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​Architectural Laboratory

A-Len has developed and patented the “Perfect Apartments” program, which totally eliminates “bad” apartment layouts. In this article, we are sharing how this program came around, what it is about, who can benefit from it, and how.

11 December 2020
Overview
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Point of growth

Saint Petersburg’s A-Len Architectural Bureau has a division, whose name is not exactly habitual: the architectural laboratory. This division was formed in 2009 in response to the economic crisis, which significantly reduced the pace of construction and the number of contracts. The leader of the company Sergey Oreshkin decided to use the idle period to reflect on the experience accumulated over the recent decades, find new approaches to architectural design, and come up with the workload for the large staff that he did not want to dismiss. Since only housing construction was doing relatively well, the company focused specifically on this field.
This is how the program called “A.Len Perfect Apartments” came around – a knowledge base of apartment layouts that the company has been using as the basis for all of the housing projects that it designs since 2012.

“The perfect apartments” are to be found in high-end projects, such as the housing complex “Golden City” on the wash-up land of the Vasilievsky Island, and in the regions – for example, in the housing complex “Bunin”, where the layouts could be easily adjusted to fit a sophisticated stair-like structure. The program can be adapted to various classes of housing: standard, comfort, and business, as well as to mixed typologies – a vivid example here is the “Prospect Mira” compound in Ekaterinburg.

In Soviet times, such developments were provided by design research institutes; today, these things are done by large development holdings. Architectural offices, however, rarely attempt to tackle such large-scale tasks.

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    “Bunin” housing complex
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len
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    Golden City housing complex
    Copyright: © KCAP+Orange Architects & A-Len
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    Skandi Klubb housing complex
    Copyright: © A-Len & Semren & Mansson
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    “Dom na Lvovskoi” housing complex
    Copyright: © A-Len
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    The “Printsip” house on the Dvinskaya Street
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len
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    “Lazurit” House
    Copyright: © A-Len
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    YIT house on the Chapaeva Street
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len
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    "Me, Romantic" housing complex
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len


The program is based on a study of typologies of Soviet, modern Russian, and foreign housing, as well as the company’s experience of working with the marketing and sales departments of modern developers, as well as on error analysis.

Sergey Oreshkin notes that the source of all issues with modern apartment layouts is the absence of in-depth scientific research, for which the architectural companies have no resources, while the government is studiously ignoring the problem.

Using the example of such a simple indicator as the width of the building, which affects the depth of the apartment (counting from the window), and its square footage, one can easily trace how the planning solutions have evolved, regardless of the class of the housing construction.

When the economy was on the rise and decisions were made too quickly, the width of residential buildings could reach 27 meters – and this, considering the fact that the sunlight penetrates at best 6-6.5 meters. Besides excessively long or L-shaped dark rooms, such houses feature giant anterooms, closets, and bathrooms, for which the buyer pays exactly the same price as for a square meter of a sunlit kitchen.

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    Class “STANDARD”, a studio, S=15,67 square meters, S=26,29 square meters
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len
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    Class “STANDARD”, 1K, S=31.16 square meters
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len
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    Class “STANDARD”, 2K, S=51.93 square meters
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len
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    Class “STANDARD”, 3K, S=66.31 square meters
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len


As for the town planning techniques, the apartment layouts were strongly influenced by the spreading of the so-called “perimeter construction groups”, based on the idea of an isolated yard, similar to “well” yards of Saint Petersburg, only on a quite different scale. Such houses had too many apartments located in the inner corners, where it was virtually impossible to isolate neighboring apartments from one another, and the problems with echo and sound penetration turned out to be considerable.

In such corner apartments, the inner wall was longer than the outer one; there was one less window, and, hence, there was a lot less natural light. A healthy alternative would be a not-too-wide section, room proportions close to a perfect square, and the efficiency of every square meter.

Andrey Ponomarev The leader of the development division of Pervostroitel

The core of the apartment range in the “Prospect Mira” compound consists of two- and three-room apartments, rather popular with the buyers. Single-room apartments do not sell that well, but, probably, this has to do with their relatively expensive price tag. The apartments of an unusual format – for example, double-height ones, have almost been sold out, and it was them that aroused a lot of interest for the project as part of the general marketing campaign. We had a lot of requests for them. According to our observations, what is the most popular with our clients are the most functional layouts – with master bedrooms, two or more bathrooms, kitchen-living room, and storage space.

The apartments offered by A-Len are diverse and balanced enough to meet the needs of the audience. The apartments of larger formats have unique advantages: double height, panoramic glazing, and master bedrooms. These unique solutions are what makes us different from the competition and gives more possibilities to our clients.


