По-русски

​An Outgoing Introvert

Designing and building in Moscow area’s Lyublino a fitness club called La Salute (which translates as “health” from the Italian), ASADOV architects did make the life of this area healthier by bringing designer architecture and new useful functions into the standard environment. The dramatic tectonics of the building empathize its sporty intentions.

30 September 2019
News
mainImg
Architect:
Alexander Asadov
Andrey Asadov
Firm:
ASADOV architects http://www.asadov.ru/


The Mission

“The fitness club La Salute is not our first joint project with Andrew and Alexander Asadovs – shares the commissioner of La Salute, Larisa Khanokhova – We already built together a bilingual kindergarten in the Maly Poluyaroslavsky Alley, the best kindergarten in Moscow, in my opinion. It was designed as a magic theater, and it’s also unique from the point of view of children’s education. We have been doing educational projects for quite a while now. Also, together with ASADOV architects, we are expanding the “School of Cooperation” on Taganka. As far as this fitness center is concerned, Lublino consists basically of bleak architecture consisting of rank-and-file prefabricated houses. Therefore, in addition to the business task, I had this idea of lifting up the status of this area with a new infrastructure project – a world-class fitness center. At the same time, it is quite accessible to the local residents price-wise”.

Extrovert / Introvert

The volume of the fitness center is rather simple: the U-shaped plan is turned with its “back” to the residential houses, facing the park, the right wing two stories high, left three stories high. On the lintel, appears a ledge of transition from two stories to three, the taller left part ending in a large cantilevered structure that takes on the role of a marquee because the main entrance is situated underneath it.

zooming
Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    1 / 7
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    2 / 7
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street. THe master plan
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    3 / 7
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    4 / 7
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street. Plan of the 1st floor
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    5 / 7
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    6 / 7
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    7 / 7
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street. Section view
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects


Basically, what we are seeing here is a clearly readable composition, motivated by the function and the specifics of the land site. However, the architects, strengthening some of the features, enhanced the building’s imagery – they made it look like a lizard that curled into a ball and is basking in the sun, straining its neck to peek into the garden. The role of the tail is played by the fence on the side of the park: its triangular silhouette starts from the ground opposite the entrance, and then grows up to the roof of the right wing, the tilted pylons growing denser as they approach the building, sparser in the beginning. The tail, this way, is not exactly a volume, which is right too – because a lizard can shed its tail. The further likeness is determined by the design solution of the façade – the diagonal pattern, set by the fence, continues on the whole building’s body: the metallic panels of a glittering brownish hue alternate with white ones; the windows, long and slanted, are also inserted into the dynamic pattern of tiled strokes, this all sheds a glitter, like a lizard’s skin, while the diagonal creates a feeling of a latent motion within this creature of a building. This same effect is also supported by the rounded corners: all the three outer ones and the curvilinear glass of the entrance underneath the cantilever. And the fact that the building is “curled into a ball” around the yard is enhanced by the large meander in the paving pattern.

  • zooming
    1 / 4
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    2 / 4
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    3 / 4
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    4 / 4
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects


Meanwhile, our lizard is also a little bit of a chameleon: “the façade material is going through various transformations and is used with different frequencies” – Andrey Asadov stresses. Indeed, the eastern wall, the one that faces the Belorechenskaya Street, is not brown but terra cotta orange, and the panels become ceramic – which, first of all, makes the building more noticeable, because the fitness center must not be “lost” against the backdrop of the existing construction, at least in order to attract the clients. On the other hand, this “reddish” warmth also works towards creating a “creature” image, and one can even wonder at this point what kind of animal curled up into a ball – a lizard or maybe a fox. But then again, it’s not really important which animal that is. What is important is the fact that the glass “head” of the cantilever with a ground-bound chamfer is facing the park and the Church of Tatyana of Rome, reflecting it. The two unconventional-looking nonresidential buildings, standing against the background of rather dull prefabricated houses, get involved in a dialogue, which makes perfect sense for two public buildings, however different, in this sleeping belt neighborhood.

zooming
Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
Copyright: © ASADOV architects


