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​The Breath of the East

Designing a residential complex for Tashkent, GENPRO is turning to traditional architecture and modern trends, aiming at emotionality and efficiency: the panjar window lattices and mishrabias are neighboring on vertical greenery and parametric ornaments, while the theme buildings do on a cotton alley and an oriental bazaar.

30 October 2021
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Over the recent years, Uzbekistan has been becoming an ever more open country interesting to the world: in 2019, The Economist pronounced it to be the country of the year, and this year Uzbekistan made the top five most interesting tourist destinations according to The Times, opened its own pavilion at the world Expo-2020 in Dubai, and for the first time around took part in the Venice Architecture Biennale – with an exposition that shared about the local social and cultural phenomenon known a “makhalla”. The project of the residential complex Orient City is Genpro’s to the changes in the country’s image, and a search for balance between the European know-how and preserving the national flavor.

Orient City
Copyright: © GENPRO


The rich heritage of Uzbekistan and the traditions of the Islamic culture were reflected even in the architecture of the Soviet period, which some experts describe as “oriental” or even “earthquake-proof” modernism. The contemporary architecture still uses traditional forms, such as panjar lattices, vaulted arches, maiolica, and the carpet ornaments, but more often you see faceless average “Euro-samples”. Sometimes, the former and the latter form rather strange combinations, but then again, lucky exceptions are also there. For all intents and purposes, Genpro, acting within the limits of its typology, is offering Tashkent something completely new, yet at the same time not devoid of national flavor, just like the big restaurant complex “Zarafshan” that was built back in the day.

Orient City
Copyright: © GENPRO


The land site that Genpro is working upon is situated in Tashkent’s southeast, outside the minor ring, equally distanced both from the center of the city and the airport, and almost next to the railway station, from where you can get to Samarkand within a couple of hours by bullet train. Hitherto, nobody actively built housing projects here – if you take a look at this interactive map, for example, you will see that it seems as though the developers were deliberately avoiding the Miradab district. However, most likely, this semi-industrial area of this growing city will soon change. For example, next to the future housing complex a new-format retail complex Alfragmus is being built, quite capable of becoming the local point of attraction and launching, together with Orient City, a new string of positive changes.

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    Orient City. Transport accessibility
    Copyright: © GENPRO
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    Orient City. The map of viewing points
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    Orient City. The parks
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    Orient City. The map of marketplaces
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    Orient City. The map of landmarks
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    Orient City. The greenery
    Copyright: © GENPRO


One of Genpro’s tasks is offering to the city a new type of public space embedded in a commercial project. The analysis of the content on social networks revealed that the townspeople have little interest in the existing locations of Tashkent. According to the architects’ plan, Orient City must become a new landmark, a place where people will like to spend their time and share this online with photos and hashtags. Curiosity enough, people’s desire to photograph an object more and more becomes the chief criterion for its success, and you can easily visualize “emotional response” as one of the mandatory positions of the architectural (and not only architectural) briefs of the future. In accordance with the task, the architects paid special attention not only to the diversity of facades and skylines, but also to the environment – the heart of the complex is a park straddling a river that crosses the entire site diagonally.

Orient City. The concept
Copyright: © GENPRO


Just as important for the Genpro architects was getting involved in a dialogue with the local tradition, combining it with modern realities, technologies, and solutions. This is why the complex also includes symbols and shapes, characteristic for Uzbekistan; some of the local phenomena were also revised.

For example, on the “banks” of the park, there are residential buildings of varying height, grouped into four theme quarters – “rock house”, “sky house”, “garden house”, and “forest house”. Such names, it should be noted, correlate quite well with the local toponymy, in which names that translate as “a thousand apricot trees” or “forty girls” are quite the usual thing. The quarters meet the park with their private inner yards, forming a rectangular outline of the complex on the outside. The entrance to the park is marked by a square with a business center, tents, and a basin, which can be seen as a reference to the traditional ablution fountain. Across the complex, past the cafes, shops and gardens, the park leads to a large sports field that is placed outside the complex and expands the daily scenarios of the residents.

