По-русски

The New Dawn

In their project of a technology park to be built on the grounds of “Integrated Home-Building Factory 500” in Tyumen Oblast – the biggest in Russia – the HADAA architects preserve not just the industrial function of the giant hangar built in the late 1980s and 90% of its structures, but also respond to its imagery. They also propose a “gradient” approach to developing the available areas: from open public ones to staff-only professional spaces. The goal of this approach is to turn the technology park into the driver for developing the business function between the industrial zones and the future residential area in accordance with the Integrated Land Development program.

Julia Tarabarina

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

03 February 2023
Contest Results
mainImg



The international competition for renovating the Tyumen’s Home-Building Factory took place in the summer of 2022. Out of the ten finalist proposals, the judging panel selected a project submitted by a relatively young architectural company named HADAA led by George Tyugaev and Mikhail Schwarzmann. Currently, the project is about to be built. The concept will be implemented in a few stages; the client has launched a procedure for choosing the general contractor, one of the requirements being to have the victorious architectural company do the on-site supervision.

In fall, the HADAA concept was awarded the “Silver Sign” at the Zodchestvo festival.

In a word, this is a high-profile project.

Home Building Factory 500 in Tyumen. The central lobby of the block of the main production facilities
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


Also, the project is very large: the building’s construction blueprint is 600 x 200 meters, 12-hectares, the area of the adjacent territory being 28.3 hectares (the architects often compare it to the three pyramids of Cheops) – and it is also very special in many respects, both in terms of the “givens” and the very essence of the proposal, formulated in the victorious project.

Late 1980s: wooden house kit factory

Home-Building Factory 500 was constructed in the late 1980s in accordance with Finnish technology. It produced standardized houses – “house kits” made from wood. The factory did not work to full capacity for long: the giant production center did not fit in with the post-Soviet reality. It is located at the eastern outskirts of Tyumen, beyond the belt of private cottages, and not far away from the Ring Road, in the district commonly known as “Leskhoz”, which in recent years has gained an unsavory reputation.

Today, however, there are plans for developing this area – not in the format that is habitual for capital cities, when former factories are replaced by housing complexes, but in a hybrid format: to the west, the industrial parks are preserved, and to the east, residential houses will be built in accordance with the Integrated Land Development Program. From the south, the territory borders on the Pesyanoe Lake; it is also very large, 2 km in length, but after rehabilitation it could become a wonderful part of the natural environment.

The early 2020s: the biggest technology park

Currently, it is planned that the buildings and the territory of the factory will be turned into Russia’s largest technology park, designed for 50 companies, and, in addition, it must become the biggest driver of the development of the Leskhoz territory – and turning it into something that is sometimes described as “poly-center”: implementing new functions, developing new industries, additions of future housing with offices in the neighborhood and the emergence of new public spaces. All the things people expect from it.

Home Building Factory 500 in Tyumen. The multifunctional business incubator and a hotel
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


The features of the solution, proposed by the HADAA consortium, include: flexibility of structure, smooth and “gradient” mutual penetration of spaces with different function and typology, different degree of openness and closeness, and not just random penetration, but the kind that was built in accordance with Huff’s model – a “commercial model of gravity”, as the architects explain.

Home Building Factory 500. Huff′s model
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


The model helps to assess the level of demand of the commercial enterprise with consideration to its area and location. And, yes, the consortium also includes economists – the consulting company S.A. Ricchi, as well as St. Petersburg’s Eggert Engineering that specializes on technology-based solutions. 

The main role, however, was played by the architects.

I studied at the Moscow Institute of Architecture at the Department of Industrial Architecture. I am interested in working with industrial facilities and I would like to emphasize that the role of an architect in working with such tasks is not at all limited to “drawing beautiful pictures”, as is often assumed. Many breakthrough industrial projects in Germany and Sweden of the 1960s and 1980s appeared specifically thanks to architects. Take, for example, the Volvo plant in Kalmar, where the Ford conveyor was redesigned according to a more efficient pattern; this was done thanks to efficient collaboration between architects and technologists, but the architects still prevail. So the DSK-500 competition seemed very interesting to us from the point of view of the architectural task itself.

We really liked the brief, which was designed in the form of a book, with information about the city and about likely residents – quite detailed, but at the same time given in “large strokes”, not overly detailed. It defined the boundaries, but did not interfere with our work, giving us enough creative freedom.


