The Theater and Music Circles

The concept of the complex for theater and music festivals “Vselennaya Chaikovskogo” (“Tchaikovsky Universe”), proposed by the architects of “Chetvertoe Izmerenie” (“The Fourth Dimension”) won in a closed-door competition, organized by the Main Department for Architecture and Urban Development of the Moscow Region in May 2019. The concept included the construction of concert complex buildings, a children’s center, and a hotel west of the Tchaikovsky memorial house, to be built on the triangular land site situated on the bank of the Sestra River, across the road from the composer’s memorial house. In the end of last year, the project was significantly expanded, and now, in addition to the theater and concert hall, it includes a branch of the Moscow Conservatory, situated on the opposite bank of the river, behind the Sestroretsky Park, and the reconstruction of the Tchaikovsky memorial house, built next to the wooden memorial house in the 1990’s.

It must be said that project looked rather impressive and grand-scale even in its first version, which was submitted for the competition; after the expansion, however, it covers a significantly larger portion of the city of Klin, and can definitely claim the role of its “new center”, as well as the status of one of the nation’s largest architectural ensembles, wholly dedicated to music. It is called accordingly: the main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region.

zooming — The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”.

Copyright: © 4izmerenie

Which, of course, answers the circumstance and the significance of the museum, which in the recent years has been showing some serious festival activities, turning Klin into a new cultural center of the region or maybe of even the entire country. Meanwhile, hitherto the city has been missing an appropriate venue for concerts and similar events – which, incidentally, became the reason for the initiative proposed by Dmitry Bertman, Valery Georgiev, Yuri Bashmet, and Denis Matsuev, who wrote two years ago a letter to the President Vladimir Putin with a request for creating a musical center in Klin. Dmitry Bertman continues to support the project in the process of its development.

The project includes five land sites. The largest of them is a spacious 13-hectare triangle on the river bank, across from the Sestroretsky Park, north of the former Demyanovo Estate, presented today as a park with the ruins of the manor house and a small church, historically tied to many of well-known names, from the widow of Paul I, the Empress Maria Fedorovna, to the composers Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky’s pupil Taneev. A while ago, the land site, which was chosen for the construction of the theater and music complex, hosted a hospital, whose buildings are mostly gone now, what has remained is a maternity house, which will later on be relocated. There are many old trees here, especially on the steep slope of the river bank, the height difference being 20 meters. The river is flooded and turned into a small lake with sandy beaches and a picturesque water area. The Demyanovo Estate forms the south border of the triangle, the river forms its western border, and the northwest border is marked by the Sportivnaya Street, a local fragment of the Leningrad highway, quite a busy one.

Behind the highway, there is the memorial estate house itself, a wooden one, known as “Tchaikovsky’s House in Klin”, which the composer actually rented during the last years of his life, with a small park, not so big as Demyanovo, but better protected, and hence in a better state today. The reconstruction of the museum’s administration building, which stretches along the Sportivnaya Street, is yet another subject of design. A little more to the north, behind the museum territory, on the Tchaikovsky Street, next to the Stroitel Stadium, the architects were able to find room for a new sports center, which is now also part of the entire complex. The land plot for one hotel was found more southeast, in the depth of the residential area behind the retirement home, a 5 minutes’ walk away from the concert hall. Yet another hotel is built on the opposite bank of the river, next to the busy highway.

And, finally, the educational complex, i.e. the branch of Moscow Conservatory – the second most important part of the ensemble – got a land plot behind the Sestroretsky Park, to the south of the pedestrian bridge, next to the city block consisting of renovated five-story buildings. It is about a ten minutes’ walk away from the main concert hall, and this is the longest of pedestrian passes between the different parts grouped around the central nucleus, thought out for each direction, and tied together into a single network.

This network of pedestrian connections looks like the development and the derivative of one of the key ideas that were proposed still in the contest-stage version of the project and showed up in the current version as well: the underpass running beneath the Leningrad highway, proposed by the architects in order to improve the connection between the old museum and the new concert hall. Its exit is designed as a giant golden bell of a helicon – the funny cartoon kind that is sometimes depicted with notes flying out of it in order to picture the sound – only here it is people who come out of the faucet instead of notes.

