Celestial Tectonics

The three towers of the business-class residential complex “Nebo” (“Heaven”), which was quite recently, in November 2020, put into operation, are located in the very heart of Moscow’s prestigious southwest, between the Michurinsky Prospekt and Ramenki metro stations, 388 meters in a straight line from the Michurinsky Prospekt highway and on the border of the green zone, in the bend of the Ramenka river. The Moscow State University is a 10 minutes’ drive away, and so are a few large parks. In a word, the location is really advantageous. East of the complex, another mixed-use medical development is being built, designed by another architectural company.

The land site – 2.7 hectares, located in the westernmost corner of Ramenki 23 district – lay vacant until the construction began. East of it, the Soviet “micro-district” is constituted by alternating five-story buildings of the late 1950’s, and prefabricated 12- and 14-story “towers” of the early 1970’s. In the center of the micro-district and a stone’s throw from both the new complex and the avenue, there is the Ramenki pond, quite large and surrounded by neat grassy ramparts. On the whole, this area is integral and quiet, while the river with its high overgrown banks makes a sharp turn here, marking the natural border from the southwest and northwest, creating a feeling of a meeting point between the urban construction and some other world, as if saying “Moscow ends here”. On this boundary, in the corner of the river turn, the residential complex “Nebo” stands.

The new complex, designed and built by Vladimir Plotkin and Reserve Union has a different scale. On the whole, it is about 5 times as high as the surrounding construction. Two towers have 52 floors each in them each, the third one has 51, their height being 176 meters, which is mere 3 meters short of the height restrictions based on visual and landscape analysis.

Nebo is a prominent highlight, viewable from the distance – from the Aminyevskoe Highway and the Lobachevskogo Street, but particularly well from the flyover junction of the General Dorokhov avenue, where it towers over the treetops, the industrial parks, and the fields of municipal garages, yet untouched by the development. From here, its symmetric outline is seen particularly clearly.

zooming — Nebo residential complex, view from the north, from the General Dorokhov Avenue

The southwest of Moscow, as is known, has long and well been familiar with high-rise residential construction. A few high-rise complexes are also being built within 1 or 2-kilometer radius. However, Ramenki 23 district is already full of housing projects, and, in addition, it is fenced off by the river, so one can safely assume that Nebo will remain the only dominant “flagship” element here. Another good thing is that, despite its large height (well, not 250 or even 400 meters tall, but still, almost 200) it does not “dominate” either when seen from a distance or from a close range – at most, it makes you lift your gaze. Which is definitely due to its graceful proportions, abundance of glass and white color, and the fine lightweight grid of the facades.

The three residential towers are assembled in a symmetrical composition on an almost square two-tiered podium: two are built over the river along the edge of the northwestern facade, the third is placed perpendicular to them along the axis of symmetry of the base. The result is an austere T-shaped composition based on bringing together similar figures, with a vacant space in the middle. This is a solution, characteristic for Vladimir Plotkin, whose experiments with laconic geometry of turns and mirror flips, as well as with positioning similar figures within the framework of a single ensemble, are rather widely known (for example, this “turning similar figures” technique, yet not at 180, but at 90 degrees, was used for designing the Aeroflot office in Sheremetyevo Airport).

Nebo residential complex
Buildings 1-3. A standard floor

On the plan, each of the towers is not a square but a rectangle of balanced proportions 8/10, with small “waist” cutaways in the middle of the narrow sides. The sidewalls are glass, while the long sides are subjugated to a white grid of vertical proportions. The lines, which grow out of the same grid, emphasize the projections of the sidewalls with thin white outlines, which makes the volumes seem to be composed of two plates glued together “like cookies” with a glass layer.

Nebo residential complex. Vew from the Ramensky Pond
Nebo residential complex, view from the Lobachevskogo Street

The lamellar structure makes the towers look slimmer and emphasizes the length of their volumes, but not only that. We need to make a little digression here: if you consider the context of the construction of the southwest of Moscow as a whole, you will easily notice the sparse, yet still connected by one common approach, network of highlight buildings belonging to the Soviet modernism of the 1970’s and 1980’s. These include Dom Turista on the Leninsky Avenue, the towers designed by Evgeny Rosanov on the Vernadskogo Avenue, and the buildings of the dormitories of the Moscow State University, located in the same area. All of these buildings are “pinpoint” and are essentially towers; many of them experiment with two-part lamellar structure, using the shift between narrow risalits as a slender vertical line. They pay a lot of attention to the podiums, which oftentimes grow from highly developed underground structures. Many of them have a cross-shaped plan, and almost all of them, maybe for the sole exception of the meridian towers of Dom Turista, follow the diagonal lines of the avenues of Moscow’s southwest, like some version of the Voisin plan. These buildings form the modernist backbone of the city’s southwest, points of power, whose energetics did not develop later, and in many respects was even overgrown with chaotically multiplied “mushrooms” (a term authored by Daria Paramonova) – but it is still felt all over the place.

