We are talking about the reconstruction of one of the central offices of Rosreestr - a building on Vorontsovo Pole Street. The customer came to Sergey Estrin's workshop after the reconstruction had begun and, as they say, the question arose of what the new interiors should be like. It was possible to make them the way they always have - oak panels, black leather furniture, carpet runners - but the state structure, positioning itself as a democratic agency of the new generation, decided that the Soviet tradition of creating pathetic-kondy cabinets should be interrupted.
“At the same time, the customer, of course, had a number of wishes for the future interior, which should have turned out to be moderately strict and official, emphasizing the solidity and reliability of the structure,” recalls Sergey Estrin. "In addition, the interior should have included the mandatory attributes of Rosreestr belonging to the number of federal agencies, such as the coat of arms of Russia and the map of the country."
The first thing that the architect suggested to his customers was to move away from the traditional for ministerial meeting halls of the "oak" scale. So, in the new conference hall of Rosreestr, white dominates: the walls and ceiling are white here, a light tone also prevails in the floor pattern. The floor in this room is finished with natural Teakwood stone, the oval in the center, where the meeting table is located, is highlighted in a darker tone - it is effectively emphasized by thin edging made of Imperador Dark chocolate. This dark Spanish marble was chosen by the architects for a reason: it coincides in tone with the rosewood inserts - the entrance door and the panel for the state coat of arms - forming together with them a delicate and at the same time quite obvious reference to the traditional state interiors.
“Working on this project, we set ourselves the task of conveying the solemn atmosphere, the severity and purity of lines, textures,” says Sergey Estrin. - For this, only natural materials and the latest technologies were used in the design. In particular, we finished the walls with light natural leather with pronounced seams, and we decided to visually expand the boundaries of a room that was not very large in area with the help of an unusual ceiling design, which seemed to be framed by two semicircular frames. Visually, these elements are perceived as a kind of lush baroque folds, lamps are mounted in them. The ceiling itself is made stretched, and some of the lamps are hidden behind its milky-matte surface - the architects tried to get away from direct light sources, reasonably judging that a traditional chandelier would be completely inappropriate in the interior they were creating.
The main “art object” of the conference hall, a gigantic physical map of Russia, which, with its green-sandy-brown colors, fits perfectly into the gamut of the interior, has also been made with the help of printing on glass. “The customer first talked about the political map, but we thought that Rosreestr, a structure dealing with land issues, took the risk of offering a physical map, and the customer arranged this option,” recalls Sergey Estrin. The main furnishing of the conference room - the conference table - is also custom-made according to the sketches of the architectural studio. Its unusual trapezoidal shape is designed to provide equally good visibility of the plasma TV screen from any location, which is especially important for video conferences.
“This project is one of the smallest for us in terms of its area, but its importance can hardly be overestimated - after all, this is our first experience of working with a government structure,” says Sergey Estrin. “We tried to create an interior that was as free of Soviet clichés as possible and we are very proud that we succeeded.” The customers also agree with the architect's opinion: unlike most government agencies, Rosreestr willingly publishes its new interior and intends to promote it in every possible way among its numerous management colleagues.
