Rational Arrangement

In this article, we are examining a complex of buildings and interiors of the first stage of the project that has recently become extremely popular – the Kommunarka clinic.

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

02 June 2020

Object

The project of the new clinic won the architectural competition, which was held in 2016, and then, without significant deviations from the main concept, was built by the contest winner, Vladimir Plotkin and Reserve Union. In July 2019, it received the Mayor’s Architectural Award and the Moscow Architectural Council Award; right about that time it also became known that the project got shortlisted for WAF.

The clinic was designed and built as an extension of Moscow City Hospital #40 as a state-of-the-art facility with new treatment options for cancer patients, heart attacks and strokes, and emergency operating rooms.

zooming — Multipurpose medical center “Novomoskovsky” in Kommunarka

Copyright: Photograph © Ilia Ivanov / provided by Reserve Union

The hospital was designed first of all as the place for treating the residents of Troitsky and Novomoskovsky Administrative District, South Butovo, Solntsevo, and Novoperedelkino – districts, which, according to the Moscow mayor, contain a population of about 5 million people living with a 10-kilometer radius. The construction began in January 2017; three years later, December 27, 2019, the four blocks of the first stage were inaugurated: a ward block for 606 beds, the main treatment and diagnosis block, an auxiliary unit, and a forensic unit with morphological and genetic laboratories. The second stage will include completing the children’s clinic, a maternity hospital, and an emergency care block in the eastern part of the territory; their frameworks have generally been set up already but the work is not yet complete.

In May 2020, as soon as it opened, the clinic was the first one in Russia to take in patients with suspected Covid-19, soon becoming a symbol of fighting the pandemic. In the first half of May, the number of patients here was teetering on the edge of 500, and in the end of April, north of the medical center they began the construction of a quick-mount coronavirus center, reportedly, for follow-up care, with another 500 beds. Today, everybody in Russia knows the name of the chief physician of the Kommunarka Hospital, Denis Protsenko. The facades of the clinic became more than recognizable, and, although the subtleties of the architectural solution and the plans for creating a truly versatile medical facility were upset by the coronavirus outbreak, we still hope that this is only temporary.

Of course, it was a great stroke of luck that at least half of this state-of-the-art clinic opened before the beginning of the pandemic, but we still hope that one day things will be back to normal, and the hospital will operate not in the emergency mode but in accordance with the multiple medical specialties that were originally planned here.

So! The medical complex is situated 4 km outside the Moscow Ring Road on the Kaluzhskoe Highway, in the center of the territory allotted for the Administration and Business Center of Kommunarka – the center for governing this “protuberance” of New Moscow. Its nearest neighbor – the building of the Prefecture of Troitsky and Novomoskovsky Administrative District, completed in 2017 – was also designed by Reserve Union; it is situated more to the north and closer to the highway. Otherwise, the territory, which borders on the Kommunarskaya metro line (under construction) in the east and the Sokolnicheskaya metro line (active) in the west, has not yet been developed, and is essentially a construction site of the future, cleared from trees and other vegetation.

Meanwhile, the master plan provided for building housing projects all around, grouped in blocks of an approximately square shape with a side length of about 135 m; some of the streets between them have already been marked. The clinic’s land site, stretching from north to south, occupies the area of about seven such squares, its plan following the matrix of the square blocks, even if slightly altered in terms of being more compact and stepping back from the borders of the land site to make room for the parking lots along the perimeter.

The complex consists of nine buildings standing in three lines. Two of them, which are on the sides, are designed as U-shaped “frames” open on one side, between which a rather large number of variously sized yards is formed, from green ones to ones that are paved from wall to wall, the chief idea being to create diverse, yet independent places for walking.

Another planning idea is more abstract, yet also readable: even though the clinics will probably be always surrounded by fences, the architects treated this particular one not as an unassailable fortress, but visually opened it up. This way, the patients will be able to see not just the clinic’s yard, looking out their windows, but lots of other places as well.

The central line – the backbone of the project – coincides with the line of the street that comes here from the north, from the Kaluzhskoe Highway, and from the Prefecture side. Essentially, it is a string of three narrow elongated buildings: the yet-unfinished day hospital, the treatment and diagnosis block, and the auxiliary unit. The first is designed for the day patients, essentially it is an outpatient hospital, i.e. the place where the clinic is most of all exposed to the city – it is moved forward, to the very border of the territory; it will welcome people coming here.

