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Raising the Yard

The housing complex Renome consists of two buildings: a modern stone house and a red-brick factory building of the end of the XIX century, reconstructed by measurements and original drafts. The two buildings are connected by an “inclined” yard – a rare, by Moscow standards, version of geoplastics that smoothly ascends to the roof of the stores lined up along a pedestrian street.

19 March 2021
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The housing complex Renome, about the project of which we wrote in 2016, is situated inside the blocks between three streets: Novoslobodskaya, Palikha, and Sushchevskaya – and one in-block pedestrian passageway that connects the exit from the Mendeleevskaya Metro Station and the Sushchevskaya Street. In our particular case, the passageway, winding amongst a conglomerate of old Moscow houses, is more attention worthy than all the surrounding streets because recently it has turned into a cozy urban hangout with lots of bars and small shops, colorful signs and lights hanging on strings – in a word, this something like Moscow’s Covent Garden. Making a turn underneath the arch, the pedestrian way, starting from the metro station, leads past the restaurants of the Atmosphere business center, an office complex built by ADM Architects in 2011-2013, and presenting a result of painstaking reconstruction of a fragment of city development of the XIX century, consisting of low-rise buildings of a weaving factory. There are grounds to believe that the public bottom floors of Atmosphere, its cozy little yards, and the end-to-end passage to Palikha became one of the drivers for the development of the pleasant “go-for-a-stroll” environment near the Mendeleevskaya metro station.

Renome was designed three years after Atmosphere was completed – by the same architectural company ADM Architects, and on commission of the same developer, Simex. One of the most important tasks was to capitalize on the success of the public floors and the pedestrian street, creating yet another “shopping passage” a hundred meters away from it. Hence, the new housing complex consists of two buildings: a large L-shaped one with light-colored facades of Jurassic stone, and a small red-brick one. Between them, running along the pedestrian passage from Novoslobodskaya to Sushchevskaya, there is a 5-meter high link volume with a tall stained glass window and round concrete columns visible through the glass: it will be occupied by cafes and shops.

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    Renome housing complex
    Copyright: Photograph © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
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    Plan of the first floor. Renome housing complex
    Copyright: © ADM


The retail “link” building closes the courtyard of the complex from the south side and becomes the basis for the most interesting – well, at least, rare by Moscow standards – part of the spatial and volumetric solution. Considering the fact that the shop buildings will turned to the yard with their dull technical side, a “cold wall”, which will be casting an almost permanent shadow, the architects proposed to raise the landscaped yard on one side, designing it as a gently sloping “mountain” – a kind of green amphitheater that leads to the operated roof of the shops.

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    Renome housing complex / ADM architects
    Copyright: Photograph © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
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    Renome housing complex
    Copyright: Photograph © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
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    Renome housing complex
    Copyright: Photograph © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects


The inclined surface of the yard is structured by a diagonal grid of trails with a slight tilt, comfortable to ascend. Its flexible shape looks a little bit like paper garlands with slits. The rhombuses, appearing between the ramps, host flowerbeds and recreation areas – the architects made the most out of the surface, making each of its fragments useful; the geometric pattern of the garden looks great from the apartment windows. The upper part is paved with wood, and in the summer there are wicker chairs and umbrellas: a small resort oasis that smoothly grows out of the garden on the slope.

The artificial relief here turns out to be something more significant and interesting than the usual geoplastics of the hills. In addition, the upper part is well lit by the rays of the southern sun, and the plants of the slide get the light in full – this unconventional move made it possible to completely avoid the “shadow pocket” effect. And we will also note here the urban space itself turned out to be delicately, yet clearly, zoned: on the one side, there is a private courtyard, on the other side, there is city retail – they exist in the same space, but almost without touching each other, except that the tops of green bushes on the roof can arrest the gaze of some passer-by.

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    Renome housing complex / ADM architects
    Copyright: Photograph © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
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    Renome housing complex / ADM architects
    Copyright: Photograph © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
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    Renome housing complex / ADM architects
    Copyright: Photograph © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects


This solution is also interesting from the typological standpoint because, although it was implemented on flat relief, one can nevertheless trace typical Moscow features in it: Moscow is known to be a hilly city, at least in some places, and somewhere, especially in the neighborhood of Maroseyka or Serebryaniki, you do come across inclined yards and terraces.

