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A Tectonic Shift

For several years now, Futura Architects have been working with the “New Peter” residential area in the south of St. Petersburg. In this article, we are covering their most recent project – a house, in which the architects’ architectural ideas peacefully coexist with the limitations of comfort-class housing, producing a “multilayered” effect that looks very attractive for this typology.

14 October 2022
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The “New Peter” area is a grand-scale project by the development company “Stroitelny Trest “ (“Construction Trust”) located in the settlement of Novoselie: in total, it is expected to contain about 40 houses standing on 87 hectares of former farmland, about a third of which has already been developed. The residential blocks will stretch the whole length of the local Krasnoselskoe Highway, east of which new roads are currently being built – names have already been assigned to Pitersky Avenue and Nevskaya Street. From the north, New Peter is pushed by the St. Petersburg Ring Road, whose junction partially makes up for the remote location of Novoselye, hinted at by the very name of this place (literally “New Settlement”) – behind it, the multistory buildings stop short, giving way to forestland interspersed with country homes.

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The master plan of New Peter residential area
Copyright: © Photo courtesy by Construction Trust


New Peter residential area
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


The project has been developing since 2014, and, for its time and location, and even for St. Petersburg, it has a whole number of innovative solutions. For example, all the houses have brick external walls, and there are no studios in them – the area of the apartments starts from 35 square meters, the height of the buildings does not exceed 12 floors, and the master plan, developed by the architectural studio M4, in addition to schools and kindergartens, has public life facilities in it – a linear park several kilometers long, a business center, and a sports and fitness complex. The first houses were also built by M4 projects, and in the more recent stages the developer went even further – they divided the land sites into lots and began inviting different architects to design them.

New Peter residential area
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


The commission to design Lot 12 was scored by Futura Architects, which was preceded by a rather lengthy story. The architects began working with New Peter still in 2014 from the White Nights Boulevard – a linear park that will run through all the segments of the complex. A part of the boulevard has already been built, and its beginning is marked by an abstract figure of an abstract sign – the already recognized “signature” of Futura Architects. In 2017, the boulevard received the Silver Sign award at Zodchestvo festival, after which the architects received an order for a fitness center and a business center – both are at different stages of completion.

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    The entrance sign at the White Nights boulevard
    Copyright: © FUTURA-Architects
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    The White Nights Boulevard
    Copyright: © FUTURA-Architects
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    The business center. New Peter residential area
    Copyright: © FUTURA-Architects
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    The fitness center. New Peter residential area
    Copyright: © FUTURA-Architects


In 2019, Futura Architects made for the “Manifesto” exhibition, which took place within the framework of the St. Petersburg Architectural Biennale, an installation that impressed the developer and became the basis of the future house.

Manifesto Exhibition
Copyright: Photograph © Alena Kuznetsova, Archi.ru


Lot 12 occupies an important place in the structure of this area – it is situated at the crossing of Nevskaya Street and White Nights Boulevard; it is clearly viewable from the main square and remote vantage points of the boulevard park. This inspired the architects to design this house as a landmark. However, since the input parameters and the measurements of all the houses were identical, this task had to be solved by color and plastique means.

The idea to make “the most brick” building on the block was something that the client liked at once. The terra cotta color, clear-cut and simple shapes of the bay windows, clad in brick, and the random pattern of white bricks on the façade that look like falling snowflakes – all of this let us tear the project from the context and make it even more colorful and daring.


New Peter residential area
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


The plastique solutions were based on that same installation from the Manifesto exhibition. Yes, one must recognize that the similarity between this installation and the house is not really obvious, yet upon a closer look everything is readable quite clearly. The combination of a slender tower and a cantilever, which looks like a horizontal skyscraper, transformed into a contrast between the squatting brick masonry and the soaring white cascades of bay windows and recessed balconies. The cells of the apartments, so diverse in the installation, became more uniformed to a certain degree but they still show through in the cascades that stand out from the volume at different depths.

