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.

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

10 May 2023

Object

The Balance residential complex is being built next to the Okskaya subway station of the Nekrasovskaya line, between Ryazansky Prospekt and Okskaya Street. If you look broadly, on one side there is the Kuskovo Park, and on the other side Kuzminki. If you look closer, the area consists mostly of blocks of five-story buildings from the late 1950s to the 1960s, buried in wild greenery, and the whole scene already looks almost like a park. The district, however, is actively being built up on a new scale – on the opposite side of Ryazansky Prospect, the Residential Complex “Mikhailovsky Park”, designed in the recognizable style of the PIK developers, is almost completed. To the north-west of the site of Balance, there is a large industrial park with a railroad line that is no longer in operation.

The housing complex as such occupied the place of the former plant of reinforced concrete structures #2 “Mosstroykomplekt”, its territory being 22 hectares. The total area of the future complex a little over 500 000 square meters, the height limitation being 100 m.

Ginzburg architects won a closed-door competition for the concept of Balance in 2016.

zooming — The Balance complex. A model

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects

The task, as we can see, is clear enough; the area is not the most expensive, but it has its strong points. The apartments were supposed to be mostly small, although there are two – and three-bedroom apartments, the “slicing” of space was to be relatively fractional – the complex is designed for young people.

Alexsey Ginzburg

Our client asked us to design a “city for millennials”, suitable for this location and designed for the target audience of young buyers, people whose real estate requirements differ from those of the older generation. They buy housing not as an investment, but as a utilitarian function, yet, on the other hand, they are more demanding in terms of services available to them. Accordingly, apartments here are small, but they have large windows; there is all the basic necessary infrastructure: a health center, two schools, a shopping center, two office buildings, boulevards, and, finally, rental space in the first floors. Of course, I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a special “house for XXI century people”, but our concept provides everything that the standard of Moscow construction of the last ten years or so requires.

The Balance complex. The master plan

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects
The Balance complex. The functional zones

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects

The layout of the complex is, above all, the result of a set of requirements and constraints. However, it has an internal logic, rhythm, and rules. Wide boulevards divide the city blocks into four groups crosswise, almost symmetrically. The one that goes along the center of the complex parallel to Ryazansky Prospekt unites two schools and two kindergartens. The second boulevard begins from Ryazansky Prospekt, its north-eastern part is wider, and its south-western part is narrower, because from this side the Okskaya street cuts off diagonally part of the territory. Along the avenue, before the second boulevard starts, there is a health center on the right and a multifunctional building on the left combining a shopping center in the lower part, offices in the central part and apartments in the upper part (all the other apartments of the complex are residential). On the western narrow part of the boulevard, there is another smaller office building. At the crossroads of the boulevards there is a Sports and Recreation Center with a swimming pool.

Now the construction and landscaping design of the first stage is completed, as well as two blocks in the southern quadrant; they are separated by an internal street, which is also a small boulevard and begins with an amphitheater, behind which is the site of a built-in first-floor preschool. The ground-floor rental space is gradually being populated; the Buchanka discounter has already opened. The fences separating the courtyards look very nice – they are relatively low and consist of thin wooden slats.

According to Aleksey Ginzburg, the next city blocks – and the architects are now working on the “project” phase of the second stage – will look slightly different, but the basic principles will remain the same. The blocks consist of medium-rise sections, from 7 to 11 floors high, forming a semi-closed contour of large yards. These mid-rise houses are brick, executed in various shades, but with rather simple facades: they use wainscoting, a relief grid, inserts of a different color, and bricks with enamel flecks, no more than that; they do not look mottled at all.

The other part of the same contour is composed of towers of extended configuration, their height of 30 floors corresponds to the height limit of 100 meters – and the facades, in contrast to the prevailing brick contour in the lower part, are aluminum. In Phase 1, each tower is divided into a black half with golden verticals and a silver half with aluminum surfaces, with the metal appearing rather light gray in cloudy weather and white in sunny weather, especially from a distance. Some of the towers grow aluminum right from the ground, separating the horizontal structure, some of them turn out to be metal only above the brick floors and thus maintain their predominance in the middle part of the story.

The brick facade. The Balance complex. Phase 1

Copyright: Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru, 2023
The aluminum facade. The Balance complex. Phase 1

Copyright: Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru, 2023

The volumes of the two types – mid-rise brick ones and high-rise aluminum ones – are distributed in a ratio of about 30 to 70: the mid-rise takes up two-thirds of the contour, the high-rise one-third, and, accordingly, the thirty-rise takes up two-thirds of the entire height. Thus, in addition to the balance of functional content, there is a balance of volumetric construction, unassuming, but clear and easy to read. Probably, this could be the clue to the name of the complex.