Anyway, many of the features that the modernist landmarks of Moscow’s southwest possess were aptly captured and implemented by the Nebo towers. The lamellar character and the slenderness of the towers have much been spoken about, but the arrangement of the wings also looks like a cross, the only difference being that the spot where the lines cross in not a volume, but a void, and, in addition, there is no “northern wing” here. It looks as though the architects took the characteristic composition apart piece by piece, at the same time preserving the main methods and approaches, so Nebo becomes yet another highlight of the southwest “network”.

Nebo residential complex
Nebo residential complex

Thus, the gesture is interpreted as a contextual one, made on a giant scale of a few kilometers, not just the nearest hundreds of meters. However, some sort of an “anchor” is still present nearby – it is a cross-shaped building on Michurinsky Avenue: if you watch from the south, the three towers look like its enlarged version, only with its components spaced apart.

Here one can notice that the strictly diagonal orientation of the land site and, as a result, of the houses standing on it, is supported not only by the line of the avenue and the urban planning grid of the Southwest Administrative District, but also by the bend of the Ramenka River, drawn by nature almost as if along a ruler.

The 45-degree turn proved to be convenient for the natural insolation of the apartments: there are no walls that would gaze directly northward, and the lighting contour of the towers is used to its full potential. In addition, placing the buildings in a triangle with a considerable space between them eliminates the window-to-window situation, which is also good for a housing complex.

The apartments are grouped along the lighting contour around the powerful staircase and elevator core: two staircases and five elevators. The range of apartments is quite wide, up to 4-room apartments, which corresponds to the business class of the housing complex. The ceiling height is 3.3 meters; in the bottom floors 4.5 meters. In front of the entrance, there is a recessed balcony, behind it there is a double-height lobby with a reception desk, on the side there is a public area with free Wi-Fi.

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1st floor. Building 2
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A standard floor. Building 2
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52nd floor. Building 2
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Ghe podium at -5.42 elevation. Nebo residential complex

Back to the podium, though! It is inscribed into a slope with an 8-meter height difference from southeast to northwest, from the housing area towards the river. This is why from the side of the housing area, the podium rises only one and a half meters above the ground level, and you can enter the first parking level from the sides in a straight line, without a ramp. But, since the yard is elevated, this naturally makes it safe and car-free.

From the northwestern edge of the podium, a steep slope to the river begins, meaning, the house, when viewed from this side of the river, practically rises out of the slope, like a kind of fort, with two northern towers continuing the surface of the podium. From this side, the two tiers of the podium host a string of offices stretching along the northwest façade. In front of them, in the lower tier, there is an extended platform; in the upper tier, there is a “gallery” balcony, accessed by an open-air staircase. This way the architects ensured that this the rear side of the complex above the river is not a “backyard”, but a fragment of a business urban space with its own recreational area, access to the air and even sweeping views, since the view of the river and the “semi-industrial half-city” beyond it is quite up to Moscow standards, and boasts abundant vegetation too.

The bottom floors of the two towers, the central and the east ones, host a short-term stay kindergarten and infant development groups for 75 people. Between the towers, there is a playground belonging to the kindergarten, while the open east corner of the podium is occupied by a circular structure with an amphitheater, oriented northeast: sideways, one can see a view of the Ramensky Pond from here.

The podium roof, which serves as the private courtyard of the three towers, is modern, with playgrounds and sports fields, a workout area, artificial hills, and a variety of plants, including large trees from lindens to pines in special recesses with the necessary drainage. One can get to the podium by the staircases and ramps, the latter being used for emergency vehicles, should such need arise. The sides of the ramps and the yard space are curbed by white concrete railings, sometimes with glass inserts. The shadows of the trees on them are a separate subject for admiring the combination of natural forms and laconic modern design of this new fragment of urban space.

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Nebo residential complex

The yard is zoned with strings of plants and concrete colonnades, whose simple pattern echoes the façade grid and looks like its logical continuation in space.

