Continuing What Was Once Started

The project of an office-and-hotel complex located on the first kilometer of the Rublevo-Uspenskoe Highway develops their old ideas and responds to the architecture of the buildings that “Sergey Kisselev and Partners” had built earlier in this area.

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

21 February 2018

Object

The land site at the beginning of the Rublevo-Uspenskoe Highway has been explored by “Sergey Kisselev and Partners” for more than a decade now. In 2015, its south part saw the completion of the office center Pallau RB, the designing of which had been started still before the economic crisis of 2007. The north part of the territory lies vacant so far; it is meant to be used in another project that is now being considered by the government of the Moscow region.

This place, in spite of the proximity of Moscow’s main thoroughfare, is rather quiet: it is separated from the highway by two buildings of car dealerships; it is 170 away from the Moscow Ring Road, its north part borders on the villa community “Rublevo-10”, and its south part borders on the Romashkovsky Forest. For this reason, it was planned very early on that, in addition to offices, a hotel would be built here as well. Ultimately, the territory was divided into two parts: the part that is closer to the Moscow Ring Road got the office buildings “А” and “Б”, while the part that is closer to the forest got the hotel buildings “В” and “Г”; each pair of the buildings is linked by a podium. Beneath the entire territory of the complex, there is single-level underground parking garage. The two pairs of volumes that stand in a fan-like fashion from north to south are separated by a landscaped triangle with a small pedestrian promenade. It is planned that the hotel complex will be built first; the offices and the landscaping part will become the second stage of construction and will appear later on down the line.

zooming — Hotel and business complex on the Rublevo-Uspenskoe Highway. Photo visualization. View from the Rublevskoe Highway © Sergey Kisselev and Partners

The two office buildings form a visual transition and follow the outlines of the Pallau buildings, inheriting not only the business function, but also the abundance of glass and the angles of the sloping planes, including those of the roofs – inwards from the outside, as if all the slabs turn their noses up before the formal border of the nation’s capital – the Moscow Ring Road. If one is to look from the southeast, the office buildings line themselves up as an incremental rhythmic array, alternating glittering glass and yellowish façades. But then again, while the façade panels of Pallau are metal, and their delicate metallic glitter can be traced back to the original concept of a glass volume clad in golden casing, it is planned that the new buildings will utilize Jurassic stone: its color and texture is different but, if viewed from a distance, they would still look pretty similar.

The glass casing is also designed in a “reverse” way to a certain degree: the new buildings will also have glass façades, only these will be the side ends instead of the longitudinal walls. Their pixel-like pattern, dark on the downside and light on the upside, is provided by this simple technique: instead of conjuring with various shades of blacked out glass (which inevitably leaves the building’s without some of the ambient light), the architects proposed to take some of the glass sections with the same UF-protection coefficient, and reverse them 180º – this way, the protective properties remained just as effective, while the sunlight reflection angle became different, which is meant to create an effect of soft pixel “dissolution” of the glass surfaces and a smooth transition to the sky. This is a technique that is cost-efficient and elegant at the same time.

Thanks to the chamfers of the roofs – together they go 5 meters upwards – the architects were able not only to hide mechanical rooms but also to make the western part of the roofs usable – they will serve as venues for the office parties. According to the chief architect of the project, Anastasia Khomyakova, this place is sure to command fine forest views. The usable parts of the roofs are fenced off from the Moscow Ring Road by the overhangs of the mechanical rooms.

The other three façades are subjugated to a large-cell grid that vertically groups from three to five floors, the inner side wall sporting a regular grid with constant horizontals and verticals becoming denser but more slender with each upward step. As for the outer side façades, their horizontals are displaced: the result looks like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle or a simplified picture of some tectonic shift. The depth of the ribs also grows downwards, strengthening the geological or maybe gothic associations.

The two hotel buildings that stand in the western part of the territory look more conservative. The façades of the one that is closer to the center of the construction site are designed in dark brick, the architects planning to use hand-formed solid brick with a grisaille effect, which is created by the strips of lighter bricks running along the vertically grouped windows that make visible the sunlit chamfers – in order to raise people’s spirits and enhance the volume of the windows. Here, though to a smaller scale than on the office façades, the play of horizontals is also visible: the interfloor lintels are sometimes thinner and sometimes wider, and thus they form a semblance of a small wave. The lintels in the groups of windows are made of dark-brown brick; the frequent hollows of the stanza balconies are clad in dark metal bars, and all of this, put together, creates deep volumetric chocolate-colored façades. The tall 5-meter (as is the hot trend of today) ground floors are occupied by a cafe turned in the direction of the small park.

