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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.

05 June 2024
Interview
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Archi.ru:
Why is your company called CNTR Architects?

Andrey Chuikov:
In 2011, I founded the company that was called LABAR (Laboratory of Architectural Research) and invited long-time friends Yevgeny Sitnikov and Alexandra Boldyreva to join as partners. Alexandra was instrumental in bringing parametric design to Russia as part of “Branching Point”, along with Eduard Haiman, Philipp Katz, Maxim Malinin, and Daniyar Yusupov. However, our joint activities did not develop further, and life took us in different directions: Alexandra has been living in Greece for a long time, Yevgeny moved to Turkmenistan, and then to St. Petersburg.

The name remained until 2017, when we realized that we needed to change our approach. Through reflection, we came to understand that we always start by placing something or someone at the center – whether it’s the client, the employee, or the task. This led to a kind of slogan “Welcome to the Center of Attention”, and then the name of “Center”, which we introduced to the market in 2018. To honor our brand aesthetics, we removed the vowels, ending up with CNTR.

Over the 13 years of its existence, your company has completed more than 300 projects. How did the transition from interiors to master plans occur?

Originally, it was all about architecture – private houses, small commercial projects and concepts. The interior design direction only became an independent branch in 2014. In the first two years, we collaborated with other companies and worked for other Yekaterinburg companies, engaged in competitions, and took on private residential orders. Then we began to take on large commercial projects of various formats.

“Bread and Salt” gastronomic center
Copyright: © Image courtesy by CNTR Architects


Before 2015, CNTR did not perform the functions of a general contractor and did not handle all phases of documentation development. After Timur Abdullaev became the chief architect of Yekaterinburg, the demand for the quality of façade solutions significantly increased. This allowed us to unlock the accumulated potential of the company. Within a year, we were able to release several expertise projects and move into the multi-apartment housing sector in the capacity of the general contractor.

Residential complex in Istoksky district, Yekaterinburg
Copyright: © Image courtesy by CNTR Architects


Since 2017, we have been moving away from a “manual” approach toward systematization, which was partly due to my education: at that time, I was getting additional education in business and financial management. The company developed a vertical management chain, functional division, elements of internal standardization, and budget management. The transformation was fully completed by 2020, and we lost part of our team along the way: not everyone was ready to transition from a laid-back “bohemian” atmosphere to a classic management system. Currently, we have 45 employees working for our company.

Can we say that your company has its own specialization?

Our approach is based on versatility. Initially, we worked a lot with private houses, which gave us flexible thinking and experience in selecting unique solutions: a single-story private residence often exceeds a multi-family complex in terms of complexity. Then we moved into housing and master planning of areas ranging from several dozen to hundreds of hectares. One such large-scale project is the “Mahachon Valley” in Kazan. But at the same time, we always work on other projects – headquarters and medical facilities, HoReCa, reconstruction, IT parks.

Development concept for the “Mahachon Valley” area in Kazan
Copyright: © Image courtesy by CNTR Architects


Dental clinic in Yekaterinburg
Copyright: © Image courtesy by CNTR Architects


In the Ural and Siberian Federal Districts, competition has reached a very high level – there’s OSA, Brusnika with its guest star foreign architects, and Moscow and St. Petersburg designers are coming to design in your region. What can you offer in return?

The identity of our approach. We have a set of principles, the main ones being equality within the company and in working with the client, as well as balancing different components: analytical data, the needs of the client and the end user, economics, and our architectural vision.

The optimum balance is achieved through economics. Understanding the financial model that the developer uses allows us to speak their language and justify the need for certain environmental improvements through consumer properties, sales speed, and added value.

Additionally, we are meticulous: we delve into all the details, thinking through aspects that the client might not consider or simply overlook at the current stage of design, but which shape the environment and the architectural image of the project. All my “thoroughness” has turned into an internal standard of the final product, which is now evolving with the entire company team.

“Grand Quarter” residential complex in Tyumen
Copyright: © Image courtesy by CNTR Architects


Does such “effective management” leave any room for the creative aspect of the profession?

The way I see it, pure creativity may only exist in painting, but even there, there’s a side to it. Creativity becomes more interesting when we work with material physics, economics, marketing, sociology, and ecology. Constraints force us to expand our toolkit.

From an aesthetic standpoint, it helps to understand what is good and bad. I act as the aesthetic “filter” in the team: I participate in discussions and help the team in product development, understanding the client's thinking and goals. When the client is open to us, it allows us to understand their true objectives, and through them, we can find a crucial element for visual art.

Cultural Center "Books, Coffee and Other Dimensions"
Copyright: © Image courtesy by CNTR Architects


CNTR is listed among the top ten young architectural companies in Russia according to Afisha Daily. How do you feel about this status? (Can a company with such tremendous experience still considered young?)

Being included in this list is flattering in terms of recognizing our fresh perspective and trendiness; at the same time, these two qualities have been honed through trial and error. I believe we are in a stage of maturity: we have formulated principles, achieved systematization, and replaced spontaneous creativity with an understanding of real tasks – the infantile worldview of “I am an architect, I see it this way” is no longer applicable to us.

Can you tell us about the use of GIS data analysis in your practice?

In our work, GIS data is Big Data that we most often use when designing master plans and commercial projects. These data help us make decisions regarding functions, content, accessibility, the purchasing power of the target audience, and dozens of other parameters.

We use parametric design tools to analyze GIS data, generate information related to pedestrian flows, aeration of the area, and light exposure calculations.

“Grand Quarter” residential complex in Tyumen
Copyright: © Image courtesy by CNTR Architects


Do you have projects involving neural networks? What is your general attitude towards this tool?

We actively use neural networks at intermediate stages when we need to illustrate a particular solution in a way that is convenient for the client. This significantly speeds up the work. Instead of spending two to three hours building a model, we create an image in 10 minutes, and then show it to the client – is this okay? Okay! Then we move on to the next stage of more detailed development.

Another example is the design code for the interiors of public areas in residential complexes in the “Akademichesky” district for the Kortros company. We proposed placing paintings in common areas and “commissioned” them from a neural network, thereby eliminating the artist-client chain, reducing additional communications, time, and production costs. At the same time, we achieved the preservation of the concept’s integrity.

MOP collection for the Akademichesky district residential complex in Yekaterinburg
Copyright: © Image courtesy by CNTR Architects


Which CNTR projects do you consider the most important milestones for you?

Among the completed projects, the most important remains the bookstore in Verkhnyaya Pyshma and the full-scale residential district “Grand Quarter” in Tyumen. They embody our main principles. There are several important projects that did not come to fruition due to the crises of 2014-2017 and the subsequent ones.

Cultural Center "Books, Coffee and Other Dimensions"
Copyright: © Image courtesy by CNTR Architects


“Grand Quarter” residential complex in Tyumen
Copyright: © Image courtesy by CNTR Architects


Currently, we have a large volume of housing under construction in Yekaterinburg and Tyumen. We work with various regions of Russia: Moscow, Kazan, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Perm, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, KhMAO, and YaNAO. We also have several international projects: we designed residential development for Greece and developed a water park concept for the USA.

05 June 2024

Headlines now
​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.
Birds and Streams
For the competition to design the Omsk airport, DNK ag formed a consortium, inviting VOX architects and Sila Sveta. Their project focuses on intersections, journeys, and flights – both of people and birds – as Omsk is known as a “transfer point” for bird migrations. The educational component is also carefully considered, and the building itself is filled with light, which seems to deconstruct the copper circle of the central entrance portal, spreading it into fantastic hyper-spatial “slices”.