ABD Architects is very different from the overwhelming majority of design bureaus operating on the Russian market - both in the structure of the office organization and in the approach to the creative process. It is no secret that construction design is a multidisciplinary process involving many participants in various specialties. In design institutes created in Soviet times and existing today, most disciplines are usually represented on the staff: architects, engineers of various profiles (designers, mechanics, electricians, etc.), developers of related sections, economists, etc. The role of the main project coordinator in them, by tradition, the ISU is performed, and many private design bureaus that have appeared over the 20 years of the architectural market in Russia have followed the same path: it is the ISU that still manages the design process wherever there are full-time engineers. By the way, many directors of modern commercial design organizations came out of the GIPs.
Boris Levyant acted differently, and the ABD Architects bureau he founded is one of the first examples of a specialized, strictly architectural office. Obviously, early acquaintance with foreign experience had an effect - although Boris Levyant himself is sure that the know-how lies on the surface: a narrow specialization significantly increases efficiency. “And it's a competitive advantage,” he adds, “since we don't need to sell our in-house subcontractors to the client. We attract top-class specialists in difficult cases, without causing downtime for our own employees, and save the client's money by using a cheaper subcontractor if aerobatics is not needed. At the same time, ABD Architects always tries to act as a general designer. A natural question arises: who coordinates all the work? Moreover, you have to manage not your own personnel, but several sub-design companies!
For this, Boris Levyant's company has project managers who are responsible for the entire administrative part of work on the object. For the first time this position was introduced into the bureau's staff about 10 years ago, and in its current form the scheme of interaction between the chief executive officer and the manager with sub-designers and the customer was worked out during the design period of the Krylatsky Hills complex, which includes a business park and a medical center. ABD Architects developed the project together with foreign partners (NBBJ and Korda-Nemeth Engineering), which required additional coordination efforts.
And if specialized architectural offices today are no longer a rarity among private Moscow bureaus, then such a developed project management institute is still only in the ADB. In most of the small workshops that have abandoned the engineering staff, professional managers have not appeared, and the entire administrative part of the business falls on the shoulders of the chief architect of the bureau and / or his chief executives. That cannot but have a negative effect on the creative aspect of the work, as it simply takes time and effort. “When a project has a manager, GAP has much more time for creative work, and he can manage 3-4 large objects at the same time,” explains Alla Feoktistova, chief project architect of the architecture department of ABD Architects. “Of the administrative obligations, the GAP only needs to go to working meetings for each of the objects, but it is the manager who prepares them, starting with the preparation of documents and ending with invitations of all the specialists necessary at this stage.”However, you shouldn't think that the manager is just the GAP's secretary who has taken over all the boring uncreative work. “GAP participates on a par with the manager in drawing up a commercial proposal and an agreement with the customer, in terms of determining the scope and timing of work, - adds Boris Stuchebryukov, - a manager without a GAP is hardly able to plan the workload of the architectural team. Therefore, both at the stage of drawing up the contract and in the future, the chief executive officer and the manager jointly form the schedule and control its implementation. But all sorts of external relations - sub-designers, customers, coordinating authorities - in our bureau, in fact, is completely within the competence of managers. And this is a significant help. “We help architects not to think about accounting, and an accountant - about architecture,” jokes Nick Barabanov, deputy general director for project management, managing managers at ABD Architects. “But in the end, the goal is not so much to relieve the GAP as to improve the quality of interaction between all project participants, including the customer.” “We work a lot with foreign customers, and for them professional management is an important factor in business culture, and the guarantee that they will be satisfied. This means they will come again, or recommend us to other customers,”says Boris Levyant.
“For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that we also have a full-time ISU. He, of course, does not design much himself, but is indispensable for coordinating the work of partner-engineers, - notes Sergey Kryuchkov, General Manager and Deputy General Director for Project Development. - We tried to build such a relationship with the main subcontractor in engineering sections so that he performed the functions of a GUI, but after a series of setbacks we realized that outsourcing management was not a working scheme. And also our GUI participates in the development of the concept - the design stage, at which the participation of an engineer, according to the Soviet tradition, is practically not provided. This allows you to avoid many alterations in the future."
