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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
Centipede Town
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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.
​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.
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.
Greater Altai: A Systemic Development Plan
The master plan for tourism development in Greater Altai encompasses three regions: Kuzbass, the Altai Republic, and Altai Krai. It is one of twelve projects developed as part of the large-scale state program bearing the simple name of “Tourism Development”. The project’s slogan reads: “Greater Altai – a place of strength, health, and spirit in the very heart of Siberia”. What are the proposed growth points, and how will the plan help increase the flow of both domestic and international tourists? Read on to find out.
The Colorful City
While working on a large-scale project in Moscow’s Kuntsevo district – one that has yet to be given a name – Kleinewelt Architekten proposed not only a diverse array of tower silhouettes in “Empire-style” hues and a thoughtful mix of building heights, creating a six-story “neo-urbanist” city with a block-based layout at ground level, but also rooted their design in historical and contextual reasoning. The project includes the reconstruction of several Stalin-era residential buildings that remain from the postwar town of Kuntsevo, as well as the reconstruction of a 1953 railway station that was demolished in 2017.
In Orbit of Moscow City
The Orbital business center is both simple and complex. Simple in its minimalist form and optimal office layout solution: a central core, a light-filled façade, plenty of glass; and from the unusual side – a technical floor cleverly placed at the building’s side ends. Complex – well, if only because it resembles a celestial body hovering on metallic legs near Magistralnaya Street. Why this specific shape, what it consists of, and what makes this “boutique” office building (purchased immediately after its completion) so unique – all of this and more is covered in our story.
The Altai Ornament
The architectural company Empate has developed the concept for an eco-settlement located on a remote site in Altai. The master plan, which resembles a traditional ornament or even a utopian city, forms a clear system of public and private spaces. The architects also designed six types of houses for the settlement, drawing inspiration from the region’s culture, folklore, and vernacular building practices.
Pro Forma
Photos have emerged of the newly completed whisky distillery in Chernyakhovsk, designed by TOTEMENT / PAPER – a continuation of their earlier work on the nearby Cognac Museum. From what is, in essence, a merely technical and utilitarian volume and space, the architects have created a fully-fledged theatre of impressions. Let’s take a closer look. We highly recommend a visit to what may look like a factory, but is in fact an experiment in theatricalizing the process of strong spirit production – and not only that, but also of “pure art”, capable of evolving anywhere.
The Arch and the Triangle
The new Stone Mnevniki business center by Kleinewelt Architekten – designed for the same client as their projects in Khodynka – bears certain similarities to those earlier developments, but not entirely. In Mnevniki, there are more angular elements, and the architects themselves describe the project as being built on contrast. Indeed, while the first phase contains subtle references to classical architecture – light touches like arches, both upright and inverted, evoking the spirit of the 1980s – the second phase draws more distantly on the modernism of the 1970s. What unites them is a boldly expressive public space design, a kaleidoscope of rays and triangles.
Health Factory
While working on a wellness and tourist complex on the banks of the Yenisei River, the architects at Vissarionov Studio set out to create healing spaces that would amplify the benefits of nature and medical treatments for both body and soul. The spatial solutions are designed to encourage interaction between the guests and the landscape, as well as each other.
The Blooming Mechanics of a Glass Forest
The Savvinskaya 27 apartment complex built by Level Group, currently nearing completion on an elongated riverfront site next to the Novodevichy Convent, boasts a form that’s daring even by modern Moscow standards. Visually, it resembles the collaborative creation of a glassblower and a sculptor: a kind of glass-and-concrete jungle, rhythmically structured yet growing energetically and vividly. Bringing such an idea to life was by no means an easy task. In this article, we discuss the concept by ODA and the methods used by APEX architects to implement it, along with a look at the building’s main units and detailing.
Grace and Unity
Villa “Grace”, designed by Roman Leonidov’s studio and built in the Moscow suburbs, strikes a balance between elegant minimalism and the expansive gestures of the Russian soul. The main house is conceived as a sequence of four self-contained volumes – each could exist independently, yet it chooses to be part of a whole. Unity is achieved through color and a system of shared spaces, while the rich plasticity of the forms – refined throughout the construction process – compensates for the near-total absence of decorative elements.
Daring Brilliance
In this article, we are exploring “New Vision”, the first school built in the past 25 years in Moscow’s Khamovniki. The building has three main features: it is designed in accordance with the universal principles of modern education, fostering learning through interaction and more; second, the façades combine structural molded glass and metallic glazed ceramics – expensive and technologically advanced materials. Third, this is the school of Garden Quarters, the latest addition to Moscow’s iconic Khamovniki district. Both a costly and, in its way, audacious acquisition, it carries a youthful boldness in its statement. Let’s explore how the school is designed and where the contrasts lie.
A Twist of the Core
A clever and concise sculptural solution – rotating each floor by N degrees – has created an ensemble of “dancing” towers: similar yet different, simple yet complex. The designers meticulously refined a single structural node and spent considerable effort on the column construction – after that, “everything else was easy”. The architects also rotated the core walls on each floor to maximize the efficiency of the office spaces.
The Sculpting of Spring Forest Matter
We’ve been observing this building for a couple of years now: seemingly simple, perhaps even unassuming, it fits in remarkably well with the micro-district context shaped by the Moscow MCD road junctions. This building sticks in the memory of everyone who drives along the highway, even occasionally. In our opinion, Sergey Nikeshkin, by blending popular architectural techniques and approaches of the 2010s, managed to turn a seemingly simple structure into a statement “on the theme of a house as such”. Let’s figure out how this happened.
Water and Wind Whet the Stone
The Arisha Terraces residential complex, designed by Asadov Architects, will be built in a district of Dubai dedicated to film and television production. To create shaded spaces and an intriguing silhouette, the architects opted for a funnel-shaped composition and nature-inspired forms of erosion and weathering. The roofs, podium, and underground spaces extend leisure opportunities within the boundaries of a man-made “oasis”.
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.