The second building, i.e. the one that stands closer to the woodland, is notable for its light-colored brick which is even closer to the color of white stone. The bricks here are also hand-formed, with crumpled “white-clay” texture – finding the right brick manufacturer turned out to be quite a chore. Neither verticals nor horizontals prevail here; rather, they are mixed up: the textured stripes put one in the mind of constructivist city blocks, and the dark inserts between the windows look as if they were borrowed from the neighboring building. The resulting hybrid is akin to a fragment of a strip of lace blown out of size – everything looks rather cozy, countryside-style, like a dappled shade on a summer terrace. But then again, let’s not forget that the warmth of the sepia grisaille is meant to compensate for the scale of the complex: each building here has 17 floors in it, and is 60 meters high, although, by the standards of buildings situated just beyond the Moscow Ring Road, this falls short of the notion of a “giant scale”, the common number of floors here being 25.

As we remember, the two hotel buildings are linked to each other by a podium which is the same 5 meters high as the public and commercial ground floors. It will host a fitness center with a spa; its landscaped roof will be turned into a walking promenade. This complex is interesting as the continuation of the work that “Sergey Kisselev and Partners” started here long ago. In this sense, their own creation (which, we have to admit, underwent some significant changes during the design process but still retained the architects’ original idea) becomes an important contextual fragment for the authors, requires a response, even some sort of resonance, to enhance and explore this theme even further. A keen observer may see here a kind of gothic tapering of the roofs of the office buildings that overlook the highway with two of their walls – and, at the same time, a slight transition to a different theme, which is homely, palpable, and is connected, let’s say, with the signs of the times; a theme which is defined by the functional requirements, and, possibly, by the relevance of the “Manhattan-type” high-rise brick imagery. The three blocks of buildings, the first of which is already complete, come together, one way or another, to form a certain chain, grow, turn around, change their materials, but remain parts of the same story.

21 February 2018

Headlines now

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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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Architecture and Leisure Park

For the suburban hotel complex, which envisages various formats of leisure, the architectural company T+T Architects proposed several types of accommodation, ranging from the classic “standard” in a common building to a “cave in the hill” and a “house in a tree”. An additional challenge consisted in integrating a few classic-style residences already existing on this territory into the “architectural forest park”.

Overview

The U-House

The Jois complex combines height with terraces, bringing the most expensive apartments from penthouses down to the bottom floors. The powerful iconic image of the U-shaped building is the result of the creative search for a new standard of living in high-rise buildings by the architects of “Genpro”.

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Black and White

In this article, we specifically discuss the interiors of the ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh. Interior design is a crucial component of the overall concept in this case, and precision and meticulous execution were highly important for the architects. Julia Tryaskina, head of UNK interiors, shares some of the developments.

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The “Snake” Mountain

The competition project for the seaside resort complex “Serpentine” combines several typologies: apartments of different classes, villas, and hotel rooms. For each of these typologies, the KPLN architects employ one of the images that are drawn from the natural environment – a serpentine road, a mountain stream, and rolling waves.

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Opal from Anna Mons’ Ring

The project of a small business center located near Tupolev Plaza and Radio Street proclaims the necessity of modern architecture in a specific area of Moscow commonly known as “Nemetskaya Sloboda” or “German settlement”. It substantiates its thesis with the thoroughness of details, a multitude of proposed and rejected form variants, and even a detailed description of the surrounding area. The project is interesting indeed, and it is even more interesting to see what will come of it.

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Feed ’Em All

A “House of Russian Cuisine” was designed and built by KROST Group at VDNKh for the “Rossiya” exhibition in record-breaking time. The pavilion is masterfully constructed in terms of the standards of modern public catering industry multiplied by the bustling cultural program of the exhibition, and it interprets the stylistically diverse character of VDNKh just as successfully. At the same time, much of its interior design can be traced back to the prototypes of the 1960s – so much so that even scenes from iconic Soviet movies of those years persistently come to mind.

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The Ensemble at the Mosque

OSA prepared a master plan for a district in the southern part of Derbent. The main task of the master plan is to initiate the formation of a modern comfortable environment in this city. The organization of residential areas is subordinated to the city’s spiritual center: depending on the location relative to the cathedral mosque, the houses are distinguished by façade and plastique solutions. The program also includes a “hospitality center”, administrative buildings, an educational cluster, and even an air bridge.

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Pargolovo Protestantism

A Protestant church is being built in St. Petersburg by the project of SLOI architects. One of the main features of the building is a wooden roof with 25-meter spans, which, among other things, forms the interior of the prayer hall. Also, there are other interesting details – we are telling you more about them.

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The Shape of the Inconceivable

The ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh brings to mind a famous maxim of all architects and critics: “You’ve come up with it? Now build it!” You rarely see such a selfless immersion in implementation of the project, and the formidable structural and engineering tasks set by UNK architects to themselves are presented here as an integral and important part of the architectural idea. The challenge matches the obliging status of the place – after all, it is an “exhibition of achievements”, and the pavilion is dedicated to the nuclear energy industry. Let’s take a closer look: from the outside, from the inside, and from the underside too.

