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​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.

15 June 2023
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The construction of a branch of the History Museum next to the Novodevichy Monastery is part of celebrating its anniversary, which entails grand-scale work inside the monastery: restoration, research, excavations, and publishing. The museum must become a branch of the State History Museum, dedicated to the history of the Russian Orthodox Church in general and the Novodevichy Monastery in particular; it will host some of the exhibits that were moved out of the Monastery in 2016, a permanent exposition on two floors, classrooms for educational programs, and a 140-seat lecture hall.

Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
Copyright: © Reserve Union


All of this is hosted in a small, yet spectacular, building with a bold span of the horizontal of the top floors, a vis-a-vis of the Novodevichy Monastery, right across from the bell tower. 

This location is both a plus and a minus. The plus is that the museum is very close, a stone’s throw away, and the panorama of the monastery opens up from it through the square. The minus, or difficulty, is that Novodevichy Monastery is not just a federal monument, it is included in the UNESCO list, so the requirements and restrictions related to the protected area are the strictest you can think of.

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    The location plan. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
    Copyright: © Reserve Union
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    The landscaping. Plan of the 2nd floor. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
    Copyright: © Reserve Union


The height limitation is 18.7 meters, the building’s blueprint cannot be more than a third of the plot, and it had to step away from the borders by 2 – 11.5 m, so all that was left of the area of 0.7 hectares for the construction was mere 1921 square meters. Meanwhile, the museum required about ten thousand meters of usable area (the total area of the building in the final project is 10,688 m2).

We solved this task by resorting to cantilevered structures: the third and fourth floors were extended around the perimeter by 6-7 meters, resulting in a “mushroom-shaped” outline of the building, which allowed us to accommodate the entire stated program. We also lowered the pavement level around the museum by half a meter: the square in front of the main entrance descends from Luzhnetskaya Street, thus adding a bit more useful space. So the building became a combination of requirements and limitations. However, on the other hand, it is not often that we have the opportunity to work with cantilevers of significant projection, and in this case, they not only became a necessary measure but also yielded an interesting silhouette.


The underground level accommodates a parking lot for 18 cars and technical rooms, the first level contains the museum lobby and classrooms, the second floor is the storage room, the third and fourth floors contain the main exhibition on the left and the auditorium on the right. The spaces for visitors are grouped on the side of Luzhnetsky Passage and the main entrance, while the administration offices and other technical rooms gravitate to the rear of the building.

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    Plan of the 1st floor. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
    Copyright: © Reserve Union
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    Plan of the 2nd floor. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
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    Plan of the 3rd floor. Plan of the 2nd floor. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
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    Plan of the 4th floor. Plan of the 2nd floor. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
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    Plan of the roof. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
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    Plan of the underground floor. Plan of the 2nd floor. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
    Copyright: © Reserve Union
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    Cross-section views. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
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    Cross-section views. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
    Copyright: © Reserve Union
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    Cross-section views. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
    Copyright: © Reserve Union
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    The facades. Plan of the 2nd floor. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
    Copyright: © Reserve Union
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    The facades. Plan of the 2nd floor. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
    Copyright: © Reserve Union


It should be noted that the museum is being built opposite a first-class 16th-17th century monument, but its immediate surroundings are not historical at all, but rather late-Soviet. At the end of the 1960s, several residential buildings were built along Luzhnetsky Proyezd: the height restrictions were not so strict then, and the buildings are 8-9 stories high, although they are separated from each other by a wide margin. They alternate with extended buildings: on the left is a children’s health center, on the right is an office center built a couple of years ago – the museum is somewhat larger, but it is horizontal and fits into the general system of rhythmic alternation, filling the gap between the two residential towers on the site of the infectious diseases hospital demolished in 2013. Meanwhile, the site has another limitation: its part on the side of the driveway is a protected natural area, so that the building will be obscured by a line of trees.

Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
Copyright: © Reserve Union


The development drawing on the Luzhnetsky Passage. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
Copyright: © Reserve Union


Even more important than the limitations is the context. Here, it can be subdivided into several types: the neighborhood of the monastery and the connection with it, the houses of the late sixties and the sprawling greenery in the neighborhood and, if I may say so, the context of the requirements of modern museum construction. The first requires clear and unambiguous references to the monument, while the second requires their abstraction, a statement not alien to allusions, but modern, generalized and at the same time, despite all limitations, noticeable, not merging with the surroundings completely. The project has all of this.

The most literal reflection of the connection with the monument, the “telltale” accent is the counter-relief, a reverse concave relief with the silhouette of the monastery on the white glass and a concrete pylon standing to the left of the entrance to the museum. It establishes a completely direct connection: here is the monastery, and here is its imprint on the wall.

In Vladimir Plotkin’s projects developed for the historic center of various cities, the technique of reflection of a neighboring monument in the stained-glass window of a new building was often used – the most vivid example is the Arbitration Court building on Seleznevskaya Street. Here, since the monastery is obscured by the trees of the public garden and is located at some distance, the method of reflection is no longer relevant, and is replaced by a counter-relief, also a kind of reflection, only more material – and to a greater extent, as an object of monumental art included in the building, which is in keeping up with the tradition of modern museum construction.

Let’s note, however, that the counter-relief is, on the one hand, of course, material, and, on the other hand, it does not violate the wall surface, just because it’s “negative”, very much like a reflection that demonstrates excessive plastique of sculptural relief.

The facades. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
Copyright: © Reserve Union


The same happens to the facade surfaces, which has already been described as “neo-brutalist”. However, the term is not quite accurate.

In addition to the “telltale” relief silhouette, the connection with the ensemble of the monastery is defined in the project through the material: most of the buildings of Novodevichy, forming its well-known image, appeared in the 1680s under Tsarevna Sophia. In them, which is typical for the end of the XVII century, the brick walls are red painted, and the white-stone decor looks like fine lace. The walls of the monastery are not rough or brutal – on the contrary, they are richly decorated, representative and ornamental, the bell tower even more so. 

The combination of terracotta and white surfaces becomes a response to the monastic architecture in the design of the museum. But the museum itself is completely different.

The simplest solution would have been to make the walls red-brick, like those of the monastery. Meanwhile, although brick has been extremely popular in Russian architecture over the past 20 years, Vladimir Plotkin is the kind of architect whose works rarely have brick in them. 

Here, for a response to the monastic walls of the ensemble monument, special ceramic panels were chosen – dark, quite large, covered with a shiny glaze with metallic inclusions, and with a specially designed pattern developed by the architects: two protruding horizontal stripes on each.

The ceramic panels that will be used on the facades. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
Copyright: © Reserve Union


The relief strips are slightly turned upwards so as to reflect more light – a shiny, slightly variegated surface, evenly ruled by a horizontal pattern. It looks more like a plinth with a hidden row than a seventeenth-century bulky construction, and if it presents us with the image of an “ancient wall”, it is rather something ancient as a whole, some kind of “mother wall”, flattened, generalized through the horizontal shading of the stripes and – because of the glaze and metallic luster – it even looks like some kind of precious stone.

The wall, of course, does not look like the pink brick of the neighboring buildings – this is a new “third” texture, which is nonetheless based on harmonious coexistence with its neighbors and predecessors.

Due to this, the facades, and particularly the main one, do not look at all like they are made of massive brutal blocks – rather, they are woven of flat ribbons, slightly broken at the bends. The impression is further enhanced by the nuances: specifically, the band of the fourth floor stands out above the third before the chamfer that leads to the upper balcony – demonstrating at the same time that the facade’s plastique is composed of wide planes, lightweight and forming folds in the key places.

Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
Copyright: © Reserve Union


The chamfer leads to an open balcony, and there are two such balconies here. The one that is on the third floor is situated directly above the entrance; originally, it had a slightly larger offset, like a real “captain’s bridge”; later on, the offset was reduced, which is, of course, a pity because it was precisely this “nose” created a connection to the monastery ensemble – a connection not just historical and symbolic, like the relief below, but real and palpable – it literally pointed in the direction of the bell tower. But then again, even in this reduced state, it continues to function as a sightseeing platform.

Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
Copyright: © Reserve Union


The axis of the other “bridge” balcony on the fourth floor is turned more northward – it is pointed towards the Nikolskaya Tower of the Monastery wall, and the John the Baptist church designed by Ilia Utkin. Working in combination with the “break” of the wall, this creates a powerful rotation movement: the balconies literally “sprout” into the space of the square, and not just composition-wise: the visitors to the museum will also be able to walk out on them and get a breath of fresh air. Such balconies are to be seen in many museum buildings, for example, in the Central House of Artists on Krymsky Val, similar balconies were also open to the general public at some point.

Another linking technique is the reflection of the structure of the interior rooms outward: for example, the bevel of the loggia on the west corner is not accidental, but repeats the line of the lecture hall above it, while it forms a dynamic “takeoff” of form in an important perspective from the side of the passage.

Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
Copyright: © Reserve Union


The balconies and interfloor connections are accented with white, which, as we remember, serves here as a contrasting pair to terracotta, but is used not only for the relief details. All of the public spaces in the museum lobby and atrium are completely white.

The hall stretches out on the first floor from the entrance to the left, where the classrooms are situated. Here, in a straight line stretching from the main entrance, the space develops “upwards and forwards”: the entering person is welcomed by a 19-meter long four-height atrium under a glass ceiling, completely white. It is from this atrium that the white balconies sprout on the facade.

The atrium. View from the entrance. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
Copyright: © Reserve Union


To the right of the entrance to the white atrium, an open staircase is situated, which serves as the main entrance to the exhibition halls on the third and fourth floors. It is housed in a dark brown sculptural cover with bevels along the string of struts, solid walls-antes on the sides, and a loggia for viewing the lobby in the middle of the atrium’s height.

The atrium. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
Copyright: © Reserve Union


The atrium. View in the direction of the entrance. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
Copyright: © Reserve Union


The color of the stairway matches that of the facade, even though its shade is not so bright. It looks as though we are seeing a matryoshka doll: the dark building of the museum resides in the light space of the city, while the staircase resides in the light space of the atrium; one thing fits into another, and this “reverberation effect” is based upon inner inversion.

So! Passing the dark facade, the visitor finds themselves in a light interior, and then ascends a dark staircase to get into a dark exposition hall, which, in turn, has a light core – this time it is a spiral staircase that connects two exhibition tiers. Between the floors, there is a large glass cylinder with a diameter of 3.5 meters and a height of about 9 meters. Inside, exhibits are displayed, and the cylinder glows from the inside. There are two parallel staircases ascending around it, only these staircases are not angular, but bend in a spiral: the visitors may switch between the tiers, at the same time examining the big showcase. The other showcases (the exposition itself was designed by MuseuMedia) are designed in accordance with the same principle of backlit glass volume in a dark environment, but this cylinder is meant to become the flashiest exhibition experience.

The exhibition hall. View from the entrance. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
Copyright: © Reserve Union


Cross views of the staircases in the exhibition halls. The atrium. View from the entrance. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
Copyright: © Reserve Union


The exhibition hall. View from the entrance. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
Copyright: © Reserve Union


The cylinder is inserted in a disc-shaped offset on the roof; it’s plain to see in a birds-eye view panorama. I’d like to say that I, as a person who examines the project from the inside, would like to see here a circle of natural light up above or at least a diameter on the edge of the top cylinder – it seems to me that such at “half-open lid” would have been a logical completing accent. But then again, the feeling of a “glowing core” that the spiral staircase creates, is quite palpable even without a skylight.

Thus, the project is interesting not just because it “sprouted” various cantilevered structures as a response to various site restrictions, and not only because of its bold response to the challenge of building a history museum next to an important monument of architecture, but also because its comparatively small volume houses not only the required spaces, but also evokes emotions – both on the inside and on the outside. These emotions are predominantly based on the contrast of high and low, soaring and overhanging, light and dark, which is something that is totally relevant in a museum, particularly in a museum of religious history. 

