The complex consists of two ten-storey buildings of different lengths, located perpendicular to each other. This is due, on the one hand, to the strong elongation of the site, on the other, to the fact that it is located at the intersection of two busy highways: the Moscow Ring Road and the Rublevo-Uspenskoe highway. When driving along any of these highways, it will be possible to simultaneously observe the slightly broken outline of the glass plane of one body, and the copper lace of the end end of the other.
It seems that when creating this project, the authors set a goal - nothing superfluous. The result is two very large volumes, similar to each other. Architects define them as "boulders", raised - levitating - above the ground on shiny legs wrapped in curved glass. The bodies are so similar to each other that it seems that they were cut off by some giant knife from something very large, like loaves of bread from a loaf. This big one was glass inside, but outside it had copper skin - so it turned out that on the "sections" - the facades are entirely glass, and around them they were wrapped with a golden copper "ribbon". The contours of the tape are composed of straight lines, pointed corners, which together makes even the passing motorist viewer feel the "pull" of the metal. But when "cut" on the glass planes, "crumbs" remained - their role is played by "cold" glasses suspended from the facade from the outside, turned at different angles - some of them reflect the sky, some of the earth. These elements are entirely decorative - their role is to bring gigantic glass surfaces to life. But they look like open transoms - if we recall, for example, the stained-glass window of the garage built by Konstantin Melnikov on Suschevsky Val, then it turns out very similar to Melnikov.
So, the project is very restrained in details: pseudo-"transoms" on glass surfaces and openwork of copper ends - perhaps all that can be noted from small forms. The main impression is made by the volume, the shape of the two cases is very solid. And like any solid form, it pushes for design comparisons - forces us to juxtapose something large - a ten-story building - with something familiar and smaller. It is easier to understand these buildings this way, and therefore analogies are born of their own accord. So, the housings are a bit like post-war radiolas on legs, wrapped in strips of dark red plywood - wonderful sources of foreign voices and new music (compare: "it was getting dark, only the voice receiver was quiet and bright").
But their contours are not rounded, but acute-angled. Simple figures seemed to be "jerked from their place" under the influence of invisible attraction, as a result of which the lateral lines of the facades bent and froze. This rush, combined with the kinking of the ends, recalls another object from that romantic era - American cars with "fins". The use of so-called "fins" - special body protrusions - has defined automotive design in the United States, and therefore around the world, for almost a decade. The fin style is an automotive romance from the 50s and 60s. Brilliant Fords and Packards, speed, freedom and rock and roll. And also - the joy of driving, already forgotten in Moscow traffic jams.
Since there is practically no other development nearby, except for a gas station and a five-storey office building not far from a smaller building, the whole complex “communicates” only with the forest and road bands. It is both associative and actually designed for movement, the maximum effect of perception of volumes is achieved from the window of a car driving at a good speed. This is confirmed by computer modeling of the movement of a car on the highway past the complex - by the way, Sergey Kiselev & Partners has been checking all its projects with an animated 3D model for a long time. This allows for greater accuracy.
The copper ends are clearly visible from afar. According to the authors, the idea of using copper did not appear immediately. The customer of the project, Weststroymet, is engaged in metal rolling, the use of metal elements in the decoration was supposed to reflect the direction of its activity. Initially, they wanted to use patinated rust, the popularity of this material among Moscow developers is growing day by day, but then they abandoned it due to possible difficulties in operation. Then they decided to make the "wrapper" of the facades copper. More precisely, a yellowish-golden alloy of copper and aluminum Tecu-Gold will be used here - a material that has not yet been certified in Russia, which, of course, adds to the architects' work, "suffering for beauty" regarding the approval of a new cladding subspecies here.
Both buildings stand on one stylobate, which forms the basement. Both the stylobate and its solid fences are faced with natural stone, light gray granite. There are no basements, since the grounds are rather damp and inconvenient, therefore various technical rooms are located on the basement floor. The buildings are also connected at the ground floor level with a warm passage. This common interior space will be converted into a public area that will house canteens, a restaurant, a bank branch and small shops, as well as lobbies and elevator entrances. We can say that this closed space imitates the street environment, because there are no other public areas near the administrative and business center, and the external design of the inner area of the complex is a space of delimitation between car entrances to parking lots, sidewalks and lawns.
It is also interesting to note that for Sergey Kiselev & Partners this project is the first one to go outside the city limits (all other projects, about 300 in the entire history of the company, were made for Moscow, with the exception of one very early and uncharacteristic one). Going beyond the line, however, is conditional, since the address of the complex is Rublevo-Uspenskoe highway, building 1. Moscow is nearby. And yet - the architectural image is being transformed under the influence of the Moscow Ring Road and the automobile environment. The cars are the real context for these buildings, not the surrounding buildings. Which is logical - the cars now have a design perfected to the smallest detail, and it is not a sin to compare with them, they constitute the real context here.
In general, we can say that such an architecture of movement is simply impossible in the city center, its beauty will be lost in it, it will become irrelevant, like a car jammed in a standing stream of cars. But here, on the outskirts of Moscow, simple, aspiring forms create an amazing sense of freedom in the beholder. Usually architecture frees a person vertically, rushing upward. The complex on Rublevo-Uspenskoe highway symbolizes the rarer freedom of movement - horizontally.
