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ArchiWOOD-14: Building Bridges

This season, the festival’s jury decided not to award a grand prize: judging by the fact that the shortlist included several projects that had not reached the award in previous years, and the “best house” was pronounced to be an undoubtedly beautiful but mass-produced model, the “harvest” of wooden buildings in 2023 was not too abundant. However, there were many unusual typologies among the finalists, and restoration and revitalization projects received their share of recognition. Let’s take a look at all the finalists.

Alyona Kuznetsova

Written by:
Alyona Kuznetsova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

15 September 2023
mainImg
This year, ArchiWOOD awarded the best structures made of wood for the fourteenth time. The competition gathered 203 entries, 65 of them being shortlisted, and the finalists were determined by nine experts – the lineup of the judging panel of the award, as we know, never repeats itself; this year it included Nikita Asadov, Ivan Kozhin, Artem Ukropov, Georgy Snezhkin, Peter Sovetnikov and Vera Stepanskaya, among others. The award ceremony was again held in Moscow’s Peredelkino, but this time in the renovated “House of Creativity”.

The award was curated by the permanent Nikolay Malinin, co-curated by Julia Shishalova, and organized by Rossa Rackenne SPb, which was also the title partner of the event. 

Jury’s Special Prize

Gallery Museum “Zavarka” (“Brew”) (Mashtakov House)
All-Russian Society for the Presentation of Historical and Cultural Monuments, Vega Group Region
Khramov Architectural Studio
Creative space concept: Dmitry Khramov, Armen Arutyunov, Nina Kazachkova, Maria Ionova, Anastasia Knor.
Interior design: Dmitry Khramov, Marina Krichanova, Elena Zagorodneva.
Restoration project: Vega Group Region (Alexander Vyazikov, head of the project).
Scientific advice: Andrei Bode (NIITAG).


There is quite an appalling number of beautiful houses of this kind burning and decaying all over Russia, but only a few of them are properly restored and given a new function. The case of the Mashtakov house in Samara is very beautiful: the restorers managed to preserve about 80% of the original structures, some of them becoming living exhibits in the gallery halls on the second floor. The first floor was adapted for a tea room. The revival took place thanks to the care of All-Russian Society for the Presentation of Historical and Cultural Monuments: in 2021, the local branch of the society won the competition of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives to create a museum gallery named “Zavarka” (“Brew”) in the house. Before that, the mansion by architect Alexander Scherbachev, who “built the better half of old Samara”, had stood behind a blank fence for almost three decades.

You can learn more about the history of the house in the book by Andrei Bode, the scientific director of the restoration project, available on the gallery’s website.

Zavarka Museum (Mashtakov House)
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Nedykhalov, Armen Arutyunov / provided by ArchiWOOD


Zavarka Museum (Mashtakov House)
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Nedykhalov, Armen Arutyunov / provided by ArchiWOOD


Zavarka Museum (Mashtakov House)
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Nedykhalov, Armen Arutyunov / provided by ArchiWOOD


Country house / jury

Delo House 4
Delo Design

On the one hand, it is surprising to see a serial production house chosen by the jury in one of the main nominations, but on the other hand, the house IS really good. The approach of St. Petersburg’s architectural company Delo Design is distinguished by its complexity and perfectionism: you go to the website, choose a model in the catalog, wait four months, and then what you see is what you get – the interiors and even the appliances have already been planned by the designers, everything is in its best place. And the furniture, textiles and tableware are also designed and made by Delo Design. Such a total look may seem impersonal to some, but to others it is a very convenient “package deal”. It is probably not too easy to scale it consistently: one thing is a micro-house, where everything started, and another is a respectable four-bedroom family nest, which has retained its clean lines and style.

Delo House 4
Copyright: Photograph © Viktor Yuliev / provided by Delo Design


Country House / popular vote

NEBO House
Woodbox 

The popular vote favored the more affordable and romantic option: its area is 100 m2 less, but everything you want to buy for your first house is in place – the space outside the window, the stars above your head, the stove – in short, “that’s happiness”. The small area of the room, which combines bedroom, kitchen and living room, is compensated by a spacious terrace with a pergola: why sit at home when you can have a great time outside? Oh, and by the way, if you do stay inside, it is still as if you stay outside – two panoramic windows dissolve the boundaries, and the ceiling window “works” even at night. The house is assembled according to the frame-modular technology on a pile foundation in just two days, together with finishing. The facades are clad with black pine.

