pretty far, about two meters from the surface of the inside wall, adding some variety and serving as “skylights” thanks to the triangular shape of their ledges.



It must be noted that the building that overlooks the Likhachev Avenue had a lot more plastique about in the original sketches, and was essentially a stack of “bellow” ribbons composed from asymmetric triangular bay windows. So, very much in a steampunk fashion, the entire house looks like a sculpture of some frozen mechanism, a giant truck. Actually, the zigzag that belts the 7-story building and the triangular bay windows are echoes of that shape, its remnants remaining after its considerable “purge” and “pacifying” by parallel and perpendicular lines.



And now the lines of the main narratives of verticals and horizontals get ornamental additions here and there: sometimes these are strokes on a side wall of the tower, sometimes these are ornamental grilles of the ventilation systems (vertical and horizontal waves alternate in them) – this ornament became the symbol of the building; it is repeated above the entrances as well.



The landscaped yard with laconic chamfers in a frame of flowerbeds and ostentatiously tall backs of the wooden benches is only open in one place, from the side of the Golosova Street. Here it closed by a lattice gate and a door. According to the master plan, the Golosova and Kandinskogo streets, which surround Lot #4 from all sides – are pedestrian promenades, only accessible to emergency vehicles; right now wooden benches are installed here, as well as lawns with pine trees. The Shchusev Street from the east side is “inner automotive”; the Likhachev Avenue, which runs in the stead of a former in-factory drive, is a broad thoroughfare and a borderline of ZILART. In other words, it’s pretty quiet outside, and you can go for pleasant walks stepping out of the yard. However, the authors also provided still another route: stepping from the little door, you can get into the yard of the neighboring building designed by Evgeniy Gerasimov, from where you will be able to exit left, to the Kandinskogo Street. That is, of course, if the wickets are open – or are accessible to the residents by key – this will be yet another way to achieve the cohesiveness of space and improving its urban quality and transparency.



The plans and locations of the apartments are mostly traditional, not the Euro or studio type; they are designed based on the idea that even within a family a person needs a space of his or her own. Single-room apartments start from 42 square meters, and a 48-sqm apartment even has a wardrobe. The two-room apartments are often large, 70+ square meters, and they have two bathrooms (which is still a rare thing by Russian standards), like 3 and 4-room apartments do, the size of which being about 120 square meters. There are four or five apartments per landing. The numbers of the hallways are laid out in bricks from the yard side and are clearly visible.



In comparison to the neighboring ZILART houses, Lot #4 is less bright and is more monochrome. It looks as though it were holding a pause, withdrawing into the world of black-and-white movies, into the reminiscences of the factory’s golden age. There were two golden ages, in fact; the industrialization of the thirties – even though the factory appeared in the stead of the Tyufeleva Grove still in 1916, the factory boomed in 1930-1931, when the nation’s first assembly line was launched. The second golden age was in the sixties and seventies, the time of “brutal style”, when the selfless country was building itself anew after the war. Generally speaking, the narrative of the building is clearly read from its architecture: the vertical tower signifies the first golden age, the time of Art Deco and constructivism, even parallels with Chicago are appropriate because in the 1930’s the plant was modernized by an American license. The horizontal building clearly symbolizes the 1960’s-1970’s, the time of the thaw, and also the time when ZIL manufactured thousands of trucks a year, plus refrigerators. The third tower add up the two themes. The house becomes a monument to the plant.

On the other hand, let us remember that Mezonproekt is a company, one of whose specialties is the modern interpretation of Art Deco. This is basically it comes as no surprise that the architects decided to base their scenario on a tower that refers to the thirties. However, the solution turned out to be quite different: much less detailed, simple and at some places even brutal. The building even looks great with the dust of the yet-uncleaned efflorescence – an interesting solution. It definitely fulfilled its task, adding to the predetermined scheme a little bit of the author’s statement.
ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
Copyright: © Mezonproekt
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Location plan
    Copyright: © Mezonproekt
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Master plan
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
    Copyright: Photograph: Archi.ru
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Project
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Project
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Project
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Project
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Project
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Project
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4): ceramic panels in the entrance areas
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4): the ceramic panel in the entrance areas
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4): the ceramic panels in the entrance areas
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4): the ceramic panels in the entrance areas
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4): the ceramic panel in the entrance areas
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4): the ceramic panels in the entrance areas
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Axonometric draft
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Facade. View 1
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Facade. View 3
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Project
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Facade. View 5
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Facade fragment
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Typical floor. Building A.
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Sketch 3
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Sketch 2
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Sketch 1
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Sketch 4
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4)
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Project
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    Copyright: © Mezonproekt. Plan of the 1st floor
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Plan of the – 1st floor
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Section view 1-1
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Section view 2-2
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Typical floor. Building B.
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Typical floor. Building B.
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    ZILART housing complex (Lot #4). Apartment interior
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24 June 2019

