Over the last decade, Samara has become known, among other things, for its active high-rise construction – the grand-scale housing complexes are appearing even in the center of the city next to the Volga River. It is enough to take a brief walk around the city to appreciate the alternation of the bourgeois buildings of the 19th century and the new high-rise inclusions that quite recently replaced their old wooden neighbors.

The land site on the Moskovskaya street next to the Moskovskaya metro station, however, is quite different. It is part of the spacious territory of the former Bearing plant GPZ-4, intended to be turned into a residential area, i.e. an example of post-industrial redevelopment and transforming industrial estate into an urban fabric. The former plant is surrounded by the 1970’s construction, and is situated, speaking in general terms, at the border between the historical center and the Soviet part of Samara; a kilometer and a half in a straight line in the direction of the Volga, there is yet another large plant – the Maslennikov Factory, and its “wholesale kitchen and restaurant” building has been recently renovated to host a branch of the Tretyakov gallery.

The outlines of the territory of the former Bearing plan form a triangle because the Moscow Highway makes a 45° turn in the direction of the river. The entrance to the city from the side of Moscow and from the Kurumoch airport is hailed by the sharp nose of the triangle – by all the parameters, it looks like it lends itself for an entrance highlight, such as a tower or propylaea. All the more so because the left half of the “propylaea” at the fork is already there – this is the shopping and office center “Vertical” that features a 27-story tower, which is currently considered to be the city’s second highest. 
 

The roundabout before the territory of the Bearing Plant, view in the direction of the city center, left of the Vertical mall
Samara – Yandex Maps

Judging by the views commanded by Vertical, the residents’ apartments will also command sweeping views: the Volga with its islands and backwaters, as well as the hills of the “Samarskaya Luka” national park on the opposite bank, and the Zhiguli Mountains in the distance.

Hence, it comes as no surprise that the maximum allowed height of construction here is 125m. 

In 2020, a Samara-based developer held a competition for the concept of a high-rise multifunctional complex that will be built in the most advantageous of locations – in the triangular “nose” part of the territory of the former plan, a site with an area of 1.04 hectares. From the very start, the height was set at a maximum. The competition was won by Moscow-based T+T architects led by Sergey Trukhanov. Currently, the architects are working on the detailed concept.

Sergey Trukhanov, Т+Т Architects

The client set the task of offering interesting architectural solutions both at the competition and during the subsequent revision. We had to design, if not an iconic building, then at least a noticeable landmark, modern and matching the business class of the project.
I should note that the customer supported our original idea with “swivel” cantilevered structures, an emphasis on the plastique of the side-end facades, despite the fact that its implementation, of course, would be fraught with certain challenges, although they cannot be called prohibitively complex.… In particular, the “swivel” places yielded particularly spacious apartments; had it been without the swivels, we could have cut out smaller apartment, but the architectural solution turned out to be more important – we, as the authors of the project, of course, are very happy with this approach.