15 June 2023

Headlines now
Depths of the Earth, Streams of Water
In the Malaya Okhta district, the Akzent building, designed by Stepan Liphart, was constructed. It follows a classic tripartite structure, yet it’s what you might call “hand-drawn”: each façade is unique in its form and details, some of which aren’t immediately noticeable. In this article, we explore the context and, together with the architect, delve into how the form was developed.
​A Brick Shell
In the process of designing a clubhouse situated among pine trees in a prestigious suburban area near Moscow, the architectural firm “A.Len” did the façade design part. The combination of different types of brick and masonry correlates with the volumetric and plastique solutions, further enhanced by the inclusion of wood-painted fragments and metal “glazing”.
Word Forms
ATRIUM architects love ambitious challenges, and for the firm’s thirtieth anniversary, they boldly play a game of words with an exhibition that dives deep into a self-created vocabulary. They immerse their projects – especially art installations – into this glossary, as if plunging into a current of their own. You feel as if you’re flowing through the veins of pure art, immersed in a universe of vertical cities, educational spaces – of which the architects are true masters – and the cultural codes of various locations. But what truly captivates is the bold statement that Vera Butko and Anton Nadtochy make, both through their work and this exhibition: architecture, above all, is art – the art of working with form and space.
Flexibility and Acuteness of Modernity
Luxurious, fluid, large “kokoshniks” and spiral barrel columns, as if made from colorful chewing gum: there seem to be no other mansion like this in Moscow, designed in the “Neo-Russian-Modern” style. And the “Teremok” on Malaya Kaluzhskaya, previously somewhat obscure, has “come alive with new colors” and gained visibility after its restoration for the office of the “architectural ecosystem” as the architects love to call themselves. It’s evident that Julius Borisov and the architects at UNK put their hearts into finding this new office and bringing it up to date. Let’s delve into the paradoxes of this mansion’s history and its plasticity. Spoiler: two versions of modernity meet here, both balancing on the razor’s edge of “what’s current”.
Yuri Vissarionov: “A modular house does not belong to the land”
It belongs to space, or to the air... It turns out that 3D printing is more effective when combined with a modular approach: the house is built in a workshop and then adapted to the site, including on uneven terrain. Yuri Vissarionov shares his latest experience in designing tourist complexes, both in central Russia and in the south. These include houseboats, homes printed from lightweight concrete using a 3D printer, and, of course, frame houses.
​Moscow’s First
“The quality of education largely depends on the quality of the educational environment”. This principle of the last decade has been realized by Sergey Skuratov in the project for the First Moscow Gymnasium on Rostovskaya Embankment in the Khamovniki district. The building seamlessly integrates into the complex urban landscape, responding both to the pedestrian flow of the city and the quiet alleyways. It skillfully takes advantage of the height differences and aligns with modern trends in educational space design. Let’s take a closer look.
Looking at the Water
The site of Villa Sonata stretches from the road to the water’s edge, offering its own shoreline, pier, and a picturesque river panorama. To reveal these sweeping views, Roman Leonidov “cut” the façade diagonally parallel to the river, thus getting two main axes for the house and, consequently, “two heads”. The internal core – two double-height spaces, a living room and a conservatory, with a “bridge” above them – makes the house both “transparent” and filled with light.
The White Wing
Well, it’s not exactly white. It’s more of a beige, white-stone structure that plays with the color of limestone – smoother surfaces are lighter, while rougher ones are darker. This wing unites various elements: it absorbs and interprets the surrounding themes. It responds to everything, yet maintains a cohesive expression – a challenging task! – while also incorporating recognizable features of its own, such as the dynamic cuts at the bottom, top, and middle.
Urban Dunes
The XSA Ramps team designed and built a three-part sports hub for a park in Rostov-on-Don, welcoming people of all ages and fitness levels. The skate plaza, pump track, and playground are all meticulously crafted with details that attract a diverse range of visitors. The technical execution of the shapes and slopes transforms this space into a kind of sculptural composition.
Proportional Growth