NEBO House
Copyright: Photo © WOODBOX / provided by ArchiWOOD


NEBO House
Copyright: Photo © WOODBOX / provided by ArchiWOOD


Other shortlisted projects in the Country House category:
 
Matski House, Zrobim Architects
“Sunflower Seeds” Guest Houses, Vladimir Rusanov
Summer Patio, A4
Arkhsarai, Katya Svanidze design atelier
SWIDOM SW5, MAParchitects
DachaHouse, DK Architects
Guest house with a sauna, Elizaveta Portnova
Glued laminated timber house, Elizaveta Portnova
Trinity, ARCHIWOOD community

Public facilities / jury

Hotel “Igora. Vremena Goda” (The Four Seasons”)
Rhizome
Evgeny Reshetov, Tatiana Sinelnikova, Yana Demina, Ilya Belyakov, Karina Zimina, Olga Markina, Anna Chernoyarova

Rhizome’s projects are both stylish and photogenic: last year’s nomination included “Tochka na Karte” (“Point on the Map”) hotel in Lodeynoye Pole, the conceptual solutions of which the Igora project continues and develops. Just like in “Point on the Map”, the architects are assembling the complex from modules with glued wood construction, turning the blocks in such a way that each room commands a beautiful view of the spruce forest. In addition to 100 rooms, the hotel includes a reception block and a lobby bar. Production from scratch and assembly took nine months.

Igora. Vremena Goda (“The Four Seasons”) hotel
Copyright: Photo © Dmitry Chebanenko / provided by ArchiWOOD


Public facilities / popular vote

Forest club “Tern” (“Blackthorn”)
“Tern” Architectural and Production Studio 
Vladimir Lazbinov, Lyudmila Lazbinova

 
“Tern” is a venue for weddings, corporate parties with karaoke and parties with DJs, located on a forest glade. Half-timbered constructions are quite popular in this typology, but the architects managed to achieve a certain degree of elegance, at the same time creating an atmosphere of an open air event under the roof: from the pavilion and gazebo you can perfectly see the surrounding forest, which has become part of the “decor”. In the evenings, the green “wall” is spectacularly illuminated and adds to the festive mood. The bridge and terrace connect the pavilions and the bathrooms into a single “island” complex named “Winterfell” (sic!) for staff and “Portal” for guests.

zooming
TERN forest club
Copyright: Photo © Aleksey Martynyuk / provided by ArchiWOOD


Other shortlisted projects in the Public Facilities category:
 
Skolkovo Fitness Club, A-Structura, Anna Ulyanova
Book Alleys, spirin architects, Evgeny Spirin, Ekaterina Argutina
Nomad Houses, ZROBIM architects
Botanical greenhouses on the territory of the Arkhangelskoye Estate Museum, Wowhaus

Urban Design / Jury

The nomination boasts the most representative shortlist this year. The projects are really spectacular and diverse: from an impressive park in Nizhny Novgorod to “pinpoint interventions” by Basis architectural studio. For some reason, two expo projects were also included.

Improvement of the historical center of Nikolo-Berezovka village
ANO Institute for the Development of Towns and Villages of Bashkortostan,
Novaya Zemlya LLC,
APRELarchitects,
Project Office LLC
Olga Sarapulova, Almaz Fatkullin, Alexandra Katasonova, Daria Efremova, Grigory Solomin, Almira Gaimaletdinova, Andrey Manakin, Alexander Dvuzhilov, Zhanna Sverchkova, Natalia Bavykina, Galina Volzhanskaya, Veronika Babenko, Olga Razumovskaya, Nikita Belyakov


The jury’s selection of the Nikolo-Berezovka improvement is interesting in terms of working with the lost heritage. Using wooden planks and a simple pavilion, the architects of the APRELarchitects and Novaya Zemlya consortium outline the dimensions of the barn, of which only a fragment of the wall remains. The ruin is accentuated in this way, and without violating the authenticity of the matter and the idea, a new functionality appears: the pavilion has a café, a toilet and shopping stalls. The wood of which the garden structures and decks are made has become the main material uniting the historical buildings strung along the Big Merchant Street, the main promenade of the village. The beauty of the pond near St. Nicholas Church was emphasized by a spectacular yet tasteful round bridge.