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    A double-level apartment, 4К, S= 81.80 square meters
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len
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    A double-level apartment with a fireplace, 5Е, S=166,98 square meters
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len
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    An apartment with a terrace, 4Е, S=143,86 square meters
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len
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    An office apartment 1К, S=60,53 square meters
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len


How the program works

The knowledge base already includes more than 5,000 successful layouts, which are grouped into four major categories: business, comfort, economy, and special-type apartments, which are not wide-spread on the market yet. The latter include such things as two-level apartments, duplexes, corner, side-end apartments, and office apartments. The business-class apartments are characterized by a wider pitch of the axis grid, bigger area, and diversity of functional zones.

The base can be used as a constructor set: the architects developed for each class of apartments room modules with the optimum area and furniture arrangement. By using them, it is possible to transform individual apartments, as well as whole floors.

Александр Андрианов, первый вице-президент Glorax Development

The residential complex Golden City, which is being built by Glorax Development on the first shoreline of the Gulf of Finland, implements several interesting planning solutions at once. The top floors have in them apartments with private terraces; in addition, the complex features two-level apartments, all of which command beautiful gulf views. Some of the buildings have solutions with a window in the bathroom or in the hall – this widens the circle for design ideas when decorating such apartments, and such property in business-class housing complexes is highly valued by the buyers. Another feature of our perfect apartments in Golden City is panoramic windows that fill the rooms with natural light and allow you to zone the space, creating dedicated spaces for relaxation, work, play, and more.


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    Class “BUSINESS”, a studio, S=36.25 square meters
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len
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    Class “BUSINESS”, 2E, S=49.97 square meters
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len
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    Class “BUSINESS”, 3E, S=78.13 square meters
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len
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    Class “BUSINESS”, 4E, S=121.34 square meters
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len



Each layout has its own identification card, understandable for both the developer and the buyer. This card displays the number of rooms, the type of suitable household, the useful floor space, and the total area of the apartment. Also, the company developed evaluation coefficients that show just how effectively the apartment floor space is used.

Coefficient K1 shows the ratio of the sum total of the areas of residential rooms, the kitchen, and the living room, to the overall area of the apartment. It accurately indicates errors in the design methodology with a significant increase in the area of corridors and other auxiliary rooms. The optimum coefficient is 0.6-0.75

Coefficient K2 is the ratio between the overall area of the apartment to the overall area of the outside façade wall, which reflects the natural insolation of the apartment. The optimum coefficient is 2.1-2.35

Sergey Oreshkin, «A-Len»

Today, the architects of our company start their work not from a sketch or a master plan, but from taking the program, previously getting from the client a package of different tasks, one of them being the range of apartments.

This program helped us to significantly streamline the architect-developer relationship: the client, as a rule, at once accepts the layouts that we propose, which gives us an opportunity to safely work on the facades. The painfully inefficient procedure that consists of getting endless approvals from the sales department that knows very little about ergonomics, has now become pleasantly routine. When an architect works under pressure, he is very likely to deliver poor results. Today, we and developer are on the same page – they know what we are doing and they profit from getting no problem apartments. This ideology helps us sell.


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    Class “COMFORT”, a studio, S=21.41 square meters, S=29,82 square meters
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len
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    Class “COMFORT”, 2E, S=53.72 square meters
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len
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    Class “COMFORT”, 3K, S=93.63 square meters
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len
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    Class “COMFORT”, 4E, S=89.37 square meters
    Copyright: © “Perfect Apartments” A-Len


Integration and development

The A-Len Architectural Laboratory also has other branches: Brickwork (dedicated to restoring the old techniques of laying bricks), the color laboratory, architectural marketing, and animated graphics. So far, the “Perfect Apartments” are only compatible with the Architectural Tool Kit software, because the typology of the apartments can be significantly widened by using various façade systems, and because each solution – be that a window reaching to the floor or a French balcony – entails the necessity of solving engineering and constructive tasks. In 2018, the program was patented, but it is constantly improved, and, possibly, will be automated in the future.