Installation at the Manifesto Exhibition
Copyright: © FUTURA-Architects


New Peter residential area
Copyright: © FUTURA-Architects


New Peter residential area
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


Comparing the installation and the actual house tempts one to make jokes in the spirit of “expectation vs reality”, like, this is what happens to the architect’s dreams when they hit the heartless market. This joke, however, will be pretty shallow because the project and its subsequent implementation were not done by chance, naivety or lack of experience. When faced with the task of designing comfort class housing in Novoselie, the architect made a reality something that they had been inwardly longing for. In architecture, just as in theater, there must not be “small” roles – you have to put a piece of your soul in every project.

New Peter residential area
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


The absence of accidental solutions is clearly seen if you compare the 3D render and the ready house. One can see that the things that are gone are the “dancing” shift of the bay windows and the “cell-like” quality of the bay windows; one can also see the struggle for the cascades that could have easily been arrayed in one plane – but on the whole the pictures are similar.

New Peter residential area
Copyright: © FUTURA-Architects


New Peter residential area
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


On the plan, the building is essentially a courtyard that opens up southward – in the direction of the future kindergarten. The volumes of the bay windows and recessed balconies, as well as the recessions and the increase of one of the sections from eight to nine floors make all the three street facades “working” and slightly different in their structure. The side wall from the side of the White Nights Boulevard could have been interpreted as a firewall in other circumstances, but here it turned into a textured “fracture” that makes one remember the concept of metabolism – its openness to the outside world will inevitably start a dialogue with the neighboring building.

The master plan. New Peter residential area
Copyright: © FUTURA-Architects


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    New Peter residential area
    Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS
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    New Peter residential area
    Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS
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    New Peter residential area
    Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS
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    New Peter residential area
    Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


When you examine the viewing angles created and the materials used, you see the architects’ adherence to the “old school” fundamentals: the building must look attractive from 200, 20, and 2 meters away. From the remote perspectives, the house attracts the observer with its colors, a cascades silhouette, and a mass that was able to avoid being fractured by horizontal details – and this is what makes it different from the surroundings. From the square next to Nevskaya street, the house opens up with its entire length and intrigues the observer with its bay windows and recessed balconies; inclusions of white brick become visible that echo the paving pattern.

New Peter residential area
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


Crossing the street, the observer will see an intricate pattern of terra cotta brick: it has a curious logic of its own, not Bavarian, not bonder, and not all-stretcher.

The masons were given detailed technological maps for laying red bricks, yet at the same time we allowed a possibility of moving away from these charts now and then. Thus, each new floor and each new section took on a unique character of their own. In the masonry, you can notice a horizontal stretching of the pattern, or, conversely, a very frequent change of color – sometimes, it is even an ancient Celtic pattern with rhombuses and crosses. Someone may see symbols in these drawings, someone may see a reflection of wildlife, but one thing is for sure – it is impossible to build another such building. The pattern is as diverse as our society is. Thus, the builders took a full part in the formation of a truly authentic project.


New Peter residential area
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


The “laying bare” of the white color in the body of the building gives it a second layer – not material but rather of a conceptual nature. While the brick is perceived as the “skin” or the “shell” of the building, the white stucco is perceived in different ways depending on the viewing angle: from the outside – as from the outside – as the exit of ancient geological rocks to the surface or as living tissues ready to grow further, from the inside – as pulp or as a lining.

New Peter residential area
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


New Peter residential area
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


New Peter residential area
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS


The yards in “New Peter” are closed-door and they differ from one another – according to the developer’s plan, this must encourage the residents to meet and then visit one another more often. A special feature of Lot 12 is a small Zen garden with sun loungers, a gazebo, and a communal table under a canopy. The ground floor apartments facing the courtyard have quite spacious terraces. Outside, the outline of the building is occupied by commercial premises. From the second to the ninth floors there are 1-3 room apartments ranging from 35 to 82 square meters.

