По-русски

Off We Go!

The new terminal of the Tomsk airport is being designed by ASADOV bureau. The architects keep on developing its identity, building the imagery upon the inventions of Nikolai Kamov, whose name the airport bears. The result is laconic, light, and, as always, levitating.

Alyona Kuznetsova

Written by:
Alyona Kuznetsova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

16 December 2022
Object
mainImg
The Tomsk airport is situated a couple of dozen kilometers away from the city, near the settlement of Bogashevo. The construction of the international terminal was planned still in 2004, when the city celebrated its 400th anniversary, but at that point the city only managed to modernize the building of the old terminal and the adjacent plaza. International flights began flying from Tomsk in 2013, and since then passenger traffic has been steadily growing: almost 800 thousand people live in the Tomsk urban agglomeration alone, and the airport serves other cities as well. In 2019, large-scale work finally began: reconstruction of the runway, repair of access roads and construction of a new terminal by the project of Asadov bureau. The expected area of the facility is 7000 square meters; after the construction is finished, the total area of both Tomsk terminals will be 17,300 square meters.

The terminal’s client is the Novaport company, Russia’s largest chain of regional airports, working with which ASADOV bureau designed and built facilities in Perm and Kemerovo.

A regional airport is the typology, in which nowadays it is fashionable to “crank up” the identity to very high levels, and all this in spite of the fact that the terminals are oftentimes located in a windswept field or in an industrial area – but then again, the absence of immediate context leaves more freedom for flashy accents. It is a place where it is appropriate to tell the guests and remind the residents about the things that the city has to offer.

In Tomsk, the architects proceeded from the name of the airport: in 2018, it was named after Nikolai Kamov – the aircraft designer, founder of the Soviet helicopter industry, who coined the word “vertolet” that is now used in the modern Russian language instead of the English “helicopter”. Under the leadership of Nikolai Kamov and Mikhail Mil, the production of the world-famous helicopters “Ka” and “Mi” began. Nikolai Kamov studied in Tomsk; he entered the Institute of Technology at the age of 16. One cannot say that the engineer’s ideas are reflected in the building in any literal way – and at the same time it is obvious that they were the source of inspiration.

The new terminal is situated on the left of the old one and has a plan that is very close to a perfect square – the volume is technology-determined and was set well in advance, so ASADOV bureau worked on breathing architecture into this parallelepiped.

Tomsk airport named after Nikolai Kamov
Copyright: © ASADOV Architects


At this point, we can recall that the main feature of Nikolai Kamov’s helicopters was a twin-screw coaxial scheme, in which a pair of rotors installed in parallel rotates in opposite directions on a single geometric axis. It seems that in the solution of the main facade one can see some vague allusions to this invention – not literal, of course, but still quite readable: the wings, the air streams, the axles and blades definitely play an important part in the airport’s imagery.

In one brisk motion, pointed from the bottom upwards and from the edges towards the center, two large spindle-like columns converge in the center before the main entrance. The entire facade is determined by their symmetrical impulse: it looks as though the incoming passengers are welcomed by a giant “emerging” aircraft that unfolds the golden “wing” of the marquee reflected in the glass of the facade. At the same time, a row of lamellas below is smoothly bent – the way grass would underneath rotating blades; the analogy is further strengthened by the images of helicopters on the metallic surfaces. The resulting image is something in the middle between a hang glider and a rotorcraft.

Tomsk airport named after Nikolai Kamov
Copyright: © ASADOV Architects


Tomsk airport named after Nikolai Kamov
Copyright: © ASADOV Architects


On the side, the similarity between the marquee and a hang glider is particularly strong; the lines are simple and laconic, and the “forward and upward” impulse makes one think not just about the theme of flight, quite justified in this case, but also some retro-note, remindful of the Worker and Kolkhoz Woman monument, and even of the reserved and light style of the Soviet terminals. 

Let us also take a look at the characters of the “Kamov” name – its slender font looks very much like the one that was used in the airport during the Soviet time. A font just as slender is used to write the city name of Tomsk from the side of the runways and boarding bridges.

Tomsk airport named after Nikolai Kamov
Copyright: © ASADOV Architects


Tomsk airport named after Nikolai Kamov
Copyright: © ASADOV Architects


Currently, it is yet unknown what the interiors of the terminal will ultimately look like, but within the project the principle of the connection between the outside and inside solutions was fully implemented. Behind the golden marquee in the glowing waves on the inside, there is a ceiling of the same color with circular skylights, in which the bladed fans are installed. These put one in the mind of art house cinema, but even more about helicopters. The smooth waves of the noise-canceling suspended from the ceiling visualize the streams of air “moved by the blades”, and, absorbing the noise, at the same time mask the bearing structures – and by these economical means form a “living” and nonlinear surface, positive-looking and glowing with yellow warmth. This is cost-effective, cozy, positive, and, thanks to the yellow color, even jolly-looking. Let’s live and see how the interior solution will be implemented.

Tomsk airport named after Nikolai Kamov
Copyright: © ASADOV Architects


Tomsk airport named after Nikolai Kamov
Copyright: © ASADOV Architects


The skylights on the roof also continue the theme of modernist roots and unassuming Soviet expressiveness: their cylinders are shifted upwards, and, when viewed from above, they look like buttons on a dashboard – so that the “fifth facade” of the terminal (which sometimes is indeed visible from the airplane cabin!) is also carefully thought out. At the same time, the similarity between the “button” skylights and the large colored “mushrooms” of Pulkovo-1 seems rather obvious.

Tomsk airport named after Nikolai Kamov
Copyright: © ASADOV Architects


Tomsk airport named after Nikolai Kamov
Copyright: © ASADOV Architects


The new terminal is connected to the old one with a covered passage. The ASADOV architects proposed the option of re-cladding the facades of the terminal: it is also dominated by light gray and warm yellow, and the old terminal also has a wing-like marquee, so that the buildings should turn into a single complex.

Tomsk airport named after Nikolai Kamov
Copyright: © ASADOV Architects


Tomsk airport named after Nikolai Kamov
Copyright: © ASADOV Architects


16 December 2022

Alyona Kuznetsova

Written by:

Alyona Kuznetsova
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!