There is yet another feature that the concept owes to the architects’ initiative: it treats the already existing industrial building of the 1980s extremely tactfully.

Preservation

The building is a hangar with thin, high and spaciously spaced metal supports and yellow cross–shaped extensions between them; it has simple but thin trusses of wide-span ceilings and with roof height differences, reminiscent of the "naves" so beloved in industrial architecture, but now – without additional light strips in the height difference.

However, there are a lot of skylights in the roof of profiled sheeting, both sawtooth skylights and round openings of a very small diameter. The walls and partitions, on the other hand, are made deliberately sloppy out of exposed concrete, but they also feature stained glass verticals and ribbon bands on top. In other words, what you see on the inside, even in this dilapidated state, is something that’s spacious, tall, and light, and, generally speaking, the atmosphere of an industrial hangar is brutally romantic.

  • zooming
    1 / 4
    Home Building Factory 500 in Tyumen. The current state
    Copyright: Photograph: provided by HADAA ARCHITECTS, 2022
  • zooming
    2 / 4
    Home Building Factory 500 in Tyumen. The current state
    Copyright: Photograph: provided by HADAA ARCHITECTS, 2022
  • zooming
    3 / 4
    Home Building Factory 500 in Tyumen. The current state
    Copyright: Photograph: provided by HADAA ARCHITECTS, 2022
  • zooming
    4 / 4
    Home Building Factory 500 in Tyumen. The current state
    Copyright: Photograph: provided by HADAA ARCHITECTS, 2022


The HADAA project provides for preserving 90% of the existing structures.

On the other hand, the architects treat the original configuration of the building very carefully, and do not make any radical invasions. The existing overpasses give way to new ones, just as useful in the Tyumen climate. There is more glass now, but it does not dominate, staying within the borders of the stained glass windows and the “ribbons”.

The metallic surface of profiled sheeting looks as though it “descends” from the roof, replacing the concrete walls: the facades are lightweight, and, more importantly, cost-effective. According to the architects, if you make the right choice and efficiently “arrange” such simple material, toggling between the formats of its striped surface, the resulting volume will look both modern and adequate to the “technology park” function – the silvery metal in combination with glass is quite capable of refreshing the building’s image without being exceedingly pompous.

Home Building Factory 500 in Tyumen. The entrance plaza of the block of the main production facilities
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


Home Building Factory 500 in Tyumen. The central lobby of the block of the main production facilities
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


The architects preserve some parts of the old structures as useful ones, staying in the background but effective in their own way – for example, the trusses that bear the roof. Some of the walls are turned into glass – not only on the outside facades but also on the roof ledge: this is how yet another source of natural light appears, which, as it seems to me, was originally designed but was not implemented.

Some elements of the old structures of the hangar are treated by the architects as recognizable artifacts that are responsible for the genius loci (in the project, we see that they have been deliberately aged, so as to emphasize the idea) – for example, these are the metallic supports or yellow stretching fasteners. They neighbor on ultra-new inclusions, such as a silvery spiral staircase – its presence, among other things, emphasizes the peaceful coexistence of spaces of different scales: spacious double-height atriums and “loft” floors.

Home Building Factory 500 in Tyumen. The interior of the coworking of the block of the main production facilities
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


Home Building Factory 500 in Tyumen. The interior of the lobby of the block of the main production facilities
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


The topic of “genius loci” is continued by yet another inclusion. On the territory of the hangar, there is a railway that was formerly used for delivering wood and shopping the ready house building kits. The railroad tracks are owned by the Russian Railways, and getting permission for their dismantling would have been quite a chore.

HADAA architects use most of the tracks for landscaping purposes inside the technology park, covering it with green casings.

The scheme of adapting the railroad tracks. Home Building Factory 500
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


Some of the railroad, however – the part lying on the south side where it comes very close to a large industrial lot – will be used for its direct purpose, i.e. for loading and unloading: to revive its original function. For example, to unload “oversized technological equipment” – but probably seldom, “once in every few years”. For this reason, the project provides for a collapsible mechanism for the “meeting” the train: the removable facade panels and floor slabs can later be put in place. To unload the train, a crane beam is provided – a mechanism sliding along a reinforced beam under the ceiling; several more crane beams are provided for other production facilities.

