Igor Chlenov:

Alyona Kuznetsova, Julia Tarabarina. Win-Win

For Perm, the opening of the new home for its Art Gallery – guardian of the famous collection of Perm wooden sculpture – marks the end of a 35-year search for a building worthy of a collection that had long outgrown the city cathedral that had served as its only home. Sergey Tchoban considers the project one of the most important of his career in Russia and emphasizes that it deliberately avoids “iconic” architecture in favor of contextual appropriateness. We traveled to Perm to explore both the building and its extensive new exhibition, and found that, much like Tchoban’s other museum projects, it is conceived in a distinctly contemporary way: the old and the new do not merely coexist but reinforce one another through contrast, sharpening the visitor’s perception of the museum.

Julia Tarabarina. The Copper Mirror

The varied-toned sheen of “unsealed” copper, painterly streaks and fingerprints, exposed concrete, and the unusual proportions – when you study the ZILART Museum building by Sergei Tchoban and SPEECH architects, there is plenty to talk about. However, it seems to us that the most interesting thing is how the museum’s composition responds to the realities of the district itself. The residential district has been realized as an open-air exhibition of façade statements by contemporary architects – but without public access to the inner courtyards of the blocks. This building – that is, the museum – is exactly the opposite: on the outside, it is deliberately restrained, while inside it shines spectacularly, creating its own sunbeams in any weather.

Julia Tarabarina. A New Age Portico

At the beginning of the year, Novosibirsk Tolmachevo Airport opened Terminal C. The large-scale and transparent entrance hall with luminous columns inside successfully combines laconism with a bright and photogenic WOW-effect. The terminal is both the new façade of the whole complex and the starting point of the planned reconstruction, upon completion of which Tolmachevo will become the largest regional airport in Russia. In this article, we are examining the building in the context of modernist prototypes of both Novosibirsk and Leningrad: like puzzle pieces, they come together to form their individual history, not devoid of curious nuances and details.

Julia Tarabarina. A Factory’s Path

Last week, the new center for constructivist studies “Zotov” hosted its first exhibition named “1922. Constructivism. The Inception”. The idea of creating this center belongs to Sergey Tchoban, while the project of the nearest houses and adjusting the building of the bread factory for the new museum function was done by the architect in collaboration with his colleagues from SPEECH. We decided that such a complex project should be examined in its entirety – and this is how we came up with this long-read about constructivism on Presnya, conservation, innovation, multilayered approach, and hope.

Grigory Revzin. Refinement No Longer Relevant

A few days ago journalists were shown the building of Bread Factory #5, renovated upon the project by Sergey Tchoban. In this issue, we are publishing Grigory Revzin’s thoughts about this project.

Julia Tarabarina. ​The Slabs of Bagration

The construction of a new skyscraper designed by SPEECH within the complex of Moscow City has been announced. A keen observer may see in it: Moscow high-rises, Chicago architecture, Malevich architecton, and an attempt of deconstruction of the integral image of the Moscow skyscraper – a technique that has been actively employed by the architects in their recent works.

Julia Tarabarina. Inside Out: Pavilions of Eternity

The reconstruction of the warehouses of the Spit of Nizhny Novgorod – they opened in the beginning of June as concert and exhibition halls – became, without exaggeration, the event of the year, both in the field of culture and architecture. Their story seems to us to be extremely attention-worthy from the point of view of discovering, researching, and protecting this monument to engineering thought of the 19th century. At the same time, the solution proposed by Sergey Tchoban on how to adjust and how to expose these structures is as relevant as it is bold and unconventional – on the edge of temporary, timeless, and eternal.

Julia Tarabarina. The Spinning Vibe

The pavilion designed by Sergey Tchoban for the World EXPO 2020 in Dubai is a bright and integral architectural statement, whose imagery can be traced back to avant-garde graphic experiments by Jacob Chernikhov, but allows for multiple interpretations. The pavilion looks both like a dome temple, a spinning “Planet Russia”, and the head of a matryoshka doll. Still more interestingly, the core of the exposition is a “brain”. In this article, we take a closer look at the interpretations and the subtleties of the implementation.

Julia Tarabarina. ​Lions on Glass

While reconstructing the facades of Building 4 of Moscow Hospital #23, SPEECH architects applied a technique, already known from Saint Petersburg projects by Sergey Tchoban – cassettes with elements of classical architecture printed on glass. The project was developed gratis, as a help to the hospital.

Anna Martovitskaya. By Right of the Nearest Neighbor

On Kulneva Street, Moscow, next to the Third Transport Ring, “SPEECH Choban&Kuznetsov” Studio is designing a new mixed-use development.