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?
Written by: Julia Tarabarina Translated by: Anton Mizonov
03 July 2024
In 2024, as promised, 12 prizes of one million rubles each (approx. $11 370) were awarded, although in 11 categories. There were 12 architects and 25 projects. Out of 178 submissions, 48 projects made it to the finals, and thus, every fourth project selected by the experts was awarded.
The awards were personally presented yesterday by Mayor Sergey Sobyanin.
In the high-rise residential buildings category, where 14 projects competed, the winner was the residential complex on 3rd Setunsky Drive, designed by KAMEN Architects and Ivan Grekov. The list of competing projects included three from SPEECH, three from Kleinewelt Architekten, three from KAMEN, and one each from Tsimailo Lyashenko Partners, Apex, ADM, Pride, and GAFA.
In the category for non-high-rise multi-apartment buildings, the victory was eon by the buildings of the Shagal residential complex designed by Wall. There were five projects competing in this category, which is three times fewer than in the high-rise category, indicating something about the standards here. The contenders included the UNK house in Rublevo-Arkhangelskoye by Sberbank, GAFA houses on Elektrozavodskaya Street, the ATRIUM complex on Preobrazhenskaya Square, and the club mansions “Bolshaya Dmitrovka-IX” designed by Tsimailo Lyashenko Partners, which were put into operation in the first quarter of this year and seem to have received little attention in the professional press.
In the “Museums” category, the award went to the Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Monastery, designed by Vladimir Plotkin and Reserve Union. This is an interesting project, featuring modern architecture for church history. Unfortunately, it stands alone in its category, as there were no other competitors. Apparently, other Moscow museums did not receive their Architectural and Urban Planning Permits this year, which, as we know, is a prerequisite for participation in the city’s architectural award.
Museum of the History of the Novodevichy Convent / Branch of the State History Museum
However, the museum is not the only “lone” example: the only project in the “administrative management and industrial facilities” category was the beautiful Technopark by Amir Idiatulin on Skladocnaya Street. It will be very interesting to see its realization.
And the third “lone” awardee is the pedestrian and bicycle bridge at the new Bauman Moscow State Technical University’s dormitory on the Yauza River in the “Transportation” category. The authors are “Podzemproekt”, but it is being implemented, and rapidly, in the context of the new campus project designed by Sergey Kuznetsov and PRIDE Union.
Bicycle pedestrian bridge as part of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University development
On the other hand, the “Nagatinsky Zaton” station, with its mosaic fish and hidden Komsomol badges among their scales, opened at the beginning of 2023.
Clearly, the award structure, especially after the increase in the number of awards, is calling for some “shrinkage and adjustment”: high-rises are crowded among fourteen competitors, while technology parks, museums, and bridges have more than enough space... Perhaps the award needs a new, creative look at the list of categories? For example, a single category for renovation projects, as it’s difficult for them to compete, and the rest could be chosen en masse, without focusing on the typology specifics?
This is an unsolicited piece of advice.
The category for commercial and office buildings, on the other hand, is flourishing almost as much as the high-rises; it included 10 projects from 10 architectural companies: Genpro, Apex, Wall, IND, Gorproekt, Kleinewelt, KAMEN, AM Alexei Ilyin, and AI-Architects by Ivan Kolmanok – who won with the Matveevsky shopping center project on Ochakovskoye Highway.
However, once again, it brings us to the discussion about the categories: why combine offices and commerce, when there are 12 awards from the mayor, not 11? One seems to have been kept as a reservation for those who design offices?
Among the 5 schools and 3 kindergartens, the winners were the projects by R1 and Mosproekt-4 respectively, the latter attracting attention with its curious plasticity of the curved facade, lacking the opportunity to assess its ergonomic design.
In the sports and recreation centers category, two projects competed, with the company with the mysterious name of “1.618” winning for their project on Selskokhozyaystvennaya Street. In the category for renovation housing, the winner was Dars-Renovation.
Sports and recreation center on Selskogorozhoditelnaya Street
Continuing with my pedantic advice to the esteemed award, I’ll add just one more thing. Architects highly respect it for its high status as an award by the Mayor of Moscow, and maybe also because it comes with a cash prize, although the amount is not particularly large: for a major architectural company designing in the nation’s capital, it is, frankly, insignificant. If journalists were given a million rubles, it would be really noticeable for the laureates. Nonetheless, the award is highly respected.
