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The Chinese Symphony

The construction of the Chinese center “Huaming Park” has been a long story that came to fruition relatively recently. The building is adjacent to a traditional Chinese garden, but it is very modern, laconic and technological, and the simple-in-form, yet spectacular, white lamellae promise to someday be incorporated as a media facade. This complex is also truly multifunctional: it contains different types of living spaces, offices, a large fitness center, conference halls and restaurants – all wrapped in one volume. You can comfortably hold international forums in it, having everything you may possibly need at your fingertips, and going outside only to take a walk. In this article, we are examining this complex in detail.

12 September 2023
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The Chinese business center Huaming Park is a very serious instrument of Russian-Chinese friendship; in the spring, Chinese leader Xi Jinping stayed there when he was visiting Moscow. The idea of such a center was voiced at the highest level back in 2001. The design process started later on, but the implemented project is still pretty old – the key solutions were proposed by the architects of Reserve Union 10 years ago, in 2013, and finalized in 2017. However, the construction has been completed only recently: the center was actually opened part by part, several times – first in spring 2021, then in October 2022, but the last lamellas on the facades were installed only in the spring of 2023.
 
Now, 10 years after the start of the planning process, the building can be considered completely finished.

“Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union


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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union
  • zooming
    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union


While the complex was being built, the area around it changed radically. In the 2000s, the area was rather empty: a lone “hockey puck” of a subway pavilion, vegetation of varying degrees of untidiness, a railroad, and Soviet residential buildings looming in the distance.

Project, 3D render, view from the metro station. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
Copyright © Reserve Union

 
Now there is a large transport hub here and many new residential blocks, 20 stories high; the color in the surrounding buildings is predominantly beige, and the windows are united vertically so that they resemble thickets of very large reeds. The old subway pavilion is built up by a shopping center with an office tower, and the Moscow Northern Diameter overpass has passed behind the railroad.

In the bustling “thicket” of new development, the Huaming Park building looks like a foreign body: light, glassy, thinly striped, like a New York – but then again, why not a Beijing? – skyscraper. However, the building is a little short of a real skyscraper: the height of the office part is a little less than a hundred meters, which is not exactly a high-rise by the modern Moscow standards. On the other hand, the building stands on an elevation, it is visible from afar, and it is noticeably different from everything that’s around it – first of all, as a capacious stereometric statement. We see large roundings and planes from different angles – the building looks a bit like a giant netsuke, vigorously dissected, but nonetheless stable. Vertical lamellas delineate the volume in a laconic and contrasting manner – they catch the sunlight and intensify the contrast of light and shade, especially on the curves. In the perspective, they grow thicker, opening the glass to the direct view, mitigating the excessive sculpture-like effect and visually pulling the building together.

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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union
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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union


From the very beginning, i.e. since 2001, Huaming Park was conceived, at the highest level, as an instrument for the development of international relations – a fragment of China in Moscow, and it was almost the main task to make it figuratively consonant with the Far Eastern culture.

We immersed ourselves in the context of Chinese tradition and studied its modern interpretation, which allows for a fairly flexible interpretation of meanings. We oriented the building to the east – I consider this decision one of the most successful, as the sunrise holds immense significance in Chinese culture. Research into traditional color schemes led to three primary colors: white, red, and gold. In our case, “gold” is represented by natural copper, while the majority of the lamellae are white, and red is the color of the granite used to clad the stylobate. It took us a long time to select the quarry and the stone’s color.

Other adjustments related to the Chinese mentality were made by the client, Huaming Company: we were asked to soften the sharp angles since they are negatively perceived in traditional culture. As a result, the building’s contour became more streamlined. On the other hand, the client wanted the facades to be very modern but still strict and dignified, so we abandoned dynamic options that were initially considered.

However, one of the main features of the center is its true versatility. It combines offices, apartments, a hotel, two large conference halls, a sports block, shops, cafes, and restaurants serving national cuisine, all in one place. It’s practically a mini-city.

 
In the complex, indeed, if you wish, you can live and work comfortably without ever leaving it. Five key functions – an office tower, a hotel, apartments, a sports center with a swimming pool, and a large conference hall – are elegantly distributed within a triangular plan that is strict and almost centrally symmetrical.

