Such a tight deadline was due to the terms of the lease: even for a week, a delayed move threatened the customer with serious losses. Therefore, Russian Railways was purposefully looking for an architectural bureau that would agree to such a "sprint race". “At first, the timing of the project seemed impossible to us,” admits Sergey Estrin. - But we nevertheless decided to take on this project, including out of sports interest - whether we can or not. We were able to ensure such a high speed of work, firstly, by connecting almost all employees of the workshop to it, and secondly, by drawing up an extremely well-thought-out schedule of the stages of project development and its coordination with the customer."
So, in a month, "Sergey Estrin's Architectural Workshop" managed to complete the first draft, and why detail design, prepare all the documentation for the construction tender and select a contractor. The architects recall that they worked almost seven days a week, simultaneously bringing to mind several sections of the project at once - just printing out all the documentation took about a week, and in order to promptly deliver it to the construction site, a Gazelle was needed. Moscow, of course, is famous for its completely insane rhythm, but such efficiency is still an absolute record. And, of course, without the well-coordinated and very high-quality work of all members of the design team, it would hardly have been possible, especially considering that the area of the projected facility is 23 thousand square meters.
If we talk about the stages of a long journey, then the scheme of work on the project looked like this. First, the architects made a draft design and visualizations of open workspaces, and at the same time they approved a standard bill of materials with the customer. All wet processes were excluded from the latter: neither brick nor screed is used in the interior of both companies, nothing at all that dries for a long time - this made it possible to greatly reduce the project implementation time. Immediately after the specification was approved, the workshop began to make a budget estimate - to consider all the upcoming expenses for materials and engineering, since the customer set not only strict time frames, but also serious restrictions on the cost per square meter of office. In parallel with the calculations, fan coils, carpets and lamps were ordered - that is, everything that is usually supplied within 2-3 weeks - and the detailed design of the standard floor began (the seventh was chosen as an example, there are 11 floors in total), and as soon as it was completed, it became possible to prepare and conduct a construction tender.
“The limit on the cost per square meter, set by the customer, was almost more stringent than the time frame for the development of the project,” recalls Sergey Estrin. “We were able to fit into it only due to the fact that most of each floor is open space, which means that there was no need to“drag”too many communications and“branch”them into offices”. This allowed the authors of the project not to save on manufacturers - the project used Carrier fan coils, Trox ventilation grilles, Rehau pipes, Sylvania lamps and Lighting Technologies. “With such a tight design deadline, the most important thing for us was that we did both the architecture and the engineering ourselves,” comments Sergey Estrin. “We understood that only under this condition we would have time to develop the project, and, fortunately, the customer agreed with this.”Such over-tight deadlines also affected how the project was being implemented: in fact, the authors had to visit the construction site every day in order to personally explain to the contractor all the nuances of the project, and not wait for him to figure it out himself.
The architects did everything possible to ensure that the limited budget did not affect the appearance of the corporate interior. Since the work was carried out on the design of the offices of two companies at once, solutions were developed that are similar typologically, but differ in color. In both cases, the interior was based on the classic black and white scheme, in one case supplemented by corporate red, and in the other - blue. The shades of the carpet tiles used as flooring also vary: in both cases, dark and light "squares" alternate in a checkerboard pattern, but somewhere it is a more gray, graphite scale, and somewhere it is gray-blue. Large graphic panels - images of trains, from old diesel locomotives to modern Sapsans, were used as the main decorative element, as well as the names of their destinations are printed on the film and decorate the walls dividing open space and offices, meeting rooms and kitchens. The unique character of each floor is also formed with the help of doors - somewhere they are black, somewhere white, somewhere red, and the combinations are never repeated.
The VIP zones of both companies deserve special mention - natural wood dominates in their interior, creating a very comfortable palette from soft honey to dark chocolate shades. The narrow ceiling lights are paired here in a way that unambiguously resembles sleepers, and decorative stone is used to decorate the reception areas. The total area of VIP-spaces is 3 thousand square meters: their project was developed and agreed with the customer a little longer, so the finishing work in this part of the office is still underway. But the main floors of both companies have already been commissioned. Ordinary employees celebrating the move now did not seem to have hoped that the new office would be ready so quickly, but the utmost organization of the architects and their enviable efficiency made the most incredible possible.