The eighteen bottom floors in all of the towers are vertically grouped in twos, so the grid of the white lines on the pedestrian level, or, should we say, a walking resident, looks calm and predictable. Higher up, however, it stretches in a gradient pitch, and not exactly in a smooth way: nine floors are grouped in three groups of threes, next ten are two fives, and, finally, the remaining 15 are continuous verticals. The penthouses on the upper floors step back from the edge with terraces, the straight grid lines continue, already without filling, forming a pergola covering both penthouses and ventilation shafts, masking the technical floor and giving the volumes their correct shape. These same lines frame the side walls, visually forming, as we saw above, the two-part character of the volumes. As if made of glass, the towers are encased in a fine, yet rigid-looking grid, which to a large extent defines their perception, particularly from a distance.

Nebo residential complex
Nebo residential complex

A vertically oriented façade grid is generally characteristic of Moscow of the last decade – we saw lots of its versions, both classicist and modernist. Buildings designed by Vladimir Plotkin have developed their own laconic version of this grid, most often white or monochrome with an occasional inclusion of bright color. Let’s compare, for example, the facades of the Prefecture of the Troitsky and Novomoskovsky administrative areas, an office building on the Krasina Street and two buildings within the VTB Arena Park. Interpreted like this, the façade grid not only makes the volume look more slender, collected, and lighter, but it also helps to position the form in space, governing the perception on the optical level: the clearly manifested façade lines accentuate all the oscillations, pauses, and turns “lead” one’s gaze and help to better understand the architectural statement. From time to time, the grid steps back from the volume and forms aerial structures: the galleries in the bottom floors and pergolas in the top ones.

All these techniques work towards creating an integral image of Nebo. Here, however, the façade grid has two peculiar features. First, it is stretched vertically. The easiest way to explain this is by the effect of perception: if you look from the bottom up, the height of the cells in perspective will decrease and from a certain angle – from the yard, for example – the grid may seem to be uniform. However, if you look at the facades en face, the grid seems to be stretched from top to bottom, either under the influence of gravity, or as an effect of melting: as if the sun has heated the upper floors, and they “melted down”, but the cells at the bottom have not melted yet. In addition, if we are to look at the pattern in its entirety, the resulting effect reminds the growth of the cells in the central unit of the WineHouse residential complex.

Nebo residential complex
Nebo residential complex

One way or another, the stretched grid, on the one hand, contradicts the rules of the classical tectonics of the middle, top and bottom, while the very method of grouping the windows vertically is more likely to be defined as a classicist one (however, perhaps, the belief that “vertical is a classic, horizontal is modernism” is rather a matter of habit, because already in the 1970’s this statement was repeatedly refuted or, at any rate, the architects began experimenting with its antithesis). On the other hand, the transformation of the facade grid makes it more than just a checkered pattern but an instrument of dialogue with the urban environment, or perhaps, given the real estate name of the complex, with the shy as well – bearing such a name and boasting such a height, it would be a waste not to address the proximity of heaven in any way.

The other peculiar feature is that the glass surface is formed not only by a grayish stemalite in the intermediate floors – the textured white grid in each cell is outlined by an insert of black glass, similar to a shadow from the sun. What makes this whole thing even more interesting is the fact that in the end-to-end vertical ledges at the ends of the towers, a wide black stripe, similar to a shadow, arises from the recesses of the central air conditioning, yet, when seen from a from a distance, it is perceived as part of the general narrative, echoing the “marks” in the windows. (Here we will note in parentheses that the dark glass inserts are translucent and do not reduce the width of the window aperture when viewed from the inside; black glass in the windows corresponds to the vent panes).

This technique could be regarded as an illusionist element of grisaille supergraphics, like stripes that form a hint of vertical niches on the facades of the Chertanovo residential complex built in in 2008 – if it wasn’t for the fact that the black inserts alternate in a checkerboard pattern, floor by floor, left and right.

This alternation, especially if viewed from some angles, where the “underscore marks” are perceived as part of the texture, creates the impression of a paradox: the tiers seem to “gaze” in different directions (a similar effect occurs in the 5th building of VTB Arena Park), or they seem to be stitched along the contour with a zigzag line or, maybe, they “wiggle” a little, vibrating – approximately like a mirage, especially when viewed from afar. Which, of course, puts one in the mid of Op Art experiments, particularly the false zigzag picture.