The small-sized 7-story tower of the day hospital, moved forward, looks like the head of some creature, especially if we are to compare it to the buildings on the sides of the “backbone” with paws or wings. Is is not just stretched forward, but it overcomes a slight height difference about a meter high: in one of the earlier versions it was proposed to design it as a bridge, but then the building was moved even further forward.

The complete and active treatment block – the main place where the doctors work – follows in the same central line immediately after the day hospital. Its facades are chiefly glass; it stretches into the depth of the site, and is separated from the side blocks by driveways, yet with four of the side buildings it is linked by overpasses on two levels.

This makes moving around much easier: the treatment block is the nucleus of the clinic, and the path to it (from whatever location) has been made as short as possible.

The main entrance to the treatment block (and to the entire clinic, for that matter) is also made from the north side end, directly behind the Consultation and Diagnostic block, through a small portal with a circular skylight – it leads to a two-level atrium lobby. The space of the atrium is almost completely white; the balconies, the reception desk, and the benches at the bases of the round columns, all have streamlined shapes, and are highlighted by flowing curves of white light. The light bands also form a decorative network of triangles on the central “pillar” – the volume, whose facial surface displays the navigation plan, and which contains the elevator shafts. The interior, flowing and glowing, may resemble the foyer of “Zaryadye” concert hall – distantly, of course, and with allowance for a different scale and a different and function.

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Multipurpose medical center “Novomoskovsky” in Kommunarka

Copyright: © Reserve Union
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Multipurpose medical center “Novomoskovsky” in Kommunarka

Copyright: © Reserve Union
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Multipurpose medical center “Novomoskovsky” in Kommunarka

Copyright: © Reserve Union

Two escalators lead from the atrium to the second floor where the entrances to the conference hall are situated: inside the conference hall, the white is offset with black, the curves giving way to faceted planes. The ledges on the wall surfaces, decorated with ochre golden stucco, are backlit with reflected light – it enhances the plastique, highlighting the aisles, but, being not too bright, is not distracting at all.

The ward block, complete and active, is situated more to the west. It is bigger than the other buildings, and its plan looks like the E letter, stretching along the entire treatment block, with three “stroke” wings on the sides of two yards. The space between the treatment block and the ward block contains two groups of overpasses; in addition, some extra communication can be provided by the joint level of underground space. The yards between the wings are organized differently: the north one is completely open, the other is filled with a podium containing driving entrances to the ambulance reception ward – on the inside, it is lit by wide cones of the upper light lamps.

The roof of the podium of the south yard will have vegetation on it; people will be able to walk on it. The area will be accessed by a laconic black staircase with a nice-looking rounding at the bend: against the background of the pristine, white, and laconic structure of the building, it becomes a noticeable highlight and is perceived almost like an art object.

Essentially, the image of this building is based on a fine, white, and strictly vertical network of piers – first of all, it makes the building rhyme with the Prefecture of Troitsky and Novomoskovsky Administrative District, highlighting the integrity of the ensemble of the two buildings, “strung” on a common axis and ultimately forming the nucleus of the future administrative center.

The prefecture building is smaller, yet is definitely perceived as a more significant one due to the more energetic “comma” shape that faces the clinic with its cylindrical side, and the big, two stories high, scale of the network.

The shape of the hospital building is simpler and more practical, while the network of its facades, more “humanized” (because it is one story high), is lightened up by the “sunny” yellow color of the piers, a classic technique that can remind us about the “Marseille Unit” by Le Corbusier. The colorful piers are grouped in 2,4, and 6, distributed over the facades in an asymmetric fashion and yield colorful spots in perspective.

Yet another inclusion of color appears due to navigational reasons: each block is assigned a color of its own: the ward block #1, for example, is bluish green.

En face, the color is all but unseen. However, the network is also livened up by the pauses – strips of glass without vertical glazing pattern, and their antipodes, white rectangles, which appear around the entrances, and, chiefly, at the side ends of the glass bands: as if somebody flipped a few piers aside, and they gathered at the edge. All of this forms some sort of a still life on the facades, some sort of a musical or mathematical play.