The Balance complex. Phase 4

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects
The Balance complex. Phase 4

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects

The Balance complex. Phase 3, Version 1

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects
The Balance complex. Phase 3, Vesrion 1

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects

The same principle will be applied to the other city blocks: brick as a more cozy and tactile material closer to the ground, aluminum, more technical and modern, closer to the sky. An urban space should appear below, with stores and cafes, and with facades lined up along the front of the red lines.

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The Balance complex

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects
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The Balance complex

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The Balance complex

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The Balance complex

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The Balance complex

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The Balance complex

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The Balance complex

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The facades of the resodential blocks of Phase 1. The Balance complex

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects
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The facades of the resodential blocks of Phase 1. The Balance complex

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects
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The Balance complex

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects

The blocks are planned flexibly – somewhere there are two courtyards, somewhere there are four. However, the grid is generally diagonal, echoing the intersection of the boulevards.

All the towers are of the same optimal parameters – single-section, but long enough. The architects have arranged them for each “square” in their own rhythm: in the south and north corner the towers are perpendicular to each other; in the west and east they are parallel, stretching from northeast to southwest. Thus, with a general approach, a large pattern emerges; it will be possible to fully appreciate it, apparently, only from a drone, and at the same time it forms a kind of intuitively-grasped variety of rhythm.

The Balance complex

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects
The Balance complex

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects

Currently, the architects are working on the design of Phase 2, which includes one of the two schools, a large one with a capacity of 1,250 students. The school particularly fascinated me. The façades are dominated by brick, designed to unite the building with the lower front of the residential buildings into a single terracotta urban belt. The plan is rectangular, simple, but it sports an open courtyard, along the lines of the “cloister” in the spirit of classical English schools. Thin high columns of the entrance loggia – ones of a round section and coated with brick – balance on the verge of portico and Corbusian piers, subliminally reminding of the ancient origins of schooling per se.

The school for The 1250 students. Plan on the first-floor level. The Balance complex

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects
The school for The 1250 students. Section view. The Balance complex. Section view. The Balance complex

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects

Another peculiar feature of the school is that the typology of its inner premises is turned outwards. For example, classrooms with windows are coated with bricks, other volumes are faced with wood-imitating panels, and the gym is decorated with “wooden” lamellas, whose task is to lighten up the facade and reveal its function on the outside, justifying the image solution with its inner structure.

The same applies to the second school, located on the opposite “pole” of the boulevard – it combines brick surfaces with wooden ones, justifying the facade solutions with function. But the building is smaller, designed for 475 students, and its plan is a square, open to the center. At this point in the concept, there are two options, the lighter and the darker ones.

School #145. The Balance complex

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects
The Balance complex. School #145

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects

Two similar, mirror-image buildings for preschools are adjacent to the “small” school. Their facades are also brick, and the functional validity concerns the arrangement of the windows: large ones in the playrooms and smaller ones in the bedrooms. The architects explain the light tone of the brick of one building and the dark tone of the other as “dark and white chocolate”.

Initially, the architects had a different vision of the kindergarten buildings: with glass facades and vertical “wooden” ribs, echoing the neighboring Sports and Recreation Center, but eventually the “chocolate” version of buildings for preschools prevailed.

The Sports and Recreation Center and office buildings, on the other hand, are emphatically modern, different from the brick surroundings, and complement the double matter of the residential buildings with a kind of a “third” one.

The sports complex sprawls on the ground; it stretches along the axis of the boulevard coming from the avenue, but it is somewhat displaced from this axis so as not to block the perspective. Ginzburg architects made its facades glassy, with wood-colored ribs – the goal was to minimize the volume for the view from the other, transverse boulevard, to make it as transparent as possible, so that the building would not become a heavy obstacle. On the other hand, the pool and the halls inside will receive maximum light thanks to this solution, and in the evenings in the center of the complex a cozy glow of the building is provided, open to all and, thus, encouraging residents to engage in a healthy lifestyle.

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The Balance complex. The Sports and Recreation Center

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects
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The Balance complex. The Sports and Recreation Center

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The Sports and Recreation center. The Balance complex

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The Sports and Recreation Center, a cross-section view. The Balance complex

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects

The architects propose to make the roofs of the schools, kindergarten, and the Sports Center green for the sake of the “fifth façade”, and maybe even make them operational – although there is still a long way to go before this solution is implemented and probably even discussed.

The small office building echoes the Sports and Recreation Center with its simple and transparent facades, only with diagonals added to the vertical ribs.

