When the architects of A. Asadov's workshop, commissioned by Peresvet-Invest, began working on a competition project for this village, they learned that Zaha Hadid was going to participate in the competition. Subsequently, the participation of the prima donna was canceled, however, the likelihood of such a rivalry, according to Alexander Asadov's own admission, stimulated the authors to search for a holistic image, a non-standard plastic idea. The village was turned into a kind of shell with a pearl inside and named accordingly - "Ilyinka's Pearl".
Nowadays, as a rule, the real estate name either does not correlate in any way with architecture, or it is far-fetched. "Pearl" by A. Asadov's workshop is not the case. Here, the entire design process, from the architectural interpretation of the proposed site's shape to the name of the village, is subordinated to one single idea - the creation of a microcosm enclosed in an imaginary "shell" with a pearl inside.
This image emerged at the very beginning of the design work, when the architects were offered a building plot. The silhouette of a shell fits perfectly into its broken trapezoidal shape. It was also important that the relief of the site gradually decreased - as a result, the idea of an "amphitheater" layout emerged - houses descend in concentric rows to the community center with a park and an artificial lake.
The center and culmination of the village is an artificial lake with the pearl of the restaurant floating in it, covered with a mesh, golden and translucent structure that sparkles in the sun. The "Pearl" becomes a beacon for the entire village, rays of light radiate from it, which unite the surrounding buildings into one whole.
The semicircle of the community center became the setting for the “pearl”. The framing consists of a park, school and kindergarten buildings, a stadium, an administration building, as well as separate sectional houses. These houses are intended for young people who are not worried about the silence and are eager to be involved in the social life of the village. The houses are triangular in plan and each of them consists of several apartments.
Then the rows of townhouses begin. With the same type of layout of their sections, the architects tried to diversify the silhouette of the facades as much as possible. Townhouses whimsically wriggle, picking up the undulating pattern of each other's roofs and thereby imitating the relief of the shell.
The next row is four-leafed houses, in each "petal" of which there is one separate apartment on each floor. In total, four volumes are obtained, gathered around a glass elevator shaft located in the center - from where a wooden bridge leads to each apartment. According to Andrey Asadov, “the typology is a combination of private houses and sectional towers, i.e. here several private houses are piled on top of each other."
The outer contour of the village is formed by a very long house - its length is about one and a half kilometers. The house marks the border of the site and protects the internal "amphitheater" from the external spontaneous buildings, of which there are already quite a lot around. The house wriggles whimsically, mimicking the ribbed surface of the sink. Its first floors are equipped with terraces for trees and flower beds - here any free space is used for landscaping, even if it is the space between the upper floors. Part of the roof has also been turned into a green park.
The theme of the shell is also supported by the layout of the roads - motorways pass along the perimeter of each block, limiting their territory, and pedestrian green boulevards are located in the center. Thus, cars hardly disturb the inhabitants of the settlement "microcosm". This scheme, modern and environmentally friendly, was worked out in the already built workshop of A. Asadov in the village "Barvikha-club". According to Andrey Asadov, then "this scheme was successfully implemented and justified itself." Now architects are actively using this technique in their new works - in a similar way, the movement is organized in the project of a new quarter south of Domodedovo, which we have already written about. The environmentally friendly transport scheme has come to the place here too - it delineates the boundaries and protects the inside of the "shell".
The village with a pearl is carefully orchestrated. Here, as in a theater, each building plays its assigned role, working for the overall image. A very curious image: he simultaneously offers realtors a "full package of services" - architecture plus a marketing ploy. On the other hand, in this image you can see a very accurate, almost literal embodiment of the main theme of all the new settlements near Moscow - after all, each of them, in essence, is a kind of shell, an attempt to fence off some territory from the surrounding spontaneous buildings and create a comfortable, cozy, a pleasant space for life, a kind of "pearl" protected from the outside world by strong walls.