The project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential area has been announced. The buildings are situated on an elongated plot – almost a “ray” that shoots out from the center of the area towards the river. Their layout reflects both a response to Moscow’s architectural preferences over the past 15 years, shifting “from blocks to towers”, and an interpretation of the neighboring business park designed by SOM. Additionally, the best apartments here are not located at the very top but closer to the middle, forming a glowing “waistline”.
The “Staircase” Building
In designing the “Details” residential complex in New Moscow, Rais Baishev spiced up the now-popular Moscow theme of a “courtyard” building with an idea drawn from the surrealist drawings by Maurits Escher. He envisioned the stepped silhouettes and descending slopes as a metaphysical mega-staircase, creating a key void within the courtyard that gave the project an internal “spine”. This concept is felt both in the building’s silhouette and on its façades.
Projection of the Quarter
No one doubted that the building that Vladimir Plotkin designed as part of the “Garden Quarters” would be the most modernist of all. And it turned out just that way: while adhering to the common design code, the building successfully combines brick and white stone, rhythmically responding to the neighboring building designed by Ostozhenka, yet tactfully and persistently making a few statements of its own. This includes the projection of the ideal urban development composition “14–9–6”, which can be found right next door, mathematical calculations, including those for various types of terraces (and perhaps the only reminder of the Soviet past of the Kauchuk rubber factory!), and the white “cross-stitch” pattern of the façade grid.
Domus Aurea
In this issue, we examine the “Tessinsky-1” house, designed by Sergey Skuratov and completed in 2023. Located in the middle of the Serebryanicheskaya Embankment district, at the intersection of its main streets, this house assumes a sort of “nodal” role: it not only responds to everything around it and preserves many memories of the former EMA factory within itself, but it weaves all this into a newly directed pattern, reconciling bright “gold” and dark-colored brick, largely with the help of the new, modern-yet-archaic Columba brick, which, come to think about it, is the most precious element here.
The Chimney of Nikola-Lenivets
In this issue, we are examining the “Obelisk House” designed by KATARSIS and built for the Arkhstoyanie 2023 festival. However, it was only finished later on, and this is why we are examining it now. It seems to us that after the “Obelisk House” appeared in Nikola-Lenivets, a dialogue and a few inner connections appeared between the temporary structures built here. These houses no longer look like “accidental neighbors”, more of which below.
​Periscope by the Bay
The jury awarded the second place in the competition for a public and cultural center in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the companies GORA (“Mountain”) and M4. In the consortium’s proposal, the building resembles a sperm whale with a calf swimming next to it or a periscope, whose lenses capture the most spectacular views from the surrounding landscape.
From Arcs to Dolmens
While working on the competition project for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, ASADOV Architects prioritized the value of the natural and urban environment, aiming to preserve the balance of the location while minimizing the resemblance of the volume that they designed to a “traditional building”. The task was challenging, and the architects created three versions, one of which having been developed after the competition, where their main proposal took third place. However, the point of interest here is not the competition result but the continuity of creative thinking.
Hide and Seek
The ID Moskovskiy house, designed by Stepan Liphart in St. Petersburg, in the courtyards near Moskovskiy Avenue beyond the Obvodny Canal and recently completed, is notable for several reasons. Firstly, it has been realized with considerable accuracy, which is particularly significant as this is the first building where the architect was responsible not only for the facades but also for the layouts, allowing for better integration between the two. On the other hand, this building is interesting as an example of the “germination” of new architecture in the city: it draws on the best examples from the neighborhood and becomes an improved and developed sum of ideas found by the architect in the surrounding context.
The Big Twelve
Yesterday, the winners of the Moscow Mayor’s Architecture Award were announced and honored. Let’s take a look at what was awarded and, in some cases, even critique this esteemed award. After all, there is always room for improvement, right?
Above the Golden Horn
The residential complex “Philosophy” designed by T+T architects in Vladivostok, is one of the new projects in the “Golubinaya Pad” area, changing its development philosophy (pun intended) from single houses to a comprehensive approach. The buildings are organized along public streets, varying in height and format, with one house even executed in gallery typology, featuring a cantilever leaning on an art object.