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The Balance complex. The multifunctional building

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects
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The Balance complex. The multifunctional building

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The multifunctional building. A cross-section view. The Balance complex

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The multifunctional building, the office part. The Balance complex.

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects

The building near Ryazansky Prospekt, scheduled for the last phase of construction, develops the idea, also reflected in the school buildings, of the manifestation of the functions in the image solution: the architects have put together three volumes vertically: a long block of shopping center with a cantilevered “TV”, office “middle” and the “head” packed with apartments.

According to the architects, they originally envisioned a tower at this location, but then decided that the horizontal layout would respond better to the proximity of the avenue car flows, would be better read by the eye in traffic and will be more visible, and ultimately will allow them to lay an emphasis on the presence of the mall.

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The Balance complex. The multifunctional shopping mall

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects
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The Balance complex. The multifunctional shopping mall

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The Balance complex. The multifunctional shopping mall

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The multifunctional building, plans of the shopping mall. The Balance complex

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The multifunctional building. A longitudinal section view. The Balance complex

Copyright: © Ginzburg Architects

The project, with its five phases and five hundred thousand square meters of total area, fits well into the Moscow trend of the last 10 years: public space organization with the intersection of the city boulevards, first floor stores, highly developed infrastructure, a certain percentage of office space in the neighborhood, and at the same time minimized space for apartments, combined with accessibility of urban spaces. This set can be recognized as an established standard, it responds to the sum of the requirements of both the city and the market.

The architects’ ultimate goal in this case is to find a reasonable balance between all the constituent parts of the task, both functional, planning, and figurative. It is as if the residential complex Balance responds to this goal not only with its name. It is built on a laconic, avoiding the excesses but at the same time lively enough and diverse, combination of materials, for each of which the authors find the appropriate way of use, balancing at the same time, the other. And subordinating a simple form, reflecting the function and at the same time recognizable – reducible to the sign/logo. It is not without reason that the authors presented each component part of the complex, each building with a logo sign, which can serve as the basis for the now-popular branding of architecture.

10 May 2023

Headlines now

The Forum of Time

The competition project for the Russian Pavilion at EXPO 2025 in Osaka designed by Aleksey Orlov and Arena Project Institute consists of cones and conical funnels connected into a non-trivial composition, where one can feel the hand of architects who have worked extensively with stadiums and other sports facilities. It’s very interesting to delve into its logic, structurally built on the theme of clocks, hourglasses and even sundials. Additionally, the architects have turned the exhibition pavilion into a series of interconnected amphitheaters, which is also highly relevant for world exhibitions. We are reminding you that the competition results were never announced.

Mirrors Everywhere

The project by Sergey Nebotov, Anastasia Gritskova, and the architectural company “Novoe” was created for the Russian pavilion at EXPO 2025, but within the framework of another competition, which, as we learned, took place even earlier, in 2021. At that time, the competition theme was “digital twins”, and there was minimal time for work, so the project, according to the architect himself, was more of a “student assignment”. Nevertheless, this project is interesting for its plan bordering on similarity with Baroque projects and the emblem of the exhibition, as well as its diverse and comprehensive reflectiveness.

Report

The Steppe Is Full of Beauty and Freedom

The goal of the exhibition “Dikoe Pole” (“Wild Field”) at the State Historical Museum was to move away from the archaeological listing of valuable items and to create an image of the steppe and nomads that was multidirectional and emotional – in other words, artistic. To achieve this goal, it was important to include works of contemporary art. One such work is the scenography of the exhibition space developed by CHART studio.

The Snowstorm Fish

The next project from the unfinished competition for the Russian Pavilion at EXPO 2025, which will be held in Osaka, Japan, is by Dashi Namdakov and Parsec Architects. The pavilion describes itself as an “architectural/sculptural” one, with its shape clearly reminiscent of abstract sculpture of the 1970s. It complements its program with a meditative hall named “Mendeleev’s Dreams”, and offers its visitors to slide from its roof at the end of the tour.

The Mirror of Your Soul

We continue to publish projects from the competition for the design of the Russian Pavilion at EXPO in Osaka 2025. We are reminding you that the results of the competition have not been announced, and hardly will ever be. The pavilion designed by ASADOV Architects combines a forest log cabin, the image of a hyper transition, and sculptures made of glowing threads – it focuses primarily on the scenography of the exhibition, which the pavilion builds sequentially like a string of impressions, dedicating it to the paradoxes of the Russian soul.