The result looks nice and grand, as if the path to Tchaikovsky’s house were marked by a triumphal arch that honors the composer and at the same time looks like a mercury-like iridescent version of the Ladovsky arch at Moscow’s Krasnye Vorota Square. In the spirit of our time, all digital and sci-fi, one can see in this structure the arch of the quantum leap: between the old and the new, and between the XIX and the XXI centuries. Function-wise, this “faucet” or “bell” portal is meant to replace the current primitive overpass, yet, what is more important is the fact that it becomes the iconic clue of the entire idea: the underground “helicon” sculpture unambiguously indicates that this whole building is about music, inviting people to literally pass through sound, however imaginary – and, on the other hand, sets the plastique leitmotif of the arch, connected with the landscape and the volume, almost closed, yet at the same time wide open – a motif that runs through the entire project, only getting stronger down the line.

From the museum side, the entrance to the underpass echoes the main idea: the stairways in the openings lead downstairs, which is essentially the usual way, yet their walls are golden copper; they accentuate the fact that we are entering that “underground helicon”.

As for the the main complex, i.e. the nucleus of the project, the building that we approach when driving down the Leningrad highway or exiting from the “helicon” on the museum side, is essentially a giant ring, completely circular on its outside contour, with a diameter of 150 meters. The ring comprises two concert halls: the largest theater and concert one, named “Onegin”, for 950 seats, with a choreographic hall on its roof, and the minor philharmonic hall, named “Nut Cracker”, for 640 seats. The space between the halls will include mechanical rooms, rehearsal studios, a museum, and a restaurant. Both halls stand out from the ring, protruding into the yard; the restaurant also stands out, only to a lesser degree, so the yard becomes tripetalous.

1 / 6

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”.

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
2 / 6

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”. The plan of the underground part

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
3 / 6

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”. The plan on the level of the 1st floor

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
4 / 6

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”. The plan on the level of the 2nd floor

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
5 / 6

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”. The plan on the level of the 3nd floor

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
6 / 6

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”. The plan of the roof and the choreographic floor

Copyright: © 4izmerenie

Between the projections, the building is opened to the outside world in three arches named prima, secunda, and tertia – these three overlook the corner of the “helicon” overpass, and the nearest descent to the river, where the architects are proposing to build an amphitheater, while the third smaller arch will overlook the park on the triangular cape.

All of the arches are designed very smooth, and remind a curtain slightly drawn from below, yet not a literal picture of it, because no “folds” react to the movement, and it remains a wide flexible cut in the body of the building. Rather, they can be compared to the resonance to the sound wave from the pipe – let’s imagine that the music from Tchaikovsky’s old house pierced the building like a laser beam, leaving molten golden edges, like the matter of pure art. When viewed from a distance, these openings put one in the mind of the bridges in gothic estates, for example, in Tsaritsyno.

What makes these arches different from traditional ones is the absence of the classical bearing plates: the abutments are drawn as being particularly light, which serves to create the effect of lightness of the line, instead of resting on imposts. It must be said that the smoothly raised line became the symbol of the project, and is picked up by the landscaping part, which turns the river bank into a semblance of a karst formation.

Partially, the shape of the jack arches is inspired by today’s profile of the river, where the steep slopes expose clay landslides. The line of the waterfront makes the most of this form, enhancing it, and turning it from a casual natural formation into a theme that is resonant with the general leitmotif.

It must be said that the “helicon” of the underpass, although visually different, also conceptually picks up this theme of “surfacing” from underground, the theme of freely operating the terrain and the underground space.

At the cuts, the arches are golden, which means that they will cast sunlight reflections even on rainy days. Furthermore, it is proposed to organize mini-concerts underneath them as well. This will present a cozy, warm, and joyful image: people listening to music underneath the golden vault, securely protected from the rain just outside. The surface, however, will be satin instead of high-gloss, the authors of the project explain, so as not to yield too many reflections on a sunny day.

Meanwhile, the first arch Prima, in the course of the development of the competition project became glazed and turned into a joint lobby of both halls, which allows them to function 100% independently. The imagery, though, remained unchanged -the architects treated the glass like a light membrane, easily supporting the cylinders of revolving doors.

1 / 3

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”.

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
2 / 3

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”.