Home Building Factory 500
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


The gradient of the technology park 

Let’s get back, however, to the structure of the technology park and distribution of the functions and facilities. On the west side, there is a future residential block, where a public boulevard running along the main building appears, with bicycle tracks, maximum glass, and open doors. On the east side, the industrial park is preserved; along this wall, production facilities are grouped, sometimes hazardous, or at least with special operating conditions. Between these two, there is a mix of atriums, coworking spaces, laboratories, and other facilities. It is expected that anyone can enter from the west, but as you move eastward, restrictions gradually set in. This way – which is interesting enough – the architects use the economic theory to arrange the space, not really changing the building but only “modeling” it, sometimes removing the supports, sometimes adding a cantilever and winning extra square meters, sometimes covering, and sometimes revealing things.

Home Building Factory 500. Formation of the volumetric solutions
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


That is not to say that the project produces any kind of “blurred” impression: the plan clearly shows that the ratio of large / medium facilities, offices and coworking spaces is distributed in accordance with a very simple pattern. Yet, this pattern is indeed gradient-based.

Home Building Factory 500. Block of the main production facilities. The first floor
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


The proposed solution means maximum flexibility of the development of the already-existing building. The city on the one side, and the industrial park on the other get “crossed” under the roof of the same mini-city, which is something that is likely to boost its role as a driver, at the same time leaving room for gradual change, and making real-time adjustments. This is something that’s critically important, especially for such a grand-scale task.

The new and renewed

The project, of course, is not limited to preservation and “uncovering” – it also provides for development, most of which is concentrated north and south of the main building. On the north side, where you approach the building down the Domostroitelei Street, you are welcomed by the “grand entrance” for people and the driving entrance for trucks (on the left). The two relatively small buildings that stand left and right of the entrance are turned into exposition centers, conference halls, and coworking spaces with a showroom underneath a glass roof on the central axis.

Home Building Factory 500. The entrance area. Axonometric drawing
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


Home Building Factory 500. The entrance zone
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


Home Building Factory 500. The administration building
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


Most of the transformations are designed in the furthermost part of the building, on the lake shore. Here we can see the newest construction referring to the latest stages, and the nature around the pond, about which the architects warned very early on: you don’t need any “urban” embankment here, the place will get boardwalks in a relatively “wild-growing” setting. The closer to the lake, the “wilder” the experience becomes.

Home Building Factory 500. The zones
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


So! The architects use the trapeze-shaped territory between the lake and the hangar for the newest buildings: a “business incubator” and a hotel. The distinctive feature of the latter is not just an oval plan and a rather big height, but also the fact that it is designed as a multipurpose building – should this be necessary, the whole building (or some of its floors) can be turned into offices. This is as flexible as it can get.

Home Building Factory 500. Landscaping of the park area. The hotel is the small black and white building on top
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


A more important building is the already mentioned “business incubator”. It is expected that it will host startups, as well as lectures, conferences, and everything else that is important for sharing expertise and for professional growth. Sometimes there can be more people in some areas, sometimes less, and the space here is particularly flexible: the permanent premises are there only on the perimeter; in the middle, there are “islands” that can change its form and function.

Home Building Factory 500. The business incubator with an expo area, sports and retail core. The spatial organization
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


Accordingly, the new building is covered with a wooden roof with large and deep caissons resting on fan-like supports: their bottom reinforced-concrete parts are of the same height, but they expand towards the top with metallic “branches” of different length. Accordingly, the roof also has varying height: it bends like a blanket or an ocean wave – something that, of course, would have been impossible in the old building. The interior, however, has plenty of air to it, and is quite flashy. The abundance of wood is also “homage” to the wooden past of this place.

Home Building Factory 500. The business incubator with an expo area, sports and retail core
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


The facades of the new building, in turn, are a little more expensive than in the old one. Probably, it will be possible to use fiber concrete of a very dark color, almost black. The style, however, is pretty much the same, i.e. extended – the glass bands echo the leitmotif of the main building. The skylights are also “inherited” here, but they are larger, and all circular.

Home Building Factory 500. The business incubator with an expo area, sports and retail core
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


Home Building Factory 500. The business incubator with an expo area, sports and retail core
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


Home Building Factory 500. The square before the business incubator with an expo area, sports and retail core
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


The roofs are a separate topic. HADAA architects propose to equip the main building’s roof with “fields” of photovoltaic elements, which would be capable of satisfying at least some of the energy needs of the park and its data center. After all, the area of the roof is 13 hectares.