Location plan. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
Copyright © Reserve Union


The northern apex of the triangle is occupied by a semicircular office tower, while the southern part is a trapezoid framed by two wings: a hotel on the left and apartments on the right. Between the wings, there is a four-height atrium, in the middle of which the main conference hall, a kind of the core of the complex, is suspended on a grid of supports. It “hovers” over a spacious lobby of 9-meter height, well-lit through the southern facade; from the north side, the lobby is flanked by two tiers of balconies, and from the second tier the visitors get into the conference hall. The ceiling height of the second tier is also 9 meters, and it is additionally illuminated by two large skylights with a tilt to the north. In other words, the lobby catches both northern and southern sun; it is spacious and high.

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    Plan of the 3rd floor. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright © Reserve Union
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    Section view 2-2. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow. Project, 2013-2017
    Copyright © Reserve Union


The other conference hall is located on the third and fourth floors underneath the apartments, in the right-hand wing. In the 3rd floor level, in the northern lintel of the stylobate and in the hotel wing, there is a large fitness center with a 25-meter-long swimming pool, under a 6-meter ceiling and another skylight. The roof of the stylobate is landscaped, as envisioned in the project, and serves as a “fifth facade” for beautiful views from the windows.

The first and second floors include several restaurants, a bank, boutiques, and a business center situated in the apartment wing. There is also a restaurant on the 2nd floor of the office tower, which can be accessed either by going through the lobby or through the passage on the right. The two underground levels are occupied by a parking garage, including an automated one.

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    Plan of the 1st floor. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright © Reserve Union
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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright © Reserve Union
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    Plan of the 4th floor. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright © Reserve Union
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    Plan of the 5th floor. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright © Reserve Union
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    Plan of the 6th floor. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright © Reserve Union
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    Plan of the -1st floor. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright © Reserve Union
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    Plan of the -2nd floor. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright © Reserve Union
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    Section view 1-1. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow. Project, 2013-2017
    Copyright © Reserve Union
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    Section view 4-4. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow. Project, 2013-2017
    Copyright © Reserve Union
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    Section view 3-3. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow. Project, 2013-2017
    Copyright © Reserve Union

 
This whole set is composed in a dialectical way, based on two opposing principles: separation and unification, symmetry and asymmetry.

The three main buildings differ in height: the office tower is 95 m high, the hotel building is 80 m high, and the apartments are 51 m high – the narrowest and the highest volume is located near the railroad, along the city street the height is noticeably lower, as the complex seems to descend with large steps. Moreover, the reduction of the height is dictated not only by the proximity to the city street, but it also makes it possible to open the facades of the hotel to the eastern and south-eastern sun – according to Vladimir Plotkin, the eastern light is available for 70% of the complex.

“Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
Copyright © Reserve Union


One of the most curious techniques of the volumetric composition – it contains a kind of urban planning puzzle – is the cut of the inner boulevard separating the office tower from the rest of the complex. Whether it is a boulevard or not will be decided by the management company of the complex in the sense that it will be landscaped and beautified or not, but the northern tower with a semicircular lenticular plan has been moved away from the stylobate of the southern part by 12 meters, only one “string”remaining: the lintel of the overhead passage from Wilhelm Pieck Street.

The impression of a “slice” forming a Manhattan-type gorge arises primarily because of the smooth surface of the structural glazing, contrasting with the lamella-covered walls, both interior and exterior. It also looks that way because the glass planes on the office tower and the sidewall of the hotel, 95 and 80 meters high respectively, are perfectly straight, even though the 22-meter height of the stylobate would have been quite sufficient. It is here that the “city effect” is particularly strong, as well as the ricochet of reflections.