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
3 / 3

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”. The lobby on the inside

Copyright: © 4izmerenie

The outside surface of the building, on the other hand, totally consists of flecks of sunlight. The surface of the outside walls of this “crystal” well is composed of a multitude of mirror grooves looking like large flutes and reflecting, paradoxically, everything around them in a multitude of semi-vault exedras. The authors associate the little arches, which connect the caves up above, with the musical tuning fork; the iridescent verticals also remind the pipes of an organ.

In the final version, the architects thoroughly drew the upper “attic” part of the “tuning fork” pipes. The surface gets divided, and the pattern gets turned upside down, becoming a parapet of the operated roof, and gets pulled apart, exposing a semblance of golden carcass. What comes to mind is a comparison with a music box, a steam punk device by the standards of today. In this light, the whole building may seem like a “city in a snuff box”, a large-scale mechanism producing music. Essentially, this is how it is – therefore, the facades do an adequate job of reflecting the essence of the building, without being a mechanism themselves. On the other hand, the top role goes to the “cornice” frieze, giving the building, in addition to the technology image, a surprisingly classical regular look. Because one can also see something from the fust of an antique column in it, even though the “column” is now the entire huge circle, which ultimately resembles a cyclopean spoila that got into the context of a modern city as a marble column into a massive of medieval brickwork.

The most important part of the project is the yard with a public space, formed inside the circle between the volumes of the halls. Its area is about 6000 square meters; it is surrounded by the stairs of the amphitheater, and there are plans for organizing open air concerts in it, which is ever so important for the festival agenda. The architects interpret the yard as “the most important cultural city square”, “included in the system of the public spaces of Klin”. This is why the walls inside the yard are coated with, although neutral-looking, effective soundproof composite panels.

The square will be paved with slabs of natural wood – both for improving the acoustic properties and for getting a texture that is aesthetically pleasing, natural, and warm. In the central part, the architects will probably be able to keep the existing grown-up trees, changing the art installations on the square from time to time for the sake of variety.

The glass of the foyer of the main stage, protruding into the square, is curvilinear acoustic triplex with a special type of coating and fastening. It turns into a huge volumetric “showcase”, smoothly curved, behind which, especially when the inner backlight is on, one will be able to clearly see the flexible moldings of the balconies that form, in the space of the foyer, a sculptural dance of interflowing shapes, looking like the embodiment of music, with a visual appearance of layers of fog, appearing in the evenings on the river banks. In a word, this is a characteristic for modern theater foyers approach to interior design as “sculpture behind glass”, bright and attractive; such interior works both from the inside out, enriching the space of the yard, and from the outside inwards, because the glass of the foyer seems to be an impalpable barrier, which barely separates the interior and its surroundings.

1 / 4

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”.

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
2 / 4

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”.

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
3 / 4

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”.

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
4 / 4

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”.

Copyright: © 4izmerenie

Behind the glass, amongst the light-colored streams of the balcony railings, glitters the “magic curtain” designed by the artist Maxim Lytov – a curvilinear wall that embraces the hall and forms its “anteroom”, including the exhibition areas, the cloakroom, and the spiral case behind it leading to the souvenir shop on the second level. The “curtain”, as the authors of the project figuratively put it, “conceals the mystery of the theater and music art”. The wall clearly resembles some valuable sort of fabric, maybe brocade, or maybe golden ballet gauze, something from Benoit sketches: a slightly crushed shape with a dark-red hue and enticing glittering, which promises a theatrical fairy tale. It could have been also covered with golden mosaic – supposes the leader of “The Fourth Dimension”, Vsevolod Medvedev.

The main hall – with three tiers of balconies inside of it, which allowed the architects to design its interior in a rather compact way, and achieve better sight and sound for most of the spectators – has a rather moderate appearance; the light-colored balconies are only slightly bent against the dark background of the walls, meant to absorb light, thus allowing the spectators to focus on what is going on up on stage.

1 / 3

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”.

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
2 / 3

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”.

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
3 / 3

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”.

Copyright: © 4izmerenie

It must be said that the hall is of the specific theater kind – meaning, it can support not only philharmonic music, but also full-fledged theater productions. The stage is equipped with side stages of an impressive size, with plenty of headroom up and down for the stage machinery. The minimum height of a full-fledged theater box is 27 meters, and, because of that, trying to fit in with the height restrictions – and the place borders on two protected zones, a museum, and a cultural heritage site – the authors sank the basement part deep underground, down to 6.5 meters, and 8.5 meters underneath the main stage, providing on this underground level a driving access for the props and machinery trucks. The grounds in both halls are transformable; there is a function of fully hiding the seats and raising the floor to the same level with the stage, the way it is done in the Zaryadye Park in Moscow – to accommodate for the stylistic devices of the modern theater that is all about “going beyond” the confines of the conventional stage.

