Books and Gardens

A-Len and KCAP Architects&Planners designed for Voronezh a housing complex, inspired by Ivan Bunin and the landscapes of the central part of Russia. The result looks modern and fresh.

Written by:
Alyona Kuznetsova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

22 October 2019

Object

A-Len does a lot of designing for the Russian regions, but Voronezh is a city where the company did more projects than anywhere else. Together with VDK, this Saint Petersburg-based architectural company has already built two housing complexes – “Pyat Stolits” (“Five Capitals”) and “Russky Avangard” (“Russian Avant-Garde”) – with another two complexes, “Bunin“ and “Grand Prix”, on the way. A few projects are also in the design stage; there are plans for developing the city’s social infrastructure, and inviting planners from overseas. The mastermind of the process is the developer Evgeny Khamin, whom Sergey Oreshkin characterizes as a “mover and shaker”, a visionary businessman who wants to make a difference to his home town.

It was also Evgeny Khamin’s idea to devote the future housing complex to Ivan Bunin, who was born here in Voronezh. The first planning idea was based on the simple rectangular shape of the land site situated at the entrance to the city from the Moscow side and surrounded by apple gardens, and literary associations of the “silver age” that the client named: stacks of books, rosewood table, and a green lamp – the architect shares. The first sketches by Sergey Oreshkin were approved, and later on many of his ideas were developed and can now be traced in the final project.

zooming — “Bunin” housing complex

Copyright: A-Len, KCAP Architects & Planners

Then the client invited the Dutch company KCAP Architects&Planners. A-Len has already had an experience of collaborating with this firm, which is known in Russia, first of all, for designing the master plan of the city of Perm – and currently, A-Len, KCAP, and Orange are working together on a housing project named Golden City that is being built on the washed-up banks of the Vasilyevsky Island in Saint Petersburg.

The partner of KCAP Architects&Planners, Edward Schuurmans, is sharing: “When our colleagues from Saint Petersburg invited us again to work together on a new project – now in Voronezh – we agreed at once because the project task was unusual and interesting at the same time. It was unusual, first of all, because the sheer scale of construction turns the architectural task into a town planning one. Second, we could not help but accept the challenge of designing a landmark building at the entrance to the city. And, last but not least, we were thrilled at the prospect of using the name and the creative work of Ivan Bunin as the basis of the project’s marketing concept”.

After a joint brainstorming session, KCAP came up with about 15 models demonstrating volumetric solutions. Then the whole team, together with the client, gathered together in Rotterdam and chose the best one. When asked about how the roles were distributed, Sergey Oreshkin answered that it was “parallel work, very much like ping pong, a creative process that’s hard to define”, but nevertheless one must remember that KCAP are more of urban planners, while A-Len chiefly designs buildings.

So! The form shaping is based on the theme of books: shelves, stacks, covers, and pages. Hence the combination of vertical and horizontal buildings, shifting of volumes, cantilevered structures, height differences from 26 to 9 floors, and a combination of “hard” and “soft” construction materials.

The “stacks of books” on either side of the complex are essentially the “statement” towers, with yet another “stack” standing in the middle, where the road will run. Thanks to the use of different facade decorating materials, the vertical units are divided into several slim “volumes”. Their “pages” are indicated by light-colored stucco, while the “covers” are highlighted with natural stone, ceramic tiles, and metal.

In addition, there are also “wraparaounds” or “slipcovers” – colorful inserts with pixel fragments of Boris Kustodiev’s painting “The Apple Garden”. Yielding to the temptation of naively “painting” the facades was the easiest thing in the world, while finding a balance between such different colors and materials was no easy task – Sergey Oreshkin confesses. However, “Bunin” once again confirms A-Len’s interest for unconventional color design solutions – a similar design technique was applied in the housing complex “Russian Avant-Garde”.

Thanks to the ledges and shifts, examining the voids becomes just as exciting as examining the buildings themselves – thanks to their sheer scale, the step-like arches look pretty impressive, while the details add to the dramatic look of the complex: for example, KCAP draw huge street lights on their sketches, which bring associations with both a lampshade above the table on the veranda of a manor house, and associations with the arches of Saint Petersburg tenements with the first electric lights.

The diversity of volumes and colors is brought to one common denominator by the plinth that, according to the original concept, is meant to embody a “writing desk”. The land site is rather narrow – the buildings occupy almost the whole of its width, standing in a string, yet the complex somehow escapes from looking like a “blind wall”.