Improvement of the historical center of Nikolo-Berezovka village
Copyright: Photo © Institute of Urban Development of Bashkortostan / provided by ArchiWOOD


Urban Design / popular vote

Pavilions in Izumrudny Park
MDVAstudio
Dmitry Indyukov, Maxim Maksimenko, Evgeny Makarenko, Olesya Petukhova, Yulia Titova


The people’s choice, probably, reflects people’s fatigue from the mass improvement of recent years, made in the all-too familiar “stylish, fashionable, youthful” spirit. In Barnaul’s Izumrudny Park, however, the approach is almost the opposite: the new objects remind of dance floors, popsicles and schoolgirls in starched aprons, but look surprisingly charming and fresh. Although they noticeably echo, in color and lattice, the objects of the Switzerland Park in Nizhny Novgorod, designed by KOSMOS.

Pavilions in the Izumrudny City Park
Copyright: Photo © Dmitry Indyukov / provided by ArchiWOOD


Other shortlisted projects in the Urban Design category:

Exposition “Rays”, Vlad Savinkin
Central Park of Culture and Recreation in Istra, Basis architectural studio
Lipovaya Grove,
Basis architectural bureau
Territory of Arkhangelskoye Estate Museum, Wowhaus
Exhibition “Event Horizons”, Totan Kuzembaev architectural studio
Melnikoff/Melnikoff exhibition, Planet 9
Museum Quarter in Gorodets, Institute of Urban Environment Development of Nizhny Novgorod Region, Kurt studio
Park of the 800th Anniversary of Nizhny Novgorod, Institute of Urban Environment Development of Nizhny Novgorod Region, Arch Group

Small object / jury

Apex
Ad Hoc Architecture
Stanislav Subbotin, Daria Kirillova


The pavilion is installed at the beginning of the trail leading to the summit of the Northern Baseg, the highest point in the western Middle Urals. It provides the traveler with a place to rest and shelter from the rain, but it also sets the mood for the road and promises something special: not every trail gets such an expressive symbol. The outlines are reminiscent of ridges, and the boards have been artificially aged to better match the colors of the surroundings.

Improvement of the eco-path “To the top of the Northern Baseg”
Copyright: Photograph © Ad Hoc Architecture


Small object / popular vote

Pedestrian bridge over the Kazanka River
M2M3 architectural studio
Eduard Gubeev, Marsel Kayumov, Tansylu Khakimova (M2M3 architectural studio). Curator: Institute of Urban Development of the Republic of Tatarstan


The choice of the people is again great and seems more justified than that of the jury. The wooden bridge over the Kazanka River in Arsk restores the 19th century crossing and revitalizes the peripheral district. The structures are fascinating: the supports simultaneously resemble fragments of national ornaments and tree trunks.

Pedestrian bridge over the Kazanka River
Copyright: Photograph © Daniil Shvedov / предоставлена ArchiWOOD


Other shortlisted projects in the Small object category:
 
Tree House, ProstoDom
Besedki-Snopy, TM Design Studio
Radiant pavilion, Architectural studio LATOON
 
***

The Restoration nomination was not originally present  in the ArchiWOOD awards, and it is certainly different from all the others, as it is not dedicated to modern architecture and design, but to working with architectural heritage, which, as you know, is, firstly, poorly financed and therefore goes by the wayside, and if it is well financed, it often bears some poisonous fruit. Secondly, it requires not so much creative impulse and artistic freedom, but rather research, meticulousness, careful attitude to authenticity – completely different qualities.

Since it has been introduced, the nomination adorns the prize, but its life is complicated, just like the life of good restorers: the works are difficult to collect, and they must be judged according to different criteria.
 
In short, this year, based on the specifics of the material, the expert council of the prize decided to rename the nomination, expanding its genre boundaries – both reconstruction and recreation were added here. So they won: one reconstruction with adaptation and one recreation.
 
We cannot entirely rule out the possibility that next year “pure” restoration will be brought back – again based on the specifics of the material.

Restoration, reconstruction and re-creation / jury

Renovation of public buildings in Ferapontovo
APRELarchitects
Mikhail Razumovsky, Alexey Fatkin, Galina Volzhanskaya, Veronika Babenko, Anastasia Markina


Another work by APRELarchitects, made for an incredibly obliging location – the Ferapontov Monastery, which can be safely classified as one of those sights worth seeing at least once in your life. The village near the monastery somewhat smeared the impression of the harmony of the place, but now the environment is more integral: with the help of wooden lattice elements, the architects transform the main square into a unified ensemble. The landscaping is delicate and practical – the services it provides are important for both tourists and locals, who have an additional opportunity to earn a living and enjoy their leisure time here.