The fact that this beast of ours – be that a fox, a lizard, or even a snail with a striped shell – is turning away from the residential houses, lying almost precisely with its back to them, also makes absolutely perfect sense. People come to train here in order to divert themselves from the stress of the hard day’s work, and the monotonous windows of the prefabricated houses are not exactly the kind of landscape that is highly conducive to emotional rest. However, the trees of the park and the church, a building that’s unique to at least some extent, are a different matter. Thus, the fitness center is open to greenery, especially its glass cantilever above the entrance; the main gym that it contains is well lit and opened to daylight and a positive natural view. Thus, it comes as no surprise that Andrey Asadov describes the building of the fitness center on the Belorechenskaya Street as both introvert and extrovert: wherever it’s needed, it coils into a ball, opening up when such an opportunity arises.

zooming
Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
Copyright: © ASADOV architects


Decorating the rounded corners became a challenge for the manufacturers of terra cotta and metallic cassettes: it was required of them to produce totally nonstandard elements, and slanting ones, too. All the ceramic tiles have been chiseled by complex guages: the overall curve was one and the same, but it was the tilted stroke pattern that added to the complexity of the task. The metallic composite cassettes have double curvilinearity. The joints between them are also very neat. Their size is more than 5 meters high, and this makes the building look more compact than it really is.

The Flight and the Balance

The dynamics of the volumes of this building is truly sporty because the fitness center (forgive me the sports and dancing terminology!) is there in the foreground. The building is focused on the park. The main terra cotta façade emphasizes that particularly vividly because it’s not solid, unlike the metallic one, but a long segment of its two bottom floors is made of glass, and it is just one terra cotta “leg” that remains, the whole building “leaping” forward with its park-bound cantilever. At the same time, the complex grows more transparent as it gets closer to the park. Meaning – its gravity center remains within the thick terra cotta part, i.e. in the “leg”. Also interesting is the fact that in the first floor the architects added a narrow window – the massiveness of the wall comes in increments, and thus gets lighter. The cantilever gazing at the park rests on a V-shaped support.

zooming


Andrey Asadov:

“Together with the chief architect of the project, Tatiana Konovalova, we spent quite a long time working with designers in order to zero in on the crisp and simple solution. Ultimately, we came up with this elegant V-shaped support. Behind the glass, there is only a continuation of the slanted pillars, the rest being the overhanging cantilevered structures. We were able to achieve that because the floor and the ceiling of the cantilevered part are made from pretension concrete”.

zooming
Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
Copyright: © ASADOV architects


V-shaped columns make a very dramatic image in all senses. Construction-wise, they support the pretension concrete, while visually they look like muscles and tendons of an athlete. These tensed up “muscles” and stretched “strings” artistically express real forces that are in play within this construction. The tilting angles of the columns and “ribbon” windows on the façade do not match. In the enhanced tilt of the columns one can see something like athlete’s plunge at the start, something like extra acceleration. The V-shaped support is viewable on several floors in the interior, and from the outside through the glass. In addition, however trivial this may sound, V may stand for “victory”, which is appropriate in any sports center.

Show in Wonderland

From the yard, which is due to be later on organized for open air sports, one can gaze either at the park or at the glass walls of the atrium. They form some kind of curious offline screens, upon which beautiful people in beautiful clothes move freely. The glass wall of the swimming pool also overlooks the yard.

The athletes behind the glass also enjoy the transparency: they can watch the would go by, and expose themselves to the world as well. This transparency is like the main luxury here. This sporty “theater” also has a commercial meaning: one can see at once what is situated where, and one see which new sports he wants to try.

Cylinders Inspired by Le Corbusier

The interior design is based on a combination of white, orange, and wine red. The theme of tilted V-shaped supports is continued in the interior by bronze columns, also tilted. Passing through the main entrance, the visitor gets into a spacious double-height reception area that also includes a bar, sofas, and tables for the visitors. This area opens access to the locker rooms and gyms with panoramic views. From the public area, once can also see through the glass walls what is going on inside the gyms and the other way around. The principle of total transparency, important for the architects, applies at all levels. In addition to the gyms, La Salute also has saunas and steam baths in it, a swimming pool with sea water, and even a Cardio Theater. The latter was proposed by the commissioner, Larisa Khanukhova: she took an active part in doing the interior design.