Part of the Ideal

In 2025, another World Expo will take place in Osaka, Japan, in which Russia will not participate. However, a competition for the Russian pavilion was indeed held, with six projects participating. The results were never announced as Russia’s participation was canceled; the competition has no winners. Nevertheless, Expo pavilion projects are typically designed for a bold and interesting architectural statement, so we’ve gathered all the six projects and will be publishing articles about them in random order. The first one is the project by Vladimir Plotkin and Reserve Union, which is distinguished by the clarity of its stereometric shape, the boldness of its structure, and the multiplicity of possible interpretations.

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The Fortress by the River

ASADOV Architects have developed a concept for a new residential district in the center of Kemerovo. To combat the harsh climate and monotonous everyday life, the architects proposed a block type of development with dominant towers, good insolation, facades detailed at eye level, and event programming.

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In the Rhombus Grid

Construction has begun on the building of the OMK (United Metallurgical Company) Corporate University in Nizhny Novgorod’s town of Vyksa, designed by Ostozhenka Architects. The most interesting aspect of the project is how the architects immersed it in the context: “extracting” a diagonal motif from the planning grid of Vyksa, they aligned the building, the square, and the park to match it. A truly masterful work with urban planning context on several different levels of perception has long since become the signature technique of Ostozhenka.

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Generational Connection

Another modern estate, designed by Roman Leonidov, is located in the Moscow region and brings together three generations of one family under one roof. To fit on a narrow plot without depriving anyone of personal space, the architects opted for a zigzag plan. The main volume in the house structure is accentuated by mezzanines with a reverse-sloped roof and ceilings featuring exposed beams.

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Three Dimensions of the City

We began to delve into the project by Sergey Skuratov, the residential complex “Depo” in Minsk, located at Victory Square, and it fascinated us completely. The project has at least several dimensions to it: historical – at some point, the developer decided to discontinue further collaboration with Sergey Skuratov Architects, but the concept was approved, and its implementation continues, mostly in accordance with the proposed ideas. The spatial and urban planning dimension – the architects both argue with the city and play along with it, deciphering nuances, and finding axes. And, finally, the tactile dimension – the constructed buildings also have their own intriguing features. Thus, this article also has two parts: it dwells on what has been built and what was conceived

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New “Flight”

Architects from “Mezonproject” have developed a project for the reconstruction of the regional youth center “Polyot”(“Flight”) in the city of Oryol. The summer youth center, built back in the late 1970s, will now become year-round and acquire many additional functions.

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The Yauza Towers

In Moscow, there aren’t that many buildings or projects designed by Nikita Yavein and Studio 44. In this article, we present to you the concept of a large multifunctional complex on the Yauza River, located between two parks, featuring a promenade, a crossroads of two pedestrian streets, a highly developed public space, and an original architectural solution. This solution combines a sophisticated, asymmetric façade grid, reminiscent of a game of fifteen puzzle, and bold protrusions of the upper parts of the buildings, completely masking the technical floors and sculpting the complex’s silhouette.

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Architecture and Leisure Park

For the suburban hotel complex, which envisages various formats of leisure, the architectural company T+T Architects proposed several types of accommodation, ranging from the classic “standard” in a common building to a “cave in the hill” and a “house in a tree”. An additional challenge consisted in integrating a few classic-style residences already existing on this territory into the “architectural forest park”.

Overview

The U-House

The Jois complex combines height with terraces, bringing the most expensive apartments from penthouses down to the bottom floors. The powerful iconic image of the U-shaped building is the result of the creative search for a new standard of living in high-rise buildings by the architects of “Genpro”.

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Black and White

In this article, we specifically discuss the interiors of the ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh. Interior design is a crucial component of the overall concept in this case, and precision and meticulous execution were highly important for the architects. Julia Tryaskina, head of UNK interiors, shares some of the developments.

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The “Snake” Mountain

The competition project for the seaside resort complex “Serpentine” combines several typologies: apartments of different classes, villas, and hotel rooms. For each of these typologies, the KPLN architects employ one of the images that are drawn from the natural environment – a serpentine road, a mountain stream, and rolling waves.

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Opal from Anna Mons’ Ring

The project of a small business center located near Tupolev Plaza and Radio Street proclaims the necessity of modern architecture in a specific area of Moscow commonly known as “Nemetskaya Sloboda” or “German settlement”. It substantiates its thesis with the thoroughness of details, a multitude of proposed and rejected form variants, and even a detailed description of the surrounding area. The project is interesting indeed, and it is even more interesting to see what will come of it.