Renovation of public buildings in Ferapontovo
Copyright: Photo © APRELarchitects / provided by ArchiWOOD


Restoration, reconstruction and re-creation / popular vote

Saltykova House
VAIMA
Anton Myakishev, Evgeny Rakov (on-site work)


The “People” voted in favor of recreating the late 18th century Saltykova’s house, which burned down by vandals, located on the territory of the Shchelkovsky Khutor Museum of Wooden Architecture. The Vaima specialists used nails, hand-forged fittings, and hand planers for the complex profiles of the elements.

Saltykova House
Copyright: Photo © Anton Myakishev / provided by ArchiWOOD


Other shortlisted projects in the Restoration category:

Dome of Levashov bakery, Rus Corporation commissioned by RBI Group
Zavarka Museum and Gallery, All-Russian society for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments, Vega Group Region, Khramov Architectural Studio
Residential house of the 1880s on Volodarskogo Street, Architectural Restoration Workshop-10
Residential house of the early twentieth century on 64 Sedov Street, Architectural Restoration Workshop-10
Early 20th century manor house on Rabochego Shtaba Street, 4, Architectural Restoration Workshop-10

Wood in decoration / jury

Observation tower in Svyastroy
NTML Architects
Authors: Nikita Timonin, Maria Lyashko


Wood in decoration / popular vote

Administrative building on Novaya Naberezhnaya
Project Proposals Division of the Urban Design Department of the Architecture Committee of the Saratov City Municipal Administration.
Authors: Project Proposals Department of the Urban Design Department of the Committee for Architecture of the Administration of the Municipal Entity “Saratov City” (concept stage). MKU “Capital Construction” (project stage)


Sosnovy Bor Park in the town of Svyastroy
Copyright: Photo © Leningrad Region Competence Center / provided by NTML architects


Other shortlisted projects in the Wood in Decoration category:

Modernist villas near Nizhny Tagil, architectural company Gordeev-Demidov

Interior / jury

School in the Evrobereg district
SVESMI, Brusnika, Novascape

Administrative building on Novaya Naberezhnaya
Copyright: Photo © Dmitry Shvedov / provided by ArchiWOOD


Quite a famous school, designed in the spirit of modern trends, defined by everyone’s fatigue of the recently-popular garish design, as well as by attention to public spaces, where children communicate and socialize in an environment close to the natural one. The various features of the school building, such as the brick facade with stair towers at the corners, exposed concrete, and flowing light spaces, are subtly complemented by wood, one of the natural materials used here in the interior. The wooden beams of the atrium’s glass ceiling are a highlight. 

Interior / popular vote 
 
Wine bar
Daria Volkova Design
Author: Daria Volkova


Other shortlisted projects in the Interior category:

A house for granddaughter, ADK-studio
Capsule sleeping rooms for a children’s camp, Mera Makers
Interior of a children’s room, Alexey Rosenberg’s studio
Be.St.Be Smart House, PROEKTOR
Seven Stars Kindergarten, Unison Design Studio
Ryotei Restaurant in the Japanese Garden, RYMAR.studio

Object Design / Jury and the popular vote

The series “Ostov” (“Island”)
NODE, Alexander Frucht, Nikolay Bugrov

The school in “Evrobereg” district
Copyright: Photograph © Dmitry Chebanenko / provided by Brusnika


Other shortlisted projects in the Object Design category:

Tatami-Chair-Tatami, Ekaterina Solovieva
REBBIT table lamp, MDM-Light
Closet-bar, architectural studio LATOON
Hangers, Institute of Business and Design, Architectural Environment and Design Profile

Art object / jury

Antifurniture
Treivas
Authors: Olga Treivas, Fedor Pavlov-Andreevich, Elena Kornilova, Maya Rozhnovskaya, Lisa Narutskaya, Elena Kovalenko


Wine bar
Copyright: Photo © Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / provided by ArchiWOOD


Art object / popular vote

Pasture
std group, Vladimir Grishin, Nikolay Gedevanishvili, Gor Hovsepyan, Ahmed Omarov, Ani Khachaturyan