On the whole, the task of proposing a clear and easily readable image, based on the modern interpretation of the latent classics can be considered as good as fulfilled. The ring of the main theater and concert complex can be traced back to the classical rotunda, the go-to solution of the manor estate architecture, and the perfect shape of the temple standing in an ideal city – when viewed from the river, it looks like a palace, and is even a bit reminiscent of Pavlovsk. At the same time, however, it puts on in the mind of some alien artifact – the contemporary character of the complex is set by the glitter of its materials, and is totally obvious. One will not even see here the proverbial tension between the classic and its modern interpretation: this is a large-scale and acutely contemporary image, neatly inscribed into the landscape, yet looking really impressive, designed to become a landmark and a center of attraction for miles around.

The school, the hotel, and the sports center buildings, now distributed all over the city, are still in the design stage, but the project of reconstructing the nearby administration building is already available. It was built in the 1990’s in the then-fashionable reserved postmodernist style, with stuccoed walls, and small windows in loosely decorated frames under a hefty fronton.

The architects of “The Fourth Dimension”, while keeping the construction of the building, do a radical reorganization of the facade. It is decorated in the vein of industrial architecture of the late XIX century: the building is getting more windows, hence, more light inside; the windows take on an arched look, getting a fractured decor of the “brick style” with cantilevered structures and little columns. The historicism of the building becomes more palpable. The main thing, though: the street facade gets encased in a glass casing, which forms a heated lobby, similar to the foyer of the theater. At the same time, the historicism facade is plainly visible behind the glass, like an exhibit in a showcase.

The stone fronton is now gone completely, and the roof level of the existing building gets extra space that the museum needs, covered by a new metallic roof – it gets bent in the middle, forming an accent, like a reminder about the fronton, whose contour is at the same time close to the smooth semi-arch, the symbol of the project.

Thus, the renewed administration building accentuates – through the “showcase” theme – the museum function; at the same time it gets connected image-wise with the theater and the concert complex, and looks nice and fresh, in spite of the “imposed” historicism theme borrowed from the old building and strengthened by the new facade.

1 / 3

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”.

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
2 / 3

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”. Reconstruction of the administration building, plans

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
3 / 3

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”. Reconstruction of the administration building, plans

Copyright: © 4izmerenie

***

In conclusion, here is a small remark similar to how they sometimes show abortive takes after a movie in order to show the spectator the process of its creation. Originally, the idea was born from joining the functions to form two circles, and the author’s train of thought looked like this:

1 / 7

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”. The form-making of the competition project 06-09.2019

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
2 / 7

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”. The form-making of the competition project 06-09.2019

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
3 / 7

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”. The form-making of the competition project 06-09.2019

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
4 / 7

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”. The form-making of the competition project 06-09.2019

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
5 / 7

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”. The form-making of the competition project 06-09.2019

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
6 / 7

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”. The form-making of the competition project 06-09.2019

Copyright: © 4izmerenie
7 / 7

The main theater and concert complex of the Moscow Region “Tchaikovsky′s Universe”. The form-making of the competition project 06-09.2019

Copyright: © 4izmerenie

21 January 2020

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

Headlines now

Object

The Angle of String Tension

The House of Music, designed by Vladimir Plotkin and the architects of TPO Reserve, resembles a harp, and when seen from above, even a bass clef. But if only it were that simple! The architecture of the complex fuses two distinct expressive languages: the lattice-like, transparent, permeable vocabulary of “classical” modernism and the sculptural, ribbon-like volumes so beloved by today’s neo-modernism. How it all works – where the catharsis lies, which compositional axes underpin the design, where the project resembles Zaryadye Concert Hall and where it does not – read in the article below.

Object

How Historic Tobolsk Becomes a Portal to the Future

Over the past decade, the architectural company Wowhaus has developed urban strategies for several Russian cities – Vyksa, Tula, and Nizhnekamsk, to name but a few. Against this backdrop, the Tobolsk master plan stands out both for its scale – the territory under transformation covers more than 220 square kilometers – and for its complexity.