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Feed ’Em All

A “House of Russian Cuisine” was designed and built by KROST Group at VDNKh for the “Rossiya” exhibition in record-breaking time. The pavilion is masterfully constructed in terms of the standards of modern public catering industry multiplied by the bustling cultural program of the exhibition, and it interprets the stylistically diverse character of VDNKh just as successfully. At the same time, much of its interior design can be traced back to the prototypes of the 1960s – so much so that even scenes from iconic Soviet movies of those years persistently come to mind.

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The Ensemble at the Mosque

OSA prepared a master plan for a district in the southern part of Derbent. The main task of the master plan is to initiate the formation of a modern comfortable environment in this city. The organization of residential areas is subordinated to the city’s spiritual center: depending on the location relative to the cathedral mosque, the houses are distinguished by façade and plastique solutions. The program also includes a “hospitality center”, administrative buildings, an educational cluster, and even an air bridge.

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Pargolovo Protestantism

A Protestant church is being built in St. Petersburg by the project of SLOI architects. One of the main features of the building is a wooden roof with 25-meter spans, which, among other things, forms the interior of the prayer hall. Also, there are other interesting details – we are telling you more about them.

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The Shape of the Inconceivable

The ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh brings to mind a famous maxim of all architects and critics: “You’ve come up with it? Now build it!” You rarely see such a selfless immersion in implementation of the project, and the formidable structural and engineering tasks set by UNK architects to themselves are presented here as an integral and important part of the architectural idea. The challenge matches the obliging status of the place – after all, it is an “exhibition of achievements”, and the pavilion is dedicated to the nuclear energy industry. Let’s take a closer look: from the outside, from the inside, and from the underside too.

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Rays of the Desert

A school for 1750 students is going to be built in Dubai, designed by IND Architects. The architects took into account the local specifics, and proposed a radial layout and spaces, in which the children will be comfortable throughout the day.

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The Dairy Theme

The concept of an office of a cheese-making company, designed for the enclosed area of a dairy factory, at least partially refers to industrial architecture. Perhaps that is why this concept is very simple, which seems the appropriate thing to do here. The building is enlivened by literally a couple of “master strokes”: the turning of the corner accentuates the entrance, and the shade of glass responds to the theme of “milk rivers” from Russian fairy tales.

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The Road to the Temple

Under a grant from the Small Towns Competition, the main street and temple area of the village of Nikolo-Berezovka near Neftekamsk has been improved. A consortium of APRELarchitects and Novaya Zemlya is turning the village into an open-air museum and integrating ruined buildings into public life.

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Towers Leaning Towards the Sun

The three towers of the residential complex “Novodanilovskaya 8” are new and the tallest neighbors of the Danilovsky Manufactory, “Fort”, and “Plaza”, complementing a whole cluster of modern buildings designed by renowned masters. At the same time, the towers are unique for this setting – they are residential, they are the tallest ones here, and they are located on a challenging site. In this article, we explore how architects Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova tackled this far-from-trivial task.

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In the spirit of ROSTA posters

The new Rostselmash tractor factory, conceptualized by ASADOV Architects, is currently being completed in Rostov-on-Don. References to the Soviet architecture of the 1920’s and 1960’s resonate with the mission and strategic importance of the enterprise, and are also in line with the client’s wish: to pay homage to Rostov’s constructivism.

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The Northern Thebaid

The central part of Ferapontovo village, adjacent to the famous monastery with frescoes by Dionisy, has been improved according to the project by APRELarchitects. Now the place offers basic services for tourists, as well as a place for the villagers’ leisure.

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Brilliant Production

The architects from London-based MOST Architecture have designed the space for the high-tech production of Charge Cars, a high-performance production facility for high-speed electric cars that are assembled in the shell of legendary Ford Mustangs. The founders of both the company and the car assembly startup are Russians who were educated in their home country.

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Three-Part Task: St. Petersburg’s Mytny Dvor

The so-called “Mytny Dvor” area lying just behind Moscow Railway Station – the market rows with a complex history – will be transformed into a premium residential complex by Studio 44. The project consists of three parts: the restoration of historical buildings, the reconstruction of the lost part of the historical contour, and new houses. All of them are harmonized with each other and with the city; axes and “beams of light” were found, cozy corners and scenic viewpoints were carefully thought out. We had a chat with the authors of the historical buildings’ restoration project, and we are telling you about all the different tasks that have been solved here.

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The Color of the City, or Reflections on the Slope of an Urban Settlement

In 2022, Ostozhenka Architects won a competition, and in 2023, they developed and received all the necessary approvals for a master plan for the development of Chernigovskaya Street for the developer GloraX. The project takes into account a 10-year history of previous developments; it was done in collaboration with architects from Nizhny Novgorod, and it continues to evolve now. We carefully examined it, talked to everyone, and learned a lot of interesting things.