New Peter residential area
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS
New Peter residential area
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided FUTURA-ARCHITECTS
Plan of the 1st floor. New Peter residential area
Copyright: © FUTURA-Architects
Plan of the standard floor. New Peter residential area
Copyright: © FUTURA-Architects


14 October 2022

Headlines now
Champions’ Cup
At first glance, the Bell skyscraper on 1st Yamskogo Polya Street, 12, appears strict and laconic – though by no means modest. Its economical stereometry is built on a form close to an oval, one of UNK architects’ favorite themes. The streamlined surface of the main volume, clad in metal louvers, is sliced twice with glass incisions that graphically reveal the essence of the original shape: both its simplicity and its complexity. At the same time, dozens of highly complex engineering puzzles have been solved here.
History never ends
The old railway station in Kapan, a city in southern Armenia, has been given new life by the Paris-based design firm Normal Studio. Today, it serves as a TUMO center.
A Deep, Crystal Shine
A new luxury residential development by ADM architects is set to rise in the Patriarch’s Ponds district, not far from Novopushkinsky Square. It will replace three buildings erected in the early 1990s. The project authors, Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova, have placed their bets on the variety among the three volumes, modern design solutions, and attention to detail: one of the buildings will feature smoothly curved balconies with a ceramic sheen on their undersides, while another will be accented by glass “sculpture” columns.
A Roadside Picnic of Urban Planning Theorists
Marina Egorova, head of Empate Architectural Bureau, brought together urban planning theorists – the successors of Alexey Gutnov and Vyacheslav Glazychev – to revive the substance and depth of professional discourse. At the first meeting, much ground was covered: the participants revisited the theoretical foundations, aligned their values, examined a cutting-edge case of the Kazan agglomeration, and concluded with the unfathomable intricacies of Russian land demarcation. Below, we present key takeaways from all the presentations.
Perspective View
CNTR Architects has designed a business center for a new district in Yekaterinburg, aiming to reduce the need for commuting and make the residential environment more diverse. The architectural solutions are equally focused on creating spatial flexibility, comfortable working conditions, and a memorable image that could allow the building to become a spatial landmark of the district.
Malevich and Bathhouses, Nature and High-Tech
The Malevich Bathhouse complex is scheduled to open in the fall of 2025 on the Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Highway. The project, designed by DBA-GROUP under the leadership of Vladislav Andreev, is an example of an unconventional approach to the image of a spa in general and of a bathhouse in particular. Deliberately avoiding any kind of allusion, the architects opted for streamlined forms with characteristic rounded corners, a combination of wood with bent glass, and restrained contemporary shapes – both inside and out. Let’s take a closer look at the project.
Rather, a Tablecloth and a Glass!
After many years, the long-abandoned Horse Guards Department building in St. Petersburg has finally received the attention it deserves: according to a design by Studio 44, the first restoration and adaptation works are scheduled to begin this year. Both the intended function and the general scope of works imply minimal alteration to the complex, which has preserved traces of its three-century history. All solutions are reversible and aimed, above all, at opening the monument to the city and immersing it in a lively social scene – hence the choice of a cultural center scenario with a strong gastronomic component.
​Materialization of Airflows
The Nikolai Kamov International Airport in Tomsk opened at the end of August last year. We have already written about the project – now we are taking a look at the completed building. Its functionality is reinforced by symbolic undertones: the architects at ASADOV sought to reflect local identity in the architecture as fully as possible.
The City as a Narrative
Sergey Skuratov’s approach to large urban plots could best be described as a “total design code”. The architect pays equal attention to the overall composition and the smallest of details, striving to ensure that every aspect is thoroughly thought out and subordinated to the original vision. It’s a Renaissance-like approach, really – a titanic effort demanding remarkable willpower and perseverance. The results are likewise grand – architecture that makes a statement. This article looks at the revived concept for the central section of the Seventh Heaven residential district in Kazan, a composition so thoroughly considered that even the “gradient of visual emphasis” (sic!) across the facades has been carefully worked out. It also touches on the narrative idea behind the project – and even the architect’s own doubts about it.
A Garden of Hope for Freedom