Nevertheless, there are a few points to consider. One is the strange combination of categories. The organizers, like little Gerda, can’t seem to piece together a logical puzzle, and now they have the added challenge of an increased number of awards. The second point, often emphasized by Anna Martovitskaya, is the inclusion of completed buildings among the projects; it makes for an uneven competition, though there is an explanation – sometimes projects receive (and even re-receive!) their Architectural and Urban Planning permits during construction, and sometimes even after completion. In other words, the award awkwardly exposes the nuances of obtaining approvals, adding more complexity to the puzzle. It is thus limited by typology, formal project names, and formal permits. But it’s an architectural award – aren’t there too many formalities? Could it be organized more dynamically and in a less formal way?
Lastly, I think this award could very well afford to publish the projects more fully on its website. What’s with these three blurry images where the captions aren’t even legible? You are an award organized by Moskomarkhitektura, you have all the data, including the Architectural and Urban Planning Permit albums (sic!), which usually present projects very comprehensively and in increasingly detailed ways in recent years – why, oh why can’t the projects be shown in proper quality and representation? This would have been so good!
The award ceremony was held for the second time, following tradition, with a gathering of the architectural community in the courtyard of the Museum of Architecture last evening.
Daring Brilliance
In this article, we are exploring “New Vision”, the first school built in the past 25 years in Moscow’s Khamovniki. The building has three main features: it is designed in accordance with the universal principles of modern education, fostering learning through interaction and more; second, the façades combine structural molded glass and metallic glazed ceramics – expensive and technologically advanced materials. Third, this is the school of Garden Quarters, the latest addition to Moscow’s iconic Khamovniki district. Both a costly and, in its way, audacious acquisition, it carries a youthful boldness in its statement. Let’s explore how the school is designed and where the contrasts lie.
A Twist of the Core
A clever and concise sculptural solution – rotating each floor by N degrees – has created an ensemble of “dancing” towers: similar yet different, simple yet complex. The designers meticulously refined a single structural node and spent considerable effort on the column construction – after that, “everything else was easy”. The architects also rotated the core walls on each floor to maximize the efficiency of the office spaces.
The Sculpting of Spring Forest Matter
We’ve been observing this building for a couple of years now: seemingly simple, perhaps even unassuming, it fits in remarkably well with the micro-district context shaped by the Moscow MCD road junctions. This building sticks in the memory of everyone who drives along the highway, even occasionally. In our opinion, Sergey Nikeshkin, by blending popular architectural techniques and approaches of the 2010s, managed to turn a seemingly simple structure into a statement “on the theme of a house as such”. Let’s figure out how this happened.
Water and Wind Whet the Stone
The Arisha Terraces residential complex, designed by Asadov Architects, will be built in a district of Dubai dedicated to film and television production. To create shaded spaces and an intriguing silhouette, the architects opted for a funnel-shaped composition and nature-inspired forms of erosion and weathering. The roofs, podium, and underground spaces extend leisure opportunities within the boundaries of a man-made “oasis”.
Elevation 5642
The Genplan Institute of Moscow has developed a comprehensive development project for three ski resorts in the Caucasus, which have been designated as special economic zones of the tourism and recreation type. The first of these zones is Elbrus. The project includes the construction of new ski runs, cable cars, and hotels, as well as the modernization of stations and improvements to the Azau tourist meadow. To expand the audience and enhance year-round appeal, a network of eco-trails is also being developed. In this article, we provide a detailed breakdown of each stage.
The IT Town
Taking the example of the first completed phase of the “U” district, we examine how the new neighborhood in Innopolis will be organized. T+T Architects and HADAA formed a well-balanced and ingenious master plan with different types of housing, a green artery, a system of squares, and a park in the town’s central part.
The Heart Lies Within
The second-phase building of the Evgeny Primakov School already won multiple awards while still in the design stage. Now that it’s completed, some unfinished nuances remain – most notably, the exposed ceiling structures, which ideally should have been concealed. However, given the priority placed on the building’s volumetric composition, this does not seem critical. What matters more is the “Wow!” effect created by the space itself.
Magnetic Forces
“Krylatskaya 33” is the first large-scale residential complex to appear amidst the 1980s “micro-districts” that harmoniously coexist with the forests, the river, the slopes, and the sports infrastructure. Despite its imposing scale, the architects of Ostozhenka managed to turn the complex into something that can be best described as a “graceful dominant”. First, they designed the complex with consideration for the style and height of the surrounding micro-districts. Second, by introducing a pause in its tallest section, they created compositional tension – right along the urban planning axis of the area.
