The Vladimir Gate

The Golden Gate business center became a noticeable complement to the district of Rogozhskaya Zastava – the architects creatively revised the increase in the construction scale of this area. The mind-blowing cantilevered overpass situated at the level of the twenty-second floor is arguably the first experiment of such kind in Moscow.

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

22 January 2018

Object

The project of the business center at the Ploshchad Ilicha Square was already covered by us in 2007. It was completed in 2014, and for several years already it has been serving as the landmark of this square, clearly visible from a distance: from the point on the Garden Ring before the Yauza Bridge, from the crossing of the Entuziastov Highway and the Third Transport Ring, from the bridge of the Kurskaya Railroad, from the Sergeya Radonezhskogo Street, and in the historical perspective of the Shkolnaya Street.

Generally speaking, the architects have definitely been able to implement the main themes of the project – so indivisible was the concept of the open city gate executed in the form of a pivotal connection between two different but equally sized slabs, standing at an angle to each other, with an overpass connecting them at the top.

“The Vladimir road used to lie where now the Shkolnaya Street is; this is its historic route. Here, on this square, it crossed with the Kamer-Kollezhsky Val – Pavel Andreev shares – There are no “vals” (which translates as “ramparts”) any longer, memories of them only remaining in the names of the local streets, and there is no “zastava” (which literally translates as “city gate”) – there is only a square that bears that name. This is why we allowed ourselves to call our project “Vladimirskie Vorota” (“Vladimir Gate”), and treat this building, well, not in the most literal sense, rather conditionally, but still as a gate, a part of the city border. Then the owners renamed it to become “Golden Gate” by analogy with the “Golden Gate”, which stands for the Kremlin in the city of Vladimir – a posh commercial spin, really.

As for our idea, however, it was more of a town-planning character: what we wanted to do was to give back to this place its historical symbol, reviving it on a modern scale”.

zooming — "Golden Gate" multifunctional complex © Pavel Andreev. Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru

The gate that opens up the road which leads to the city of Vladimir is, of course, a general image that was borrowed not so much from the historical reality as from the town-planning situation. In fact, the Rogozhskaya Zastava was vastly different: built in the late XVIII century, it consisted of two low-rise corps de gardes or “guardhouses” with arched galleries and obelisks – the inevitable parts of the city boundaries built in the times of Catherine the Great.

The Zastava consisted in fact if two squares: what is now known as Shkolnaya Ulitsa would lead, back in those days, to the still older Sennaya Ulitsa, which actually was “strung” on the old Vladimir Square, while the neighboring Rogozhskaya Zastava Square was comparatively new. Today, both squares merged into one and then disappeared, swallowed by the road junction overlooking the railroad bridge and surrounded from one side by old-Moscow two-story houses, and from the other side – by prefabricated 12-story houses built back in the 1980’s, the latest reiteration of the great construction boom of the early heroic years; although standard, these houses stand along the “red” construction line, and they surprisingly have porches in front of them, which are obviously meant to pay homage to other buildings of this area and decrease the perception scale of these 12-story things.

In a word, this place is highly contrastive; several epochs and town-planning trends come together here.

The business center designed by Pavel Andreev made the most out of this contrast. Two towers: one 26 stories high with a half-story of technical rooms, coated with light-pale ceramic granite, is subjugated to the strict pattern of moderately vertical windows and is stretched along the Entuziastov Highway, thus belonging to the road leading out of town. The pattern of the windows and the color of the façade echo the neighboring Stalin house, which is #2 on the Rogozhsky Val – although the tower is three and a half times as tall, it still continues the line of the street by picking up the rhythm but making it clearer and denser. This is particularly visible from the beginning of the Shkolnaya Ulitsa.

The second tower has 24 stories in it; all of its façades are covered in blacked out glass of different shades and transparency: this technique was earlier used by “Ostozhenka” in designing the “Panorama” residential project. However, great as it is, this technique, helps to turn the tower into a solid slab of dark glass: it grows up from the bottom floor without so much as a hint at a basement: here you’ve got the pavement stones, and there is glass staring you right in the face. The idea consisted in masking all the intermediate floors by making the second tower look like a completely single whole to the point of being slightly unreal and ostentatiously modern – and this attempt was a success.

