In Search of Style

A Legend About Architecture

Architecture is a synthetic kind of art that is all about the lengthiness of realization and a multitude of decisions that many of the stakeholders in the process have to make. Architecture requires constant explanation and rationale; architects are prepared for that – from the very start, they are taught that a project begins with a survey and is accompanied by a legend, often quite dramatic, that gives the clue to understanding a whole set of professional problems, from one’s place in the global context and creating a local architectural tradition to arranging the priorities within a single architectural office.

The housing project on the Moskovsky Avenue is one of the examples of a dramatic and compound “legend” that ties into a single architectural and town planning system the military camps of the Ancient Rome, the cattle yards of the XIX century, the hard fate of classical architecture in Russia, preservation of monuments and symbiosis with them, strange popularity of the pseudo-neo-classical architecture in the 1950’s, and the new ideas about the modern housing standards.

Inside of History

Currently, the place allotted for the construction of the new housing project at the intersection of the Moscow Avenue and the Bypass Channel, next to the Frunzenskaya metro station, is considered to be quite a prestigious one. Back in the day, however, in the early XIX century, this place was the outskirts of town, the border between the city and its suburbs, from where food and other goods would arrive to the then-nation’s capital. Some of them had special requirements for transportation and storage. The city’s daily need of beef amounted to several thousand cows, and in order to accommodate for this amount and then resell it, in 1826, upon the project of Joseph Charlemagne, a cattle yard was built. Probably, because of the fact that the yard was located at the very edge of the swampland and wilderness, or maybe just because of the architect’s personal tastes and preferences, the cattle yard was planned as an Ancient Roman military camp with two perpendicular axial streets – cardo (running from north to south) and decumanus (running from east to west), the latter equipped on either side with double-sided rows of picketed enclosures for the horned prisoners. From three sides, the yard was surrounded by a perimeter structure 6 meters high that was essentially something in between a giant fence and a warehouse. In the middles of its north and south sides, there were three-arch gates with a low-rise fronton, while in the middle of the east side (commanding the future Moskovsky Avenue) stood the main building two stories high. Stylistically, the entire structure was “clad” into solemn neoclassical clothes, and, according to experts, a keen observer can notice in this architecture a transition from the classical architecture of the Czar Alexander period – with its Ancient Greece allusions – to the Russian Empire style with its reverence for the Roman architecture. And this is what makes this building particularly valuable.

zooming — Photo of the main slaughterhouse. 1904

Copyright: Studio 44

In the Soviet times, the “Cattle Yard” kept its appearance and partially even its function, in spite of the fact that the slaughterhouse and the stalls were moved out of town. The industrial revolution of the 1930’s brought about the reconstruction of the “bull’s rows” into production buildings of the Milk Factory (designed by Victor Tvelmeyer, Alexander Sokolov, and Ivan Fomin) that originally sported a constructivist appearance, which was later in the 1950’s to be radically changed into a more respectable type, more in line with the fashion for the Moscow version of “pseudo-Empire” (architect V.Matveev). The reconstruction of the mid-XX century affected the main buildings of the ensemble as well: the north wing of the historical building was changed, and in the same place, on the waterfront of the Bypass Channel, slightly more to the west of the original gate, a new checkpoint appeared. Nevertheless, neither the numerous reconstructions nor the hard life in the capacity of an industrial facility’s fence prevented the perimeter structure from getting a status of an architectural heritage site of the first third of the XIX century. Therefore, the perturbations of the “yard”, including the change of owners in the 1990’s, moving the production units of the “Petmol” milk factory outside the city in 2009, and developing this place as a venue for a commercial housing project in the 2010’s, took place, just as before, outside the historical perimeter set by the determined hand of Joseph Charlemagne, a devotee of Claude Nicolas Ledoux and Charles Cameron.

Challenge 1

Studio 44 started working on the housing project, to be located on a segment of the territory of the “Petmol” milk factory with an area of 3.3 hectares, in 2016. The company had a few town planning and historical restriction that it used as starting points. All of the cultural heritage sites situated within the perimeter of the low-rise elongated buildings were, of course, to be preserved, the nearby protected area from 4 to 23 meters wide remaining clear of any construction. All the other structures inside the perimeter dating to the Soviet period had to go. Also, the architects were to take into account the height restrictions acting along the waterfront of the Bypass Channel and the Moscow avenue: construction not higher than 25 meters if 20 meters away from the red line and not higher than 30 meters if 50 meters away from the red line. For the rest of the territory, maximum elevation of 28 and 33 meters were allowed.

