По-русски

​In the Space of Pobedy Park

In the project of a housing complex designed by Sergey Skuratov, which is now being built near the park of the Poklonnaya Hill, a multifunctional stylobate is turned into a compound city space with intriguing “access” slopes that also take on the role of mini-plazas. The architecture of the residential buildings responds to the proximity of the Pobedy Park, on the one hand, “dissolving in the air”, and, on the other hand, supporting the memorial complex rhythmically and color-wise.

Julia Tarabarina

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

29 December 2020
Object
mainImg
The project of the high-end multifunctional residential complex Victory Park Residences was approved by the Architectural Council of Moscow two years ago, and last year in September, ANT Development launched property sales and construction.

The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


The land site is situated between the “entrance” eastern part of the park of the Poklonnaya Hill and a railway line of the Kiev railroad; it takes 5 minutes to get here from Moskva-Sortirovochnaya station. The western boundary of the complex is marked by the Bratiev Fonchenko Street, while the park is separated from the complex by the quiet two-lane Poklonnaya Street. However, east of the Victory Park grounds, there will be a road junction leading from General Dorokhov Avenue and the Third Transport Ring towards Barklaya Street. The new complex steps back from the railroad line and from the junction 50 and 25 meters respectively.

  • zooming
    1 / 5
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    2 / 5
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    3 / 5
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    4 / 5
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    5 / 5
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


The specifics of the surroundings are first of all defined by the proximity of the Pobedy Park, the “Great Creation by Anatoly Polyansky”, as Sergey Skuratov describes it. The complex not just repeats the “victorious” name of the park but also continues its planning grid, turned at an angle to Kutuzovsky Avenue, from the stele in front of the museum, and towards the Triumphal Arch, designed by Osip Bove. The five buildings that stand along the Poklonnaya Street symbolically, on a diminished scale, respond to the five traversal alleys – the memorial grounds of the front part of the park symbolizing the five years of the Great Patriotic War – the author explains.

The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


The northern line of residential buildings consists of five single-entrance towers, which allows the complex to be opened towards the Pobedy Park memorial complex, to emphasize the spatial connections with it, and provide more views towards it. The three buildings standing along the south border, on the other hand, are stretched lengthwise. These buildings, just like the transparent screens between them, are meant to protect the yard from the noise and the grime of the railroad – even though the buildings themselves are, of course, also protected from the noise, first of all, by glass units. Thus, the Victory Park complex stands with its “back” to the railway and its “face” to the park of the Poklonnaya Hill, just as to the avenue and the path from the namesake metro station.

The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


It must be said that the history of the land site, on which the complex is built is rather complicated: in the mid 2000’s, the city had plans to build here the Eastern Europe’s largest aquarium called “Poseidon Park”. A competition was organized, construction began in 2008, and a construction pit for two underground floors was dug out. The project uses the already-existing pit, and the idea of the aquarium “grew” into the sophisticated multifunctional space of the stylobate. Curiously, the designed functions do preserve a small – about 3000 sqm – aquarium in the western part, with a movie theater and a children’s center next to it, a little more to the north. In the northeast corner of the stylobate, closer to the metro station, there is an expo complex, the southeast part includes a fitness center with a SPA and a swimming pool, and the southeast one is occupied by a supermarket. The central space is occupied by a food court and a fish market, surrounded by cafes and shops, with an inner boulevard running in the middle. On the one hand, typologically, this is a sophisticated shopping mall with elements of a community center; on the other hand, this is a semblance of a city under a roof, grouped around the “market square”.

  • zooming
    1 / 3
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street. The minus-first level
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    2 / 3
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street. The minus-first level, second tier
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    3 / 3
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street. The minus-second level
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


The public stylobate is situated on the minus first floor; the height of its ceilings is really high – a whopping 8 meters! Still lower, on the minus-second floor, there is an underground parking garage. Designing the stylobate, the architects masterfully used the height difference – and here it is both considerable, a little over 12 meters, and convenient, because from the side of the park and the metro the relief is raised, which allowed the architects to organized barrier-less entrances over the slopes, ramps, and straight through the bridge. From the south side, the height difference allowed the architects, first of all, to open the façade of the swimming pool in the fitness club to natural light, and, second, to elevate the private yard of the residential buildings on the roof of the stylobate, thus putting as much distance as possible between the yard and the railway line. On the inside, the spaces are interwoven – literally bound – with ramps, escalators, and travelators, which makes examining the structure in a section view rather exciting. In addition, the residents will be able to go down to the public area by elevator directly from the apartments.

  • zooming
    1 / 9
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    2 / 9
    Section view 8-8. The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    3 / 9
    Section view 1-1. The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    4 / 9
    Section view 2-2. The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    5 / 9
    Section view 3-3. The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    6 / 9
    Section view 4-4. The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    7 / 9
    Section view 5-5. The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    8 / 9
    Section view 7-7. The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    9 / 9
    Section view 6-6. The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


In addition to the fact that this whole structure allowed the architects to fulfill the challenging task posed by the developer and find room for the required functions on the land site, conveniently arranging them, it also creates a spatial intrigue. Already looking at the section views and 3D renders, one can feel that due to all these height drops, slopes and bridges, things on the inside will be far from trivial.