Object

St. Petersburg vs Rome

The center of St. Petersburg is, as we know, sacred – but few people can say with certainty where this “sacred place” actually begins and ends. It’s not about the formal boundaries, “from the Obvodny Canal to the Bolshaya Nevka”, but about the vibe that feels true to the city center. With the Nevskaya Ratusha complex – built to a design that won an international competition – Evgeny Gerasimov and Sergei Tchoban created an “image of the center” within its territory. And not so much the image of St. Petersburg itself, as that of a global metropolis. This is something new, something that hasn’t appeared in the city for a long time. In this article, we study the atmosphere, recall precedents, and even reflect on who and when first called St. Petersburg the “new Rome”. Clearly, the idea is alive for a reason.

Object

On the Wave

The project of transforming the river port and embankment in the city of Cheboksary, developed by the ATRIUM Architects, involves one of the city’s key areas. The Volga embankment is to be turned into a riverside boulevard – a multifunctional, comfortable, and expressive space for work and leisure activities. The authors propose creating a new link with the city’s main Krasnaya (“Red”) Square, as well as erecting several residential towers inspired by the shape of the traditional national women’s headdress – these towers are likely to become striking accents on the Volga panorama.

Interview

Valery Kanyashin: “We Were Given a Free Hand”

The Headliner residential complex, the main part of which was recently completed just across from Moscow City, is a kind of neighbor to the MIBC that doesn’t “play along” with it. On the contrary, the new complex is entirely built on contrast: like a city of differently scaled buildings that seems to have emerged naturally over the past 20 years – which is a hugely popular trend nowadays! And yet here – perhaps only here – such a project has been realized to its full potential. Yes, high-rises dominate, but all these slender, delicate profiles, all these exciting perspectives! And most importantly – how everything is mixed and composed together... We spoke with the project’s leader Valery Kanyashin.

Object

The Keystone

Until quite recently, premium residential and office complexes in Moscow were seen as the exclusive privilege of the city center. Today the situation is changing: high-quality architecture is moving beyond the confines of the Third Ring Road and appearing on the outskirts. The STONE Kaluzhskaya business center is one such example. Projects like this help decentralize the megalopolis, making life and work prestigious in any part of the city.

send.project

Perpetuum Mobile

The interior of the headquarters of Natsproektstroy, created by the IND studio team, vividly and effectively reflects the client’s field of activity – it is one of Russia’s largest infrastructure companies, responsible for logistics and transport communications of every kind you can possibly think of.

Object

Water and Light

Church art is full of symbolism, and part of it is truly canonical, while another part is shaped by tradition and is perceived by some as obligatory. Because of this kind of “false conservatism”, contemporary church architecture develops slowly compared to other genres, and rarely looks contemporary. Nevertheless, there are enthusiasts in this field out there: the cemetery church of Archangel Michael in Apatity, designed by Dmitry Ostroumov and Prokhram bureau, combines tradition and experiment. This is not an experiment for its own sake, however – rather, the considered work of a contemporary architect with the symbolism of space, volume, and, above all, light.

Object

Champions’ Cup

At first glance, the Bell skyscraper on 1st Yamskogo Polya Street, 12, appears strict and laconic – though by no means modest. Its economical stereometry is built on a form close to an oval, one of UNK architects’ favorite themes. The streamlined surface of the main volume, clad in metal louvers, is sliced twice with glass incisions that graphically reveal the essence of the original shape: both its simplicity and its complexity. At the same time, dozens of highly complex engineering puzzles have been solved here.

send.project

Semi-Digital Environment

In the town of Innopolis, a satellite of Kazan, the first 4-star hotel designed by MAD Architects has opened. The interiors of the hotel combine elegance with irony, and technology with comfort, evoking the atmosphere of a computer game or maybe a sci-fi movie about the near future.

Object

History never ends

The old railway station in Kapan, a city in southern Armenia, has been given new life by the Paris-based design firm Normal Studio. Today, it serves as a TUMO center.