Ultimately, what was left for the housing project to be built upon was a small chunk of land surrounded by a perimeter of historical walls with an impressive “legend” that posed a choice to the architects: either to accept the rules of the game or play against them.

Studio 44 opted for the former. “When working on our future project, we adhere to the strict recipe that is dictated by the very town planning situation and the logic of its historical development. The last thing I want to do is to go against the spirit of the land site and try to impose my will upon it. It seems to me that when you go with the flow (in the best sense of this word) you can achieve more. And if – like in this specific instance – the land site has a prominent and rigorous perimeter, a history of its own and a structure that has survived all the perturbations, all you need to do is just follow it in order to ultimately get the best planning solution” – Nikita Yavein comments on his company’s attitude towards working with historical environment.

The architects deliberately and consistently recreated the orthogonal planning structure, emphasizing its genetic connection to the military camps of Ancient Rome, the classic Empire style architectural ensembles, and, of course, the original plan of the Cattle Yard. The multifaceted legend that the architects ultimately got allowed them to develop the volumetric solution of the complex, creatively combining different techniques and methods of working with the structure and a wide range of stylistic references.

A City with an Open Gate or The Power of Orthogonal Planning

The territory of the housing complex is traversed by two perpendicular streets, each of which is essentially a compositional axis, the main role being played by the north-south one. The broad promenade is designed as a boulevard that runs from the entrance arch that stands closer to the bypass channel, kept in the style of the former milk factory up to the historical buildings. Unfortunately, the south gate is slightly mismatched with the axis but this does not affect the overall composition of the boulevard in any way; there are rows of flowerbeds with decorative trees and openwork pergolas running in the middle of it. The perpendicular axis, running westward from the Moskovsky Avenue and the main historical building, pierces the two main blocks A and B leaving broad passages in them. The architects decided not to cover them with arches and limit themselves to decorative portals stylized as a simplified orderly system.

The two main residential blocks of the form an open square 115x65 meters. The blocks are virtually identical, but for one exception: the first floor of the east façade of Block A has a kindergarten inbuilt into it, because of which the architects had to sacrifice the final break of the perimeter and the complete identity with the Ancient Roman prototype, as well as the end-to-end passage from the Moskovsky Avenue to the new housing complexes in the depth of the city block, which can be most likely regarded as a plus for the future residents who will hardly put up with the constant traffic on the decumanus.

In addition to the break in the “east-to-west” axis, each unit has two extra rectangular arched passages two stories high that mark the symmetry axis running from north to south, and connecting the inner yards 82x32 meters to the outside pedestrian streets that occupy the protection area between the main buildings and the historical perimeter.

The inside yards are completely vehicle-free thanks to the underground parking garage that occupies virtually the entire construction blueprint inside the protected heritage site area.

As a result, the architects are getting a clear-cut orthogonal system, in which the clusters of buildings, new and historical ones alike, alternate with public spaces that have in them additional markers of the axes and cardinal points: arches, portals, and rows of trees, which will help a resident or a visitor who got lost in this system to get their bearings without having to study the moss on trees or looking for the North Star in the overcast skies of Saint Petersburg.

The adamant planning logic and the power of orthogonal lines helped the structure (which was proposed in the very beginning of the project) to outlive two developers who clearly appreciated not so much its classical purity and connection with historical prototypes as the output of useful floor space, the prospects of renting out the public bottom floors, and the solved-in-advance problem of in-block security.

The last consideration, dictated by the introverted character of the resulting structure, which is essentially “a city within a city” with perimeter residential buildings inscribed inside the perimeter of the historical walls, is slightly at odds with the idea of bustling retail and highly developed service infrastructure on the inner pedestrian streets – but only time will tell how hospitable the future complex will be, and whether or not will prevail the ideas of the architects who call this project “a city with a gate”, yet succumbing to the residents’ one big collective interest in privacy.