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    The “slice” gorge (the inner boulevard) between the hotel and the office tower. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union
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    Space between the stylobate and the office tower. Top right hotel building, left office tower, center right stylobate with fitness center, bottom transition from the stylobate to the office tower. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union

 
The sharp corners have been preserved here, but that is not the most interesting thing. The “slice” continues the axes of the city streets: 1st Leonov Street from the east and Berezovaya Alley from the west, visually connecting the territories of two former Moscow suburban villages. Both the cut and the “sliced” semicircle are clearly visible from both sides – for example, from the Tricolor housing complex (also designed by Vladimir Plotkin) – two large-scale projects designed by the same architect salute each other, separated by a two-kilometer distance.

The inner boulevard is not included in the life of the city, as Huaming Park’s territory is enclosed by a fence, and it does not restore the lines of historical roads either – its role is visual: it connects the axes that exist in the city now, and allows us to look a little further into the distant perspective through ourselves. And this, of course, is not a coincidence, but the result of the architects’ research into the urban context.

View from the east. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union


View from the west. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union


Here we can remember about the land of the rising sun. If you look at the building now on the Yandex aerial photo with a great approximation, it is taken at the moment when the sun shines through the boulevard, in a straight line, from the east with a slight tilt to the south. A very distinct and monumental shadow lies at the western end of the park, and the building appears to be something akin to a prehistoric dolmen, which, according to one theory, was oriented to catch the sun rays at a particular moment. The difference is that this is a very large “dolmen”, built on a modern scale.

In addition to large-scale gestures, the building features many “fine-tuning” elements. For example, the elevation changes of the buildings are projected onto the facades by subtle horizontal breaks in the “shading” of the lamellae, and the stylobate is shown as a separate element, on which the volumes of the hotel and apartments are set. The northern end of the apartments is beveled and slightly pushed back, opening a doorway for the rays of the eastern sun to the hotel and, at the same time, a view from Leonov Street side.

“Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union


The wings also look as though they salute each other – two rectangles on the facades of the hotel are moved slightly forward: one repeats the dimensions of the opposite facade of the apartments, the other echoes its end. It is as if the wings were once identical, but then the western one was added on, “drowning” the former volume in it. In addition, the planes saluting each other are delineated not with white, but with copper lamellae, which creates another duplicate perspective when looking at the main facade, reinforced by the fact that the buildings are placed at an angle to each other, and, as a consequence, look quite energetic – the complex opens towards the park like a book.

“Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union


“Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union


This may remind you of other Reserve Union projects – for example, the two wings of Aeroflot’s office, placed parallel to each other, echo each other with reflections and white stripes drawn by the vis-a-vis. But then again, in Huaming Park, reflections also play a significant role – they play their own game, and if you look closely, there are more planes in this triangular composition than you see at first.

However, the highlight of the representative southern facade is the conference hall. It is “suspended” in the space of the atrium, tracing the trapezoidal shape of its plan, while the southern wall of the hall is extended from the stained-glass window by a block on columns. It is lined with natural copper, and it shines with a kind of black light, “ignited” by the sun, which shines on it from different sides almost all day long, from sunrise to sunset. It is virtually a full-fledged art object that explores the theme of the sun. It is supported by the copper plate of the canopy strung on the columns below; the canopy not only rhythmically balances the entrance part, but also, if you think about it, signifies the position of the hall within the atrium.

“Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union


The staggered copper strips help to catch the sun rays – they can be compared to lamellas cut into pieces and arranged in a strict pattern logic. They practically “absorb” light and then amplify it noticeably better than a cool, flat surface of the same material – it is the copper lamellae that create the shining effect.
 
And here too, when approaching from the city, the angle of turn looks very energetic.

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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union
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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union


The copper facade is encircled by an asymmetrical frame of light-colored limestone: on the right, on the street side, it is open to the flow of incoming traffic, while on the left it “stops” it; at the level of the lower floors, the building is more actively transformed, interacting with the city and its people.

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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union
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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union
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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union
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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union
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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union

 
While the upper volumes are like a rock, facing the “city and the world”, down here, asymmetrical displacements, zigzag facades, balconies, and transitions form something that you may call “the ups and downs of life”; the analogy is further supported by the curved contour of the lower edge of the lamellae, as if the imprint of waves.

This edge slightly disguises the horizontal line of the stylobate edge, and if you get closer, you can see that it is implemented spectacularly, on “spider” stretches.

