Vladimir Plotkin

11.05.2022

Julia Tarabarina. Vladimir Plotkin: “Our profession is complex, vulnerable, and sometimes defenseless against criticism”

As part of the editorial project devoted to the high-rise and high-density construction that Moscow is seeing in recent years, we spoke to the leading architect of CU Reserve Vladimir Plotkin, the author of many grand-scale – and high-profile – buildings of this city. We spoke about an architect’s role and his tasks in the mega-construction process, about the drive of the megalopolis, about the strong sides of mixed and multifunctional construction, and about the methods of organizing big forms.

12.03.2021

Julia Tarabarina. Semantic Shift

The high-end residential complex STORY, situated near the Avtozavodskaya metro station and the former ZIL factory, is delicately inscribed in the contrastive context, while its shape, which combines a regular grid and a stunning “shift” of the main facade, seems to respond to the dramatic history of the place, at the same time, however, allowing for multiple interpretations.

08.12.2020

Julia Tarabarina. Celestial Tectonics

Three towers on a podium over the Ramenka River are the new dominant elements on the edge of a Soviet “microdistrict”. Their scale is quite modern: the height is 176 m – almost a skyscraper; the facades are made of glass and steel. Their graceful proportions are emphasized by a strict white grid, and the volumetric composition picks up the diagonal “grid of coordinates” that was once outlined in the southwest of Moscow by the architects of the 1970’s and 1980’s.

07.10.2020

Julia Tarabarina. The City of the Sun

Jointly designed by Sergey Tchoban and Vladimir Plotkin, the VTB Arena Park complex can arguably be considered the perfect experiment on solving the centuries-old controversy between traditional architecture and modernism. The framework of the design code, combined with the creative character of the plastique-based dialogue between the buildings, formed an all-but-perfect fragment of the city fabric.

20.07.2020

Julia Tarabarina. Moving on the Edge

The housing complex “Litsa” (“Faces”) on Moscow’s Khodynka Field is one of the new grand-scale buildings that complement the construction around it. This particular building skillfully tackles the scale, subjugating it to the silhouette and the pattern; it also makes the most of the combination of a challenging land site and formidable square footage requirements, packing a whole number of features within one volume, so the house becomes an analogue of a city. And, to cap it all, it looks like a family that securely protects the children playing in the yard from... well, from everything, really.

02.06.2020

Julia Tarabarina. Rational Arrangement

In this article, we are examining a complex of buildings and interiors of the first stage of the project that has recently become extremely popular – the Kommunarka clinic.

20.03.2020

Julia Tarabarina, Nina Frolova. We work remotely: Moscow architects about working from home during the pandemic

In this article, we are speaking to the leaders of a few Moscow architectural companies about their plans for remote work caused by the #COVID19 pandemic.

27.01.2020

Julia Tarabarina. The Ring on the Saisara Lake

The building of the Philharmonic Hall and the Theater of Yakut Epos, standing on the shore of the sacred lake, is inscribed into an epic circle and contains three volumes, reminiscent of the traditional national housing. The roof is akin to the Alaas – a Yakut village standing around a lake. In spite of its rich conceptual agenda, the project remains volumetrically abstract, and keeps up a light form, making the most of its transparency, multiple layers, and reflections.

29.04.2019

Elena Petukhova. A Habitable Galaxy

APEX has headed the project of a large-scale residential complex in the north of Moscow, in which modern housing construction methods are combined with thought-out planning solutions, a recognizable image and an original landscaping concept.

15.10.2018

Julia Tarabarina. The Crystal of Music

The highly contemporary and technically sophisticated building of the philharmonic hall in Zaryadye Park combines interesting nonlinear solutions with a powerful retrospective of the sixties. At the same time, it is not conservative at all – rather, it can be understood as a metaphor or even “crystallization” of music, an art that is both emotional and mathematically abstract as well.