Julia Tarabarina Lara Kopylova

Written by:

Julia Tarabarina, Lara Kopylova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov
Headlines now
​Streamline for City Canyons
Stepan Liphart has designed two houses for two small land sites situated in the area surrounding the Varshavsky Railway Station, which is being intensively developed now. The sites are situated close but not next to each other, and they are different, yet similar: the theme is the same but it is interpreted in different ways. In this issue, we are examining and comparing both projects.
​The Eastern Frontier
“The Eastern Arc” is one of the main land resources of Kazan’s development, concentrated in the hands of a single owner. The Genplan Institute of Moscow has developed a concept for the integrated development of this territory based on an analytical transport model that will create a comfortable living environment, new centers of attraction, and new workplaces as well.
A School of Our Time
On the eve of the presentation of the new book by ATRIUM, dedicated to the design of schools and other educational facilities, based on the architects’ considerable experience, as well as expert judgments, we are examining the Quantum STEM school building, constructed according to their project in Astana. Furthermore, this building is planned to be the first one to start a new chain. The architects designed it in full accordance with modern standards but sometimes they did break away from them – only to confirm the general development rules. For example, there are two amphitheaters in the atrium, and there is an artificial hill in the yard that is meant to make the flat terrain of the Kazakhstan steppe more eventful.
The Fluffy Space
Designing the passenger terminal of the Orenburg airport, ASADOV architects continue to explore the space theme that they first introduced in Saratov and Kemerovo airports. At the same time, the architects again combine the global and the local, reflecting topics inspired by the local conceptual context. In this case, the building is “covered” by an Orenburg downy shawl – an analogy that is recognizable enough, yet not literal; some will see the reference and some won’t.
The White Fitness Center
The white health and fitness center, designed by Futura Architects at the entrance to St. Petersburg’s New Piter residential complex, provides the developing area not only with functional but also with sculptural diversity, livening up the rows of the brick city blocks with the whiteness of its seamless facades, cantilevered structures, and dynamic inclined lines.
The New Dawn
In their project of a technology park to be built on the grounds of “Integrated Home-Building Factory 500” in Tyumen Oblast – the biggest in Russia – the HADAA architects preserve not just the industrial function of the giant hangar built in the late 1980s and 90% of its structures, but also respond to its imagery. They also propose a “gradient” approach to developing the available areas: from open public ones to staff-only professional spaces. The goal of this approach is to turn the technology park into the driver for developing the business function between the industrial zones and the future residential area in accordance with the Integrated Land Development program.
​Tame Hills for New Residents
T+T Architects have reported that they have completed the landscaping project for the yard of the first stage of Alexandrovsky Garden housing complex in Ekaterinburg – the landscape complements the contextual architecture, tailored for the buyers’ preferences and downtown standards, with bold neo modernist master strokes and lush and diverse vegetation.
The Crystal of the City Block
The typology and plastique of large housing complexes move with the times, and you can sometimes find new subtleties in the scope of seemingly familiar solutions. The Sky Garden complex combines two well-known themes, forming a giant residential area consisting of tall slender towers, placed at the perimeter of a large yard, in which a crossroads of two pedestrian promenades is “dissolved”.
Sunshine, Air, and Water
The construction of the “Solnechny” (“Sunny”) summer camp, designed by ARENA project institute, has been completed, the largest summer camp within the legendary Artek seaside resort for children. It was conceived still in Soviet time, but it was not implemented. The modern version surprises you with sophisticated engineering solutions that are combined with a clear-cut structure: together, they generate Asher-esque spaces.
​Art Deco at the Edge of Space
The competition project by Stepan Liphart – a high-end residential complex executed in a reserved classicist style in close proximity to the Kaluga Space Museum – responds equally well to the context and to the client’s brief. It is moderately respectable, moderately mobile and transparent, and it even digs a little into the ground to comply with strict height restrictions, without losing proportions and scale.
Going, Going, Gone!
The housing complex “Composers’ Residences” has been built in accordance with the project by Sergey Skuratov, who won the international competition back in 2011. It all began from the image search and “cutting off all spare”, and then implementing the recognizable Skuratov architecture. It all ended, however, in tearing down the buildings of the Schlichterman factory, whose conservation was stipulated by all the appropriate agencies prior to approving Skuratov’s project. This story seems to be educational and important for understanding the history of all the eleven years, during which the complex was designed and built.
The Life of Iron
The building of the Vyksa Metallurgy Museum, designed by Nikita Yavein and Sergey Padalko, provides for the natural aging of metal – it is planned that the iron will gradually rust – at the same time utilizing the advanced type of construction, based on metal’s ability to stretch. The building will be constructed from pipes and rolled steel supplied by OMK company, as well as from recycled bricks.
​And the Brook is Flowing