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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union
  • zooming
    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union


The “respectable” granite cladding of the stylobate, which was created by the client’s request, causes some dislike for me personally. Originally, it was planned to use natural copper for the stylobate, which “works” so well on facades – and I think this would have been the right thing to do because, besides glass, the building would have only two colors in it: white and copper as an organic alloy of red and gold. Granite, even when lightened and “refined” by its frequent proximity to glass, and in some places quite masterfully transformed into round and oval columns, still seems to me to be slightly superfluous in such a modern building.

However, there are many contrasts associated with this building, derived from the peculiarities of contemporary Chinese culture, which apparently sees no contradiction in the simple juxtaposition of the modern international and the completely traditional – and perhaps even sees such stylistic equanimity as a kind of advantage based on the maxim “let all the flowers bloom”. In Beijing’s panoramas, it is actually easy to find landscapes where red lacquer buildings with curved corners of tiled roofs neighbor not only with skyscrapers, but also with actual architecture. No fusion, just simple juxtaposition! This is what happened here: both the Chinese park in front of the southern façade and the interiors of the center were realized by Chinese authors. The park is completely authentic, with hand-painted tiles and sacred stones brought from China, echoed by the shape of the fence. The interior is orientally luxurious.

View from the Chinese garden. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union


Let’s, however, get back to the building of the center.

If we compare the actual photos with the 3D renders, we will see that the key angles are also very similar and the main solutions have been implemented almost exactly as intended.

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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union
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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow. Project 2013-2017
    Copyright © Reserve Union


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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union
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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow. Project 2013-2017
    Copyright © Reserve Union

 
In addition, there are quite a lot of expensive technical solutions (it is interesting that the list of engineers in the architects’ team is actually longer than the list of architects, although it is usually the other way around). Among the notable ones are the large-sized glass – up to 11 meters high – or the media façade, one of the highlights of the project.

The width of the outer white lamellae is 16 cm, and for good reason: their milk glass side ends are fitted with controllable backlighting. The entire facade can be illuminated in its entirety or turned into large-scale pictures – not the way it’s done on ordinary media screens, which are abundant in the city (and there is one here too) – but into discrete striped, large and generalized ones.

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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow. Project 2013-2017
    Copyright © Reserve Union
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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow. Project 2013-2017
    Copyright © Reserve Union


I feel like calling this type of media facade architectural because it does not simply turn the building into a large television set, but develops it without suppressing the volumetric solution; Vladimir Plotkin used a similar approach in the building of the shopping center “Vremena Goda” (“The Four Seasons”), where media backlighting is built into points evenly distributed on metal panels. In this case it is not dots, but strips.

The authors even preface the project with a logo showing that the volumes here are seen as paintings or the basis for paintings.

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    The authors pre-logo for the project. “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright © Reserve Union
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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow. Project 2013-2017
    Copyright © Reserve Union


It should be quite spectacular in the middle of the night city, especially when seen against the dark forest of the reserve area of the Botanical Garden. It is well visible that the illumination on the ends of the lamellae has indeed been implemented, but I have not managed to catch it in the active state yet. Never mind – maybe they will turn it on someday.
 
However, the shadows from the construction cranes of the neighboring site, when they lie on the lamellae, give a somewhat similar effect in the sunlight during the day.

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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union
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    “Park Huaming” business center on Wilhelm Pieck Street in Moscow
    Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Naroditsky / provided by Reserve Union


Now white vertical lamellae, the heirs of the thin pylons that organized the form in classical modernist buildings, have become quite popular in Moscow. In the 1990s and 2000s, the technique was almost forgotten, and few architects used it. So Huaming Park, designed in 2013 and completed recently – though I’ll call it finally completed when the lights come on – seems to be a kind of “bridge” through the decade. The architecture is modern, but to some extent timeless because of its high level of generalization, international – and taking into account the peculiarities of Chinese thinking, “Chinese” – and at the same time skillfully "stitched" into the Moscow landscape.
 
And how good it is that a Moscow architect is responsible for the modern international part of the ensemble here. You begin to respect your city.

12 September 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.