The house will be built next to the student dormitory of the Moscow Architectural Institute (the Architectural Institute is a co-investor in the construction), on a triangular section in front of the intersection of Ordzhonikidze and Vavilov streets. The dorm is a good example of 70s modernism; the measured rows of tape windows, which look dotted because of the vertical bridges, the geometric simplicity of two volumes merged at one point, at the end cut by a thin strip of glass into two imaginary plates - the building is not one of the rank and file, which should be the nest of young architects. However, now it is not in the best, to put it mildly, condition.
The architectural dormitory became the starting point of the project and the main component of its urban environment, otherwise consisting of industrial zones - a taxi park and an idle plant named after Ordzhonikidze. Moreover, the project provides for a very delicate reconstruction, or rather even reorganization, of dormitories - the frames will be replaced, the facades will be put in order. The architects found themselves from radical interference from the very beginning - Nikolai Lyzlov approaches this building as an interesting monument of his era, which has recently passed away, but no less valuable from this: “… well, says the architect, that we are now concerned about the fate of the Russian avant-garde, but it seems that that it is time to take care of the fate of the Russian post-avant-garde, the seventies,”says the architect. And also: "Yes, we love this architecture!"
The new building will be higher than the 16-storey building of the MARHI dormitory, but not by much. It is impossible to build a high tower here, although the site is surrounded by boring industrial buildings, but a little further away there are architectural monuments, the Donskoy Monastery and constructivist quarters. Initially, the architects wanted to make the new house a stepped one, gradually rising from the hostel, but in the end they settled on a more collected and compact L-shaped volume. Between the two buildings - the old and the new, a garage will be built, one floor protruding from the ground and forming an unobtrusive stylobate. On the roof of the garage there will be a courtyard with children's swing slides, raised above the level of the sidewalk and thus separated from casual passers-by. One wing of the building is cut by a very high passage, the elongated proportions of which, says Nikolai Lyzlov, are caused by insufficient insolation in this part of the house; apartments cannot be accommodated here, so the space above the passage is left empty. However, this is a good place for the artist's studio, the architect argues: if there were a customer, in the upper part of the arch it would be possible to arrange a spacious, two-storey high, workshop.
So, the house looks like the younger brother of its 70s neighbor. It is similar: with the laconic volume, shape and proportions of dotted-ribbon horizontal windows, and at the same time it is not similar, it is immediately obvious that it is thirty years younger. The house has been changed with the help of an asymmetrical decoration: rectangular gray-black spots scattered on the facades, the Brownian composition of which is picked up by glass bay windows, large, combining two floors. Behind them are the best apartments with glass view walls. Chaotic "coloring", without intruding into the "body" of the building, greatly changes the impression of architecture. Simplicity disappears, movement appears, the form loses its obviousness and laconicism. Initially, the architects wanted to paint the dormitory with similar rectangles, but then abandoned this idea, completely preserving its appearance. As a result, an ensemble of two buildings appears on a relatively small area, clearly revealing to the attentive viewer the history of "pure" modernism of our time: here is the beginning, but here is the continuation, downright mini-reserve of good modernism.
