The building plot is located in the depths of the block, bounded by Gilyarovskiy and Shchepkina streets, as well as Kapelsky lane. House number 37 is a two-story training center - a typical Soviet project that does not add any visual brightness to the quarter's appearance. For its intended purpose, this object has not been used for a long time and that is why it was put up for auction and sold for reconstruction. It is surrounded by higher administrative buildings, one of which belongs to the Moscow Metro, the other to the special services, and the eastern border of the site is adjacent to the park, which is part of the environmental complex of the capital. This neighborhood in many ways predetermined the functional purpose of the new object. Building housing in a dense ring of office high-rises is, at least, not humane in relation to its future inhabitants, but the office complex here suggested itself. The proximity to the metro (five minutes at a leisurely pace) and the well-established business reputation of the entire area between the Olympic Stadium and Prospekt Mira also played in favor of the customer's intentions.
The design of an object on such a crowded area, which, moreover, is almost invisible from the adjacent streets, of course, was carried out taking into account many "buts". In particular, it was clear to the architects from the very beginning that no experiments with the shape of the building were inappropriate in this case, since in such tightness they would inevitably result in a loss of useful space, while the customer set a very strict condition: he needed an office building, each floor of which could subsequently be will be leased as a whole or in separate blocks. That is why ABD Architects began their work on the appearance of the new office complex by designing a simple parallelepiped, and then tailoring it to the specific requirements of the site and the client.
The disadvantages of the site include not only its modest area and dense building of borders, but also the limited access to it. From Gilyarovskogo Street, you can only walk to the future complex, and that is not without difficulties, but from Shchepkina Street, in principle, you can drive up by car, but there is nowhere to turn around or miss an oncoming car. Meanwhile, the architects, of course, were faced with the task of observing all fire safety standards and, in particular, providing a fire entrance to the building. The road was predictably "stretched" from Shchepkina Street, but for the organization of the turning platform and the entrance to the underground parking, it was necessary to sacrifice part of the volume of the first floor.
This forced necessity prompted a figurative solution of the whole complex. Since the architects "bit off" about a fifth of the first floor, the upper levels hang over the entrance to the lobby with a spectacular console. And in order to avoid the feeling of excessive weightiness of this element, the last three floors of the complex are shifted to the level of the first floor and form a console on the opposite facade, overhanging the square. The resulting shift on the seventh-floor terrace turns into a recreational space for office workers - landscaped around the perimeter, it can turn into a summer cafe or, for example, a place for informal meetings. The flat roof of the complex is also supposed to be made exploitable, however, its improvement, rather, is carried out in the name of caring for those who work in neighboring buildings, because contemplating a green lawn underneath is much more pleasant than a dull concrete rectangle.
The facades of the office complex are completely made of glass. This is done for obvious reasons: in the conditions of such a close development, another 9-storey brick or concrete building would put an end to the perception of the park as a saving lacuna. ABD Architects have developed a special glazing system for this object - opaque and transparent panels here alternate with an offset of half the module. Such a layout gives a very interesting visual effect: from different points of view, the facades are perceived in completely different ways. The transparent and matte segments overlap each other, shuffle like cards in a deck, and as a result, the building seems light and airy, but at the same time it is completely impossible to see what is happening inside. This technique will allow you to avoid unwanted visual connections, which, it would seem, are almost inevitable in the conditions of the already mentioned tightness. This, by the way, was one of the unspoken requirements of the technical assignment - the architects had to not only provide comfort to those who would work in the office complex under construction, but also to fence off the windows of the secret institution opposite from any prying eyes.
The implementation of this project is still in question, since the district government is still pondering how humanely it is to build an office complex on the site of a children's institution. It is not for us to judge whether an educational and leisure center for schoolchildren is needed in an area where mainly administrative buildings are located. But if we talk about the humanism of architectural and planning solutions within the office typology, then the ABD Architects project certainly meets all of its requirements.
direct speech:
Said Dzhabrailov, chief architect of the project:
“One of the interesting features of this project is the specially designed double glazing system for the facade, which allows it to be used as an adjustable one. In winter, the interfacial space accumulates heat and helps to heat the building, and in summer, on the contrary, it is actively ventilated, removing excess heat from the outer wall of the building and thereby helping to significantly save energy for air conditioning.
The double-layer glass façade also plays a key role in creating the architectural appearance of the building. As already mentioned, we use transparent and frosted glass, and in the latter case, two different shades: we make the outer layer light green, and the inner one bluish, and by superimposing them on each other we get a facade that is very interesting in terms of color. At the same time, we understood that the complexity of the design we developed would remain undetected if the facades were completely made like this. Therefore, transparent, single-layer inserts appeared - they favorably emphasize the depth and multidimensionality of the main "dress" of the building."