Due to its sophisticated shape, the complex also got unconventional housing sections and a wide range of different apartment layouts. For about 10 years, A-Len has been working on its “Perfect Apartments” program: the company’s experts have been studying the best Russian, European, and especially – according to Sergey Oreshkin – Soviet apartment layouts, choosing the best ones and improving them with consideration of the realities of today’s housing market. Ultimately, the experts are getting a voluminous catalogue of efficient and ergonomic layouts – there are about 1300 options to choose from, their list including experimental ones, such as the Marseille Unit, or multilevel apartments that back in the day were developed by the Construction Committee of the Russian Federation under the supervision of Moisey Ginzburg. The validity of this method is backed up by the fact that usually the developer’s marketing departments approve the plans within a couple of days – the architect shares. The “Perfect Apartments” program is patented.

The housing complex “Bunin” contains 1438 apartments, their range including an unusually high number of corner and side-end ones, two and even triple-sided. There are also “office apartments” designed especially for those who dreams of coming to work “with their slippers on”.

The “Bunin” image is also fostered by the accompanying landscaping project, which, thanks to the specifics of the land site, also turned out to be very interesting. From the side of the Moskovsky Avenue, a city park will appear that will back up the commercial areas on the first floors. As for the overall spirit of this space that they are ultimately getting, the architects describe it as “Levitan” (another famous Russian landscape painter): the already existing pine grove will be adorned with sculptures and installations that will not, however, disrupt its natural feel. Behind the complex, there will be a garden with playgrounds and sports fields, brighter, more energetic, and less meditative. According to Sergey Oreshkin, the landscaping culture in Voronezh is “head and shoulders above Saint Petersburg not only because of the city’s climate but because of the quality of execution”. Therefore, the architects ventured to enhance “the fifth facade”: the roofs that can be seen from the windows of the neighboring buildings will be turned into operated green ones.

Edward Schuurmans emphasizes: “We believe that if you want your project, situated at the entrance to the city, to become a true landmark, you need to design it as a single-cut ensemble, creating, at the same time, a human friendly environment on the street level. This was a very challenging period of working with a few different scales at once – designing the silhouette of the entire complex and all of the facades at the same time. Our special focus was on the facades of the bottom floors. It is these facades that define the quality of the pedestrian environment all along the commercial front, which also includes the residential hallway entrances. And, of course, an import part of our work was creating an interface between the buildings and the open space: how the commercial function meets the new park from the side of the Moskovsky Avenue, and how the yard on the other side of the ensemble meets the apple gardens”.

Among other things, in the future, “Bunin” may become a part of a circular eco route: the city is planning to introduce a single path that will unite a large number of green areas – a tree nursery, botanical gardens, the central park, natural and archaeological sites on the Voronezh River.

***

It must be said that Ivan Bunin, books, and the green lamp are themes that are very challenging architecture-wise – not to say dowright dangerous. Working with such powerful, tell-tale, and, let’s admit it, proverbial prototypes, one is inevitably running a risk of ending up with excessive imagery that will make one’s project overly “literary”. However, looking at this specific project one can see that, yes, book are there, and they are quite recognizable from the axonometric drawings of the complex, but the point is that the international team was indeed able to achieve the necessary level of generalization when working with the form and meanings. The volumes resting on the plinth resemble books in a less obvious way than what we can see in the modernist experiments of the seventies, sometimes getting into resonance with the patterns of large volumes, characteristic for the Dutch architecture of the XXI century, with the language of cyclopean protrusions and cavities that oftentimes reminds us about the Cretan and Mycenaean sources of the European culture. This is how the circumstances fell into place, and the theme successfully coincided with the architects’ outlook on the possibilities of making a large form come alive, and the pixel shades – maybe the reflections of the Voronezh pine forests or the reminder of “The Dark Alleys” – turned out to be quite appropriate, recognizable to a decent extent, yet not memetic.

In addition, what is also important is the fact that the “literary” house, whose name and imagery interpret the history of the city, can be considered an input to creating the “brand” of Voronezh, based on its own history – and this is not your Château de Val on the Central Russian Upland – this is our native Russian writer, even if he is buried at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois. This house, named after Ivan Bunin, a writer bearing the image of a “Russian barin”, who was born here but died in France, is being designed in Voronezh by Russian and Dutch architects – yet, unlike the writer’s fate, the collision is not in the least dramatic because it belongs to this modern age of total reconciliation and is based upon the search for the specifics in generalities: the literary history becomes the starting point for new modern forms to appear.