Orion’s Belt
The Stone Khodynka 2 office complex, designed by Kleinewelt Architekten for the company Stone, is built with an ergonomic layout following “healthy building” principles: natural light, ventilation, and all the necessary features for an efficient office environment. On the outside, it resembles – like many contemporary buildings – an iPhone: sleek, glowing, glass-and-metal, edges elegantly rounded. Yet, it responds sensitively to the Khodynka context, where the main theme is the contrast between vertical and horizontal lines. The key intrigue lies in the design of the “stylobate” as a suspended passage, leaving the space beneath it open for free pedestrian movement.
Grigory Revzin: “It Was a Bold Statement Made on the Sly. Something Won”
In this article, we discuss the debates surrounding the circus competition and the demolition of the CMEA building with the most renowned architectural critic of our time. A paradox emerges in the process: while nostalgia for the Brezhnev era seems to be in vogue in Russia, a landmark building – the “axis” of the Warsaw Pact – has been sentenced to demolition. Isn’t that strange? We also find out that wow-architecture has made a comeback as a post-COVID trend. However, to make a truly powerful statement, professionals still remain indispensable.
Exposed Concrete
One of the stages of improving a small square in the town of Lermontov was the construction of a skatepark. Entrusting this part of the project to the XSA team, the city gained a 250-meter trick track whose features resemble those of land art objects – unparalleled in Russia in both scale and design. Here’s a look at how the experimental snake run in the foothills of the Caucasus was built.
One Step Closer To the Dream
The challenges of getting all the mandatory approvals, an insufficient budget, and construction site difficulties did not prevent ASADOV Bureau from achieving its main goal in the realization of the school project in the town of Troitsk – taking another step away from outdated notions of educational spaces toward creating a fundamentally new academic environment.
Chalet on the Rock
An Accor hotel in Arkhyz, designed by A.Len, will be situated at the gateway to the resort’s main tourist hubs. The architects reinterpreted the widely popular chalet style while adding an unexpected twist – an unfinished structure preserved on the site. The design team transformed this remnant into an exciting space featuring an open-air pool and a restaurant with panoramic views of the region’s highest mountain ridges.
Sergey Skuratov: “By and large, the project has been realized in line with the original ideas”
In this issue, we talk to the chief architect of Garden Quarters, looking back at the history and key moments of a project that took 18 years to develop and has now finally been completed. What interests us most are the transformations that the project underwent during construction, and the way the “necessary void” of public space was formed, which turned this remarkable complex into a fragment of a whole new type of urban fabric – not just at the horizontal “street” level but in its vertical structure as well.
A Unique Representative
The recently concluded year 2024 can be considered the year of completion for the “Garden Quarters” residential complex in Moscow’s Khamovniki. This project is well-known and, in many ways, iconic. Rarely does one manage to preserve such a number of original ideas, achieving in the end a kind of urban planning Gesamtkunstwerk. Here is a subjective view from an architecture journalist, with an interview with Sergey Skuratov soon to follow.
Field of Life
The new project by the architectural company PNKB (an acronym for “Design, Research, and Advisory Bureau”), led by Sergey Gnedovsky and Anton Lyubimkin, for the Kulikovo Field Museum is dedicated to the field as a concept in its own right. The field has long been a focus of the museum’s thorough and successful research. Accordingly, the exterior of the new museum building is gentler than that of its predecessor, which was also designed by PNKB and dedicated specifically to the historic battle. Inside, however, the building confidently guides the visitor from a luminous atrium along a spiral path to the field – interpreted here as a field of life.
A Paper Clip above the River
In this article, we talk with Vitaly Lutz from the Genplan Institute of Moscow about the design and unique features of the pedestrian bridge that now links the two banks of the Yauza River in the new cluster of Bauman Moscow State Technical University (MSTU). The bridge’s form and functionality – particularly the inclusion of an amphitheater suspended over the river – were conceived during the planning phase of the territory’s development. Typically, this approach is not standard practice, but the architects advocate for it, referring to this intermediate project phase as the “pre-AGR” stage (AGR stands for Architectural and Urban Planning Approval). Such a practice, they argue, helps define key parameters of future projects and bridge the gap between urban planning and architectural design.
Living in the Architecture of One’s Own Making
Do architects design houses for themselves? You bet! In this article, we are examining a new book by TATLIN publishing house. This book – unprecedented for Russia – features 52 private homes designed and built by contemporary architects for themselves. It includes houses that are famous, even iconic, as well as lesser-known ones; large and small, stylish and eccentric. To some extent, the book reflects the history of Russian architecture over the past 30 years.
A City Block Isoline
Another competition project for a residential complex on the banks of the Volga in Nizhny Novgorod has been prepared by Studio 44. A team of architects led by Ivan Kozhin concluded that using a regular block layout in such a location would be inappropriate and developed a “custom design” approach: a chain of parceled multi-section buildings stretching along the entire embankment. Let’s explore the features and advantages of this unconventional method.