The “Island” series from NODE
Copyright: Photo © NODE / provided by ArchiWOOD


Other shortlisted projects in the Art Object category:

The Gap – burning the fourth wall, NOYD
Cabin #29: Zavolzhsky Man camp site (homo flumen), TM Design Studio
Near and Far, 0806.studio
New Year’s tree, Institute of Business and Design,Vlad Savinkin.
Arctic Meadow, Chekharda, architects of Artemy Lebedev Studio
Archive, DoBuro
Ray, Inna Vlasova, Natalia Sorokina, Maria Bartel, Victoria Guskova
Fortress, VOSEM (“EIGHT”) Crew
Anti-furniture
Copyright: Photo by Dmitry Markin, Filipe Conde, Elissa Thiele / provided by Treivas
  • zooming
    Pasture
    Copyright: Photo © Nikolai Gedevanishvili / provided by ArchiWOOD
  • zooming
    Pasture
    Copyright: Photo © Nikolai Gedevanishvili / provided by ArchiWOOD


15 September 2023

Alyona Kuznetsova

Written by:

Alyona Kuznetsova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov
Headlines now
Our Everything
Who is Alexey Shchusev? In the last couple of weeks, since the architect’s 150th birthday, different individuals have answered this question differently. The most detailed, illustrated, and elegantly presented response is an exhibition held in two buildings of the Museum of Architecture on Vozdvizhenka. Four curators, a year and a half of work performed by the entire museum, and exhibition design by Sergey Tchoban and Alexandra Sheiner – in this article, we take you on a tour of the exhibition and show what’s what in it.
Gold Embroidery
A five-story housing complex designed by Stepan Liphart in Kazan, responds to the stylistically diverse context with its form, both integral and agile, and as for the vicinity of the “Ekiyat” movie theater, the complex responds to it with a semblance of theater curtain folds, and active plastique of its balconies, that bear some resemblance to theater boxes. Even if excessively pompous a little bit, the complex does look fresh and modern. One will have a hard time finding Art Deco elements in it, even though the spirit of the 1930s, run through the filter of neo-modernism, is still clearly felt, just as a twist of the Occident.
Reconciliation
The restoration of the Salt Warehouse for the Zvenigorod Museum, on the one hand, was quite accurately implemented according to the design of the People’s Architect, and, on the other hand, it was not without some extra research and adjustments, which, in this case, was quite beneficial for the project. The architects discovered the original paint color, details of the facades, and studied the history of rebuilds of this building. As a result, the imposing character of the empire building, the oldest one in the city, and the differences of later additions were accurately revealed. Most importantly, however, the city got a new cultural and public space, which is already “working” in full swing.
From Moscow to Khabarovsk
This year, the works submitted by the students of the Genplan Institute of Moscow included a proposal for revitalizing Moscow’s “Pravda” complex with its structures designed by Ilia Golosov, landscaping an East Siberian town, located a 12-hour drive away from the nearest big city, and three versions of turning a derelict “pioneer camp” into an educational hub, similar to “Sirius”. Two sites out of three have an interested client, so chances are that the students’ works will be ultimately implemented.
Harmonization of Intentions
We met and talked with the chief architect of Genplan Institute of Moscow Grigory Mustafin and the chief architect of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Maxim Efanov – about how the master plan of the city is formed. The key to success: gathering data, digital simulation, working with the city people, thinking infrastructure, and presentation.
​Cité for Naro-Fominsk
The new neighborhood on an island in the center of Naro-Fominsk continues the ideas of developing the territory of the silk-weaving factory, around which the city actually formed. The authors skillfully mix different formats of mid-rise development and make the most of the island location, offering a variety of formats of interaction with water, available to all citizens. No wonder that the project is considered exemplary and worthy of duplication in the region. It is also an example of rare synergy between the client and the architects.
A Tower and a Manor House
The concept of a high-density residential district replacing a set of outdated privately owned houses in Yekaterinburg preserves the street grid and, in some cases, even the scale of construction. OSA Architects combine towers with townhouses and other types of housing, orienting the silhouette composition towards a pedestrian boulevard. Through non-linear routes and spatial diversity, the residents will see their neighborhood in a new way every day.
​The Warm Stone
The housing complex in Zelenogorsk is interpreted by Mayak architects as a scatter of stones. The unconventional outline of houses with a pentagon plan not only helped to form the image part of the project, but also facilitated the architects’ work with the density of construction and insolation of the apartments.
For All Times