22 October 2019

Headlines now

Object

The Golden Crown

The concept for a dental clinic in Yekaterinburg, developed by CNTR Studio, revolves around the idea of a “mouth full of gold”: pristine white porcelain stoneware walls are complemented by matte brass details. To avoid an overly literal interpretation, the architects focused on the building’s proportions, skillfully navigating between sunlight requirements and fire safety regulations.

News

Flexibility and Integration

Not long ago, we covered the project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential complex, designed by APEX. Now, we’ve been shown different fence concepts they developed to enclose the complex’s private courtyards, incorporating a variety of public functions. We believe that the sheer fact that the complex’s architects were involved in such a detail as fencing speaks volumes.

Object

A Step Forward

The HIDE residential complex represents a major milestone for ADM architects and their leaders Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova in their quest for a fresh high-rise aesthetic – one that is flexible and layered, capable of bringing vibrancy to mass and silhouette while shaping form. Over recent years, this approach has become ADM’s “signature style”, with the golden HIDE tower playing a pivotal role in its evolution. Here, we delve into the project’s story, explore the details of the complex’s design, and uncover its core essence.

Object

Gold in the Sands

A new office for a transcontinental company specializing in resource extraction and processing has opened in Dubai. Designed by T+T Architects, masters of creating spaces that are contemporary, diverse, flexible, and original, this project exemplifies their expertise. On the executive floor, a massive brass-clad partition dominates, while layered textures of compressed earth create a contextually resonant backdrop.

Object

Layers and Levels of Flight

This project goes way back – Reserve Union won this architectural competition at the end of 2011, and the building was completed in 2018, so it’s practically “archival”. However, despite being relatively unknown, the building can hardly be considered “dated” and remains a prime example of architectural expression, particularly in the headquarters genre. And it’s especially fitting for an aviation company office. In some ways, it resembles the Aeroflot headquarters at Sheremetyevo but with its own unique identity, following the signature style of Vladimir Plotkin. In this article, we take an in-depth look at the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) headquarters in the Moscow agglomeration town of Zhukovsky, supplemented by recent photographs from Alexey Naroditsky – a shoot that became only recently possible due to the fact that improvements were finally made in the surrounding area.

Object

Light and Shadow

In this article, we delve into the architectural design of the “Chaika” house by DNK ag architects, which was recently completed in 2023 as part of the collection of signature designs at ZILArt. As is well-known, all the buildings in this complex follow a design code, yet each one is distinct. This particular building stands out not only for its whiteness and minimalism but also for the refined use of a limited number of techniques that, together, create what can confidently be called synergy.

View

Casus Novae

A master plan was developed for a large residential area with a name of “DNS City”, but now that its implementation began, the plan has been arbitrarily reformatted and replaced with something that, while similar on the surface, is actually quite different. This is not the first time such a thing happens, but it’s always frustrating. With permission from the author, we are sharing Maria Elkina’s post.

Report

Treasure Hunting

The GAFA bureau, in collaboration with Tegola and Arkhitail, organized an expedition to the island of Kilpola in Karelia as part of Moskomarkhitektura’s “Open City” festival. There, amidst moss and rocks, the students sought answers to questions like: what is the sacred, where does it dwell, and what sustains it? Assisting the participants in this quest were landscape engineer Evgeny Levin, artist Nicholas Roerich, a moose, and the lack of cellular connection. Here’s how the story unfolded.

Object

Depths of the Earth, Streams of Water

In the Malaya Okhta district, the Akzent building, designed by Stepan Liphart, was constructed. It follows a classic tripartite structure, yet it’s what you might call “hand-drawn”: each façade is unique in its form and details, some of which aren’t immediately noticeable. In this article, we explore the context and, together with the architect, delve into how the form was developed.

Object

Fir Tree Dynamics

The “Airports of Region” holding is planning to build an airport in Karachay-Cherkessia, aiming to make the Arkhyz and Dombay resorts more accessible to travelers. The project that won in an invitation-only competition, submitted by Sergey Nikeshkin’s KPLN, blends natural imagery inspired by the shape of a conifer seed, open-air waiting spaces, majestic large trees, and a green roof elevated on needle-like columns. The result is both nature-inspired and WOW.