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    Orient City. The masterplan
    Copyright: © GENPRO
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    Orient City. The overall composition
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    Orient City. The functional content
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    Orient City. The insolation
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    Orient City. The pedestrian streams
    Copyright: © GENPRO


The facade design also changes in accordance with the names of the quarters: the “sky house” has more glass surfaces, the “rock house” has jagged contours and is clad in natural stone, the “garden house” and “forest house” receive liberal vertical greenery, which also plays the part of an ornament covering the walls and tying different parts of the complex into a single whole, bringing variety into the colors of the desert. The architects also make use of the traditional ornaments, highlighting the horizontal molds with it.

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    Orient City. The colors of the details
    Copyright: © GENPRO
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    Orient City. The facade solutions
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    Orient City. The facade solutions
    Copyright: © GENPRO
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    Orient City. The facade solutions
    Copyright: © GENPRO


However, although the materials and plastique techniques are different, in general the buildings are constructed according to similar principles: a rectangular base, a terraced top, an abundance of terraces and balconies, and various solutions that help to cool the premises – pergolas, mashrabies, and recessed windows.

Orient City
Copyright: © GENPRO


The complex’s most “oriental” building is the business center, fully wrapped in sun protection lattices, which makes it look integral and as monolith as a rock, at the foot of which a path to mountain riches begins. Its brutalist form simultaneously brings to mind both the Kaaba and the objects modeled for futuristic films about space. The ornament is no longer a master's cutter, but parametric modeling or, possibly, 3D printing. This combination of ancient craft and technology of the future was the ultimate goal of Genpro.

The business center “holds” the corner at the crossing of the Fargona Yuli Highway and the Kushkuprik Street, and, together with the residential sections going into the depth of the complex, sets the axis of the river park.

Orient City
Copyright: © GENPRO


The relatively reserved character of the facade design is compensated by the improvement of the park and the yards, where it feels like the architects indulged in the charms of the local flavor. The main square turns into a modern version of the oriental bazaar, in the center of which there is an amphitheater with a dry fountain, surrounded by shops and restaurants. The tents, which give a continuous shadow and islands of rest, are stylized like huge cotton buds – the “white gold” of Uzbekistan. Through the “propylaea” of the residential sections, the cotton “alley” and the artificial stream lead the walkers into the inner spaces. In the central part of the park there is a reservoir, playgrounds and sports fields, as well as a garden with fruit trees and greenhouses.

Orient City
Copyright: © GENPRO


It should be noted that in the hot climate conditions the most expensive apartments are in the bottom floors, cooler and shadier, which influenced the floor plans. The lower floors turn the space of the complex into an active part of the city: the architects designed premises for a kindergarten, coworking spaces, workshops, and a fitness center.
Orient City. Vross section views
Copyright: © GENPRO