  • zooming
    1 / 9
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    2 / 9
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    3 / 9
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    4 / 9
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    5 / 9
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    6 / 9
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    7 / 9
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    8 / 9
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects
  • zooming
    9 / 9
    Fitness center La Salute on the Belorechenskaya Street
    Copyright: © ASADOV architects


“The building of the club is outwardly dynamic, and we tried to keep this character on the inside as well, trying to make it look chic by finding some bright dramatic detail – Larisa Khanukhova is saying – This is how we came up with the idea of colorful lights: this cylindrical shape with a chamfered opening can be seen in Le Corbusier’s church in Firmini. From the functional standpoint, our club offers not just fitness, but an opportunity to relax as well. The Italian name La Salute translates as “health”. We tried to create a matching visual image by means of art and design: we placed art objects there, and decorated the Cardio Theater in the vein of the amphitheater in the city of Lucci”.

The theme of a sportive theater, as we can see, pops up here more than once. The same purpose is served by the green roofs of the building, which are not operated – yet – but the architects already designed an exit to them and provided for the low-maintenance “sportive” coating material. Doing sports on the roof will be quite a sight to see for the locals, and a great promotion for the club, too. This club, offering fitness and yoga, will be quite a big deal for this sleeping-belt neighborhood.

Architect:
Alexander Asadov
Andrey Asadov
Firm:
ASADOV architects http://www.asadov.ru/