At times, a fancier theme appears: for example, the inside side-end walls of the yards “flake” in big zigzags, which mask and decorate the change of tiers – the elongated part of the ward block rises twice from north to south.

The zigzags are getting small terraces, on the level of the 2nd and 5th floors, which will obviously also give the doctors and the patients to get a breath of fresh air. So, yes, everything is simple, but not simpler than that – there are lots of subtleties possible within the framework of one system.

Still, however, the system that these facades are based upon requires a lot of accuracy and precision. For this reason, the ledge of the mechanical floor is completely masked by the attic wall – it is this wall that makes the tier look like it has two stories, which gives the building a look reminding us about the architecture of orders. But the main thing is that no ledges are to be seen from any angle, and the contour of the volume is honed to perfection. Definitely, if the box of the mechanical floor on top of the building were visible, the impression would be quite different.

Meanwhile, the clinic is a complex conglomerate; we will remind you at this point that there are 9 buildings here, and only 4 of them have been put into operation. The “network” pattern could never be applied to the facades of all of the buildings; the pristine structure was employed in the building that stands on the direct visibility axis with the prefecture building; the other volumes are designed differently. For example, the auxiliary volume behind the treatment block in the depth of the territory is crimson red, which is a cool-looking contrast to the whiteness and glass. The windows of the children’s clinic and the maternity hospital got wide square outlines, while the silhouette of the central treatment block is busy and full of ledges, which is very noticeable near the pristine outline of its west neighbor, and the white insets, deliberately scattered over its glass surface, looking as if they were hovering in the air.

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Multipurpose medical center “Novomoskovsky” in Kommunarka

Copyright: Photograph © Ilia Ivanov / provided by Reserve Union
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Multipurpose medical center “Novomoskovsky” in Kommunarka

Copyright: © Reserve Union
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The outpatient block, project, 2015. Multipurpose medical center “Novomoskovsky” in Kommunarka

Copyright: © Reserve Union

Of course, a clinic of such magnitude and degree of complexity is inevitably a city within a city, a system with its own internal laws, and the more reasonable they are not the better. The clinic by default is not meant to become some high-profile flashy project; it is built on the municipal (even if metropolitan) budget, which, one way or another, makes economy inevitable: in the case of a medical facility, it is obvious that the money must be spent not on expensive-looking facades but on the medical equipment. So, what we have here is the solution based on a rational approach – a rational approach to organizing the traffic outside and inside, as well as to lighting and alternating buildings and yards. What is also important is the fact that the rationality manifests itself in the proportions of the buildings: in the light facade network, in the absence of visual pressure, in the “positive vibes” of the yellow inclusions, and in the glowing of the white entrance hall. It’s hard to say just how important architecture is for someone who’s sick. Yet, still, it is a great thing that they did not save up on the proportions here.

02 June 2020

Headlines now

News

Flexibility and Integration

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

Object

A Step Forward

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

Object

Gold in the Sands

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

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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.

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Light and Shadow

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

View

Casus Novae

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

Report

Treasure Hunting

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

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Depths of the Earth, Streams of Water

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

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Fir Tree Dynamics

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

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A Brick Shell

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

Report

Word Forms

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

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Flexibility and Acuteness of Modernity

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

Interview

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

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

Object

Moscow’s First

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

Object

Looking at the Water

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

Object

The White Wing

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

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Urban Dunes

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

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Proportional Growth

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

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The “Staircase” Building

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

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Projection of the Quarter

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

Object

Domus Aurea

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

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The Chimney of Nikola-Lenivets

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

Periscope by the Bay

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

Contest Results

From Arcs to Dolmens

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

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Hide and Seek

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

The Big Twelve

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

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Above the Golden Horn

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

Report

Nuanced Alternative

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

Object

Blinds for Ice

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

Contest Results

Frozen Magma

A competition for the creation of a public and cultural center was held in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Three architectural companies made it to the final, and we consider it important to share about the work of each. Let’s start with the winner – the consortium led by Wowhaus.

​Rational Arrangement

In this article, we are examining a complex of buildings and interiors of the first stage of the project that has recently become extremely popular – the Kommunarka clinic.

Rational Arrangement