30 October 2021

Headlines now
Daring Brilliance
In this article, we are exploring “New Vision”, the first school built in the past 25 years in Moscow’s Khamovniki. The building has three main features: it is designed in accordance with the universal principles of modern education, fostering learning through interaction and more; second, the façades combine structural molded glass and metallic glazed ceramics – expensive and technologically advanced materials. Third, this is the school of Garden Quarters, the latest addition to Moscow’s iconic Khamovniki district. Both a costly and, in its way, audacious acquisition, it carries a youthful boldness in its statement. Let’s explore how the school is designed and where the contrasts lie.
A Twist of the Core
A clever and concise sculptural solution – rotating each floor by N degrees – has created an ensemble of “dancing” towers: similar yet different, simple yet complex. The designers meticulously refined a single structural node and spent considerable effort on the column construction – after that, “everything else was easy”. The architects also rotated the core walls on each floor to maximize the efficiency of the office spaces.
The Sculpting of Spring Forest Matter
We’ve been observing this building for a couple of years now: seemingly simple, perhaps even unassuming, it fits in remarkably well with the micro-district context shaped by the Moscow MCD road junctions. This building sticks in the memory of everyone who drives along the highway, even occasionally. In our opinion, Sergey Nikeshkin, by blending popular architectural techniques and approaches of the 2010s, managed to turn a seemingly simple structure into a statement “on the theme of a house as such”. Let’s figure out how this happened.
Water and Wind Whet the Stone
The Arisha Terraces residential complex, designed by Asadov Architects, will be built in a district of Dubai dedicated to film and television production. To create shaded spaces and an intriguing silhouette, the architects opted for a funnel-shaped composition and nature-inspired forms of erosion and weathering. The roofs, podium, and underground spaces extend leisure opportunities within the boundaries of a man-made “oasis”.
Elevation 5642
The Genplan Institute of Moscow has developed a comprehensive development project for three ski resorts in the Caucasus, which have been designated as special economic zones of the tourism and recreation type. The first of these zones is Elbrus. The project includes the construction of new ski runs, cable cars, and hotels, as well as the modernization of stations and improvements to the Azau tourist meadow. To expand the audience and enhance year-round appeal, a network of eco-trails is also being developed. In this article, we provide a detailed breakdown of each stage.
The IT Town
Taking the example of the first completed phase of the “U” district, we examine how the new neighborhood in Innopolis will be organized. T+T Architects and HADAA formed a well-balanced and ingenious master plan with different types of housing, a green artery, a system of squares, and a park in the town’s central part.
The Heart Lies Within
The second-phase building of the Evgeny Primakov School already won multiple awards while still in the design stage. Now that it’s completed, some unfinished nuances remain – most notably, the exposed ceiling structures, which ideally should have been concealed. However, given the priority placed on the building’s volumetric composition, this does not seem critical. What matters more is the “Wow!” effect created by the space itself.
Magnetic Forces
“Krylatskaya 33” is the first large-scale residential complex to appear amidst the 1980s “micro-districts” that harmoniously coexist with the forests, the river, the slopes, and the sports infrastructure. Despite its imposing scale, the architects of Ostozhenka managed to turn the complex into something that can be best described as a “graceful dominant”. First, they designed the complex with consideration for the style and height of the surrounding micro-districts. Second, by introducing a pause in its tallest section, they created compositional tension – right along the urban planning axis of the area.
Orion’s Belt
The Stone Khodynka 2 office complex, designed by Kleinewelt Architekten for the company Stone, is built with an ergonomic layout following “healthy building” principles: natural light, ventilation, and all the necessary features for an efficient office environment. On the outside, it resembles – like many contemporary buildings – an iPhone: sleek, glowing, glass-and-metal, edges elegantly rounded. Yet, it responds sensitively to the Khodynka context, where the main theme is the contrast between vertical and horizontal lines. The key intrigue lies in the design of the “stylobate” as a suspended passage, leaving the space beneath it open for free pedestrian movement.
Grigory Revzin: “It Was a Bold Statement Made on the Sly. Something Won”
In this article, we discuss the debates surrounding the circus competition and the demolition of the CMEA building with the most renowned architectural critic of our time. A paradox emerges in the process: while nostalgia for the Brezhnev era seems to be in vogue in Russia, a landmark building – the “axis” of the Warsaw Pact – has been sentenced to demolition. Isn’t that strange? We also find out that wow-architecture has made a comeback as a post-COVID trend. However, to make a truly powerful statement, professionals still remain indispensable.