Object

A Brick Shell

In the process of designing a clubhouse situated among pine trees in a prestigious suburban area near Moscow, the architectural firm “A.Len” did the façade design part. The combination of different types of brick and masonry correlates with the volumetric and plastique solutions, further enhanced by the inclusion of wood-painted fragments and metal “glazing”.

Report

Word Forms

ATRIUM architects love ambitious challenges, and for the firm’s thirtieth anniversary, they boldly play a game of words with an exhibition that dives deep into a self-created vocabulary. They immerse their projects – especially art installations – into this glossary, as if plunging into a current of their own. You feel as if you’re flowing through the veins of pure art, immersed in a universe of vertical cities, educational spaces – of which the architects are true masters – and the cultural codes of various locations. But what truly captivates is the bold statement that Vera Butko and Anton Nadtochy make, both through their work and this exhibition: architecture, above all, is art – the art of working with form and space.

Object

Flexibility and Acuteness of Modernity

Luxurious, fluid, large “kokoshniks” and spiral barrel columns, as if made from colorful chewing gum: there seem to be no other mansion like this in Moscow, designed in the “Neo-Russian-Modern” style. And the “Teremok” on Malaya Kaluzhskaya, previously somewhat obscure, has “come alive with new colors” and gained visibility after its restoration for the office of the “architectural ecosystem” as the architects love to call themselves. It’s evident that Julius Borisov and the architects at UNK put their hearts into finding this new office and bringing it up to date. Let’s delve into the paradoxes of this mansion’s history and its plasticity. Spoiler: two versions of modernity meet here, both balancing on the razor’s edge of “what’s current”.

Interview

Yuri Vissarionov: “A modular house does not belong to the land”

It belongs to space, or to the air... It turns out that 3D printing is more effective when combined with a modular approach: the house is built in a workshop and then adapted to the site, including on uneven terrain. Yuri Vissarionov shares his latest experience in designing tourist complexes, both in central Russia and in the south. These include houseboats, homes printed from lightweight concrete using a 3D printer, and, of course, frame houses.

Object

Moscow’s First

“The quality of education largely depends on the quality of the educational environment”. This principle of the last decade has been realized by Sergey Skuratov in the project for the First Moscow Gymnasium on Rostovskaya Embankment in the Khamovniki district. The building seamlessly integrates into the complex urban landscape, responding both to the pedestrian flow of the city and the quiet alleyways. It skillfully takes advantage of the height differences and aligns with modern trends in educational space design. Let’s take a closer look.

Object

Looking at the Water

The site of Villa Sonata stretches from the road to the water’s edge, offering its own shoreline, pier, and a picturesque river panorama. To reveal these sweeping views, Roman Leonidov “cut” the façade diagonally parallel to the river, thus getting two main axes for the house and, consequently, “two heads”. The internal core – two double-height spaces, a living room and a conservatory, with a “bridge” above them – makes the house both “transparent” and filled with light.

Object

The White Wing

Well, it’s not exactly white. It’s more of a beige, white-stone structure that plays with the color of limestone – smoother surfaces are lighter, while rougher ones are darker. This wing unites various elements: it absorbs and interprets the surrounding themes. It responds to everything, yet maintains a cohesive expression – a challenging task! – while also incorporating recognizable features of its own, such as the dynamic cuts at the bottom, top, and middle.

Object

Urban Dunes

The XSA Ramps team designed and built a three-part sports hub for a park in Rostov-on-Don, welcoming people of all ages and fitness levels. The skate plaza, pump track, and playground are all meticulously crafted with details that attract a diverse range of visitors. The technical execution of the shapes and slopes transforms this space into a kind of sculptural composition.

Object

Proportional Growth

The project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential area has been announced. The buildings are situated on an elongated plot – almost a “ray” that shoots out from the center of the area towards the river. Their layout reflects both a response to Moscow’s architectural preferences over the past 15 years, shifting “from blocks to towers”, and an interpretation of the neighboring business park designed by SOM. Additionally, the best apartments here are not located at the very top but closer to the middle, forming a glowing “waistline”.

Object

The “Staircase” Building

In designing the “Details” residential complex in New Moscow, Rais Baishev spiced up the now-popular Moscow theme of a “courtyard” building with an idea drawn from the surrealist drawings by Maurits Escher. He envisioned the stepped silhouettes and descending slopes as a metaphysical mega-staircase, creating a key void within the courtyard that gave the project an internal “spine”. This concept is felt both in the building’s silhouette and on its façades.