The modular technology combined with the building material of glued wood allows the architectural company Rhizome to create quick-mount hotels (no less!) that are highly rated by the architectural community: last week, the new hotel “Vremena Goda. Igora” scored three awards. Below, we are examining the project in detail.
The Other Way Around
Few awards instead of many, the award ceremony conducted on the first day instead of last, projections instead of sketch boards, trees inside and art objects outside – the renewal of the Architecton festival seemingly took the sure-fire path of turning all the professional traditions upside down – or at least those that happened to be within the scope of the organizers’ attention. There’s certainly a lot to pick on, but the exhibition does feel fresh and improvisational. It looks that pretty soon these guys will set trends for Moscow as well. We shared with you about some elements of the festival in our Telegram channel, and now we are examining the whole thing.
ArchiWOOD-14: Building Bridges
This season, the festival’s jury decided not to award a grand prize: judging by the fact that the shortlist included several projects that had not reached the award in previous years, and the “best house” was pronounced to be an undoubtedly beautiful but mass-produced model, the “harvest” of wooden buildings in 2023 was not too abundant. However, there were many unusual typologies among the finalists, and restoration and revitalization projects received their share of recognition. Let’s take a look at all the finalists.
The Chinese Symphony
The construction of the Chinese center “Huaming Park” has been a long story that came to fruition relatively recently. The building is adjacent to a traditional Chinese garden, but it is very modern, laconic and technological, and the simple-in-form, yet spectacular, white lamellae promise to someday be incorporated as a media facade. This complex is also truly multifunctional: it contains different types of living spaces, offices, a large fitness center, conference halls and restaurants – all wrapped in one volume. You can comfortably hold international forums in it, having everything you may possibly need at your fingertips, and going outside only to take a walk. In this article, we are examining this complex in detail.
Ensemble of Individualities
Construction of the first phase of the INDY Towers multifunctional complex on Kuusinen Street, designed by Ostozhenka, has started. The project opens new angles of similarity between the column and the skyscraper, and we examine the nuances and parallels.
Black and Red
Kazakov Grand Loft received its name for a reason: responding to the client’s brief and proceeding from the historical industrial architecture of its immediate surroundings, Valery Kanyashin and Ostozhenka architects proposed a new version of a modern house designed in the fashionable “loft” style. What makes this building different is the fact that the bricks here are dark gray, and the facades of the romantic “fortress” towers blossom with magnificent glazing of the windows in the upper part. The main highlight of the complex, however, is the multiple open air terraces situated on different levels.
Icy Hospitality
Mezonproject has won the national architectural and town planning competition for designing a hotel and a water recreation center in the city of Irkutsk. The architects chose hummocks of Baikal ice as a visual image.
The Mastery of Counterpoint
In the sculpture of Classical Greece, counterpoint was first invented: the ability to position the human body as if it were about to take a step, imbuing it with a hint of the energy of future movement, and with hidden dynamics. For architecture, especially in the 20th century and now, this is also one of the main techniques, and the ATRIUM architects implement it diligently, consistently – and always slightly differently. The new residential complex “Richard” is a good example of such exploration, based on the understanding of contrasts in the urban environment, which was fused into the semblance of a living being.
Countryside Avant-Garde
The project of the museum of Aleksey Gastev, the ideologist of scientific organization of work, located in his hometown of Suzdal, is inscribed in multiple contexts: the contest of a small town, the context of avant-garde design, the context of “lean production”, and the context of the creative quest of Nikolai Lyzlov’s minimalist architecture – and it seems to us that this project even reveals a distant memory of the fact that Aleksey Gastev learned his craft in France.
On the Hills
In the project by Studio 44, the “distributed” IT campus of Nizhny Novgorod is based on well-balanced contracts. Sometimes it is hovering, sometimes undulating, sometimes towering over a rock. For every task, the architects found appropriate form and logic: the hotels are based on a square module, the academic buildings are based on a “flying” one, and so on. Modernist prototypes, specifically, Convent Sainte-Marie de La Tourette, stand next to references to the antique Forum and the tower of a medieval university – as well as next to contextual allusions that help inscribe the buildings of the future campus into the landscape of the city hills with their dominants, high slopes, breathtaking river views, the historical city center, and the Nizhny Novgorod University.
The Magic Carpet
