This project was developed as part of the development plan for seven blocks in the Sretenka area, drawn up by the SPEECH architectural studio. The masterplan by Sergei Tchoban and Sergei Kuznetsov was tasked with returning a full-fledged life to this historic district in the center of Moscow - by compacting and regenerating existing buildings, using the potential of the vacant lots existing deep in the quarter, improving the road transport network and creating a clearly readable spatial scheme. In order to diversify the architecture of new objects, several leading bureaus were invited to participate in the project - someone worked on the appearance of public spaces and commercial objects, and TPO "Reserve" received an order for a residential building. Moreover, the location of this complex did not leave Vladimir Plotkin and his team with any special options - the house was supposed to be elite, which means it would have a small number of large apartments, its own fitness club and parking, and have a bright and memorable appearance.
The allotted area has the shape of an irregular rectangle, elongated from south to north, from Bolshoy Sukharevsky lane into the depths of the quarter, where the three remaining boundaries of the territory are surrounded by squares. The closest neighbor on the red line, a five-story office building on the west side, dictates a relatively small scale to a new house, based on the rules of modern design in the Moscow center. On the other, on the eastern side, there is a public garden “assigned” to the projected complex - an underground parking lot will be located under it.
If Vladimir Plotkin had placed the house strictly following the configuration of the site, then he would have got a beveled parallelepiped oriented from southeast to northwest. Such a solution promised an interesting plasticity of the facades, but intricate and thus not very convenient apartment layouts. Therefore, the house received a more complex three-part plan, where two trapezoids of the residential sections are connected, as if glued together, by a narrow strip. The sections have different heights: a 6-storey one is facing the lane, and an 8-storey one is located deeper in the courtyard. And although in fact the house consists of one volume, visually it seems to be two-part: the sections are separated by narrow deep niches (in one of them, on the side of the eastern square, the main entrance is arranged), and the eight-story volume with the console of the last floor partially hangs over the “street” section …
The upper level of the six-storey volume is planned to be completely glazed, to facilitate the silhouette of the building when viewed from the alley. On the other hand, the architect, whose creative manner in the minds of critics is strongly associated with laconicism and simplicity, unexpectedly endows the main floors with the most active tectonics. In particular, Vladimir Plotkin did not completely abandon the idea of a facade, whose plane is located at an angle to the lane. But: the corner has turned into a series of triangular projections-bay windows, and in order to further emphasize the broken structure of the resulting surface, the author veneers their edges in different ways - one wears in travertine, the other leaves transparent. Vertical rods of triangular protrusions unite the floors in pairs (simultaneously decreasing the scale, since the two floors look like one tier from the outside) - at the second and third floors there is a stone plane on the left, and at the fourth and fifth on the right. Thus, the facade turns into two multidirectional combs. And if near its surface fascinates with the play of textures and planes, then from afar such a facade is perceived as a mirage: depending on the angle of view and illumination, it is either present in the panorama of a historical alley, or not. The rear facade is solved in a similar way, only there are not two “combs” here, but four, which makes the alternation of tiers more noticeable. Note that a similar technique was used by Vladimir Plotkin in the project of the Zarechye residential complex, which we recently wrote about; only there the scale is larger and the triangular folds of "stone blinds" cover the rounded surfaces.
The side facades are solved in a more traditional way - panoramic glazing and "bindings" of floors clad with natural stone - but here, too, there is an architectural theme. For example, the eastern facade, facing the public garden disguising the underground parking, is slightly concave, and due to this, as well as the already mentioned "crevice" and the brutal profile of the console, it seems that the house is made on a hinge, like a frozen mechanism. This latent dynamics hidden in the depths of the artistic image is especially acutely perceived in the conditions of the historical center: in combination with the above-mentioned alternation of transparent and stone planes, many angles, undercuts and consoles, it does not even form an impression in the observer - a feeling of an extremely sensitive reaction of the house to the context …
