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​Consistency of the Method

Marking its 35th anniversary, Reserve Union (officially named OOO TPO Reserve in Russia) used the venue of the Arch Moscow convention to showcase its hitherto unannounced projects. We asked Vladimir Plotkin a few questions, and we are showing a few pictures – without any captions yet.

07 June 2022
Interview
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“They will always remain on paper or in the digits. We forgot about them” – the press release says. 

The booth showcases a few dozen unimplemented projects, which had not been published up until this point, so it must broaden our idea of the works by Reserve Union, many of which – particularly the ones that got implemented  –  are quite well-known, not to say have become modern classics. Now, however, the visitors of Arch Moscow were shown things that hitherto have only been known to the small inner circle.

2018. One of the projects prepared for the “Unknown” exhibition marking the company′s 35th anniversary. Arch Moscow, 2022
Copyright: © Reserve Union


Thus, the exhibition appears to be not just an addition to the history of the company but to the post-Soviet architecture as a whole because Reserve Union is this country’s oldest privately owned architectural company, created back in 1987, much earlier than all the others. We asked a few questions to the company’s all-time architect Vladimir Plotkin, and asked him to show a few pictures that would be showcased at the Arch Moscow convention. All the projects are shown nameless, we just provide the year of origin.

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Archi.ru:
Is Reserve Union really Russia’s oldest privately owned architectural company? Where is the starting point for “oldest”? And, by the way, where does your name come from?

Vladimir Plotkin: 
In 1987, the architectural cooperative “Reserve” was created under the roof of GlavAPU (Сhief Architectural-and-Planning Administration), which at that time performed the functions of Moskomarkhitektura, Moscow’s main architectural agency. Well, not exactly under the roof of GlavAPU – we were an independent organization from the very beginning. And the name meant that we, the young architects, were sort of like a reserve to the older generation. Somehow, the name stuck, and changing it was too much of a hassle. Everyone got used to it, me included.

And where does the TPO acronym come from? (TPO literally translates as “Creative/Production Union – translator’s note)

In the late 1980’s / early 1990’s we had to re-register our company, this time under the auspices of the Architects Union, and, in order to obtain the right licenses, or just to go through some bureaucratic procedures quicker – I don’t remember the subtleties, I was busy with other things – they included the “creative / production union” into the company’s name, even though we did not “produce” anything – production is when you produce bricks, for example. This was a purely formal bureaucratic move. Possibly, we could have done without it. But it also stuck, and when we were re-registering again in the mid-1990’s, we kept this prefix, and it turned out to be OOO TPO Reserve. 

And then the name slipped into common use, and other TPO’s began to appear. How many projects are there in your exposition? Are they really all totally unknown?

Well, almost all of them because I was mistaken about a few ones, and it turned out that they did pop up at one point or another. But on the whole, yes, there are. Our working principle was to show what we had forgotten. When in March I suddenly discovered that it was time to make an anniversary exposition, I went through our entire archive within a few days, and it’s a huge number of projects. I selected a few dozen. For some early projects, I could not find decent materials – digital graphics were nonexistent back then, there were no drafts, and I could only find poor-quality photographs. I even wanted to restore these projects and draw them over again, but then I decided that this would not be quite honest. There was a rather curious proposal on restoring the Sovremennik theater- maybe I was wrong to opt out of restoring it.

The very first project, Contract #1 of the Reserve cooperative was the reconstruction of two floors and the basement of the house on the Vorovskogo Street (now Povarskaya), for the Anatoly Vasilyev drama school – still before it received its own theater on the Sretenka. I was the one who did this project but I did not keep it on track, and there was no architecture in it as such – we remade a few apartments into a little stage and dressing rooms. We do not showcase it.

As far as the later period is concerned, we have quite a lot of forgotten projects, especially from the 2010-2012, when we participated in a crazy number of competitions. Here I had to do a selection, but trying to achieve a one-year-one-project ratio would also make little sense because we really did a lot, but published 3 or 4 competitions. We selected what was the most interesting and the most characteristic of us.

1998. One of the projects prepared for the “Unknown” exhibition marking the company′s 35th anniversary. Arch Moscow, 2022
Copyright: © Reserve Union


2014. One of the projects prepared for the “Unknown” exhibition marking the company′s 35th anniversary. Arch Moscow, 2022
Copyright: © Reserve Union


At first, we wanted to distribute our projects evenly by the year, but until 1995 we did not do any serious work; I did 3 or 4 projects, but as an extracurricular activity. Here I added a few projects that I did in Mosproject, specifically, the project of reconstructing the plaza of the Kievsky Railway Station. This was my only “cheat”, and I did it in order to show the evolution path. Even though there was no evolution worth speaking about.  