Another important factor that differentiates ABD Architects from many other bureaus is its approach to the creative process. It is no secret that many modern architectural workshops successfully exist due to the charisma and creative manner of their leader, and the architects working in them are mainly engaged in honing the style of the frontman. “Our product is definitely not in the signature architecture category. I try to remind more often, - says Boris Levyant, - that ABD Architects is not “Levyant's bureau” in the creative sense. I consider myself the initial task manager and the evaluator of the resulting result. If I suddenly dislike the result, I try to analyze the origins of my negative reaction and suggest to my colleagues possible ways to adjust the project, but the architects always do all the main creative work themselves. It would be more correct to consider our bureau as a creative association of architects, each of whom has the right to vote. This is what is emphasized by the use of the word "architects" in our name, in the plural: ABD ArchitectS - ALL ABD architects.
At the same time, any architectural critic will say with confidence that the architecture of ABD Architects is very recognizable. And the secret is simple. The bureau employs bright individuals who have managed to develop a common artistic language: regardless of which of the chief executives is leading the project, the result is a high-quality and stylish object of business architecture, unmistakably identifiable as the creation of ABD Architects. “We do not deny creative and social overriding tasks, but the main task facing each of us is a competent answer to the task formulated by the customer,” says Sergey Kryuchkov. - As a rule, we design buildings intended for commercial use, and the issue of the economic efficiency of the facility is one of the most important priorities for us. We can say that the bureau has developed certain unified answers to possible customer requests, our internal know-how, which we ourselves call a certificate. So, everyone owns a diploma in ABD Architects, and this is precisely the level of quality and the service that the bureau offers on the market. This, if you will, is our main creative credo: we seriously believe that the ethical aspect of our work (that is, the fulfillment of a functional task) takes precedence over the aesthetic one. This does not mean that we do not think about the aesthetic component, but we are definitely not ready to sacrifice function for the sake of form. For example, we will not design a tower if for the sake of gaining the height of the object it is necessary to reduce the floor area and it will become ineffective.
Internal competitions are considered one of the key means of improving the quality of design at ABD Architects. Now, when due to the crisis the total number of orders has decreased, they are carried out even for small objects, and all brigades take part in such competitions. In addition, any of the company's architects can prepare their own project. “In our bureau there is no division into indisputable authorities and apprentices, we expect constant creative growth from any of our employees and are glad when these expectations are met,” says Sergey Kryuchkov. - In general, our hierarchy differs from the traditionally Soviet one. Our architectural staff is divided into architectural technicians, leading architects and chief architects, with the last 2 categories differing only in that the chief executive officer is personally and legally responsible for the project. And the development of architectural solutions can be performed by absolutely everyone who is capable of it, in any volume. If an ordinary employee comes up with a good idea and can develop it, he takes and does the project from start to finish, with minimal involvement of senior colleagues."
Another way to seriously improve competitiveness is to expand the range of services provided. Historically, ABD Architects employees have always carried out a large amount of urban planning work. “We were one of the first to whom the Moskomarkhitektura entrusted the implementation of landscape-visual analysis, the development of urban planning justifications for the placement of objects and other planning documentation,” recalls Boris Stuchebryukov. - Subsequently, the exclusive right to provide these services was left to the specialized departments of the MCA and NIIPI of the General Plan. However, the quality of their work is far from ideal, apparently due to the large workload. So old skills turn out to be very useful: we can always justify our decision and competently accompany the release of urban planning documentation. This is important for the client, as it allows you to control the quality of the source data provided by the city”.
Architects ABD Architects develop planning and land surveying projects. This is also very much in demand today, since with the onset of the crisis, the cost of maintaining a site suddenly became noticeable in the total costly part of the business, and land surveying allows you to remove roads and other sections of infrastructure from the area for which you need to pay rent and taxes. “In our work, we are moving from the development of individual construction sites to the integrated development of territories, since only this can ensure the most harmonious existence of new objects in the urban environment,” adds Sergey Kryuchkov. - In fact, the crisis forced us to engage in development, not commercial, but technical. True, in Moscow it is extremely difficult, therefore our projects of integrated development of territories are developing much more successfully in the regions - for example, in Tomsk and Lipetsk."