30 September 2019

Headlines now
Object
Wave and Vertical
The premium residential complex designed by GAFA for a site in the Khoroshevsky District responds to multiple constraints – the arc of a planned roadway, the water protection zone of the Khodynka River, and insolation requirements – through inventive massing. The composition is built on the interplay of two spatial layers: an elongated perimeter block and three towers concealed behind it generate the silhouette and key viewpoints, while also adding semantic depth reinforced by the façade solutions. Another defining feature is a large private courtyard, complemented by a citywide linear park.
Object
Office on Trubnaya
We continue publishing projects by Valery Kanyashin. A building once described, a quarter century ago, as an example of “quiet modernism” has remained just that in some people’s memory. According to Anatoly Belov, its main quality is its unobtrusiveness. The architects from Ostozhenka say the leading role here is played by context and landscape – the change in elevation. Yet is it really so inconspicuous?
Object
The First International
With this publication, we begin a series of texts dedicated to works by the late Valery Kanyashin, one of the founders of Ostozhenka Architects. As it happens, the projects he was involved in largely illustrate our understanding of the firm and its history. The first project in this series is the International Moscow Bank on Prechistenskaya Embankment.
in memoriam
In Memory of Valery Kanyashin
On Friday, February 27, architect Valery Kanyashin passed away – co-founder of Ostozhenka Architects and the author of many significant buildings in Moscow. We publish a text by Anatoly Belov in memory of Valery Kanyashin.
Report
Hypertext in Space
As part of the exhibition “What We Have We (Do Not) Keep”, Sergey Tchoban, the Museum of Architecture, and the CHART studio experiment with an eco-conscious approach to exhibition design, with thematic cross-references and even with publicistic reflections on the necessity of preserving modernism, the roots of contemporary architecture, and the birth of ideas. All of this makes the exhibition, with its light and transparent design, look quite innovative. The elements – both “material” and conceptual – are familiar, yet their combination is far from conventional.
Object
The Outline of “Foundation”
In their competition proposal for the Fili transport hub, the consortium led by Alexey Ilyin proposed an “inhabited arch” – a form that is simple yet complex. The architects emphasize that even at the competition stage, the project’s feasibility was fully calculated, taking into account the minimal nighttime closures of Bagration Avenue. How was this achieved? With what functions? Let us take a closer look. In our view, the building would have suited the heroes of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels perfectly.
Object
The Flying Horizontal
“A house in the spirit of Wright”, as architect Roman Leonidov describes it, pointing to his source of inspiration, was built on a challenging wedge-shaped site. To achieve a sense of intimacy and secure good views from the windows, the entire volume had to be shifted toward the far boundary, turning the house “back” to the neighboring mansions. The main façade demonstrates time-tested techniques often employed by the company: articulated horizontals, a weightless roofline, and a triad of materials – light plaster, dark slate, and warm wood.
Object
Needles of Horizon Contemplation
The “House of Horizons”, designed by Kleinewelt Architekten in Krylatskoye, is carefully thought out at the stereometric level – from the logic of how the volumes interlock (and, conversely, how gaps are articulated between them) to the triangular balconies that give the building its striking, slightly bristling silhouette.
News
The Red Thread
A linear park project prepared by Alexey Ilyin studio for the improvement of a riverbank in one of the residential districts seeks to reconnect people with nature. Two levels of the embankment invite visitors to contemplate the landscape while at the same time protecting the riverbank from excessive human impact. The “aerial street” links functional zones and the opposite banks, creating new points of attraction along the way: balconies, bridges, and even a “grotto”.
Object
Spindle and Thread
The concept of the Waver residential complex in Yekaterinburg draws inspiration from the past of the Parkovy district. In order to preserve the memory of the late-19th-century flax spinning mill once located here, the architectural company KPLN turns to the theme of textiles and weaving. The project’s main expressive device is a system of ribbons made of perforated weathering steel – a material that, in such volumes, has arguably not yet been used in Russian residential projects.
Object
Woven Into Sokolniki
Over the past few years, high-rise residential construction in former industrial zones has become the main theme of Moscow architecture. Towers are springing up here and there – but the question is what kind of towers they are. The residential complex CODE Sokolniki, designed by Ostozhenka Architects, is a project where every detail has been taken care of. The authors are attentive to the history of the site, the continuity of the urban fabric, the skyline, and visual corridors. They also proposed a motif with the lyrical name “scarf”. We take a closer look at the volumetric composition and the large-scale décor “woven”, in this case, out of terraces and balconies.
Interview
Stepan Liphart and Yuri Gerth: “Our Program Is Aesthetic”
The studio of Stepan Liphart, an architect known for his distinctive signature style and one-off projects, now has a partner. Yuri Khitrov, a specialist with a broad range of competencies, will take on the part of the work that distracts one from creativity but drives the business forward. One of the aims of this partnership is to improve the urban environment through dialogue with clients and officials. We spoke with both sides about their ambitions, the firm’s development strategy, shared values, and the need for pragmatism. And why the studio is called “Liphart & Gerth” only became clear at the very end of the interview.
Object
The Copper Mirror
The varied-toned sheen of “unsealed” copper, painterly streaks and fingerprints, exposed concrete, and the unusual proportions – when you study the ZILART Museum building by Sergei Tchoban and SPEECH architects, there is plenty to talk about. However, it seems to us that the most interesting thing is how the museum’s composition responds to the realities of the district itself. The residential district has been realized as an open-air exhibition of façade statements by contemporary architects – but without public access to the inner courtyards of the blocks. This building – that is, the museum – is exactly the opposite: on the outside, it is deliberately restrained, while inside it shines spectacularly, creating its own sunbeams in any weather.
View
“Strangers” in the City
We asked Alexander Skokan for a comment on the results of 2025 – and he sent us a whole article, moreover one devoted to the discussion we recently began on the “appropriateness of high-rises” – or, more broadly speaking, “contrasting insertions into the urban fabric”. The result is a text that is essentially a question: why here? Why like this?