Exposed Concrete
One of the stages of improving a small square in the town of Lermontov was the construction of a skatepark. Entrusting this part of the project to the XSA team, the city gained a 250-meter trick track whose features resemble those of land art objects – unparalleled in Russia in both scale and design. Here’s a look at how the experimental snake run in the foothills of the Caucasus was built.
One Step Closer To the Dream
The challenges of getting all the mandatory approvals, an insufficient budget, and construction site difficulties did not prevent ASADOV Bureau from achieving its main goal in the realization of the school project in the town of Troitsk – taking another step away from outdated notions of educational spaces toward creating a fundamentally new academic environment.
Chalet on the Rock
An Accor hotel in Arkhyz, designed by A.Len, will be situated at the gateway to the resort’s main tourist hubs. The architects reinterpreted the widely popular chalet style while adding an unexpected twist – an unfinished structure preserved on the site. The design team transformed this remnant into an exciting space featuring an open-air pool and a restaurant with panoramic views of the region’s highest mountain ridges.
Sergey Skuratov: “By and large, the project has been realized in line with the original ideas”
In this issue, we talk to the chief architect of Garden Quarters, looking back at the history and key moments of a project that took 18 years to develop and has now finally been completed. What interests us most are the transformations that the project underwent during construction, and the way the “necessary void” of public space was formed, which turned this remarkable complex into a fragment of a whole new type of urban fabric – not just at the horizontal “street” level but in its vertical structure as well.
A Unique Representative
The recently concluded year 2024 can be considered the year of completion for the “Garden Quarters” residential complex in Moscow’s Khamovniki. This project is well-known and, in many ways, iconic. Rarely does one manage to preserve such a number of original ideas, achieving in the end a kind of urban planning Gesamtkunstwerk. Here is a subjective view from an architecture journalist, with an interview with Sergey Skuratov soon to follow.
Field of Life
The new project by the architectural company PNKB (an acronym for “Design, Research, and Advisory Bureau”), led by Sergey Gnedovsky and Anton Lyubimkin, for the Kulikovo Field Museum is dedicated to the field as a concept in its own right. The field has long been a focus of the museum’s thorough and successful research. Accordingly, the exterior of the new museum building is gentler than that of its predecessor, which was also designed by PNKB and dedicated specifically to the historic battle. Inside, however, the building confidently guides the visitor from a luminous atrium along a spiral path to the field – interpreted here as a field of life.
A Paper Clip above the River
In this article, we talk with Vitaly Lutz from the Genplan Institute of Moscow about the design and unique features of the pedestrian bridge that now links the two banks of the Yauza River in the new cluster of Bauman Moscow State Technical University (MSTU). The bridge’s form and functionality – particularly the inclusion of an amphitheater suspended over the river – were conceived during the planning phase of the territory’s development. Typically, this approach is not standard practice, but the architects advocate for it, referring to this intermediate project phase as the “pre-AGR” stage (AGR stands for Architectural and Urban Planning Approval). Such a practice, they argue, helps define key parameters of future projects and bridge the gap between urban planning and architectural design.
Living in the Architecture of One’s Own Making
Do architects design houses for themselves? You bet! In this article, we are examining a new book by TATLIN publishing house. This book – unprecedented for Russia – features 52 private homes designed and built by contemporary architects for themselves. It includes houses that are famous, even iconic, as well as lesser-known ones; large and small, stylish and eccentric. To some extent, the book reflects the history of Russian architecture over the past 30 years.
A City Block Isoline
Another competition project for a residential complex on the banks of the Volga in Nizhny Novgorod has been prepared by Studio 44. A team of architects led by Ivan Kozhin concluded that using a regular block layout in such a location would be inappropriate and developed a “custom design” approach: a chain of parceled multi-section buildings stretching along the entire embankment. Let’s explore the features and advantages of this unconventional method.
Competition: The Price of Creativity?