Although it was originally planned that the glass tower was to be darker, and although it was planned that it would be a hotel, now both of the volumes are occupied by the offices of the business center. One must admit that the original idea was slightly more on the rugged side, yet it looked more detailed because of the hi-tech antennas near the south façade. Now, however, it is a solid prism that looks like it was chiseled from some dark-water iceberg.Of course, if one really feels like counting the floors, he can do it but he will have to look really hard: the volume is really solid, and at the same time colorful; besides, it quickly reacts to changes in the ambient light, constantly shifting its shades, which looks particularly great at sunset because its main façade is the west one.

The glass tower is stretched along the Rogozhsky Val Street, and it follows its curve; what it ends up being is some sort of a reshuffle – the volume with windows, designed in a more traditional way, “spills over the town”, while the more modern one marks the city’s historical boundary. The gate turned out to be quite convincing, the only difference being that it stands on one side of the highway and, come right down to it, looks more like one open wing of the gate. But it is even more interesting that way.

The most striking architectural gesture is the cantilevered overpass whose glass volume barges into the neighboring tower at the height of the 22-24th floors; it is even mentioned at the business center’s website, which is a relatively rare thing by Moscow standards. Looking from the inside of the overpass, one will be able to see the zigzag of the truss added in order to strengthen the structure: initially it was not planned to be there, and the “camouflage” pattern of the glass façade is partially explained by the desire to hide the silhouette of the truss.

The crossing of the elements accentuates the turning angle and draws one’s attention to the large form helping the building to fit in with the scale of the new city: yes, this is a borderline place but the city keeps growing – soon, slightly to the east, the buildings of the “Symbol” housing project will be completed in the stead of the former “Serp i Molot” plant, and then the overall height of the area (which now looks pretty diverse) will surely increase.

Meanwhile, the business center “picks up” this very theme of “height diversity” of this area, adding two towers, so effectively linked with each other by volumes of smaller scale – a five and a four-story one. The former continues the light tower standing along the Entuziastov Highway, the arch of the latter joins the glass high-rise from the side of the Mezhdunarodnaya Street; it hosts the 2-star hostel Netizen that is a hit with its numerous guests. Both wings do not imitate the historical construction and do not try to either present a semblance of “Dutch houses” or even imitate the style of the Shkolnaya Street. Technically, their façades are designed just about in the same way as the first tower – from ceramic granite. Looking at them, one can even feel an element of deconstruction: there is a large see-through grille towering above each of the buildings, as if the top floor was dismantled but its framework was left to stay there.

The volumes veer off eastward like a pair of scissors, forming a small trapeze-shaped yard, rather empty but still open to the general public; one can traverse it, first passing beneath the minor link in front of the hotel, and then marveling at the high overpass between the towers.

And, while the minor volume, which stands next to the highway, does not mimic the neighboring buildings but, rather, forms five-story construction front side, the hotel, which stands on the Mezhdunarodnaya Street, continues the lineup of the neighboring buildings – rather curious-looking silicate brick five-stories with a square plan and a double-pitch roof, unusual for Moscow (MG-2 series, mid-1950’s). The Mezhdunarodnaya Street remained low-rise and cozy; it even looks as if it was “hidden” behind the shield of the glass tower. Thus, the business center, which definitely belongs with the future in many ways, grows from the past, belonging at the same time with its surroundings, trying to tie in the former and the latter. In this sense, it is the inheritor of the idea that once gave birth to the panel houses which stand along the Sergeya Radonezhskogo Street, an attempt to tie in two different scales and completely different times, show respect to different types of construction and make them “make peace” with each other.

Walking around the complex is a rather pleasant thing to do, although there isn’t any “green” landscaping around it, just paving stones. But the abundance of cafes and other businesses that populated the bottom floors is doing its job turning the small square behind and in front of the towers into a cozy little place. The impressions are strengthened by round metallic supports placed within the contour of the glass façade – the “casing” of the tower in front of the main entrance – as if the shell of the 26-story building suddenly lifted itself up in the air giving the visitors an opportunity to come inside.