11 December 2020

Headlines now
Elevation 5642
The Genplan Institute of Moscow has developed a comprehensive development project for three ski resorts in the Caucasus, which have been designated as special economic zones of the tourism and recreation type. The first of these zones is Elbrus. The project includes the construction of new ski runs, cable cars, and hotels, as well as the modernization of stations and improvements to the Azau tourist meadow. To expand the audience and enhance year-round appeal, a network of eco-trails is also being developed. In this article, we provide a detailed breakdown of each stage.
The IT Town
Taking the example of the first completed phase of the “U” district, we examine how the new neighborhood in Innopolis will be organized. T+T Architects and HADAA formed a well-balanced and ingenious master plan with different types of housing, a green artery, a system of squares, and a park in the town’s central part.
The Heart Lies Within
The second-phase building of the Evgeny Primakov School already won multiple awards while still in the design stage. Now that it’s completed, some unfinished nuances remain – most notably, the exposed ceiling structures, which ideally should have been concealed. However, given the priority placed on the building’s volumetric composition, this does not seem critical. What matters more is the “Wow!” effect created by the space itself.
Magnetic Forces
“Krylatskaya 33” is the first large-scale residential complex to appear amidst the 1980s “micro-districts” that harmoniously coexist with the forests, the river, the slopes, and the sports infrastructure. Despite its imposing scale, the architects of Ostozhenka managed to turn the complex into something that can be best described as a “graceful dominant”. First, they designed the complex with consideration for the style and height of the surrounding micro-districts. Second, by introducing a pause in its tallest section, they created compositional tension – right along the urban planning axis of the area.
Orion’s Belt
The Stone Khodynka 2 office complex, designed by Kleinewelt Architekten for the company Stone, is built with an ergonomic layout following “healthy building” principles: natural light, ventilation, and all the necessary features for an efficient office environment. On the outside, it resembles – like many contemporary buildings – an iPhone: sleek, glowing, glass-and-metal, edges elegantly rounded. Yet, it responds sensitively to the Khodynka context, where the main theme is the contrast between vertical and horizontal lines. The key intrigue lies in the design of the “stylobate” as a suspended passage, leaving the space beneath it open for free pedestrian movement.
Grigory Revzin: “It Was a Bold Statement Made on the Sly. Something Won”
In this article, we discuss the debates surrounding the circus competition and the demolition of the CMEA building with the most renowned architectural critic of our time. A paradox emerges in the process: while nostalgia for the Brezhnev era seems to be in vogue in Russia, a landmark building – the “axis” of the Warsaw Pact – has been sentenced to demolition. Isn’t that strange? We also find out that wow-architecture has made a comeback as a post-COVID trend. However, to make a truly powerful statement, professionals still remain indispensable.
Exposed Concrete
One of the stages of improving a small square in the town of Lermontov was the construction of a skatepark. Entrusting this part of the project to the XSA team, the city gained a 250-meter trick track whose features resemble those of land art objects – unparalleled in Russia in both scale and design. Here’s a look at how the experimental snake run in the foothills of the Caucasus was built.
One Step Closer To the Dream
The challenges of getting all the mandatory approvals, an insufficient budget, and construction site difficulties did not prevent ASADOV Bureau from achieving its main goal in the realization of the school project in the town of Troitsk – taking another step away from outdated notions of educational spaces toward creating a fundamentally new academic environment.
Chalet on the Rock
An Accor hotel in Arkhyz, designed by A.Len, will be situated at the gateway to the resort’s main tourist hubs. The architects reinterpreted the widely popular chalet style while adding an unexpected twist – an unfinished structure preserved on the site. The design team transformed this remnant into an exciting space featuring an open-air pool and a restaurant with panoramic views of the region’s highest mountain ridges.
Sergey Skuratov: “By and large, the project has been realized in line with the original ideas”
In this issue, we talk to the chief architect of Garden Quarters, looking back at the history and key moments of a project that took 18 years to develop and has now finally been completed. What interests us most are the transformations that the project underwent during construction, and the way the “necessary void” of public space was formed, which turned this remarkable complex into a fragment of a whole new type of urban fabric – not just at the horizontal “street” level but in its vertical structure as well.
A Unique Representative
The recently concluded year 2024 can be considered the year of completion for the “Garden Quarters” residential complex in Moscow’s Khamovniki. This project is well-known and, in many ways, iconic. Rarely does one manage to preserve such a number of original ideas, achieving in the end a kind of urban planning Gesamtkunstwerk. Here is a subjective view from an architecture journalist, with an interview with Sergey Skuratov soon to follow.
Field of Life
The new project by the architectural company PNKB (an acronym for “Design, Research, and Advisory Bureau”), led by Sergey Gnedovsky and Anton Lyubimkin, for the Kulikovo Field Museum is dedicated to the field as a concept in its own right. The field has long been a focus of the museum’s thorough and successful research. Accordingly, the exterior of the new museum building is gentler than that of its predecessor, which was also designed by PNKB and dedicated specifically to the historic battle. Inside, however, the building confidently guides the visitor from a luminous atrium along a spiral path to the field – interpreted here as a field of life.