Now I am clear on how you explore the theme of Arch Moscow – by the consistency of your creative principles.

Interesting wording! I should have included that in my annotation… I have repeatedly said that I try to avoid trendy topics. Of course, there was some kind of evolution, and we adjusted our course depending upon some trends and preferences, but we tried as much as we could not to become totally dependent upon them.

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    2005. One of the projects prepared for the “Unknown” exhibition marking the company′s 35th anniversary. Arch Moscow, 2022
    Copyright: © Reserve Union
  • zooming
    2018. One of the projects prepared for the “Unknown” exhibition marking the company′s 35th anniversary. Arch Moscow, 2022
    Copyright: © Reserve Union


***

The company’s booth was a group of “steles” three meters tall, with identical proportions of their bases – the Archi.ru editorial team at once recalled a certain group of towers currently built in Moscow. If we are to speak about evolution, then we may probably think that the entire exhibition will tell us about the process, while the booth presents the result that we have achieved by this time.

The booth plan
Copyright: © Reserve Union


The Arch Moscow show took place in Moscow June 8-11. The PDF file with its program is available here.

07 June 2022

Headlines now
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.
​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.
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.
Campus within a Day
In this article, we talk about what the participants of Genplan Institute of Moscow’s hackathon were doing at the MosComArchitecture booth at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition. We also discuss who won the prize and why, and what can be done with the territory of a small university on the outskirts of Moscow.
Vertical Civilization
Genpro considered the development of the vertical city concept and made it the theme of their pavilion at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition.
Marina Yegorova: “We think in terms of hectares, not square meters”
The career path of architect Marina Yegorova is quite impressive: MARHI, SPEECH, MosComArchitectura, the Genplan Institute of Moscow, and then her own architectural company. Its name Empate, which refers to the words “to draw” in Portuguese and “to empathize” in English, should not be misleading with its softness, as the firm freely works on different scales, including Integrated Territorial Development projects. We talked with Marina about various topics: urban planning experience, female leadership style, and even the love of architects for yachting.
Andrey Chuikov: “Optimum balance is achieved through economics”
The Yekaterinburg-based architectural company CNTR is in its mature stage: crystallization of principles, systematization, and standardization helped it make a qualitative leap, enhance competencies, and secure large contracts without sacrificing the aesthetic component. The head of the company, Andrey Chuikov, told us about building a business model and the bonuses that additional education in financial management provides for an architect.
The Fulcrum
Ostozhenka Architects have designed two astonishing towers practically on the edge of a slope above the Oka River in Nizhny Novgorod. These towers stand on 10-meter-tall weathered steel “legs”, with each floor offering panoramic views of the river and the city; all public spaces, including corridors, receive plenty of natural light. Here, we see a multitude of solutions that are unconventional for the residential routine of our day and age. Meanwhile, although these towers hark back to the typological explorations of the seventies, they are completely reinvented in a contemporary key. We admire Veren Group as the client – this is exactly how a “unique product” should be made – and we tell you exactly how our towers are arranged.
Crystal is Watching You
Right now, Museum Night has kicked off at the Museum of Architecture, featuring a fresh new addition – the “Crystal of Perception”, an installation by Sergey Kuznetsov, Ivan Grekov, and the KROST company, set up in the courtyard. It shimmers with light, it sings, it reacts to the approach of people, and who knows what else it can do.
The Secret Briton
The house is called “Little France”. Its composition follows the classical St. Petersburg style, with a palace-like courtyard. The decor is on the brink of Egyptian lotuses, neo-Greek acroteria, and classic 1930s “gears”; the recessed piers are Gothic, while the silhouette of the central part of the house is British. It’s quite interesting to examine all these details, attempting to understand which architectural direction they belong to. At the same time, however, the house fits like a glove in the context of the 20th line of St. Petersburg’s Vasilievsky Island; its elongated wings hold up the façade quite well.
The Wrap-Up
The competition project proposed by Treivas for the first 2021 competition for the Russian pavilion at EXPO 2025 concludes our series of publications on pavilion projects that will not be implemented. This particular proposal stands out for its detailed explanations and the idea of ecological responsibility: both the facades and the exhibition inside were intended to utilize recycled materials.