Interview
Dmitry Ostroumov: “To use the language of alchemy, we are involved in the process of “transmutation...
What we ended up having was an extremely unusual conversation with Dmitry Ostroumov. Why? At the very least, because he is not just an architect specializing in the construction of Orthodox churches. And not just – which is an extreme rarity – a proponent of developing contemporary stylistics within this still highly conservative field. Dmitry Ostroumov is a Master of Theology. So in addition to the history and specifics of the company, we speak about the very concept of the temple, about canon and tradition, about the living and the eternal, and even about the Russian Logos.
Object
A Glazed Figurine
In searching for an image for a residential building near the Novodevichy Convent, GAFA architects turned to their own perception of the place: it evoked associations with antiquity, plein-air painting, and vintage artifacts. The two towers will be entirely clad in volumetric glazed ceramic – at present, there are no other buildings like this in Russia. The complex will also stand out thanks to its metabolic bay-window cells, streamlined surfaces, a ceremonial “hotel-style” driveway, and a lobby overlooking a lush garden.
Report
A Knight’s Move via the Cour d’Honneur
Intercolumnium Architects presented to the City Planning Council a residential complex project that is set to replace the Aquatoria business center on Vyborgskaya Embankment. Experts praised the overall quality of the work, but expressed reservations about the three cour d’honneurs and suggested softening the contrast between the facades facing the embankment and the Kantemirovsky Bridge.
Object
A Small Country
Mezonproekt is developing a long-term master plan for the MEPhI campus in Obninsk. Over the next ten years, an enclave territory of about 100 hectares, located in a forest on the northern edge of the city, is set to transform into a modern center for the development of the nuclear energy sector. The plan envisions attracting international students and specialists, as well as comprehensive territorial development: both through the contemporary realization of “frozen” plans from the 1980s and through the introduction of new trends – public spaces, an aquapark, a food court, a school, and even a nuclear medicine center. Public and sports facilities are intended to be accessible to city residents as well, and the campus is to be physically and functionally connected to Obninsk.
Object
Pearl Divers
GAFA has designed an apartment complex for Derbent intended to switch people from a work mode to a resort mindset – and to give the surrounding area a much-needed jolt. The building offers two distinct faces: restrained and laconic on the city side, and a lushly ornate façade facing the sea. At the heart of the complex, a hidden pearl lies – an open-air pool with an arch, offering views of a starry sky, and providing direct access to the beach.
Object
A Satellite Island
The Genplan Institute of Moscow has prepared a master plan for the development of the Sarpinsky and Golodny island system, located within the administrative boundaries of Volgograd and considered among the largest river islands in Russia. By 2045, the plan envisions the implementation of 15 large-scale investment projects, including sports and educational clusters, a congress center with a “Volgonarium”, a film production cluster, and twenty-one theme parks. We explain which engineering, environmental, and transportation challenges must be addressed to turn this vision into reality. The master plan solutions have already been approved and incorporated into the city’s general development plan.
Object
The Amber Gate
The Amber City residential complex is one of the redevelopment projects in the former industrial area located beyond Moscow’s Third Ring Road near Begovaya metro station. Alexey Ilyin’s studio proposed an original master plan that transformed two clusters of towers into ceremonial propylaea, gave the complex a recognizable silhouette, and established visual connections with new high-rise developments on both right and left – thus integrating it into the scale of the growing metropolis. It is also marked by its own futuristic stylistic language, based on a reinterpreted streamline aesthetic.
Object
A Theater Triangle
The architectural company “Chetvertoe Izmerenie” (“Fourth Dimension”) has developed the design for a new stage of the Magnitogorsk Musical Theater, rethinking not only theater architecture but also the role of the theater in the contemporary city.
Interview
Aleksei Ilyin: “I approach every task with genuine interest”
Aleksei Ilyin has been working on major urban projects for more than 30 years. He has all the necessary skills for high-rise construction in Moscow – yet he believes it’s essential to maintain variety in the typologies and scales represented in his portfolio. He is passionate about drawing – but only from life, and also in the process of working on a project. We talk about the structure and optimal size of an office, about his past and current projects, large and small tasks, and about creative priorities.
Object
​A Golden Sunbeam
A compact brick-and-metal building in the growing Shukhov Park in Vyksa seems to absorb sunlight, transform it into yellow accents inside, and in the evening “give it back” as a warm golden glow streaming from its windows. It is, frankly, a very attractive building: both material and lightweight at the same time, with lightness inside and materiality outside. Its form is shaped by function – laconic, yet far from simple. Let’s take a closer look.
Architecton Awards
In 2025, the jury of the Architecton festival reviewed the finalist projects through live, open presentations held right in the exhibition hall – a rather engaging performance, and something rarely seen among Russian awards. It would be great if “Zodchestvo” adopted this format. Below, we present all the winning projects, including four special nominations.
send.project
Garden of Knowledge
UNK architects and UNK design created the interiors of the Letovo Junior campus, working together with NF Studio, which was responsible for developing the educational technology that takes into account the needs and perception of younger and middle school children.
The Silver Skates
The STONE Kaluzhskaya office quarter is accompanied by two residential towers, making the complex – for it is indeed a single ensemble – well balanced in functional terms. The architects at Kleinewelt gave the residential buildings a silvery finish to match the office blocks. How they are similar, how they differ, and what “Silver Skates” has to do with it – we explore in this article.
Overview
On the Dynastic Trail
The houses and townhouses of the “Tsarskaya Tropа” (“Czar’s Trail”) complex are being built in the village of Gaspra in Crimea – to the west and east of the palaces of the former grand-ducal residence “Ai-Todor”. One of the main challenges for the architects at KPLN, who developed the project, was to respond appropriately to this significant neighboring heritage. How this influenced the massing, the façades, and the way the authors work with the terrain is explored in our article.