In October, at the Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery in Suzdal, the Prison Yard Garden opened on the site that had served as a prison from the 18th century until the Khrushchev Thaw. The architectural concept was developed by NOῨD Short Film, and the landscape design by the MOX landscape bureau. In fact, there are two gardens here – very different ones. We try to understand whether they evoke the right emotions in visitors, while also showing the beauty of June’s ruderal plants in bloom.
A Laconic Image of Time
The Time Square residential complex, built on the northern edge of St. Petersburg, appears more concise and efficient than its neighbor and predecessor, the New Time complex. Nevertheless, the architect’s hand is clearly felt: themes of “black and white”, “inside and outside”, and most notably, the “lamellar” quality of the facades that seems to visibly “eat away” at the buildings’ mass – everything is played out like a well-written score. One is reminded of both classical modernism and the so-called “post-constructivism”.
The Flower of the Lake
The prototype for the building of the Kamal Theater in Kazan is an ice flower: a rare and fragile natural phenomenon of Lake Kaban “froze” in the large, soaring outlines of the glass screens enclosing the main volume, shaping its silhouette and shielding the stained-glass windows from the sun. The project, led by the Wowhaus consortium and including global architecture “star” Kengo Kuma, won the 2021/2022 competition and was realized close to the original concept in a short – very short – period of time. The theater opened in early 2025. It was Kengo Kuma who proposed the image of an ice flower and the contraposition of cold on the outside and warmth on the inside. Between 2022 and 2024, Wowhaus did everything possible to bring this vision to life, practically living on-site. Now we are taking a closer look at this landmark building and its captivating story.
Peaceful Integration on Mira Avenue
The MIRA residential complex (the word mir means “peace” in Russian), perched above the steep banks of the Yauza River and Mira Avenue, lives up to its name not only technically, but also visually and conceptually. Sleek, high-rise, and glass-clad, it responds both to Zholtovsky’s classicism and to the modernism of the nearby “House on Stilts”. Drawing on features from its neighbors, it reconciles them within a shared architectural language rooted in contemporary façade design. Let’s take a closer look at how this is done.
An Interior for a New Format of Education
The design of the new building for Tyumen State University (TyumSU) was initially developed before the pandemic but later revised to meet new educational requirements. The university has adopted a “2+2+2” system, which eliminates traditional divisions into groups and academic streams in favor of individualized study programs. These changes were implemented swiftly – right at the start of construction. Now that the building is complete, we are taking a closer look.
Penthouses and Kokoshniks
A new residential complex designed by ASADOV Architects for the Krasnaya Roza business district responds to its proximity to 17th-century landmarks – the chambers of the Hamovny Dvor and St. Nicholas Church – as well as to the need to preserve valuable façades of a historic rental house built in the Russian Revival style. The architects proposed a set of buildings of varying heights, whose façades reference ecclesiastical architecture. But we were also able to detect other associations.
Centipede Town
The new school campus designed by ATRIUM Architects, located on the shores of a protected lake in the Imeretian Lowland Ornithological Reserve, represents an important and ambitious undertaking for the team: this is not just a school, but a Presidential Lyceum for the comprehensive development of gifted children – 2,500 students from age 3 through high school. At the same time, it is also envisioned as a new civic hub for the entire Sirius territory. In this article, we unpack the structure and architecture of this “lyceum town”.
Warm Black and White
The second phase of “Quarter 31”, designed by KPLN and built in the Moscow suburb town of Pushkino, reveals a multifaceted character. At first glance, the complex appears to be defined by geometry and a monochrome palette. But a closer look reveals a number of “irregular” details: a gradient of glazing and flared window frames, a hierarchy of façades, volumetric brickwork, and even architectural references to natural phenomena. We explore all the rules – and exceptions – that we were able to discover here.
​Skylights and Staircase
Photos from March show the nearly completed headquarters of FSK Group on Shenogina Street. The building’s exterior is calm and minimalist; the interior is engaging and multi-layered. The conical skylights of the executive office, cast in raw concrete, and the sweeping spiral staircase leading to it, are particularly striking. In fact, there’s more than one spiral staircase here, and the first two floors effectively form a small shopping center. More below.
The Whale of Future Identity
Or is it a veil? Or a snow-covered plain? Vera Butko, Anton Nadtochy, and the architects of ATRIUM faced a complex and momentous task: to propose a design for the “Russia” National Center. It had to be contemporary, yet firmly rooted in cultural codes. Unique, and yet subtly reminiscent of many things at once. It must be said – the task found the right authors. Let’s explore in detail the image they envisioned.
