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.

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

15 June 2023

Object

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.

zooming — 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.

The location plan. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum

Copyright: © Reserve Union
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).

Vladimir Plotkin, «Creative Union ‘Reserve’»

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.

1 / 11

Plan of the 1st floor. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum

Copyright: © Reserve Union
2 / 11

Plan of the 2nd floor. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum

Copyright: © Reserve Union
3 / 11

Plan of the 3rd floor. Plan of the 2nd floor. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum

Copyright: © Reserve Union
4 / 11

Plan of the 4th floor. Plan of the 2nd floor. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum

Copyright: © Reserve Union
5 / 11

Plan of the roof. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum

Copyright: © Reserve Union
6 / 11

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
7 / 11

Cross-section views. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum

Copyright: © Reserve Union
8 / 11

Cross-section views. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum

Copyright: © Reserve Union
9 / 11

Cross-section views. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum

Copyright: © Reserve Union
10 / 11

The facades. Plan of the 2nd floor. Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum

Copyright: © Reserve Union
11 / 11

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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

Overview

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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”.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

New Aeroflot Office: Lightness, Play, Comfort

Even if you have no plans to fly with Aeroflot anytime soon, their new office at 2A 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street is still worth a visit for its interior design alone.

Object

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.

Object

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”.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

A Twist of the Core

A clever and concise sculptural solution – rotating each floor by N degrees – has created an ensemble of “dancing” towers: similar yet different, simple yet complex. The designers meticulously refined a single structural node and spent considerable effort on the column construction – after that, “everything else was easy”. The architects also rotated the core walls on each floor to maximize the efficiency of the office spaces.

Object

The Sculpting of Spring Forest Matter

We’ve been observing this building for a couple of years now: seemingly simple, perhaps even unassuming, it fits in remarkably well with the micro-district context shaped by the Moscow MCD road junctions. This building sticks in the memory of everyone who drives along the highway, even occasionally. In our opinion, Sergey Nikeshkin, by blending popular architectural techniques and approaches of the 2010s, managed to turn a seemingly simple structure into a statement “on the theme of a house as such”. Let’s figure out how this happened.

Object

Water and Wind Whet the Stone

The Arisha Terraces residential complex, designed by Asadov Architects, will be built in a district of Dubai dedicated to film and television production. To create shaded spaces and an intriguing silhouette, the architects opted for a funnel-shaped composition and nature-inspired forms of erosion and weathering. The roofs, podium, and underground spaces extend leisure opportunities within the boundaries of a man-made “oasis”.

​From Darkness to Light

Vladimir Plotkin, «Creative Union ‘Reserve’»

From Darkness to Light