Back to the residential buildings, though! While the string of shops in the link building continues the Atmosphere business center function-wise, the L-shaped building picks up its light tone and texture, only in a more expensive material – stone as opposed to the ceramic tiles of the business center. Stone verticals with striped grooves vary in width and frequency, interspersed with thin lintels, the lintels being light stone on the outside, and mostly dark wood on the side of the courtyard. Panels of the same “wood-like” time appear in the entrance portals, and in the finish of the lower surface of cantilever above the pedestrian walkway at the western end – in all cases, wood adds to a homely feel of the place.

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    Renome housing complex / ADM architects
    Copyright: Photograph © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
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    Renome housing complex / ADM architects
    Copyright: Photograph © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects


The floors are vertically grouped in twos, the pairs dissected by the flat horizontals of the friezes. However, the intermediate floor is masked not by dark tinted glass, as is often done nowadays, but by glass with silk-screen printing of a white raster gradient – their whiteness makes the house brighter and softens the tension of the vertical rhythm. In addition, some of the windows are actually windows, and some of them are glazed recessed balconies (Andrey Romanov calls them winter gardens); they are sunk in the facade plane at different depths, which is why there is a surface oscillation barely noticeable to a superficial glance. This way, when viewed from a certain angle, the line of the white glass forms a zigzagging horizontal, as if some kind of thread was running through the facade.

Renome housing complex / ADM architects
Copyright: Photograph: Archi.ru


Thin strips of corrugation on the stone are complemented by carvings of graceful rectangular flower pots, as well as plastic forged fences and “smoker’s balconies”; in every case, the ornament is built on a single flowing plant motif.

The small open balconies are semicircular on the plan and – the architects especially emphasize this – are fundamentally different from the decorative baskets without a bottom for air conditioners that are now commonly accepted in Moscow construction. These balconies have a sturdy base made of a cast iron plate about 5 cm thick, which can support the weight of more than one person. In a word, what we are seeing are distant relatives of the cast iron balconies of Moscow of the XIX century, which gracefully resonate with the surrounding context: they liven up the facade not only with their rounded plastique and lacy shadows but also functionally because the architects indeed designed them with people in mind.

Renome housing complex / ADM architects
Copyright: Photograph © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects


The other building of the complex, made of red brick, square on the plan, and situated closer to Novoslobodskaya Street, was inherited from the weaving factory. In the process of working on the project, the architects planned to preserve two of its surviving facades of the late XIX century and to complete the other two walls, which had been depersonalized by restructuring during the Soviet era. However, due to the fact that the there was an underground parking garage occupying the whole space underneath the complex, preserving the walls of the building, which did not even have a protected status turned out to be rather problematic, and ultimately the architects and the client came up with the idea of restoring the factory building according to measurements , using artificially aged Belgian bricks, reminiscent of the historical ones.

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    Renome housing complex / ADM architects
    Copyright: Photograph © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
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    Renome housing complex / ADM architects
    Copyright: Photograph © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects


Which they did, and rather carefully, too – preserving the types of historical brickwork: all-stretcher bond on the walls and alternation of all-stretcher and header bonds on the blades, they also restored the figured cantilevers and metalwork, for example, decorative fastening of internal ties, according to measurements and archival drawings. The bearing structure of the house is monolithic concrete; moreover, it bears the upper floor penthouse, which echoes in color with its stone neighbor. However, the brick facades correspond to the historical ones, adjusted to correct the microscopic difference in the size of the windows and the slight curvature of the lines. “There were no inaccuracies on the historical drawings; the windows were designed to be exactly alike. The minor discrepancies appeared in the XIX century on the construction site; we corrected them. The proportions, the eaves, and other details – we were meticulous” – Andrey Romanov emphasizes.

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    Renome housing complex / ADM architects
    Copyright: Photograph © Ярослав Лукьянченко / provided ADM architects
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    Renome housing complex / ADM architects
    Copyright: Photograph © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects


The red-brick building is called Héritage; the L-shaped one is called Nouveau, both names are French. The main name Renome literally means in French “famous” or “well-known” but somehow in Russian it is perceived more like “reputation”. Curiously, Héritage and Nouveau are written on the signs in French, but Реномэ is written in Russian: it appears that the marketing logic is loosely based on the idea that preserving (or restoring) heritage and buildings new things are two main components of a good reputation. Even though here it is rooted in reality, generally it is not always the case.

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    Renome housing complex / ADM architects
    Copyright: Photograph © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
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    Renome housing complex / ADM architects
    Copyright: Photograph © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects


Thanks to the brick house, the new residential complex, inscribed in the space of this Moscow neighborhood, acquires a quite palpable “difference in time” on the level of emotions, a variety of styles, appropriate in the local environment and looking as if it was exactly what this environment needed. It is difficult to say which texture – red or white is more interesting and: a varied masonry made of aged bricks or an airy ensemble of carved light stone. But then again, considering the fact that both are within an arm’s reach if you just walk in the yard, being that close, the house has no right to remain indifferent – both parts are equally responsive to the demand for tactility and variety of impressions.