On the roof of the stylobate, there is a courtyard of the residential complex with geoplastics and trees. Its surface is strictly horizontal; we will remind you that it is raised 12-something meters above the drive on the side of the railroad line, while from the side of the park – approximately in the middle of the north façade – it is accessed by a bridge, by which one will be able to get into the yard by foot, or drive from the Poklonnaya Hill to the ramp that leads to the underground parking garage. On this side, there is a gallery running in front of the residential buildings – some kind of portico with trees on top; it delicately separates the yard of the complex from the city street.

The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


While you can enter the residential courtyard from the north side in a straight line, the entrances to the public parts of the stylobate, on the contrary, go up and down. The raised “head” of the corten “snake” in the northern corner accentuates the entrance from the metro station to the expo center. A similar “entrance head” on the northwest corner, on the side of the park, leads to the aquarium and to the movie theater.

The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


However, in both cases you can also take parallel paths – on the slope, gradually sinking underground in the cozy inclined park.

  • zooming
    1 / 3
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    2 / 3
    The facade from the side of the Kutuzovsky Avenue relief road. The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    3 / 3
    The facade from the side of the railroad. The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


The intrigue is that, in addition to the convenient separation of flows, the complex constantly offers us new spatial sensations, making us experience this space as indoor, outdoor, ostentatiously inclined, or, by contrast, with a straight surface underneath your feet. Different areas feature different shades of color and have different lighting angles; you will get lots of interesting impressions just by walking around here among these height drops and slopes. And we will also note that from the top level you can look down, and vice versa – they are also visually connected. It is expected that being here one will always feel the multilayered character of the stylobate: sometimes, there are two tiers, and sometimes, on the side of the north gallery, even three.

The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


The slopes that lead to the multifunctional stylobate stop at small open-air plazas with terraced cafes – a kind of oasis of comfortable environment that we tend to associate with the central districts of European cities. The cafes are cozy and securely protected from the wind – their windows, as well as the windows of the shops emphasize the urban character of this space, inviting to wander between boutiques and café tables.

The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


One must note that Sergey Skuratov – and he also stressed this in his interview – has long since been exploring the idea of a multilayered city space, which is a rather rare phenomenon by the standards of Moscow and other post-soviet cities, predictably flat en masse. As a rule, Sergey Skuratov creates around his buildings some sort of spatial intrigue that is one way or another connected to the surrounding city: it is composed of powerful or “head turning” cantilevered structures, of unconventional paving with Klinker brick, of areaways that form quiet passages by the shop windows, and, of course, of height differences. The houses that he designed – Egodom and Art House, the house in Tessinsky-1, and Skouratov House on the Burdenko Street – seem to embrace the height differences that they are challenged to cope with, because such height differences perfectly match the scenario of a “sculptural” city.

But, of course, the most complex multi-level spaces have been created in the Garden Quarters residential complex with its bridges in the courtyards, the end-to-end “Road to School” and a public plaza in the center: significant height differences in the artificial terrain form at least three levels of perception and in total give a very special aesthetic tension even if you take a simple walk through the complex: it literally makes you “read” itself not just horizontally, but also vertically, examining it from top to bottom, evaluating the height and the benefits of vertical thinking. Probably, Victory Park is the most vivid example of developing the ideas first used in Garden Quarters. It will be exciting to examine it in detail after the construction is completed.

While the public part combines glass and Corten steel, the main facades of the buildings overlooking the park consist of stone and glass, the stories being grouped in twos, the verticals growing gradually thinner on the side of the park, and the glass on the rounded corners also being curvilinear, which allowed the architect to highlight the exclusiveness of its “precious” texture: the futuristic glass looks like some kind of force field, stretched between the slender verticals.

The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


The lintels will be coated with light-beige dolomite, whose color matches that of the facades of the Victory Museum – yet another tribute to the proximity of the memorial park. Let us note, however, that their color is slightly brighter than that of the “Stalin” houses of the Kutuzovsky Avenue, yet still reminiscent of them; besides, observing the height restrictions, the 10-11 story houses pick up the height of the neighboring buildings. However, due to the fact that Victory Park stands 330 meters back from the avenue’s redline, from this side it looks like a remote city block, partially obscured by the hill: the houses even look as if they were lower in height than the St. George Chapel in the foreground. Thus, we can quite agree with Sergey Skuratov’s words about the complex “dissolving” in space – in the current state, the line of the houses coming up to the Poklonnaya Hill breaks abruptly, and after Victory Park is completed, it will receded gradually, smoothly taking on a more dispersed character – the wall will give way to an array of independent volumes with a gradient string of vertical “stele” piers, whose austere order, just as the color of the stone they are made of, is also reminiscent of the colonnades of the Victory Museum.

The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street, a project. Simulation, view from the Kutuzovsky Avenue.
Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


The apartments, many of which, matching the class of the housing, are quite spacious, up to 300 sqm in the penthouses, have panoramic windows reaching to the floor that will command beautiful park views – the best lots are on this side.