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Nebo residential complex

The pattern is not always visible – in direct light it is almost obliterated, but in the slanting rays of the evening sun, it is quite noticeable – and the towers, despite the laconism of their design, look different not only when walking around, but also change depending on the time of day. The zigzag pattern also brings back the metaphor of melting: the lines of the façade grid, which at first glance seem straight and very clear, if not harsh, white on dark (and they ARE in fact straight) – suddenly start to seem a little zigzag from this perspective, as if an iceberg had started to melt. This is a rather interesting effect, even though quite unobtrusively presented.

Another option for changing the image is at sunset, when the white color “disappears”: the towers also look like Chicago skyscrapers: the verticals are clearer, and the pergolas turn into “classic” attics.

Nebo residential complex
Nebo residential complex

The facades are steel and modular, manufactured at a factory, which ensured quality performance, good fire safety, and quick assembly. This solution corresponds to both the height restrictions and the business class of the complex.

In the context of modern Moscow construction, the Nebo residential complex is high-rise, higher than the usual 25-35 floors, which have become the norm for large Moscow residential complexes, especially those that are being built nearby. In terms of height, it gravitates towards the “Big City” sphere of influence – but it’s still not a skyscraper. There are buildings higher than these. Strictly speaking, the arguments of visual analysis, whose limitations are observed here, are not very clear, just as it is unclear why it was impossible to build higher towers, making an even brighter landmark. These three buildings, of course, have become the dominant feature of the surrounding area, but at the same time, they balance on the verge between a skyscraper with steel facades and simply high-rise Moscow buildings. It is obvious, however, that if the same amount of useful floor space had been squeezed into harsher height restrictions on the same land site, the complex would not have looked so impressive. Here, however, the architects were really able to reach for the sky. At the same time fitting in very nicely with the town planning framework of the city, started by the architects of the seventies.

08 December 2020

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

Headlines now

Part of the Ideal

In 2025, another World Expo will take place in Osaka, Japan, in which Russia will not participate. However, a competition for the Russian pavilion was indeed held, with six projects participating. The results were never announced as Russia’s participation was canceled; the competition has no winners. Nevertheless, Expo pavilion projects are typically designed for a bold and interesting architectural statement, so we’ve gathered all the six projects and will be publishing articles about them in random order. The first one is the project by Vladimir Plotkin and Reserve Union, which is distinguished by the clarity of its stereometric shape, the boldness of its structure, and the multiplicity of possible interpretations.

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The Fortress by the River

ASADOV Architects have developed a concept for a new residential district in the center of Kemerovo. To combat the harsh climate and monotonous everyday life, the architects proposed a block type of development with dominant towers, good insolation, facades detailed at eye level, and event programming.

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In the Rhombus Grid

Construction has begun on the building of the OMK (United Metallurgical Company) Corporate University in Nizhny Novgorod’s town of Vyksa, designed by Ostozhenka Architects. The most interesting aspect of the project is how the architects immersed it in the context: “extracting” a diagonal motif from the planning grid of Vyksa, they aligned the building, the square, and the park to match it. A truly masterful work with urban planning context on several different levels of perception has long since become the signature technique of Ostozhenka.

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Generational Connection

Another modern estate, designed by Roman Leonidov, is located in the Moscow region and brings together three generations of one family under one roof. To fit on a narrow plot without depriving anyone of personal space, the architects opted for a zigzag plan. The main volume in the house structure is accentuated by mezzanines with a reverse-sloped roof and ceilings featuring exposed beams.

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Three Dimensions of the City

We began to delve into the project by Sergey Skuratov, the residential complex “Depo” in Minsk, located at Victory Square, and it fascinated us completely. The project has at least several dimensions to it: historical – at some point, the developer decided to discontinue further collaboration with Sergey Skuratov Architects, but the concept was approved, and its implementation continues, mostly in accordance with the proposed ideas. The spatial and urban planning dimension – the architects both argue with the city and play along with it, deciphering nuances, and finding axes. And, finally, the tactile dimension – the constructed buildings also have their own intriguing features. Thus, this article also has two parts: it dwells on what has been built and what was conceived

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New “Flight”

Architects from “Mezonproject” have developed a project for the reconstruction of the regional youth center “Polyot”(“Flight”) in the city of Oryol. The summer youth center, built back in the late 1970s, will now become year-round and acquire many additional functions.

