We are used to the fact that the context, especially in Moscow, often influences architecture in a decisive way. The recipe for "contextual" architecture includes comparing the new building with the heights of neighboring houses, their decoration, the architectural style prevailing in this quarter and many other things about which a lot has been written and said. Much less attention, as a rule, is paid to such “base” and invisible to an outsider's eye factors such as underground city communications - and they can affect the architectural image of the future building no less noticeably than contextual restrictions.
This was the case with the house on Nakhimovsky Prospekt, designed by A. Asadov's workshop. A narrow area allotted for it (a little less than a hectare) is sandwiched between a 10-storey building of a former research institute and a “strip of alienation” occupied by garage cooperatives. A pipeline crosses it approximately in the middle.
The first few months of the architects' work were spent on determining whether it was possible to move the pipeline around the site. The pipeline won, showing excellent results in all parameters, i.e. the cost of changing its routing was close to the budget for the entire building. Therefore, instead of a single plate, the architects from A. Asadov's workshop placed two towers on the site, the configuration and size of the base of which were also set based on objective factors. On the other hand, the architects were able to choose the heights of the towers almost independently, i.e. after they were selected by specialists of landscape-visual analysis.
In the interval between the zones of influence of underground communications and overground visual connections, the creative thought of the designers broke free. To compensate for the lost mono-volume, the towers were united by a common stylobate, raising it above the ground to a height of eight meters. The stylobate looks like a bridge connecting two neighboring buildings. In addition to it, two more bridges were thrown between the towers.
This project was created in 2005 and was then intended for the cultural center of the Republic of Adjara. At the end of 2006, relations between Russia and Georgia deteriorated - formally, the Transcaucasian republic changed its mind about building a cultural and business center in Moscow - and the site was put up for auction. The winner of the auction with the help of 20.1 million rubles (this is the amount the applicant had to add to the base price of the object set by the city authorities at 679.9 million rubles) was the CJSC Peresvet-Invest. The city gave her the right to build here not a cultural and business complex, but an office and residential complex with a kindergarten and an underground parking lot. Compared to the previous project, the total area of the future building has been increased, while the number of storeys, on the contrary, has been reduced. The developer did not have the right to build a building higher than 27 floors and more than 48.9 thousand square meters, of which about 7.3 thousand square meters. (90 one- and two-room apartments) remained outside the city for distribution among those on the waiting list.
The new investor did not change the designer and the architects from A. Asadov's studio continued working on the project, or rather began its reconstruction.
The change in the function and culturological affiliation of the customer did not in any way affect the volumetric-spatial and compositional decisions dictated by the specifics of the site, but it had a significant impact on the external appearance of the complex. There is less futurism in it, more solidity. Glass and stone on the walls and protruding blocks are reversed. Instead of stone towers, from which shining crystals used to protrude, a "glass knight" in "stone armor" appeared. This is the impression one gets when looking at the volumes of smoky-gray glass, "wrapped" in perforated shells.
Lightweight bridges widened to become habitable Hanging Gardens. There are two-storey apartments in them, the outer walls of which will be made according to the technology of a double facade, and on the flat roofs, as well as on the roof of the stylobate, a real lawn with trees will be arranged.
The span between the towers is about 35 meters. Reinforced concrete beams up to 3 meters high will be laid as the main load-bearing elements at the bottom of the bridges. To prevent deformations in places where the beams rest on the longitudinal bearing walls of the towers, the designers of the Promstroyproekt Institute and the architects of A. Asadov's Workshop have developed a unique system, thanks to which two buildings, connected to each other at the levels of the stylobate and bridges, will be as stable as if it was one body. Thus, the designers took revenge for the underground force majeure, proving that the shortcomings of the site can be overcome, even for this it will be necessary to come up with and build a "flying ship".