Challenge 2

The method of designing based on genius loci of the land site predetermined the architects’ approach towards the stylistic solution for the future housing complex. The presence of classical monuments of architecture of its very own, the constructivist transformation that this ensemble underwent in the 1930’s, and, finally, the vicinity of the “pseudo-neo-classics” of the Moskovsky Avenue yielded a lot of room for creative experiments. The image of the complex was to become a well-balanced alloy of three architectural traditions of Saint Petersburg, which made finding the solution for the task all the more interesting for the architects of Studio 44, and turned the result of their work, to a certain extent, a manifesto of their interpretation of “Saint Petersburg style”, which has been the subject of discussion in the north capital of the nation for decades. And finding the solution for the problem became yet another challenge for the creative team.

Nikita Yavein comments on the problem of “Saint Petersburg style” in the following way: “Unfortunately, the topic of forming the modern architectural language that would at the same time be suitable for building in the center of our city, is discussed in the expert community rather chaotically and, as a rule, only in connection with questionable projects, in which the very notion of “Saint Petersburg style” is shamelessly used to cover up professional mistake or downright incompetence. What never ceases to amaze me is the fact that the specimen most often used for this interpretation is the architecture of the 1950’s that my father used to call “pseudo-neo-classics of the cult of personality epoch”, or, to be more precise, the variation of it that was built here – luckily, only at a few places – as a copy of Moscow’s postwar construction. And Saint Petersburg, mind, is all about quite a different neoclassical tradition, which can be traced at the examples of buildings designed by Evgeny Levinson, and, to some extent, Ivan Fomin. They are essentially the geometric version of neoclassicism, in which large volumes of the simple shapes are solved in accordance with the same orderly fundamentals as the classical monuments. It was this specific approach that we took as the basis for the housing project on the Moskovsky Avenue, where we tried to show just what “Saint Petersburg style” means to us. We wanted to make sure that the architecture of the new buildings inherited the genetic code of its predecessors – both the Empire of the 1830’s and the Empire of the 1930-50’s, becoming the harmonious connecting link between them”.

The Outpost of Style

Giving shape to the four monumental blocks that form the residential units became the natural development of the set planning system and the principles of forming the new architectural language. Refraining from using large-scale plastique fracturing, such as projections or bay windows, allowed the architects to focus the observer’s whole attention on the artistic expressiveness and tectonics, as well as the subtleties and the though-out proportions of the façade structure, looking like a simplified three-tier orderly system that is crowned by a double attic floor with a colonnade fringing the perimeter of the resulting terrace. The floors below are divided into three levels. The first one, one story high, is meant for the service and retail infrastructure and is not decorated in any way. The next levels are grouped by two floors, and differ in the number and shape of their pilasters that cover every other tier. On the bottom level, they are doubled and rectangular on the plan, on the top level – single and semicircular. The structure is designed in an ostentatiously laconic way, without capitels, bases, and other canonic elements of the orderly set. Refraining from using them is yet another characteristic feature of the “Saint Petersburg style” from Studio 44 whose priority is all about proportions and tectonics, and not decor or its imitation.

The outside façades are clad in natural stone of a light beige tone – but not all of them. On the corners, the stone orderly structures stop short, opening to one’s gaze brick walls sunken one meter inside with simple round windows – an unexpected yet a thought-out courtesy to the constructivist project of the milk factory – and slender white belts that mark the intermediate floors. A very curious postmodernist thing that demonstrates to the keen observer just how conditional the whole grand façade and the orderly system are, which is propped up against a simple brick building very much like a theater decoration. Which is basically the truth.

It comes as no surprise that the façades, both on the yard side, and the ones that face the axial promenades, are designed in ashlar brick, while the stone orderly echoes on them on the form of belts and pilasters are nothing more than a reminder of the solemn array and rhythm of their beautiful counterparts that work as the “face” of the housing project. Nevertheless, the structure that was set from the outside is kept here as well. It is only the manner of its presentation that changes. Besides, the already-mentioned decorative stone “guests” are added by purely brick techniques, such as alternating of structured and smooth brickwork, reminding us about the pilasters.