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The Yauza Towers

In Moscow, there aren’t that many buildings or projects designed by Nikita Yavein and Studio 44. In this article, we present to you the concept of a large multifunctional complex on the Yauza River, located between two parks, featuring a promenade, a crossroads of two pedestrian streets, a highly developed public space, and an original architectural solution. This solution combines a sophisticated, asymmetric façade grid, reminiscent of a game of fifteen puzzle, and bold protrusions of the upper parts of the buildings, completely masking the technical floors and sculpting the complex’s silhouette.

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Architecture and Leisure Park

For the suburban hotel complex, which envisages various formats of leisure, the architectural company T+T Architects proposed several types of accommodation, ranging from the classic “standard” in a common building to a “cave in the hill” and a “house in a tree”. An additional challenge consisted in integrating a few classic-style residences already existing on this territory into the “architectural forest park”.

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The U-House

The Jois complex combines height with terraces, bringing the most expensive apartments from penthouses down to the bottom floors. The powerful iconic image of the U-shaped building is the result of the creative search for a new standard of living in high-rise buildings by the architects of “Genpro”.

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Black and White

In this article, we specifically discuss the interiors of the ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh. Interior design is a crucial component of the overall concept in this case, and precision and meticulous execution were highly important for the architects. Julia Tryaskina, head of UNK interiors, shares some of the developments.

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The “Snake” Mountain

The competition project for the seaside resort complex “Serpentine” combines several typologies: apartments of different classes, villas, and hotel rooms. For each of these typologies, the KPLN architects employ one of the images that are drawn from the natural environment – a serpentine road, a mountain stream, and rolling waves.

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Opal from Anna Mons’ Ring

The project of a small business center located near Tupolev Plaza and Radio Street proclaims the necessity of modern architecture in a specific area of Moscow commonly known as “Nemetskaya Sloboda” or “German settlement”. It substantiates its thesis with the thoroughness of details, a multitude of proposed and rejected form variants, and even a detailed description of the surrounding area. The project is interesting indeed, and it is even more interesting to see what will come of it.

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Feed ’Em All

A “House of Russian Cuisine” was designed and built by KROST Group at VDNKh for the “Rossiya” exhibition in record-breaking time. The pavilion is masterfully constructed in terms of the standards of modern public catering industry multiplied by the bustling cultural program of the exhibition, and it interprets the stylistically diverse character of VDNKh just as successfully. At the same time, much of its interior design can be traced back to the prototypes of the 1960s – so much so that even scenes from iconic Soviet movies of those years persistently come to mind.

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The Ensemble at the Mosque

OSA prepared a master plan for a district in the southern part of Derbent. The main task of the master plan is to initiate the formation of a modern comfortable environment in this city. The organization of residential areas is subordinated to the city’s spiritual center: depending on the location relative to the cathedral mosque, the houses are distinguished by façade and plastique solutions. The program also includes a “hospitality center”, administrative buildings, an educational cluster, and even an air bridge.

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Pargolovo Protestantism

A Protestant church is being built in St. Petersburg by the project of SLOI architects. One of the main features of the building is a wooden roof with 25-meter spans, which, among other things, forms the interior of the prayer hall. Also, there are other interesting details – we are telling you more about them.

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The Shape of the Inconceivable

The ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh brings to mind a famous maxim of all architects and critics: “You’ve come up with it? Now build it!” You rarely see such a selfless immersion in implementation of the project, and the formidable structural and engineering tasks set by UNK architects to themselves are presented here as an integral and important part of the architectural idea. The challenge matches the obliging status of the place – after all, it is an “exhibition of achievements”, and the pavilion is dedicated to the nuclear energy industry. Let’s take a closer look: from the outside, from the inside, and from the underside too.

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Rays of the Desert

A school for 1750 students is going to be built in Dubai, designed by IND Architects. The architects took into account the local specifics, and proposed a radial layout and spaces, in which the children will be comfortable throughout the day.

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The Dairy Theme

The concept of an office of a cheese-making company, designed for the enclosed area of a dairy factory, at least partially refers to industrial architecture. Perhaps that is why this concept is very simple, which seems the appropriate thing to do here. The building is enlivened by literally a couple of “master strokes”: the turning of the corner accentuates the entrance, and the shade of glass responds to the theme of “milk rivers” from Russian fairy tales.

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The Road to the Temple

Under a grant from the Small Towns Competition, the main street and temple area of the village of Nikolo-Berezovka near Neftekamsk has been improved. A consortium of APRELarchitects and Novaya Zemlya is turning the village into an open-air museum and integrating ruined buildings into public life.