As for the underground structure of this complex, it is rather sophisticated. Both towers rest on the lobbies of the “Rimskaya” metro station; it neighbors on the complex’s parking lot (it must be said that because of the communication difficulties the parking lot was made partially overland). In addition, Pavel Andreev, the architect who likes his projects to unobtrusively fit in with the city not only in terms of their plastique and theme but also from the technical standpoint, insisted that the engineering lines of the complex be routed to an underground collector, which could be later extended by connecting the neighboring buildings to it. Alas, the initiative did not get much support: in particular, “Symbol” opted out of getting connected to this collector, and the system remained on paper. Which, incidentally, does not by any means devalue the architects’ attempt “to do the right thing” that they tried to make in the “Golden Gate” project: possibly, those who will come after them will use this resource one day.

22 January 2018

Headlines now

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?

Object

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.

Report

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.

Object

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.

Report

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.

Overview

Vertical Civilization

Genpro considered the development of the vertical city concept and made it the theme of their pavilion at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition.

Interview

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.

Interview

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.

Object

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.

Object

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.

Object

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”.

Faraday Grid

The project of the Omsk airport by ASADOV Architects is another concept among the 14 finalists of a recent competition. It is called “The Bridge” and is inspired by both the West Siberian Exhibition of 1911 and the Trans-Siberian Railway bridge over the Irtysh River, built in 1896. On one hand, it carries a steampunk vibe, while on the other, there’s almost a sense of nostalgia for the heyday of 1913. However, the concept offers two variants, the second one devoid of nostalgia but featuring a parabola.

Review

Midway upon the Journey of Our Life

Recently, Tatlin Publishing House released a book entitled “Architect Sergey Oreshkin. Selected Projects”. This book is not just a traditional book of the architectural company’s achievements, but rather a monograph of a more personal nature. The book includes 43 buildings as well as a section with architectural drawings. In this article, we reflect on the book as a way to take stock of an architect’s accomplishments.

Inverted Fortress

This year, there has been no shortage of intriguing architectural ideas around the Omsk airport. The project developed by the architectural company KPLN appeals to Omsk’s history as a wooden fortress that it was back in the day, but transforms the concept of a fortress beyond recognition: it “shaves off” the conical ends of “wooden logs”, then enlarges them, and then flips them over. The result is a hypostyle – a forest of conical columns on point supports, with skylights on top.

send.project

Transformation of Annenkirche

For Annenkirche (St. Anna Lutheran Church in St. Petersburg), Sergey Kuznetsov and the Kamen bureau have prepared a project that relies on the principles of the Venice Charter: the building is not restored to a specific date, historical layers are preserved, and modern elements do not mimic the authentic ones. Let’s delve into the details of these solutions.

The Paradox of the Temporary

The concept of the Russian pavilion for EXPO 2025 in Osaka, proposed by the Wowhaus architects, is the last of the six projects we gathered from the 2022 competition. It is again worth noting that the results of this competition were not finalized due to the cancellation of Russia’s participation in World Expo 2025. It should be mentioned that Wowhaus created three versions for this competition, but only one is being presented, and it can’t be said that this version is thoroughly developed – rather, it is done in the spirit of a “student assignment”. Nevertheless, the project is interesting in its paradoxical nature: the architects emphasized the temporary character of the pavilion, and in its bubble-like forms sought to reflect the paradoxes of space and time.

The Forum of Time

The competition project for the Russian Pavilion at EXPO 2025 in Osaka designed by Aleksey Orlov and Arena Project Institute consists of cones and conical funnels connected into a non-trivial composition, where one can feel the hand of architects who have worked extensively with stadiums and other sports facilities. It’s very interesting to delve into its logic, structurally built on the theme of clocks, hourglasses and even sundials. Additionally, the architects have turned the exhibition pavilion into a series of interconnected amphitheaters, which is also highly relevant for world exhibitions. We are reminding you that the competition results were never announced.

Mirrors Everywhere

The project by Sergey Nebotov, Anastasia Gritskova, and the architectural company “Novoe” was created for the Russian pavilion at EXPO 2025, but within the framework of another competition, which, as we learned, took place even earlier, in 2021. At that time, the competition theme was “digital twins”, and there was minimal time for work, so the project, according to the architect himself, was more of a “student assignment”. Nevertheless, this project is interesting for its plan bordering on similarity with Baroque projects and the emblem of the exhibition, as well as its diverse and comprehensive reflectiveness.