Competition: The Price of Creativity?
Any day now, we’re expecting the results of a competition held by the “Samolet” development group for a plot in Kommunarka. In the meantime, we share the impressions of Editor-in-Chief Julia Tarabarina, who managed to conduct a public talk. Though technically focused on the interaction between developers and architects, the public talk turned into a discussion about the pros and cons of architectural competitions.
Terraced Design
The “River Park” residential complex has confidently and securely shaped the Nagatinsky Backwater shoreline. Featuring a public embankment, elevated courtyards connected by pedestrian bridges, and brick façades, the development invites exploration of its nuanced response to the surrounding context, as well as hints of the architects’ megalithic design thinking.
A Kremlin’s Core and Meteorite Fragments
We continue our coverage of the competition projects for the residential district that the development company GloraX plans to build along the embankment of the Rowing Channel in Nizhny Novgorod. ASADOV Architects approached the concept through a deep dive into local identity, using storytelling to pinpoint a central idea for the design: the master plan and composition are imagined as if a meteorite had struck a “proto-Kremlin”. Sounds weird? Find more details below!
The Volga Regatta
GloraX plans to develop a residential complex spanning 14 hectares along the Volga River in Nizhny Novgorod. The winning design in a closed-door competition, created by GORA Architects, features housing typologies ranging from townhouses to terraced high-rise slabs, a balance of functions, diverse ways of engaging with the water, and even a dedicated island (no less!) for the city residents.
Life Plans
The master plan for the residential district “Prityazheniye” (“Gravity”) in Naberezhnye Chelny was developed by the architectural company A.Len, taking into account the specific urban planning context and partially implemented solutions of the first phase. However, the master plan prioritized its own values: a green framework, a system of focal points, a hierarchy of spaces, and pedestrian priority. After this, the question of what residents will do in their neighborhood simply doesn’t arise.
A New Track
We took a thorough look at D_Station, a railcar repair depot dating back to 1906, recently reconstructed while preserving its century-old industrial structure, upon the project by Sergey Trukhanov and T+T Architects. Though work on the interiors – set to house restaurants and public spaces – is still underway, the building’s exterior already offers plenty to see. Visitors can explore the blend of old and new brickwork, appreciate the architect’s unique interpretation of ruin aesthetics, and enjoy the newly built pedestrian route that connects the Citydel Business Center’s arches to Kazakova Street.
Four Different Surveys
The “Explore the City” competition, organized this year by the Genplan Institute of Moscow, stands out as a pretty unconventional one for the architectural field but aligns perfectly well with the character of urban planning work. The winning project analyzed contemporary residential complexes, combining urban planning insights with a realtor’s perspective to propose a hybrid approach. Other entries explored public centers, motivations for car ownership, and housing vacancy rates. A fifth participant withdrew. Here’s a closer look at the four completed works.
Scheduled Evolution
ASADOV Architects unveiled the EvyCenter pavilion, a microcultural hub for fostering personal growth, organizing workshops, and doing gymnastics. Additionally, this pavilion serves as a prototype for a scalable country house, drawing inspiration from the “Loskutok” project, and constructed from CLT panels in a factory. This marks the beginning of a developer project initiated by the architectural firm (sic!), which is seeking partners to expand both small Evy settlements and even larger Evy cities, which are, according to Andrey Asadov, aimed at fostering the “evolutionary” development of the people who will inhabit them.
The Golden Crown
The concept for a dental clinic in Yekaterinburg, developed by CNTR Studio, revolves around the idea of a “mouth full of gold”: pristine white porcelain stoneware walls are complemented by matte brass details. To avoid an overly literal interpretation, the architects focused on the building’s proportions, skillfully navigating between sunlight requirements and fire safety regulations.
Flexibility and Integration
Not long ago, we covered the project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential complex, designed by APEX. Now, we’ve been shown different fence concepts they developed to enclose the complex’s private courtyards, incorporating a variety of public functions. We believe that the sheer fact that the complex’s architects were involved in such a detail as fencing speaks volumes.
A Step Forward
The HIDE residential complex represents a major milestone for ADM architects and their leaders Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova in their quest for a fresh high-rise aesthetic – one that is flexible and layered, capable of bringing vibrancy to mass and silhouette while shaping form. Over recent years, this approach has become ADM’s “signature style”, with the golden HIDE tower playing a pivotal role in its evolution. Here, we delve into the project’s story, explore the details of the complex’s design, and uncover its core essence.
