For the construction of the future recreational complex, a site was chosen far from any large settlements. It is a huge field with a slight relief in the direction of the reservoir, at the very edge of which a strip of mixed forest stretches, visually separating the field from the water. The impressive scale of the site and the absence of any buildings on it provided the architects with a unique opportunity to design the future resort without regard to restrictions. This situation inspired the DNA workshop so much that as a result, as many as three options for the layout of the recreational area were developed. According to Konstantin Khodnev, each of the resulting projects has the right to life and can be implemented. But for the competition "Golden Section - 2009" the first option was nevertheless declared, as the most spectacular, making a strong impression on the viewer. With it we will begin our story about the project.
As conceived by the customers, this complex will offer both weekend wellness programs and full-fledged courses designed for several days or even weeks. That is why the projected recreational complex includes the building of a luxury hotel, and detached hotel bungalows, as well as cottages intended for longer stay of vacationers.
The field with its picturesque landscape was interpreted by the architects as the core of the composition, around which all the resort's facilities are fanned out. In order not to disturb the natural relief, the motor road connecting the highway and the hotel is run along the edge of the field and makes a spectacular loop. The space inside this loop is supposed to be designed as a landscape park planted with flowers or agricultural crops.
Echoing the smooth bend of the roadway, the hotel's stylobate, common to its four buildings, also resembles a semicircle in the plan, open on the field. Using the relief difference existing in this place, the architects partially bury the central part of the stylobate in the ground, turn the right "flank" into a flat, completely green ramp, and the left edge, on the contrary, is raised on supports. Such a solution gives the complex incredible expressiveness - it seems as if the soil itself was stratified under the influence of some natural disaster and formed part of the structure.
The stylobate itself is designed in the form of two horizontal plates, between which a rather narrow strip of glass facade, decorated with thin wooden columns arranged in a deliberately chaotic manner, is launched. From a distance it may seem that these "wooden sticks" are the only thing that keeps the massive concrete "doors" from collapsing. Such apparent fragility and transparency of the structure dissolves it in its natural environment. However, in their desire to design the building as part of the landscape, the architects went even further: the stylobate is an alternation of closed and open spaces, and the latter work not only as traditional light lanterns, but also as a kind of patio, where grass and trees grow, and snow lies in winter.
Glass wells in the stylobate are located between the four buildings of the hotel, which rise on it by 5 floors. The ratio of the removed and built-up volumes sets a rhythm with a high amplitude, and the architects themselves compare hotel buildings with trees, whose massive crowns are swaying in the wind. The designers were faced with the difficult task of avoiding excessive height in the appearance of the hotel and at the same time opening its buildings to the surface of the reservoir, separated from the field, as already mentioned, by a narrow forest belt - and they were able to find the optimal combination of height and shape that does not contradict the general idea of the unity of the complex with nature. The facades of the hotel buildings are noticeably different from each other: those that face the field are solved more concisely, while those that are oriented towards the water are subject to obvious asymmetry and are decorated with a scattering of glass balconies.
In general, the first version of the hotel turned out to be very striking from the point of view of the general compositional planning idea and architectural solution. The other two variants of the hotel, designed by the architects of DNA, are not so effective at first glance, but from the point of view of originality and practicality, the idea is in no way inferior to it.
The second version of the hotel was born from the assumption that the architectural object in the natural environment should be minimally noticeable. Guided by this logic, the architects decided to use the terrain not to raise the hotel, as it was in the first version, but, on the contrary, to completely "bury" it in the ground and make it part of the hill. From the side of the forest and the reservoir, three terraces with hotel rooms are cut into the relief, each of which can be considered as a country house with its own plot of land, the role of which is played by the underlying terrace. This solution had only one significant drawback: from the side of the field, from where the vacationers would come, the hotel was not readable at all, and the architects had to work on solving this problem separately. They borrowed a representative main façade from a traditional Russian manor: the central round tower is flanked by two extended wings, which go around an artificial lake located in the center of the field in a semicircle.
The third variant of the hotel solution, on the contrary, works out the idea of centricity, which is more generally accepted for this typology. In other words, here the hotel occupies the entire territory of the field and becomes its key element. The building is designed in the shape of a flower, where four “petal” bodies with different functions diverge from the central round volume. In the center of each volume, a closed courtyard with its own theme is designed - a Japanese garden, a courtyard for buffets, etc.
Comparing all three hotel projects, it is difficult to say which one is better and which one is worse. Yes, this, however, is not required. Each of them is a bright and integral composition that meets the task at hand, be it a dialogue with nature, complete dissolution in it, or, conversely, upholding the positions of architecture, regardless of the context. Now it's up to the customer, who will ultimately decide which of the presented concepts best suits his ideas about a real spa near Moscow.