  • zooming
    1 / 3
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    2 / 3
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    3 / 3
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


The yard facades are different from the outside ones: they will be decorated with reddish metal, Corten or copper; the close grid, vertically oriented, looks like crystal cell – as if the “limestone rocks” of the houses were slit through, and a yard appeared in the gorge. Above its hills and trees, however, overhang, like rocky cantilevers, balconies of different outsets – yet another level of space perception, this time for the residents of the apartments.

  • zooming
    1 / 4
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    2 / 4
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    3 / 4
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects
  • zooming
    4 / 4
    The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
    Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


The facades of the three longitudinal buildings on the south side are designed slightly differently – the copper is more abundant here, the piers are wider, and the penthouses are accentuated. Even here, however, we can say that copper meets stone in a gradient rhythm that echoes the pattern of the side facades of the towers.

The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


The House on Fonchenko Brothers Street
Copyright: © Sergey Skuratov architects


Summing up, one can say that the project of Victory Park Residences has a lot of Sergey Skuratov’s signature techniques about it – so much so that, probably, one can already say that Moscow is getting a whole number of premium-class residential complexes authored by this architect. They all are characterized by close attention to the surrounding landscape – in a sense, they “grow into” the land site or “grow out” of it, forming around themselves sophisticated urban space – unusual for Moscow people, yet defined both by the context and the specifics of the territory, which means that the building “takes root”. Another peculiar feature is a combination of rather laconic modern shapes with texture, color, and plastique diversity: if we take a tour around these buildings, they will always feel slightly different when viewed from a different angle – the facades, just as the multilevel space of the stylobate, will leave you without a chance of getting bored – yet at the same time they are rather reserved-looking. This is exactly the kind of house that should be built on the border of Moscow’s main memorial park – whose vicinity is doubtlessly more than obliging.

 

29 December 2020

Julia Tarabarina

Written by:

Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov
Headlines now
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”.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
​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.
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.
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.
​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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Alexandra Kuzmina: “Working is easy when the rules are the same for everyone”
The subject matter of Moscow Region’s booth and presentations at Zodchestvo Festival was the concept of “Integrated Land Development”, and for a good reason: this task is very challenging, very relevant, and Moscow Region has already accumulated quite a formidable experience in this regard. In this article, we are speaking to the main architect of the region: about master plans and who makes them, about where you obtain resources for creating a comfortable environment, about her favorite projects, about why there are so few good architects, and what we should do with the bad ones.
The Cemetery: Inside and Outside
The workshop organized by the Genplan Institute of Moscow scored one of the two first places at the “Open City” festival. Its subject is reorganization of municipal cemeteries. Two action plans were proposed, diametrically opposite: one for the downtown and one for the suburbs.
Our Everything
Who is Alexey Shchusev? In the last couple of weeks, since the architect’s 150th birthday, different individuals have answered this question differently. The most detailed, illustrated, and elegantly presented response is an exhibition held in two buildings of the Museum of Architecture on Vozdvizhenka. Four curators, a year and a half of work performed by the entire museum, and exhibition design by Sergey Tchoban and Alexandra Sheiner – in this article, we take you on a tour of the exhibition and show what’s what in it.
For Mental Reboot
At the architectural competition held in 2023 in Novosibirsk, the project by GORA Architects – a pedestrian bridge leading to the town of Bor – was awarded the “Golden Capital” prize. In this country, more than a hundred pedestrian bridges are constructed each year. What makes the Bor bridge different?
Gold Embroidery
A five-story housing complex designed by Stepan Liphart in Kazan, responds to the stylistically diverse context with its form, both integral and agile, and as for the vicinity of the “Ekiyat” movie theater, the complex responds to it with a semblance of theater curtain folds, and active plastique of its balconies, that bear some resemblance to theater boxes. Even if excessively pompous a little bit, the complex does look fresh and modern. One will have a hard time finding Art Deco elements in it, even though the spirit of the 1930s, run through the filter of neo-modernism, is still clearly felt, just as a twist of the Occident.
Reconciliation
The restoration of the Salt Warehouse for the Zvenigorod Museum, on the one hand, was quite accurately implemented according to the design of the People’s Architect, and, on the other hand, it was not without some extra research and adjustments, which, in this case, was quite beneficial for the project. The architects discovered the original paint color, details of the facades, and studied the history of rebuilds of this building. As a result, the imposing character of the empire building, the oldest one in the city, and the differences of later additions were accurately revealed. Most importantly, however, the city got a new cultural and public space, which is already “working” in full swing.
From Moscow to Khabarovsk
This year, the works submitted by the students of the Genplan Institute of Moscow included a proposal for revitalizing Moscow’s “Pravda” complex with its structures designed by Ilia Golosov, landscaping an East Siberian town, located a 12-hour drive away from the nearest big city, and three versions of turning a derelict “pioneer camp” into an educational hub, similar to “Sirius”. Two sites out of three have an interested client, so chances are that the students’ works will be ultimately implemented.