Report

The Steppe Is Full of Beauty and Freedom

The goal of the exhibition “Dikoe Pole” (“Wild Field”) at the State Historical Museum was to move away from the archaeological listing of valuable items and to create an image of the steppe and nomads that was multidirectional and emotional – in other words, artistic. To achieve this goal, it was important to include works of contemporary art. One such work is the scenography of the exhibition space developed by CHART studio.

The Snowstorm Fish

The next project from the unfinished competition for the Russian Pavilion at EXPO 2025, which will be held in Osaka, Japan, is by Dashi Namdakov and Parsec Architects. The pavilion describes itself as an “architectural/sculptural” one, with its shape clearly reminiscent of abstract sculpture of the 1970s. It complements its program with a meditative hall named “Mendeleev’s Dreams”, and offers its visitors to slide from its roof at the end of the tour.

The Mirror of Your Soul

We continue to publish projects from the competition for the design of the Russian Pavilion at EXPO in Osaka 2025. We are reminding you that the results of the competition have not been announced, and hardly will ever be. The pavilion designed by ASADOV Architects combines a forest log cabin, the image of a hyper transition, and sculptures made of glowing threads – it focuses primarily on the scenography of the exhibition, which the pavilion builds sequentially like a string of impressions, dedicating it to the paradoxes of the Russian soul.

Part of the Ideal

In 2025, another World Expo will take place in Osaka, Japan, in which Russia will not participate. However, a competition for the Russian pavilion was indeed held, with six projects participating. The results were never announced as Russia’s participation was canceled; the competition has no winners. Nevertheless, Expo pavilion projects are typically designed for a bold and interesting architectural statement, so we’ve gathered all the six projects and will be publishing articles about them in random order. The first one is the project by Vladimir Plotkin and Reserve Union, which is distinguished by the clarity of its stereometric shape, the boldness of its structure, and the multiplicity of possible interpretations.

Object

The Fortress by the River

ASADOV Architects have developed a concept for a new residential district in the center of Kemerovo. To combat the harsh climate and monotonous everyday life, the architects proposed a block type of development with dominant towers, good insolation, facades detailed at eye level, and event programming.

Object

In the Rhombus Grid

Construction has begun on the building of the OMK (United Metallurgical Company) Corporate University in Nizhny Novgorod’s town of Vyksa, designed by Ostozhenka Architects. The most interesting aspect of the project is how the architects immersed it in the context: “extracting” a diagonal motif from the planning grid of Vyksa, they aligned the building, the square, and the park to match it. A truly masterful work with urban planning context on several different levels of perception has long since become the signature technique of Ostozhenka.

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Generational Connection

Another modern estate, designed by Roman Leonidov, is located in the Moscow region and brings together three generations of one family under one roof. To fit on a narrow plot without depriving anyone of personal space, the architects opted for a zigzag plan. The main volume in the house structure is accentuated by mezzanines with a reverse-sloped roof and ceilings featuring exposed beams.

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Three Dimensions of the City

We began to delve into the project by Sergey Skuratov, the residential complex “Depo” in Minsk, located at Victory Square, and it fascinated us completely. The project has at least several dimensions to it: historical – at some point, the developer decided to discontinue further collaboration with Sergey Skuratov Architects, but the concept was approved, and its implementation continues, mostly in accordance with the proposed ideas. The spatial and urban planning dimension – the architects both argue with the city and play along with it, deciphering nuances, and finding axes. And, finally, the tactile dimension – the constructed buildings also have their own intriguing features. Thus, this article also has two parts: it dwells on what has been built and what was conceived

Object

New “Flight”

Architects from “Mezonproject” have developed a project for the reconstruction of the regional youth center “Polyot”(“Flight”) in the city of Oryol. The summer youth center, built back in the late 1970s, will now become year-round and acquire many additional functions.

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The Yauza Towers

In Moscow, there aren’t that many buildings or projects designed by Nikita Yavein and Studio 44. In this article, we present to you the concept of a large multifunctional complex on the Yauza River, located between two parks, featuring a promenade, a crossroads of two pedestrian streets, a highly developed public space, and an original architectural solution. This solution combines a sophisticated, asymmetric façade grid, reminiscent of a game of fifteen puzzle, and bold protrusions of the upper parts of the buildings, completely masking the technical floors and sculpting the complex’s silhouette.

​The Vladimir Gate

The Vladimir Gate