Any day now, we’re expecting the results of a competition held by the “Samolet” development group for a plot in Kommunarka. In the meantime, we share the impressions of Editor-in-Chief Julia Tarabarina, who managed to conduct a public talk. Though technically focused on the interaction between developers and architects, the public talk turned into a discussion about the pros and cons of architectural competitions.
Terraced Design
The “River Park” residential complex has confidently and securely shaped the Nagatinsky Backwater shoreline. Featuring a public embankment, elevated courtyards connected by pedestrian bridges, and brick façades, the development invites exploration of its nuanced response to the surrounding context, as well as hints of the architects’ megalithic design thinking.
A Kremlin’s Core and Meteorite Fragments
We continue our coverage of the competition projects for the residential district that the development company GloraX plans to build along the embankment of the Rowing Channel in Nizhny Novgorod. ASADOV Architects approached the concept through a deep dive into local identity, using storytelling to pinpoint a central idea for the design: the master plan and composition are imagined as if a meteorite had struck a “proto-Kremlin”. Sounds weird? Find more details below!
The Volga Regatta
GloraX plans to develop a residential complex spanning 14 hectares along the Volga River in Nizhny Novgorod. The winning design in a closed-door competition, created by GORA Architects, features housing typologies ranging from townhouses to terraced high-rise slabs, a balance of functions, diverse ways of engaging with the water, and even a dedicated island (no less!) for the city residents.
Life Plans
The master plan for the residential district “Prityazheniye” (“Gravity”) in Naberezhnye Chelny was developed by the architectural company A.Len, taking into account the specific urban planning context and partially implemented solutions of the first phase. However, the master plan prioritized its own values: a green framework, a system of focal points, a hierarchy of spaces, and pedestrian priority. After this, the question of what residents will do in their neighborhood simply doesn’t arise.
A New Track
We took a thorough look at D_Station, a railcar repair depot dating back to 1906, recently reconstructed while preserving its century-old industrial structure, upon the project by Sergey Trukhanov and T+T Architects. Though work on the interiors – set to house restaurants and public spaces – is still underway, the building’s exterior already offers plenty to see. Visitors can explore the blend of old and new brickwork, appreciate the architect’s unique interpretation of ruin aesthetics, and enjoy the newly built pedestrian route that connects the Citydel Business Center’s arches to Kazakova Street.
Four Different Surveys
The “Explore the City” competition, organized this year by the Genplan Institute of Moscow, stands out as a pretty unconventional one for the architectural field but aligns perfectly well with the character of urban planning work. The winning project analyzed contemporary residential complexes, combining urban planning insights with a realtor’s perspective to propose a hybrid approach. Other entries explored public centers, motivations for car ownership, and housing vacancy rates. A fifth participant withdrew. Here’s a closer look at the four completed works.
Scheduled Evolution
ASADOV Architects unveiled the EvyCenter pavilion, a microcultural hub for fostering personal growth, organizing workshops, and doing gymnastics. Additionally, this pavilion serves as a prototype for a scalable country house, drawing inspiration from the “Loskutok” project, and constructed from CLT panels in a factory. This marks the beginning of a developer project initiated by the architectural firm (sic!), which is seeking partners to expand both small Evy settlements and even larger Evy cities, which are, according to Andrey Asadov, aimed at fostering the “evolutionary” development of the people who will inhabit them.
The Golden Crown
The concept for a dental clinic in Yekaterinburg, developed by CNTR Studio, revolves around the idea of a “mouth full of gold”: pristine white porcelain stoneware walls are complemented by matte brass details. To avoid an overly literal interpretation, the architects focused on the building’s proportions, skillfully navigating between sunlight requirements and fire safety regulations.
Flexibility and Integration
Not long ago, we covered the project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential complex, designed by APEX. Now, we’ve been shown different fence concepts they developed to enclose the complex’s private courtyards, incorporating a variety of public functions. We believe that the sheer fact that the complex’s architects were involved in such a detail as fencing speaks volumes.
A Step Forward
The HIDE residential complex represents a major milestone for ADM architects and their leaders Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova in their quest for a fresh high-rise aesthetic – one that is flexible and layered, capable of bringing vibrancy to mass and silhouette while shaping form. Over recent years, this approach has become ADM’s “signature style”, with the golden HIDE tower playing a pivotal role in its evolution. Here, we delve into the project’s story, explore the details of the complex’s design, and uncover its core essence.