Object

A Deep, Crystal Shine

A new luxury residential development by ADM architects is set to rise in the Patriarch’s Ponds district, not far from Novopushkinsky Square. It will replace three buildings erected in the early 1990s. The project authors, Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova, have placed their bets on the variety among the three volumes, modern design solutions, and attention to detail: one of the buildings will feature smoothly curved balconies with a ceramic sheen on their undersides, while another will be accented by glass “sculpture” columns.

Interview

Grigory Revzin: “What we should do with the architecture of the seventies”

Soviet modernism came in two flavors: the good, author-driven kind, and the bad, standardized kind. The good kind was “on the periphery”, while the bad kind was in the center – geographically, in terms of attention, scale, and everything else. Can we demolish it? “That would be destroying public consensus out of thin air”. So what should we do? Preserve it, but creatively: “Bring architecture into places where it hasn’t yet appeared”. Treat these buildings not as monuments, but as urban landscape. Read our interview with Grigory Revzin on the pressing topic of saving modernism – where he proposes a controversial, yet really intriguing, way of preserving 1970s buildings.

Overview

A Roadside Picnic of Urban Planning Theorists

Marina Egorova, head of Empate Architectural Bureau, brought together urban planning theorists – the successors of Alexey Gutnov and Vyacheslav Glazychev – to revive the substance and depth of professional discourse. At the first meeting, much ground was covered: the participants revisited the theoretical foundations, aligned their values, examined a cutting-edge case of the Kazan agglomeration, and concluded with the unfathomable intricacies of Russian land demarcation. Below, we present key takeaways from all the presentations.

Object

Perspective View

CNTR Architects has designed a business center for a new district in Yekaterinburg, aiming to reduce the need for commuting and make the residential environment more diverse. The architectural solutions are equally focused on creating spatial flexibility, comfortable working conditions, and a memorable image that could allow the building to become a spatial landmark of the district.

Object

Malevich and Bathhouses, Nature and High-Tech

The Malevich Bathhouse complex is scheduled to open in the fall of 2025 on the Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Highway. The project, designed by DBA-GROUP under the leadership of Vladislav Andreev, is an example of an unconventional approach to the image of a spa in general and of a bathhouse in particular. Deliberately avoiding any kind of allusion, the architects opted for streamlined forms with characteristic rounded corners, a combination of wood with bent glass, and restrained contemporary shapes – both inside and out. Let’s take a closer look at the project.

Object

Rather, a Tablecloth and a Glass!

After many years, the long-abandoned Horse Guards Department building in St. Petersburg has finally received the attention it deserves: according to a design by Studio 44, the first restoration and adaptation works are scheduled to begin this year. Both the intended function and the general scope of works imply minimal alteration to the complex, which has preserved traces of its three-century history. All solutions are reversible and aimed, above all, at opening the monument to the city and immersing it in a lively social scene – hence the choice of a cultural center scenario with a strong gastronomic component.

Object

Materialization of Airflows

The Nikolai Kamov International Airport in Tomsk opened at the end of August last year. We have already written about the project – now we are taking a look at the completed building. Its functionality is reinforced by symbolic undertones: the architects at ASADOV sought to reflect local identity in the architecture as fully as possible.

Object

The City as a Narrative

Sergey Skuratov’s approach to large urban plots could best be described as a “total design code”. The architect pays equal attention to the overall composition and the smallest of details, striving to ensure that every aspect is thoroughly thought out and subordinated to the original vision. It’s a Renaissance-like approach, really – a titanic effort demanding remarkable willpower and perseverance. The results are likewise grand – architecture that makes a statement. This article looks at the revived concept for the central section of the Seventh Heaven residential district in Kazan, a composition so thoroughly considered that even the “gradient of visual emphasis” (sic!) across the facades has been carefully worked out. It also touches on the narrative idea behind the project – and even the architect’s own doubts about it.

A Garden of Hope for Freedom

In October, at the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery in Suzdal, the Prison Yard Garden opened on the site that had served as a prison from the 18th century until the Khrushchev Thaw. The architectural concept was developed by NOῨD Short Film, and the landscape design by the MOX landscape bureau. In fact, there are two gardens here – very different ones. We try to understand whether they evoke the right emotions in visitors, while also showing the beauty of June’s ruderal plants in bloom.