***

As a result, the housing project produces a very integral impression. The expressiveness of the architects’ signature technique and the reserved manner of its interpretation help to form a harmonious architectural ensemble. The monolith volumes, clad in orderly structures and rising over the historical walls, in spite of their seeming compactness (especially when viewed against the background of the giant high-rises towering in the distance, about 60 meters high) can still claim the status of a full-fledged architectural landmark. The housing complex, like an island or, rather, an outpost, marks the dividing line between the old and the new city, connecting the traditional and the new architecture of Saint Petersburg.

01 August 2019

Written by:
Elena Petukhova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

Headlines now

The Mirror of Your Soul

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

Part of the Ideal

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

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The Fortress by the River

ASADOV Architects have developed a concept for a new residential district in the center of Kemerovo. To combat the harsh climate and monotonous everyday life, the architects proposed a block type of development with dominant towers, good insolation, facades detailed at eye level, and event programming.

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In the Rhombus Grid

Construction has begun on the building of the OMK (United Metallurgical Company) Corporate University in Nizhny Novgorod’s town of Vyksa, designed by Ostozhenka Architects. The most interesting aspect of the project is how the architects immersed it in the context: “extracting” a diagonal motif from the planning grid of Vyksa, they aligned the building, the square, and the park to match it. A truly masterful work with urban planning context on several different levels of perception has long since become the signature technique of Ostozhenka.

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Generational Connection

Another modern estate, designed by Roman Leonidov, is located in the Moscow region and brings together three generations of one family under one roof. To fit on a narrow plot without depriving anyone of personal space, the architects opted for a zigzag plan. The main volume in the house structure is accentuated by mezzanines with a reverse-sloped roof and ceilings featuring exposed beams.

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Three Dimensions of the City

We began to delve into the project by Sergey Skuratov, the residential complex “Depo” in Minsk, located at Victory Square, and it fascinated us completely. The project has at least several dimensions to it: historical – at some point, the developer decided to discontinue further collaboration with Sergey Skuratov Architects, but the concept was approved, and its implementation continues, mostly in accordance with the proposed ideas. The spatial and urban planning dimension – the architects both argue with the city and play along with it, deciphering nuances, and finding axes. And, finally, the tactile dimension – the constructed buildings also have their own intriguing features. Thus, this article also has two parts: it dwells on what has been built and what was conceived

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New “Flight”

Architects from “Mezonproject” have developed a project for the reconstruction of the regional youth center “Polyot”(“Flight”) in the city of Oryol. The summer youth center, built back in the late 1970s, will now become year-round and acquire many additional functions.

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The Yauza Towers

In Moscow, there aren’t that many buildings or projects designed by Nikita Yavein and Studio 44. In this article, we present to you the concept of a large multifunctional complex on the Yauza River, located between two parks, featuring a promenade, a crossroads of two pedestrian streets, a highly developed public space, and an original architectural solution. This solution combines a sophisticated, asymmetric façade grid, reminiscent of a game of fifteen puzzle, and bold protrusions of the upper parts of the buildings, completely masking the technical floors and sculpting the complex’s silhouette.

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Architecture and Leisure Park

For the suburban hotel complex, which envisages various formats of leisure, the architectural company T+T Architects proposed several types of accommodation, ranging from the classic “standard” in a common building to a “cave in the hill” and a “house in a tree”. An additional challenge consisted in integrating a few classic-style residences already existing on this territory into the “architectural forest park”.

Overview

The U-House

The Jois complex combines height with terraces, bringing the most expensive apartments from penthouses down to the bottom floors. The powerful iconic image of the U-shaped building is the result of the creative search for a new standard of living in high-rise buildings by the architects of “Genpro”.

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Black and White

In this article, we specifically discuss the interiors of the ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh. Interior design is a crucial component of the overall concept in this case, and precision and meticulous execution were highly important for the architects. Julia Tryaskina, head of UNK interiors, shares some of the developments.

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The “Snake” Mountain

The competition project for the seaside resort complex “Serpentine” combines several typologies: apartments of different classes, villas, and hotel rooms. For each of these typologies, the KPLN architects employ one of the images that are drawn from the natural environment – a serpentine road, a mountain stream, and rolling waves.

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Opal from Anna Mons’ Ring

The project of a small business center located near Tupolev Plaza and Radio Street proclaims the necessity of modern architecture in a specific area of Moscow commonly known as “Nemetskaya Sloboda” or “German settlement”. It substantiates its thesis with the thoroughness of details, a multitude of proposed and rejected form variants, and even a detailed description of the surrounding area. The project is interesting indeed, and it is even more interesting to see what will come of it.