A Paper Clip above the River
In this article, we talk with Vitaly Lutz from the Genplan Institute of Moscow about the design and unique features of the pedestrian bridge that now links the two banks of the Yauza River in the new cluster of Bauman Moscow State Technical University (MSTU). The bridge’s form and functionality – particularly the inclusion of an amphitheater suspended over the river – were conceived during the planning phase of the territory’s development. Typically, this approach is not standard practice, but the architects advocate for it, referring to this intermediate project phase as the “pre-AGR” stage (AGR stands for Architectural and Urban Planning Approval). Such a practice, they argue, helps define key parameters of future projects and bridge the gap between urban planning and architectural design.
Living in the Architecture of One’s Own Making
Do architects design houses for themselves? You bet! In this article, we are examining a new book by TATLIN publishing house. This book – unprecedented for Russia – features 52 private homes designed and built by contemporary architects for themselves. It includes houses that are famous, even iconic, as well as lesser-known ones; large and small, stylish and eccentric. To some extent, the book reflects the history of Russian architecture over the past 30 years.
A City Block Isoline
Another competition project for a residential complex on the banks of the Volga in Nizhny Novgorod has been prepared by Studio 44. A team of architects led by Ivan Kozhin concluded that using a regular block layout in such a location would be inappropriate and developed a “custom design” approach: a chain of parceled multi-section buildings stretching along the entire embankment. Let’s explore the features and advantages of this unconventional method.
Competition: The Price of Creativity?
Any day now, we’re expecting the results of a competition held by the “Samolet” development group for a plot in Kommunarka. In the meantime, we share the impressions of Editor-in-Chief Julia Tarabarina, who managed to conduct a public talk. Though technically focused on the interaction between developers and architects, the public talk turned into a discussion about the pros and cons of architectural competitions.
Terraced Design
The “River Park” residential complex has confidently and securely shaped the Nagatinsky Backwater shoreline. Featuring a public embankment, elevated courtyards connected by pedestrian bridges, and brick façades, the development invites exploration of its nuanced response to the surrounding context, as well as hints of the architects’ megalithic design thinking.
A Kremlin’s Core and Meteorite Fragments
We continue our coverage of the competition projects for the residential district that the development company GloraX plans to build along the embankment of the Rowing Channel in Nizhny Novgorod. ASADOV Architects approached the concept through a deep dive into local identity, using storytelling to pinpoint a central idea for the design: the master plan and composition are imagined as if a meteorite had struck a “proto-Kremlin”. Sounds weird? Find more details below!
The Volga Regatta
GloraX plans to develop a residential complex spanning 14 hectares along the Volga River in Nizhny Novgorod. The winning design in a closed-door competition, created by GORA Architects, features housing typologies ranging from townhouses to terraced high-rise slabs, a balance of functions, diverse ways of engaging with the water, and even a dedicated island (no less!) for the city residents.
Life Plans
The master plan for the residential district “Prityazheniye” (“Gravity”) in Naberezhnye Chelny was developed by the architectural company A.Len, taking into account the specific urban planning context and partially implemented solutions of the first phase. However, the master plan prioritized its own values: a green framework, a system of focal points, a hierarchy of spaces, and pedestrian priority. After this, the question of what residents will do in their neighborhood simply doesn’t arise.
A New Track
We took a thorough look at D_Station, a railcar repair depot dating back to 1906, recently reconstructed while preserving its century-old industrial structure, upon the project by Sergey Trukhanov and T+T Architects. Though work on the interiors – set to house restaurants and public spaces – is still underway, the building’s exterior already offers plenty to see. Visitors can explore the blend of old and new brickwork, appreciate the architect’s unique interpretation of ruin aesthetics, and enjoy the newly built pedestrian route that connects the Citydel Business Center’s arches to Kazakova Street.
Four Different Surveys
The “Explore the City” competition, organized this year by the Genplan Institute of Moscow, stands out as a pretty unconventional one for the architectural field but aligns perfectly well with the character of urban planning work. The winning project analyzed contemporary residential complexes, combining urban planning insights with a realtor’s perspective to propose a hybrid approach. Other entries explored public centers, motivations for car ownership, and housing vacancy rates. A fifth participant withdrew. Here’s a closer look at the four completed works.
Scheduled Evolution
ASADOV Architects unveiled the EvyCenter pavilion, a microcultural hub for fostering personal growth, organizing workshops, and doing gymnastics. Additionally, this pavilion serves as a prototype for a scalable country house, drawing inspiration from the “Loskutok” project, and constructed from CLT panels in a factory. This marks the beginning of a developer project initiated by the architectural firm (sic!), which is seeking partners to expand both small Evy settlements and even larger Evy cities, which are, according to Andrey Asadov, aimed at fostering the “evolutionary” development of the people who will inhabit them.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.