Greater Altai: A Systemic Development Plan
The master plan for tourism development in Greater Altai encompasses three regions: Kuzbass, the Altai Republic, and Altai Krai. It is one of twelve projects developed as part of the large-scale state program bearing the simple name of “Tourism Development”. The project’s slogan reads: “Greater Altai – a place of strength, health, and spirit in the very heart of Siberia”. What are the proposed growth points, and how will the plan help increase the flow of both domestic and international tourists? Read on to find out.
The Colorful City
While working on a large-scale project in Moscow’s Kuntsevo district – one that has yet to be given a name – Kleinewelt Architekten proposed not only a diverse array of tower silhouettes in “Empire-style” hues and a thoughtful mix of building heights, creating a six-story “neo-urbanist” city with a block-based layout at ground level, but also rooted their design in historical and contextual reasoning. The project includes the reconstruction of several Stalin-era residential buildings that remain from the postwar town of Kuntsevo, as well as the reconstruction of a 1953 railway station that was demolished in 2017.
In Orbit of Moscow City
The Orbital business center is both simple and complex. Simple in its minimalist form and optimal office layout solution: a central core, a light-filled façade, plenty of glass; and from the unusual side – a technical floor cleverly placed at the building’s side ends. Complex – well, if only because it resembles a celestial body hovering on metallic legs near Magistralnaya Street. Why this specific shape, what it consists of, and what makes this “boutique” office building (purchased immediately after its completion) so unique – all of this and more is covered in our story.
The Altai Ornament
The architectural company Empate has developed the concept for an eco-settlement located on a remote site in Altai. The master plan, which resembles a traditional ornament or even a utopian city, forms a clear system of public and private spaces. The architects also designed six types of houses for the settlement, drawing inspiration from the region’s culture, folklore, and vernacular building practices.
Pro Forma
Photos have emerged of the newly completed whisky distillery in Chernyakhovsk, designed by TOTEMENT / PAPER – a continuation of their earlier work on the nearby Cognac Museum. From what is, in essence, a merely technical and utilitarian volume and space, the architects have created a fully-fledged theatre of impressions. Let’s take a closer look. We highly recommend a visit to what may look like a factory, but is in fact an experiment in theatricalizing the process of strong spirit production – and not only that, but also of “pure art”, capable of evolving anywhere.
The Arch and the Triangle
The new Stone Mnevniki business center by Kleinewelt Architekten – designed for the same client as their projects in Khodynka – bears certain similarities to those earlier developments, but not entirely. In Mnevniki, there are more angular elements, and the architects themselves describe the project as being built on contrast. Indeed, while the first phase contains subtle references to classical architecture – light touches like arches, both upright and inverted, evoking the spirit of the 1980s – the second phase draws more distantly on the modernism of the 1970s. What unites them is a boldly expressive public space design, a kaleidoscope of rays and triangles.
Health Factory
While working on a wellness and tourist complex on the banks of the Yenisei River, the architects at Vissarionov Studio set out to create healing spaces that would amplify the benefits of nature and medical treatments for both body and soul. The spatial solutions are designed to encourage interaction between the guests and the landscape, as well as each other.
The Blooming Mechanics of a Glass Forest
The Savvinskaya 27 apartment complex built by Level Group, currently nearing completion on an elongated riverfront site next to the Novodevichy Convent, boasts a form that’s daring even by modern Moscow standards. Visually, it resembles the collaborative creation of a glassblower and a sculptor: a kind of glass-and-concrete jungle, rhythmically structured yet growing energetically and vividly. Bringing such an idea to life was by no means an easy task. In this article, we discuss the concept by ODA and the methods used by APEX architects to implement it, along with a look at the building’s main units and detailing.
Grace and Unity
Villa “Grace”, designed by Roman Leonidov’s studio and built in the Moscow suburbs, strikes a balance between elegant minimalism and the expansive gestures of the Russian soul. The main house is conceived as a sequence of four self-contained volumes – each could exist independently, yet it chooses to be part of a whole. Unity is achieved through color and a system of shared spaces, while the rich plasticity of the forms – refined throughout the construction process – compensates for the near-total absence of decorative elements.
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.