Nuanced Alternative
How can you rhyme a square and space? Easily! But to do so, you need to rhyme everything you can possibly think of: weave everything together, like in a tensegrity structure, and find your own optics too. The new exhibition at GES-2 does just that, offering its visitor a new perspective on the history of art spanning 150 years, infused with the hope for endless multiplicity of worlds and art histories. Read on to see how this is achieved and how the exhibition design by Evgeny Ace contributes to it.
Blinds for Ice
An ice arena has been constructed in Domodedovo based on a project by Yuri Vissarionov Architects. To prevent the long façade, a technical requirement for winter sports facilities, from appearing monotonous, the architects proposed the use of suspended structures with multidirectional slats. This design protects the ice from direct sunlight while giving the wall texture and detail.
Frozen Magma
A competition for the creation of a public and cultural center was held in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Three architectural companies made it to the final, and we consider it important to share about the work of each. Let’s start with the winner – the consortium led by Wowhaus.
Campus within a Day
In this article, we talk about what the participants of Genplan Institute of Moscow’s hackathon were doing at the MosComArchitecture booth at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition. We also discuss who won the prize and why, and what can be done with the territory of a small university on the outskirts of Moscow.
Vertical Civilization
Genpro considered the development of the vertical city concept and made it the theme of their pavilion at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition.
Marina Yegorova: “We think in terms of hectares, not square meters”
The career path of architect Marina Yegorova is quite impressive: MARHI, SPEECH, MosComArchitectura, the Genplan Institute of Moscow, and then her own architectural company. Its name Empate, which refers to the words “to draw” in Portuguese and “to empathize” in English, should not be misleading with its softness, as the firm freely works on different scales, including Integrated Territorial Development projects. We talked with Marina about various topics: urban planning experience, female leadership style, and even the love of architects for yachting.
Andrey Chuikov: “Optimum balance is achieved through economics”
The Yekaterinburg-based architectural company CNTR is in its mature stage: crystallization of principles, systematization, and standardization helped it make a qualitative leap, enhance competencies, and secure large contracts without sacrificing the aesthetic component. The head of the company, Andrey Chuikov, told us about building a business model and the bonuses that additional education in financial management provides for an architect.
The Fulcrum
Ostozhenka Architects have designed two astonishing towers practically on the edge of a slope above the Oka River in Nizhny Novgorod. These towers stand on 10-meter-tall weathered steel “legs”, with each floor offering panoramic views of the river and the city; all public spaces, including corridors, receive plenty of natural light. Here, we see a multitude of solutions that are unconventional for the residential routine of our day and age. Meanwhile, although these towers hark back to the typological explorations of the seventies, they are completely reinvented in a contemporary key. We admire Veren Group as the client – this is exactly how a “unique product” should be made – and we tell you exactly how our towers are arranged.
Crystal is Watching You
Right now, Museum Night has kicked off at the Museum of Architecture, featuring a fresh new addition – the “Crystal of Perception”, an installation by Sergey Kuznetsov, Ivan Grekov, and the KROST company, set up in the courtyard. It shimmers with light, it sings, it reacts to the approach of people, and who knows what else it can do.
The Secret Briton
The house is called “Little France”. Its composition follows the classical St. Petersburg style, with a palace-like courtyard. The decor is on the brink of Egyptian lotuses, neo-Greek acroteria, and classic 1930s “gears”; the recessed piers are Gothic, while the silhouette of the central part of the house is British. It’s quite interesting to examine all these details, attempting to understand which architectural direction they belong to. At the same time, however, the house fits like a glove in the context of the 20th line of St. Petersburg’s Vasilievsky Island; its elongated wings hold up the façade quite well.
The Wrap-Up
The competition project proposed by Treivas for the first 2021 competition for the Russian pavilion at EXPO 2025 concludes our series of publications on pavilion projects that will not be implemented. This particular proposal stands out for its detailed explanations and the idea of ecological responsibility: both the facades and the exhibition inside were intended to utilize recycled materials.