ASADOV Architects have designed a master plan for developing a residential area at the outskirts of Kaliningrad: a regular grid of housing blocks is enriched by large-scale public facilities, the main “artery” of the new area being the fortification channel that regains its original function.
Off We Go!
The new terminal of the Tomsk airport is being designed by ASADOV bureau. The architects keep on developing its identity, building the imagery upon the inventions of Nikolai Kamov, whose name the airport bears. The result is laconic, light, and, as always, levitating.
Maximum Flexibility
The Multispace Dinamo, which recently opened within the Arena business center, is an example of a project that is entirely based upon cutting-edge approaches and technologies. It is managed via a mobile application, special software was created for it, and the spaces are not just multifunctional but carefully mixed up, like some kind of jigsaw puzzle that allows the office workers to mix their working routine for better efficiency.
A Factory’s Path
Last week, the new center for constructivist studies “Zotov” hosted its first exhibition named “1922. Constructivism. The Inception”. The idea of creating this center belongs to Sergey Tchoban, while the project of the nearest houses and adjusting the building of the bread factory for the new museum function was done by the architect in collaboration with his colleagues from SPEECH. We decided that such a complex project should be examined in its entirety – and this is how we came up with this long-read about constructivism on Presnya, conservation, innovation, multilayered approach, and hope.
The Savelovsky Axis
The business center, situated right in the middle of a large city junction next to the Savelovsky Railway Station takes on the role of a spatial axis, upon which the entire place hinges: it spins like a spiral, alternating perfect glass of the tiers and deep recessions of inter-tier floors that conceal little windows invented by the architects. It is sculptural, and it claims the role of a new city landmark, in spite of its relatively small height of nine floors.
Parametric Waves
In the housing complex Sydney City, which FSK Group is building in the area of Shelepikhinskaya Embankment, Genpro designed the central city block, combining parametric facades and modular technology within its architecture.
The Multitone
The new interior of the Action Development headquarters can be regarded as an attempt to design the perfect “home” for the company – not just comfortable but broadcasting the values of modern development. It responds to the context, yet it is built on contrast, it is fresh but cozy, it is dynamic, yet it invites you to relax – everything of this coexists here quite harmoniously, probably because the architects found an appropriate place for each of the themes.
Refinement No Longer Relevant
A few days ago journalists were shown the building of Bread Factory #5, renovated upon the project by Sergey Tchoban. In this issue, we are publishing Grigory Revzin’s thoughts about this project.
The Comb of Strelna
In this issue, we are taking a close look at the project that won the “Crystal Daedalus” award – the “Veren Village” housing complex in Strelna, designed by Ostozhenka. Its low-rise format became a trigger for typological and morphological experiments – seemingly, we are seeing recognizable trends, yet at the same time there are a multitude of subtleties that are a pleasure to go into. Having studied this project in detail, we think that the award is well-deserved.
A Tectonic Shift
For several years now, Futura Architects have been working with the “New Peter” residential area in the south of St. Petersburg. In this article, we are covering their most recent project – a house, in which the architects’ architectural ideas peacefully coexist with the limitations of comfort-class housing, producing a “multilayered” effect that looks very attractive for this typology.
Three “Green” Stories
In this issue, we are examining three environmental urban projects showcased by the Genplan Institute of Moscow at the Zodchestvo festival. The scale of the projects is really diverse: from gathering information and suggestions from the residents on a city scale to growing meadow grass between houses to paintings, which, as it turned out, possess power to cure trees, healing their wounded bark. + a list of kinds of plants natural for Moscow to help the developer.
​The Slabs of Bagration
The construction of a new skyscraper designed by SPEECH within the complex of Moscow City has been announced. A keen observer may see in it: Moscow high-rises, Chicago architecture, Malevich architecton, and an attempt of deconstruction of the integral image of the Moscow skyscraper – a technique that has been actively employed by the architects in their recent works.
​Preserving the History of Clean Ponds
How do you make a comfortable high-end residential complex that meets the modern requirements for expensive downtown housing, and keep as much of the original 1915 building as possible? Ilia Utkin, together with Sminex, solved this charade for Potapovsky Lane, 5 – here is how.
​Living in a Forest
The apartment complex in Roshchino, designed by GAFA architects, looks very much like a glamping: the residents enjoy the untouched nature of the Karelian isthmus, while having urban amenities and opportunities for social life.
A Laboratory for Life
The building of the Laboratory of Oncomorphology and Molecular Genetics, designed by the author team headed by Ilya Mashkov (Mezonproject) uses the benefits of the natural context and offers space for cutting-edge research, both doctor- and patient-friendly.
The Logic of Life
The light installation, designed by Andrey Perlach in the atrium of Moscow's Federation Tower, balances on the edge between a mathematical order of construction and the diversity of perception when viewed from different angles.
An Architect in a Metaverse
In this interview, we talked to the participants of the festival of creative industries G8 about why metaverses are our tomorrow’s everyday routine, and how architects can already influence it today.