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Feed ’Em All

A “House of Russian Cuisine” was designed and built by KROST Group at VDNKh for the “Rossiya” exhibition in record-breaking time. The pavilion is masterfully constructed in terms of the standards of modern public catering industry multiplied by the bustling cultural program of the exhibition, and it interprets the stylistically diverse character of VDNKh just as successfully. At the same time, much of its interior design can be traced back to the prototypes of the 1960s – so much so that even scenes from iconic Soviet movies of those years persistently come to mind.

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The Ensemble at the Mosque

OSA prepared a master plan for a district in the southern part of Derbent. The main task of the master plan is to initiate the formation of a modern comfortable environment in this city. The organization of residential areas is subordinated to the city’s spiritual center: depending on the location relative to the cathedral mosque, the houses are distinguished by façade and plastique solutions. The program also includes a “hospitality center”, administrative buildings, an educational cluster, and even an air bridge.

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Pargolovo Protestantism

A Protestant church is being built in St. Petersburg by the project of SLOI architects. One of the main features of the building is a wooden roof with 25-meter spans, which, among other things, forms the interior of the prayer hall. Also, there are other interesting details – we are telling you more about them.

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The Shape of the Inconceivable

The ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh brings to mind a famous maxim of all architects and critics: “You’ve come up with it? Now build it!” You rarely see such a selfless immersion in implementation of the project, and the formidable structural and engineering tasks set by UNK architects to themselves are presented here as an integral and important part of the architectural idea. The challenge matches the obliging status of the place – after all, it is an “exhibition of achievements”, and the pavilion is dedicated to the nuclear energy industry. Let’s take a closer look: from the outside, from the inside, and from the underside too.

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Rays of the Desert

A school for 1750 students is going to be built in Dubai, designed by IND Architects. The architects took into account the local specifics, and proposed a radial layout and spaces, in which the children will be comfortable throughout the day.

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The Dairy Theme

The concept of an office of a cheese-making company, designed for the enclosed area of a dairy factory, at least partially refers to industrial architecture. Perhaps that is why this concept is very simple, which seems the appropriate thing to do here. The building is enlivened by literally a couple of “master strokes”: the turning of the corner accentuates the entrance, and the shade of glass responds to the theme of “milk rivers” from Russian fairy tales.

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The Road to the Temple

Under a grant from the Small Towns Competition, the main street and temple area of the village of Nikolo-Berezovka near Neftekamsk has been improved. A consortium of APRELarchitects and Novaya Zemlya is turning the village into an open-air museum and integrating ruined buildings into public life.

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Towers Leaning Towards the Sun

The three towers of the residential complex “Novodanilovskaya 8” are new and the tallest neighbors of the Danilovsky Manufactory, “Fort”, and “Plaza”, complementing a whole cluster of modern buildings designed by renowned masters. At the same time, the towers are unique for this setting – they are residential, they are the tallest ones here, and they are located on a challenging site. In this article, we explore how architects Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova tackled this far-from-trivial task.

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In the spirit of ROSTA posters

The new Rostselmash tractor factory, conceptualized by ASADOV Architects, is currently being completed in Rostov-on-Don. References to the Soviet architecture of the 1920’s and 1960’s resonate with the mission and strategic importance of the enterprise, and are also in line with the client’s wish: to pay homage to Rostov’s constructivism.

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The Northern Thebaid

The central part of Ferapontovo village, adjacent to the famous monastery with frescoes by Dionisy, has been improved according to the project by APRELarchitects. Now the place offers basic services for tourists, as well as a place for the villagers’ leisure.

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Brilliant Production

The architects from London-based MOST Architecture have designed the space for the high-tech production of Charge Cars, a high-performance production facility for high-speed electric cars that are assembled in the shell of legendary Ford Mustangs. The founders of both the company and the car assembly startup are Russians who were educated in their home country.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

​In Search of Style

Looking for an answer to the eternal question about what Saint Petersburg style is about, Studio 44 combined contextual allusions, modern paraphrase of the northern neoclassical architecture, and an alternative approach to the city block construction. The result is large-scale and integral.

In Search of Style