Object

A Laconic Image of Time

The Time Square residential complex, built on the northern edge of St. Petersburg, appears more concise and efficient than its neighbor and predecessor, the New Time complex. Nevertheless, the architect’s hand is clearly felt: themes of “black and white”, “inside and outside”, and most notably, the “lamellar” quality of the facades that seems to visibly “eat away” at the buildings’ mass – everything is played out like a well-written score. One is reminded of both classical modernism and the so-called “post-constructivism”.

Object

The Flower of the Lake

The prototype for the building of the Kamal Theater in Kazan is an ice flower: a rare and fragile natural phenomenon of Lake Kaban “froze” in the large, soaring outlines of the glass screens enclosing the main volume, shaping its silhouette and shielding the stained-glass windows from the sun. The project, led by the Wowhaus consortium and including global architecture “star” Kengo Kuma, won the 2021/2022 competition and was realized close to the original concept in a short – very short – period of time. The theater opened in early 2025. It was Kengo Kuma who proposed the image of an ice flower and the contraposition of cold on the outside and warmth on the inside. Between 2022 and 2024, Wowhaus did everything possible to bring this vision to life, practically living on-site. Now we are taking a closer look at this landmark building and its captivating story.

Object

Peaceful Integration on Mira Avenue

The MIRA residential complex (the word mir means “peace” in Russian), perched above the steep banks of the Yauza River and Mira Avenue, lives up to its name not only technically, but also visually and conceptually. Sleek, high-rise, and glass-clad, it responds both to Zholtovsky’s classicism and to the modernism of the nearby “House on Stilts”. Drawing on features from its neighbors, it reconciles them within a shared architectural language rooted in contemporary façade design. Let’s take a closer look at how this is done.

Object

An Interior for a New Format of Education

The design of the new building for Tyumen State University (TyumSU) was initially developed before the pandemic but later revised to meet new educational requirements. The university has adopted a “2+2+2” system, which eliminates traditional divisions into groups and academic streams in favor of individualized study programs. These changes were implemented swiftly – right at the start of construction. Now that the building is complete, we are taking a closer look.

Object

New Aeroflot Office: Lightness, Play, Comfort

Even if you have no plans to fly with Aeroflot anytime soon, their new office at 2A 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street is still worth a visit for its interior design alone.

Object

Penthouses and Kokoshniks

A new residential complex designed by ASADOV Architects for the Krasnaya Roza business district responds to its proximity to 17th-century landmarks – the chambers of the Hamovny Dvor and St. Nicholas Church – as well as to the need to preserve valuable façades of a historic rental house built in the Russian Revival style. The architects proposed a set of buildings of varying heights, whose façades reference ecclesiastical architecture. But we were also able to detect other associations.

Object

Centipede Town

The new school campus designed by ATRIUM Architects, located on the shores of a protected lake in the Imeretian Lowland Ornithological Reserve, represents an important and ambitious undertaking for the team: this is not just a school, but a Presidential Lyceum for the comprehensive development of gifted children – 2,500 students from age 3 through high school. At the same time, it is also envisioned as a new civic hub for the entire Sirius territory. In this article, we unpack the structure and architecture of this “lyceum town”.

Object

Warm Black and White

The second phase of “Quarter 31”, designed by KPLN and built in the Moscow suburb town of Pushkino, reveals a multifaceted character. At first glance, the complex appears to be defined by geometry and a monochrome palette. But a closer look reveals a number of “irregular” details: a gradient of glazing and flared window frames, a hierarchy of façades, volumetric brickwork, and even architectural references to natural phenomena. We explore all the rules – and exceptions – that we were able to discover here.

Object

Skylights and Staircase

Photos from March show the nearly completed headquarters of FSK Group on Shenogina Street. The building’s exterior is calm and minimalist; the interior is engaging and multi-layered. The conical skylights of the executive office, cast in raw concrete, and the sweeping spiral staircase leading to it, are particularly striking. In fact, there’s more than one spiral staircase here, and the first two floors effectively form a small shopping center. More below.

Object

The Whale of Future Identity

Or is it a veil? Or a snow-covered plain? Vera Butko, Anton Nadtochy, and the architects of ATRIUM faced a complex and momentous task: to propose a design for the “Russia” National Center. It had to be contemporary, yet firmly rooted in cultural codes. Unique, and yet subtly reminiscent of many things at once. It must be said – the task found the right authors. Let’s explore in detail the image they envisioned.