Object

Projection of the Quarter

No one doubted that the building that Vladimir Plotkin designed as part of the “Garden Quarters” would be the most modernist of all. And it turned out just that way: while adhering to the common design code, the building successfully combines brick and white stone, rhythmically responding to the neighboring building designed by Ostozhenka, yet tactfully and persistently making a few statements of its own. This includes the projection of the ideal urban development composition “14–9–6”, which can be found right next door, mathematical calculations, including those for various types of terraces (and perhaps the only reminder of the Soviet past of the Kauchuk rubber factory!), and the white “cross-stitch” pattern of the façade grid.

Object

Domus Aurea

In this issue, we examine the “Tessinsky-1” house, designed by Sergey Skuratov and completed in 2023. Located in the middle of the Serebryanicheskaya Embankment district, at the intersection of its main streets, this house assumes a sort of “nodal” role: it not only responds to everything around it and preserves many memories of the former EMA factory within itself, but it weaves all this into a newly directed pattern, reconciling bright “gold” and dark-colored brick, largely with the help of the new, modern-yet-archaic Columba brick, which, come to think about it, is the most precious element here.

send.project

The Chimney of Nikola-Lenivets

In this issue, we are examining the “Obelisk House” designed by KATARSIS and built for the Arkhstoyanie 2023 festival. However, it was only finished later on, and this is why we are examining it now. It seems to us that after the “Obelisk House” appeared in Nikola-Lenivets, a dialogue and a few inner connections appeared between the temporary structures built here. These houses no longer look like “accidental neighbors”, more of which below.

Periscope by the Bay

The jury awarded the second place in the competition for a public and cultural center in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the companies GORA (“Mountain”) and M4. In the consortium’s proposal, the building resembles a sperm whale with a calf swimming next to it or a periscope, whose lenses capture the most spectacular views from the surrounding landscape.

Contest Results

From Arcs to Dolmens

While working on the competition project for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, ASADOV Architects prioritized the value of the natural and urban environment, aiming to preserve the balance of the location while minimizing the resemblance of the volume that they designed to a “traditional building”. The task was challenging, and the architects created three versions, one of which having been developed after the competition, where their main proposal took third place. However, the point of interest here is not the competition result but the continuity of creative thinking.

Object

Hide and Seek

The ID Moskovskiy house, designed by Stepan Liphart in St. Petersburg, in the courtyards near Moskovskiy Avenue beyond the Obvodny Canal and recently completed, is notable for several reasons. Firstly, it has been realized with considerable accuracy, which is particularly significant as this is the first building where the architect was responsible not only for the facades but also for the layouts, allowing for better integration between the two. On the other hand, this building is interesting as an example of the “germination” of new architecture in the city: it draws on the best examples from the neighborhood and becomes an improved and developed sum of ideas found by the architect in the surrounding context.

The Big Twelve

Yesterday, the winners of the Moscow Mayor’s Architecture Award were announced and honored. Let’s take a look at what was awarded and, in some cases, even critique this esteemed award. After all, there is always room for improvement, right?

Object

Above the Golden Horn

The residential complex “Philosophy” designed by T+T architects in Vladivostok, is one of the new projects in the “Golubinaya Pad” area, changing its development philosophy (pun intended) from single houses to a comprehensive approach. The buildings are organized along public streets, varying in height and format, with one house even executed in gallery typology, featuring a cantilever leaning on an art object.

Report

Nuanced Alternative

How can you rhyme a square and space? Easily! But to do so, you need to rhyme everything you can possibly think of: weave everything together, like in a tensegrity structure, and find your own optics too. The new exhibition at GES-2 does just that, offering its visitor a new perspective on the history of art spanning 150 years, infused with the hope for endless multiplicity of worlds and art histories. Read on to see how this is achieved and how the exhibition design by Evgeny Ace contributes to it.

Object

Blinds for Ice

An ice arena has been constructed in Domodedovo based on a project by Yuri Vissarionov Architects. To prevent the long façade, a technical requirement for winter sports facilities, from appearing monotonous, the architects proposed the use of suspended structures with multidirectional slats. This design protects the ice from direct sunlight while giving the wall texture and detail.