Home Building Factory 500. View from the south
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


The skylights, both new and renovated ones, are also an important part of the imagery of the “fifth facade”. Its panorama is both reserved and at the same time cosmically expressive, and is both reminiscent of Tashkent bathhouses and modernist classics. The skylights accumulate light for the inner spaces during the day, and they glow at night. This is particularly important because the architects also did not forget about the operated roofs with gardens.

Home Building Factory 500. View from the roof of the block of the main production block in the direction of the lake. The new business incubator is on the left
Copyright: © HADAA ARCHITECTS


***

In all this, there is both lyricism and practicality, which rarely go well together. The project is thought out in detail, there are 140 pages in the album alone, but there are no bright “wow” gestures in it, except for those that the authors extract from the context, emphasizing the length, spaciousness, and luminosity of the original building and responding to it in the innovations that they propose. So the approach is good not only for the tactfulness of looking at the industrial architecture of recent times as a value, but also, of course, because of its implementability. We sometimes forget that conservation is essentially about saving up; this rule, which was relevant until the middle of the XX century, has been questioned many times in recent decades. In this case – on the edge of industrial Tyumen, in a project of considerable ambitions, but hardly of an unlimited budget – the proposed “gradient” approach, based on saving resources (constructive, natural and others) seems to be beautiful and optimal at the same time.

 

03 February 2023

Julia Tarabarina

Written by:

Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov
Headlines now
The Chinese Symphony
The construction of the Chinese center “Huaming Park” has been a long story that came to fruition relatively recently. The building is adjacent to a traditional Chinese garden, but it is very modern, laconic and technological, and the simple-in-form, yet spectacular, white lamellae promise to someday be incorporated as a media facade. This complex is also truly multifunctional: it contains different types of living spaces, offices, a large fitness center, conference halls and restaurants – all wrapped in one volume. You can comfortably hold international forums in it, having everything you may possibly need at your fingertips, and going outside only to take a walk. In this article, we are examining this complex in detail.
Ensemble of Individualities
Construction of the first phase of the INDY Towers multifunctional complex on Kuusinen Street, designed by Ostozhenka, has started. The project opens new angles of similarity between the column and the skyscraper, and we examine the nuances and parallels.
Black and Red
Kazakov Grand Loft received its name for a reason: responding to the client’s brief and proceeding from the historical industrial architecture of its immediate surroundings, Valery Kanyashin and Ostozhenka architects proposed a new version of a modern house designed in the fashionable “loft” style. What makes this building different is the fact that the bricks here are dark gray, and the facades of the romantic “fortress” towers blossom with magnificent glazing of the windows in the upper part. The main highlight of the complex, however, is the multiple open air terraces situated on different levels.
Icy Hospitality
Mezonproject has won the national architectural and town planning competition for designing a hotel and a water recreation center in the city of Irkutsk. The architects chose hummocks of Baikal ice as a visual image.
The Mastery of Counterpoint
In the sculpture of Classical Greece, counterpoint was first invented: the ability to position the human body as if it were about to take a step, imbuing it with a hint of the energy of future movement, and with hidden dynamics. For architecture, especially in the 20th century and now, this is also one of the main techniques, and the ATRIUM architects implement it diligently, consistently – and always slightly differently. The new residential complex “Richard” is a good example of such exploration, based on the understanding of contrasts in the urban environment, which was fused into the semblance of a living being.
Countryside Avant-Garde
The project of the museum of Aleksey Gastev, the ideologist of scientific organization of work, located in his hometown of Suzdal, is inscribed in multiple contexts: the contest of a small town, the context of avant-garde design, the context of “lean production”, and the context of the creative quest of Nikolai Lyzlov’s minimalist architecture – and it seems to us that this project even reveals a distant memory of the fact that Aleksey Gastev learned his craft in France.
On the Hills
In the project by Studio 44, the “distributed” IT campus of Nizhny Novgorod is based on well-balanced contracts. Sometimes it is hovering, sometimes undulating, sometimes towering over a rock. For every task, the architects found appropriate form and logic: the hotels are based on a square module, the academic buildings are based on a “flying” one, and so on. Modernist prototypes, specifically, Convent Sainte-Marie de La Tourette, stand next to references to the antique Forum and the tower of a medieval university – as well as next to contextual allusions that help inscribe the buildings of the future campus into the landscape of the city hills with their dominants, high slopes, breathtaking river views, the historical city center, and the Nizhny Novgorod University.
The Magic Carpet
The anniversary exhibition of Totan Kuzembaev’s drawings named “Event Horizons” shows both very old drawings made by the architect in the formative 1980’s, and now extracted from the Museum of Architecture, as well as quite a few pictures from the “Weightlessness” series that Totan Kuzembaev drew specifically for this exhibition in 2023. It seemed to us that the architect represented reality from the point of view of someone levitating in space, and sometimes even upside down, like a magic carpet with multiple layers.
​A Copper Step
Block 5, designed by ASADOV architects as part of the “Ostrov” (“Island”) housing complex, is at the same time grand-scale, conspicuous thanks to its central location – and contextual. It does not “outshout” the solutions used in the neighboring buildings, but rather gives a very balanced implementation of the design code: combining brick and metal in light and dark shades and large copper surfaces, orthogonal geometry on the outside and flexible lines in the courtyard.
The Light for the Island
For the first time around, we are examining a lighting project designed for a housing complex; but then again, the authors of the nighttime lighting of the Ostrov housing complex, UNK lighting, proudly admit that this project is not just the largest in their portfolio, but also the largest in this country. They describe their approach as a European one, its chief principles being smoothness of transitions, comfort to the eye, and the concentration of most of the light at the “bottom” level – meaning, it “works” first of all for pedestrians.
Spots of Light
A new housing complex in Tyumen designed by Aukett Swanke is a very eye-pleasing example of mid-rise construction: using simple means of architectural expression, such as stucco, pitched roofs, and height changes, the architects achieve a “human-friendly” environment, which becomes a significant addition to the nearby park and forest.
Ledges and Swirls
The housing complex “Novaya Zarya” (“New Dawn”) designed by ASADOV Architects will become one of the examples of integrated land development in Vladivostok. The residential area will be characterized by various typologies of its housing sections, and a multitude of functions – in addition to the social infrastructure, the complex will include pedestrian promenades, shopping malls, office buildings, and recreational facilities. The complex is “inscribed” in a relief with a whopping 40-meter height difference, and overlooks the Amur Bay.
Agglomeration on an Island
Recently, an approval came for the master plan of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk agglomeration, which was developed by a consortium headed by the Genplan Institute of Moscow. The document provides for the creation of 12 clusters, the totality of which will give the region a qualitative leap in development and make the island more self-sufficient, more accessible, and less dependent on the mainland. We are inviting you to examine the details.
Ivan Grekov: “A client that wants to make a building that is “about architecture” is...
In this article, we are talking to Ivan Grekov, the leader of the architectural company KAMEN (translates as “stone”), the author of many high-profile projects that have been built in Moscow in the recent years, about the history of his company, about different approaches to form making, about different meanings of volume and facade, and about “layers” in working with the environment – at the example of two projects by Osnova Group. These are the MIRAPOLIS complex on the Mira Avenue in Rostokino, whose construction began at the end of last year, and the multifunctional complex in the 2nd Silikatny Proezd on the Zvenigorodsky Highway; recently, it received all the required approvals.
