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Published on Archi.ru (https://archi.ru) |
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| 06.05.2025 | |
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The Colorful City |
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Julia Tarabarina |
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| Architect: | |
| Sergey Pereslegin | |
| Nikolay Pereslegin | |
| Studio: | |
| Kleinewelt Architekten | |
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While working on a large-scale project in Moscow’s Kuntsevo district – one that has yet to be given a name – Kleinewelt Architekten proposed not only a diverse array of tower silhouettes in “Empire-style” hues and a thoughtful mix of building heights, creating a six-story “neo-urbanist” city with a block-based layout at ground level, but also rooted their design in historical and contextual reasoning. The project includes the reconstruction of several Stalin-era residential buildings that remain from the postwar town of Kuntsevo, as well as the reconstruction of a 1953 railway station that was demolished in 2017. The new development is planned for blocks 47 and partially 48 of the Kuntsevo district. To the west, lies an industrial zone and the so-called “Rabochy Poselok” (“Workers’ Settlement”) – formerly the town of Kuntsevo, incorporated into Moscow back in 1960 and now largely built up with 14-story prefab housing. To the east, across Rublyovskoe Highway and closer to the city center, high-rises from the expanding Big City cluster are proliferating. Just to the south, a toll road – the Bagration Avenue expressway – runs along a tall elevated section screened off from view, yet another feature of the growing megalopolis.  Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDA Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDAAmidst this varied urban fabric, Block 47 has preserved several modest Stalin-era buildings with molded cornices and a recognizable stucco décor – the kind that was built to house factory workers returning to Moscow from evacuation to Siberia after the World War Two.  Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDATheir architecture can hardly be called exceptional, but it is surely instantly recognizable – evoking the conservative atmosphere of pre-industrialized postwar construction, with its slow and quiet pace of life. The site is being developed by Sreda.  Andrey Fetisov, head of the development company SREDA It was important for us to create a continuation of historic Kuntsevo – to preserve its scale, rhythm, and atmosphere. We approached the task in such a way that the future project would not erase but rather reveal and enhance the spirit of the place. Throughout the process, we worked closely with the project’s architects, fine-tuning each element to achieve the right tone. The design, commissioned by Sreda, was created by Kleinewelt Architekten – a firm known for its diverse high-rise silhouettes but also noted for restoration and revitalization projects, such as the renovation of the “Young Pioneers Palace” on Sparrow Hills, to name but one example.  Nikolay Pereslegin, Kleinewelt Architekten The project involves recreating 1950s architecture along Polotskaya Street. This row of buildings sets the proportions and character for the entire six-story tier of the new blocks. While they no longer replicate Stalin-era architecture, they resemble it in materials, window size, and façade detailing. The silhouette of the development is composed of two layers. The lower one – six stories tall and human-scaled – evokes the atmosphere of the historic city center. The upper, high-rise layer corresponds to the scale of a metropolis. The tall buildings appear to “hover” above the “stone” base volumes, creating a beautiful contrast. So! For this project, the architects proposed to rebuild several of the Stalin-era buildings in Block 47 in their original forms – with arches, window surrounds, balconies, and bracketed cornices. Not all of them – just a selection, and one story taller. The architects’ rationale lies in the historical layout of the central part of the Workers’ Settlement in the postwar period, when Block 47 was still a low-rise periphery, built up with similar but six-story buildings.  Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDAIn other words, this is not about exact reconstruction like recreating monuments, but rather a partial revival – a reminder of the character of the environment that existed here 60-70 years ago. At the same time, it’s hard to argue with the developer’s statement that “1950s buildings are now outdated both technically and morally, and no longer meet modern standards”. Imagining the archaeological restoration of ordinary buildings without heritage status is difficult – it’s cost-inefficient and hardly justifiable. Such investments are better reserved for truly unique historical monuments and heritage sites, not examples of typical urban fabric. Also planned is the reconstruction of the “Workers’ Settlement” railway station, originally built in 1953 and demolished in 2017. The station will be rebuilt in a new location: previously it stood along the railway line in the middle of the settlement, but the new design integrates it into one of the new blocks – no longer as a “gateway to Kuntsevo”, but rather as an entrance to the neighborhood itself. Its function shifts, but not entirely – the pavilion retains its symbolic role as a ceremonial entry point and public space.  Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDA Kutuzovsky blockCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDANevertheless, since the pavilion lacked heritage protection and was demolished in 2017, its reconstruction stems from the client’s goodwill and the architects’ persuasiveness. Through this revival, the project gains a pedestrian-level urban layer: arches, storefronts, promenades – and above it all, in the distance, something tall rises, something you have to crane your neck to see…  Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDA Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDA Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDA Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDARebuilding historic structures in their original form is not new to Moscow: in the 2000s and 2010s, this approach was often applied to pre-revolutionary buildings demolished during or before the construction of new complexes. These were hybrid solutions – new structures “pushing” historic facades in front of them like a kind of “pass” into a new reality. There are several ways in which this project departs from previous practice. First, “Stalin-era” apartment blocks – especially such typical ones – have never or almost never been restored before. Second, the standard approach was usually applied only to the city center and to individual buildings. In this project, entire buildings are being restored, not just facades. And they’re being integrated not into a new architectural volume, but into the city itself – heterogeneous by definition. The same is true of blocks 47 and 48 in particular: they are not homogeneous either. Next to these plastered buildings, there are five-story blocks made of silicate brick and concrete panels; together, they form a mid-rise “frame” around a green core with a school and two kindergartens. In 2004, a “point” 17-story tower was added next to the school. Another was built to the northeast. And still further north of Block 47, one tower reaches 25 stories, while another – wrapped like a seashell – ranges from 3 to 23 stories on Molodogvardeyskaya Street.  Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDA Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDASo while the district was originally based on a “Stalin-era” block layout, it has since evolved naturally, albeit with some chaotic insertions. One could argue that the new Kuntsevo project is the opposite of the spotty, disordered development of past decades – because here, the developer has consolidated a territory and is treating it as a whole, with allowances made for the school and the later towers. In the design by Kleinewelt Architekten, the new buildings are arranged in two main rows – left and right of a green space made up of areas not included in the project site, along with a park where buildings along Yekaterina Budanova Street are slated for demolition and, importantly, are not to be replaced with new construction. This green strip forms an axis that points toward the 25-story tower built in 2009. All of the rows stretch from Bagration Avenue northward to Molodogvardeyskaya Street; the towers will predominantly have a north-to-south orientation.  Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDAThus, the architects are replacing the closed square structure with open linear layouts reminiscent of the street lines on St. Petersburg’s Vasilyevsky Island as laid out in the Petrine era. They also open up the block’s structure laterally by introducing small but frequent cuts: the area gets three cross-block boulevards and two additional pedestrian passages. It is upon this updated spatial framework that the towers “grow” – their varying heights responding to the urban context. The tallest, in particular, is set to rise at the end of the boulevard aligned with Kuntsevskaya Street in the Workers’ Settlement, creating a dialogue with its street grid.  Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDAThe five restored buildings on Polotskaya Street will retain their hip roofs without any additions. Their skyline, when seen from the Workers’ Settlement, will likely resemble the silhouettes of the Moscow City towers rising behind the five-story buildings on Shelepikhinskaya Embankment – a view you can observe 6 kilometers due east. The restored Stalin-era buildings set the scale and color palette for all the volumes on the lower tier – terracotta-toned and comfortably six stories tall. The quality of the new facades, however, is expected to be higher, with a more restrained articulation: no arches or cornices here. Instead, there are balconies, finely detailed facades, and a “white-stone” base floor beneath five stories of brickwork.  Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDA Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDAThe terracotta tones vary only slightly; the height remains consistent, and the facades are animated with projections. Above this, two-story setbacks and narrower volumes form sturdy bases for the towers that rise above. These towers differ in height and color; they feature layered façades, recesses, terraces, and balconies. Some are jagged, visually composite – reminiscent of Jenga towers.  Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDAWhat the towers have in common is their color tone: cheerful but restrained, in pastel shades.  Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDA Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDAThe “empire” tones. We know that Empire-style Moscow used several muted colors: yellow, green, blue, pink, gray – all washed-out, never excessively bright. I wouldn’t say the towers replicate those Empire tones exactly – nor is it easy to say with certainty what those colors were in the early 19th century. But that’s not even the point: these hues are current while also evoking something vaguely familiar. It’s no coincidence that the phrase “Stalin-era Empire Style” pops up now and then in the project description.  Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDA Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDA Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDA Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDA Development concept for blocks 47 and 48 in KuntsevoCopyright: © Kleinewelt Architekten / provided by SREDAThus, by growing into the urban fabric through alternation with already occupied plots, the project offers a meaningful morphology for a large portion of Kuntsevo. It’s based on the “block-based” approach to regularity that was practiced here in the 1950s-1970s, later replaced by the “micro-district” model, and then by scattershot infill development. The project proposes a return to the original 1950s morphology – but only partially, and not primarily in terms of building height. The fact that we’re getting a six-story city below and a multitude of towers above is obvious and aligns with current trends in Moscow’s development. What’s more interesting is this: the project replaces the closed-off frameworks of “basic” block structures with a more complex urban composition, increasing the levels of permeability and layering of views and openings. The result is a lower tier with a distinctly “neo-urbanist” uniformity. In this sense, the project responds to the conversations and experiments of the 2010s, when the most relevant and forward-thinking method for constructing large residential complexes was rightly considered to be a mix of building heights – 6, 9, 15 stories and up. One example is the 2017 pilot renovation competition, which aimed to propose sensible reconstruction strategies for Moscow’s panel-built neighborhoods. That competition went nowhere – aside from a follow-up exhibition – and was followed by another contest focused only on facades, with no serious spatial or volumetric ambitions... After that, towers on podiums came back into fashion. The idea of a varied-height city, where the base level of 6-9 stories creates a city with streets and a human scale – let’s be honest – faded into the background after all the talk in the 2010s. But Kleinewelt not only revive this concept in the context of their undeniably high-rise project – they also find historical grounding for it by restoring a portion of the buildings slated for demolition. One more important point: the project is currently at the stage of an urban development concept. It presents an idea for the future of a large residential complex, and detailed layouts should not be expected at this stage. |
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