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Towers Leaning Towards the Sun

The three towers of the residential complex “Novodanilovskaya 8” are new and the tallest neighbors of the Danilovsky Manufactory, “Fort”, and “Plaza”, complementing a whole cluster of modern buildings designed by renowned masters. At the same time, the towers are unique for this setting – they are residential, they are the tallest ones here, and they are located on a challenging site. In this article, we explore how architects Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova tackled this far-from-trivial task.

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In the spirit of ROSTA posters

The new Rostselmash tractor factory, conceptualized by ASADOV Architects, is currently being completed in Rostov-on-Don. References to the Soviet architecture of the 1920’s and 1960’s resonate with the mission and strategic importance of the enterprise, and are also in line with the client’s wish: to pay homage to Rostov’s constructivism.

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The Northern Thebaid

The central part of Ferapontovo village, adjacent to the famous monastery with frescoes by Dionisy, has been improved according to the project by APRELarchitects. Now the place offers basic services for tourists, as well as a place for the villagers’ leisure.

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Brilliant Production

The architects from London-based MOST Architecture have designed the space for the high-tech production of Charge Cars, a high-performance production facility for high-speed electric cars that are assembled in the shell of legendary Ford Mustangs. The founders of both the company and the car assembly startup are Russians who were educated in their home country.

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Three-Part Task: St. Petersburg’s Mytny Dvor

The so-called “Mytny Dvor” area lying just behind Moscow Railway Station – the market rows with a complex history – will be transformed into a premium residential complex by Studio 44. The project consists of three parts: the restoration of historical buildings, the reconstruction of the lost part of the historical contour, and new houses. All of them are harmonized with each other and with the city; axes and “beams of light” were found, cozy corners and scenic viewpoints were carefully thought out. We had a chat with the authors of the historical buildings’ restoration project, and we are telling you about all the different tasks that have been solved here.

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The Color of the City, or Reflections on the Slope of an Urban Settlement

In 2022, Ostozhenka Architects won a competition, and in 2023, they developed and received all the necessary approvals for a master plan for the development of Chernigovskaya Street for the developer GloraX. The project takes into account a 10-year history of previous developments; it was done in collaboration with architects from Nizhny Novgorod, and it continues to evolve now. We carefully examined it, talked to everyone, and learned a lot of interesting things.

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A Single-Industry Town

Kola MMC and Nornickel are building a residential neighborhood in Monchegorsk for their future employees. It is based on a project by an international team that won the 2021 competition. The project offers a number of solutions meant to combat the main “demons” of any northern city: wind, grayness and boredom.

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A New Age Portico

At the beginning of the year, Novosibirsk Tolmachevo Airport opened Terminal C. The large-scale and transparent entrance hall with luminous columns inside successfully combines laconism with a bright and photogenic WOW-effect. The terminal is both the new façade of the whole complex and the starting point of the planned reconstruction, upon completion of which Tolmachevo will become the largest regional airport in Russia. In this article, we are examining the building in the context of modernist prototypes of both Novosibirsk and Leningrad: like puzzle pieces, they come together to form their individual history, not devoid of curious nuances and details.

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A New Starting Point

We’ve been wanting to examine the RuArts Foundation space, designed by ATRIUM for quite a long time, and we finally got round to it. This building looks appropriate and impressive; it amazingly combines tradition – represented in our case by galleries – and innovation. In this article, we delve into details and study the building’s historical background as well.

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Molding Perspectives

Stepan Liphart introduces “schematic Art Deco” on the outskirts of Kazan – his houses are executed in green color, with a glassy “iced” finish on the facades. The main merits of the project lie in his meticulous arrangement of viewing angles – the architect is striving to create in a challenging environment the embryo of a city not only in terms of pedestrian accessibility but also in a sculptural sense. He works with silhouettes, proposing intriguing triangular terraces. The entire project is structured like a crystal, following two grids, orthogonal and diagonal. In this article, we are examining what worked, and what eventually didn’t.

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An Educational Experiment for the North

City-Arch continues to work on the projects that can be termed as “experimental public preschools”: private kindergartens and schools can envy such facilities in many respects. This time around, the project is done for the city of Gubkinsky, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. A diverse educational and play environment, including a winter garden, awaits future students, while the teachers will have abundant opportunities to implement new practices.

​Celestial Tectonics

Celestial Tectonics