We will also note here that the restoration of a historic building involving the completion of its walls is the only such case in the portfolio of ADM architects. The architects are vocal critics of stylization – they still seem to be second-guessing the righteousness of this solution. Indeed, one could argue: perhaps it would have made more sense at the moment – when the impossibility of preserving the original building of the XIX century became obvious – to remake the project altogether, completely abandon reconstruction and build something modern instead of the lost one? Because making an opposition of new and old, the east they did in the Wine House residential complex in Sadovniki, was something that they would not be able to do here anyway. And, upon closer inspection, the dents on the bricks give away artificial aging. And the hue of the real XIX century brick is generally redder, while this has too much brown about it – the dark bricks that occasionally pop up in the masonry also give away a modern approach. But then again, such critical attitude reeks of “Venetian” purism. After all, the actual authenticity of the factory building may interest one or two researchers, but they must be knowledgeable about the history of old buildings in any case.

On the other hand, if we are to speak about the atmosphere of this place, it definitely benefited from this project: the building is interesting, and the contrast is exciting. Furthermore, the historical building to a certain degree became the starting point and the prototype for further development of the ensemble: after a while, another pair was added to it, a counterweight, another house, whose modern architecture nevertheless echoes the “factory” building and even “grows” out of it in compositional terms. More about that in our next article.

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    Plan of the standard floor. Renome housing complex
    Copyright: © ADM
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    The master plan. Renome housing complex
    Copyright: © ADM


19 March 2021

Headlines now
The Golden Crown
The concept for a dental clinic in Yekaterinburg, developed by CNTR Studio, revolves around the idea of a “mouth full of gold”: pristine white porcelain stoneware walls are complemented by matte brass details. To avoid an overly literal interpretation, the architects focused on the building’s proportions, skillfully navigating between sunlight requirements and fire safety regulations.
Flexibility and Integration
Not long ago, we covered the project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential complex, designed by APEX. Now, we’ve been shown different fence concepts they developed to enclose the complex’s private courtyards, incorporating a variety of public functions. We believe that the sheer fact that the complex’s architects were involved in such a detail as fencing speaks volumes.
A Step Forward
The HIDE residential complex represents a major milestone for ADM architects and their leaders Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova in their quest for a fresh high-rise aesthetic – one that is flexible and layered, capable of bringing vibrancy to mass and silhouette while shaping form. Over recent years, this approach has become ADM’s “signature style”, with the golden HIDE tower playing a pivotal role in its evolution. Here, we delve into the project’s story, explore the details of the complex’s design, and uncover its core essence.
Gold in the Sands
A new office for a transcontinental company specializing in resource extraction and processing has opened in Dubai. Designed by T+T Architects, masters of creating spaces that are contemporary, diverse, flexible, and original, this project exemplifies their expertise. On the executive floor, a massive brass-clad partition dominates, while layered textures of compressed earth create a contextually resonant backdrop.
Layers and Levels of Flight
This project goes way back – Reserve Union won this architectural competition at the end of 2011, and the building was completed in 2018, so it’s practically “archival”. However, despite being relatively unknown, the building can hardly be considered “dated” and remains a prime example of architectural expression, particularly in the headquarters genre. And it’s especially fitting for an aviation company office. In some ways, it resembles the Aeroflot headquarters at Sheremetyevo but with its own unique identity, following the signature style of Vladimir Plotkin. In this article, we take an in-depth look at the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) headquarters in the Moscow agglomeration town of Zhukovsky, supplemented by recent photographs from Alexey Naroditsky – a shoot that became only recently possible due to the fact that improvements were finally made in the surrounding area.
Light and Shadow
In this article, we delve into the architectural design of the “Chaika” house by DNK ag architects, which was recently completed in 2023 as part of the collection of signature designs at ZILArt. As is well-known, all the buildings in this complex follow a design code, yet each one is distinct. This particular building stands out not only for its whiteness and minimalism but also for the refined use of a limited number of techniques that, together, create what can confidently be called synergy.
Casus Novae
A master plan was developed for a large residential area with a name of “DNS City”, but now that its implementation began, the plan has been arbitrarily reformatted and replaced with something that, while similar on the surface, is actually quite different. This is not the first time such a thing happens, but it’s always frustrating. With permission from the author, we are sharing Maria Elkina’s post.
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.
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.
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.
​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”.
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.
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”.
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.
​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.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.