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Rays of the Desert

A school for 1750 students is going to be built in Dubai, designed by IND Architects. The architects took into account the local specifics, and proposed a radial layout and spaces, in which the children will be comfortable throughout the day.

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The Dairy Theme

The concept of an office of a cheese-making company, designed for the enclosed area of a dairy factory, at least partially refers to industrial architecture. Perhaps that is why this concept is very simple, which seems the appropriate thing to do here. The building is enlivened by literally a couple of “master strokes”: the turning of the corner accentuates the entrance, and the shade of glass responds to the theme of “milk rivers” from Russian fairy tales.

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The Road to the Temple

Under a grant from the Small Towns Competition, the main street and temple area of the village of Nikolo-Berezovka near Neftekamsk has been improved. A consortium of APRELarchitects and Novaya Zemlya is turning the village into an open-air museum and integrating ruined buildings into public life.

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Towers Leaning Towards the Sun

The three towers of the residential complex “Novodanilovskaya 8” are new and the tallest neighbors of the Danilovsky Manufactory, “Fort”, and “Plaza”, complementing a whole cluster of modern buildings designed by renowned masters. At the same time, the towers are unique for this setting – they are residential, they are the tallest ones here, and they are located on a challenging site. In this article, we explore how architects Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova tackled this far-from-trivial task.

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In the spirit of ROSTA posters

The new Rostselmash tractor factory, conceptualized by ASADOV Architects, is currently being completed in Rostov-on-Don. References to the Soviet architecture of the 1920’s and 1960’s resonate with the mission and strategic importance of the enterprise, and are also in line with the client’s wish: to pay homage to Rostov’s constructivism.

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The Northern Thebaid

The central part of Ferapontovo village, adjacent to the famous monastery with frescoes by Dionisy, has been improved according to the project by APRELarchitects. Now the place offers basic services for tourists, as well as a place for the villagers’ leisure.

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Brilliant Production

The architects from London-based MOST Architecture have designed the space for the high-tech production of Charge Cars, a high-performance production facility for high-speed electric cars that are assembled in the shell of legendary Ford Mustangs. The founders of both the company and the car assembly startup are Russians who were educated in their home country.

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Three-Part Task: St. Petersburg’s Mytny Dvor

The so-called “Mytny Dvor” area lying just behind Moscow Railway Station – the market rows with a complex history – will be transformed into a premium residential complex by Studio 44. The project consists of three parts: the restoration of historical buildings, the reconstruction of the lost part of the historical contour, and new houses. All of them are harmonized with each other and with the city; axes and “beams of light” were found, cozy corners and scenic viewpoints were carefully thought out. We had a chat with the authors of the historical buildings’ restoration project, and we are telling you about all the different tasks that have been solved here.

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The Color of the City, or Reflections on the Slope of an Urban Settlement

In 2022, Ostozhenka Architects won a competition, and in 2023, they developed and received all the necessary approvals for a master plan for the development of Chernigovskaya Street for the developer GloraX. The project takes into account a 10-year history of previous developments; it was done in collaboration with architects from Nizhny Novgorod, and it continues to evolve now. We carefully examined it, talked to everyone, and learned a lot of interesting things.

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A Single-Industry Town

Kola MMC and Nornickel are building a residential neighborhood in Monchegorsk for their future employees. It is based on a project by an international team that won the 2021 competition. The project offers a number of solutions meant to combat the main “demons” of any northern city: wind, grayness and boredom.

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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.

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A New Starting Point

We’ve been wanting to examine the RuArts Foundation space, designed by ATRIUM for quite a long time, and we finally got round to it. This building looks appropriate and impressive; it amazingly combines tradition – represented in our case by galleries – and innovation. In this article, we delve into details and study the building’s historical background as well.

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Molding Perspectives

Stepan Liphart introduces “schematic Art Deco” on the outskirts of Kazan – his houses are executed in green color, with a glassy “iced” finish on the facades. The main merits of the project lie in his meticulous arrangement of viewing angles – the architect is striving to create in a challenging environment the embryo of a city not only in terms of pedestrian accessibility but also in a sculptural sense. He works with silhouettes, proposing intriguing triangular terraces. The entire project is structured like a crystal, following two grids, orthogonal and diagonal. In this article, we are examining what worked, and what eventually didn’t.

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An Educational Experiment for the North

City-Arch continues to work on the projects that can be termed as “experimental public preschools”: private kindergartens and schools can envy such facilities in many respects. This time around, the project is done for the city of Gubkinsky, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. A diverse educational and play environment, including a winter garden, awaits future students, while the teachers will have abundant opportunities to implement new practices.