The anniversary exhibition of Totan Kuzembaev’s drawings named “Event Horizons” shows both very old drawings made by the architect in the formative 1980’s, and now extracted from the Museum of Architecture, as well as quite a few pictures from the “Weightlessness” series that Totan Kuzembaev drew specifically for this exhibition in 2023. It seemed to us that the architect represented reality from the point of view of someone levitating in space, and sometimes even upside down, like a magic carpet with multiple layers.
​A Copper Step
Block 5, designed by ASADOV architects as part of the “Ostrov” (“Island”) housing complex, is at the same time grand-scale, conspicuous thanks to its central location – and contextual. It does not “outshout” the solutions used in the neighboring buildings, but rather gives a very balanced implementation of the design code: combining brick and metal in light and dark shades and large copper surfaces, orthogonal geometry on the outside and flexible lines in the courtyard.
The Light for the Island
For the first time around, we are examining a lighting project designed for a housing complex; but then again, the authors of the nighttime lighting of the Ostrov housing complex, UNK lighting, proudly admit that this project is not just the largest in their portfolio, but also the largest in this country. They describe their approach as a European one, its chief principles being smoothness of transitions, comfort to the eye, and the concentration of most of the light at the “bottom” level – meaning, it “works” first of all for pedestrians.
Spots of Light
A new housing complex in Tyumen designed by Aukett Swanke is a very eye-pleasing example of mid-rise construction: using simple means of architectural expression, such as stucco, pitched roofs, and height changes, the architects achieve a “human-friendly” environment, which becomes a significant addition to the nearby park and forest.
Ledges and Swirls
The housing complex “Novaya Zarya” (“New Dawn”) designed by ASADOV Architects will become one of the examples of integrated land development in Vladivostok. The residential area will be characterized by various typologies of its housing sections, and a multitude of functions – in addition to the social infrastructure, the complex will include pedestrian promenades, shopping malls, office buildings, and recreational facilities. The complex is “inscribed” in a relief with a whopping 40-meter height difference, and overlooks the Amur Bay.
Agglomeration on an Island
Recently, an approval came for the master plan of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk agglomeration, which was developed by a consortium headed by the Genplan Institute of Moscow. The document provides for the creation of 12 clusters, the totality of which will give the region a qualitative leap in development and make the island more self-sufficient, more accessible, and less dependent on the mainland. We are inviting you to examine the details.
Ivan Grekov: “A client that wants to make a building that is “about architecture” is...
In this article, we are talking to Ivan Grekov, the leader of the architectural company KAMEN (translates as “stone”), the author of many high-profile projects that have been built in Moscow in the recent years, about the history of his company, about different approaches to form making, about different meanings of volume and facade, and about “layers” in working with the environment – at the example of two projects by Osnova Group. These are the MIRAPOLIS complex on the Mira Avenue in Rostokino, whose construction began at the end of last year, and the multifunctional complex in the 2nd Silikatny Proezd on the Zvenigorodsky Highway; recently, it received all the required approvals.
Grasping and Formulating
The special project “Tezisy” (“Abstracts”), showcased at Arch Moscow exhibition in Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor, brought together eight young “rock stars of architecture”, the headliner being Vladislav Kirpichev, founder of the EDAS school. In this article, we share our impressions of the installations and the perspectives of the new generation of architects.
The White Tulip
Currently, there are two relevant projects for the Great Cathedral Mosque in Kazan, which was transferred to a land site in Admiralteiskaya Sloboda in February. One of them, designed by TsLP, was recently showcased at Arch Moscow. In this article, we are covering another project, which was proposed during the same period for the same land site. Its author is Aleksey Ginzburg, the winner of the 2022 competition, but now the project is completely different. Today, it is a sculptural “flower” dome symbolizing a white tulip.
ATRIUM’s Metaverse
The architectural company ATRIUM opened a gallery of its own in a metaverse. Inside, one can examine the company’s approach and main achievements, as well as get some emotional experience. The gallery is already hosting cyberspace business meetings and corporate events.
​From Darkness to Light
Responding to a lengthy list of limitations and a lengthy – by the standards of a small building – list of functions, Vladimir Plotkin turned the project of the Novodevichy Monastery into a light, yet dynamic statement of modern interpretation of historical context, or, perhaps, even interpretation of light and darkness.