Grasping and Formulating
The special project “Tezisy” (“Abstracts”), showcased at Arch Moscow exhibition in Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor, brought together eight young “rock stars of architecture”, the headliner being Vladislav Kirpichev, founder of the EDAS school. In this article, we share our impressions of the installations and the perspectives of the new generation of architects.
The White Tulip
Currently, there are two relevant projects for the Great Cathedral Mosque in Kazan, which was transferred to a land site in Admiralteiskaya Sloboda in February. One of them, designed by TsLP, was recently showcased at Arch Moscow. In this article, we are covering another project, which was proposed during the same period for the same land site. Its author is Aleksey Ginzburg, the winner of the 2022 competition, but now the project is completely different. Today, it is a sculptural “flower” dome symbolizing a white tulip.
ATRIUM’s Metaverse
The architectural company ATRIUM opened a gallery of its own in a metaverse. Inside, one can examine the company’s approach and main achievements, as well as get some emotional experience. The gallery is already hosting cyberspace business meetings and corporate events.
​From Darkness to Light
Responding to a lengthy list of limitations and a lengthy – by the standards of a small building – list of functions, Vladimir Plotkin turned the project of the Novodevichy Monastery into a light, yet dynamic statement of modern interpretation of historical context, or, perhaps, even interpretation of light and darkness.
Modernism in Avant-Garde
The contest proposal that Studio 44 made for the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theater is bright in all senses, and in many ways even provocative – just like a modern theater performance should be. Being in context with modern culture, it even shocks you in some respects. At first, you are amazed at the red color that is present all around, and then you gradually make sense of the picturesque congregation of volumes that share a multitude of functions. And it’s only later that you realize that this conglomerate conceals a modernist building, most of which the architects save intact.
The Black Mountain
The project of reconstructing the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet theater developed by Wowhaus, which won the competition, proposed a total demolition and new construction, as well as considerable expansion (up to 8 floors) – and transformable multifunctional spaces. The new project, however, does retain the recognizable elements and the image of the old theater. As for the main spectator hall, it is turned – figuratively speaking, of course – into a semblance of a black volcano.
Garage-Garage
Recently, Moscow saw the presentation of a project by Yuri Grigoryan, devoted to turning the truck garage on Novoryazanskaya Street, designed by Konstantin Melnikov, into the Museum of Moscow Transport. The project involves restoring the monument of architecture, adding a new underground floor and a new entrance, as well as a whole park. The implementation is already underway.
Houses by the Lakeside
Approvals came for the project of a housing complex that DNK ag designed in Kazan. The complex is low-rise; its sections are designed as separate volumes united by a common podium. Everything is very much like DNK: delicate and sometimes even lyrical, especially where the yard meets the lakeshore.
Exemplary Adaptation
In Novosibirsk, the construction of a school has been completed, whose project is standing every chance to set a new standard for the nation’s educational institutions. SVESMI Architects and Brusnika company started by developing the brief that would answer the modern teaching practices, and then they proposed the optimum plan, versatile classrooms, and reserved, yet expressive, image in the spirit of this Amsterdam alliance.
Terra Incognita
An 800-room hotel complex, designed by Ginzburg Architects, offers the seaside city of Anapa a fragment of well-organized urban environment that keeps up the cultural spirit of the place. The architects break away from traditional white facades, turning to the antique and even archaic periods of the history of this land, and drawing inspiration in the color of red clay and simple, yet lightweight, shapes.
In Plumage Colors
Working on the facades of a mid-rise residential area in Odintsovsky district, GENPRO architects “adjusted” a number of features of the volumetric composition, which they received without the right to make any changes to, by purely “decorative” means, such as ornamental brickwork, including glazed bricks and the rhythm of the windows. Interestingly, the starting point in the search for the color code was the plumage of birds that are found in the Moscow region.
Julius Borisov: “The “Island” housing complex is a unique project – we took it on with...
One of the largest housing projects of today’s Moscow – the “Ostrov” (“Island”) housing complex built by Donstroy – is now being actively built in the Mnevniky Floodplain. They are planning to build about 1.5M square meters of housing on an area of almost 40 hectares. We are beginning to examine this project– first of all, we are talking to Julius Borisov, the head of the architectural company UNK, which works with most of the residential blocks in this grand-scale project, as well as with the landscaping part; the company even proposed a single design code for the entire territory.
A Balanced Solution
The residential complex “Balance” on Moscow’s Ryazansky Prospekt is one of the large-scale, and relatively economical (again, by Moscow standards) housing projects. Its first phase has already been built and landscaped; the work on the others is in progress. Nevertheless, it has an integral internal logic, which is based on the balance of functions, height, and even image and space composition. The proposed solutions are recognizable and laconic, so that each of them was reduced by the authors to a graphic “logo”. To see everything, you have to flip through the pages and look through to the end.
Horror Vacui
In the city of Omsk, ASADOV architects took on a very challenging task: they are developing a concept of a public and residential complex, which involves reconstructing the city’s first thermal power station standing right next to Omsk’s first fortress. This territory has already seen a lot of projects designed for it, and the residential function of this land site has been the subject of heated debate. In this article, we are examining the project in question, aimed at developing a mid-scale city fabric suited for the historical center. We also examine the above-mentioned debate. Seriously, will this project save this place or will it bring it to ruin?
A Multi-Faced Grotto
This building, seemingly small, unremarkable, semi-ruined, and not even very ancient – the Grotto in the Bauman Garden – was restored by the “People’s Architect” architectural company with all the care applicable to a heritage monument. They preserved the romantic appeal of the ruins, added multimedia content, and explored the cascading fountain, which, as it turned out, was completely preserved. Brace yourself for a long story!