The site, which became the subject of the competitive design, is really very convenient: from the streets of Kirpichnaya and Vorovskogo, which border it, it is a stone's throw to the bus station, to the railway station, and to the new shopping and entertainment center "Krasny Kit". And, apparently, it was transport accessibility that prompted the investor to build the largest possible residential complex here: the architects had to design houses (one or several) with a total area of about 130 thousand square meters. At the same time, their height should have been limited to 23 floors - there are quite a lot of residential buildings around, next to which skyscrapers would hardly be appropriate.
There was also a number of urban "complications". For example, the already mentioned mall, whose name perfectly conveys its scale, is now preparing for the construction of the second stage, which threatens to deprive the adjacent residential area of direct pedestrian communication with the station. This will have a direct impact on the new houses, since they are located closest to the "Red Whale". The work on the project was significantly complicated by another neighborhood: at the bend of Kirpichnaya Street, at an angle of 45 degrees to the building site, there is a multi-entrance residential building. Strictly speaking, the logic of its installation in the block is not entirely obvious, but this does not make it easier for the participants of the competition: the house is already standing, people live in it, which means that it should have been insulated. In many ways, this predetermined the decisions of the master plan of the residential complex, at least in the case of the SKiP team.
The architects immediately rejected the idea of expressing themselves in the genre of an extra-large form and creating a single volume: in this case, the notorious insolation would be questionable, and the effect of a wall that finally cuts off the area from the main transport hub of the city would be avoided. That is why the complex was divided into separate buildings. It seemed equally important to the architects to preserve the existing pedestrian connections, therefore, the central axis of the composition, on which all the elements are strung, became the continuation of Kirpichnaya Street: in the plan, the site has the shape of two triangles, one of which is larger, the other smaller, and from the road they are like petals, fall apart in different directions.
Along the long side of the larger triangle, which is adjacent to the projected park, the architects placed three 23-storey buildings, and on the smaller one they put one 19-storey building, consisting of four sections. The latter is lower than its fellows - otherwise the sun would not have been able to reach the windows of the aforementioned residential building - and it was the difference in "height" that pushed the authors to position this building perpendicular to the rest. At the same time, the houses have a common stylobate, and the whimsically winding street running over it not only marks the construction queues of the complex, but also separates the courtyards of the buildings from each other. Thus, inside the new microdistrict, its own almost private space is created, which at the same time has convenient pedestrian connections with the outside world.
At the level of the first floor along the contour of the stylobate part, the architects place the public part of the complex. All kinds of shops are designed closest to the future street (this is understandable, because their potential visitors will be not only residents of the new residential complex, but also everyone who is used to walking this route from the station to their home), and on the opposite side, in that part of the stylobate, which is turned towards the planned park, on the contrary, there are cafes and restaurants. In addition, a health complex is included in the public area - it is also located on the stylobate, and the main entrance to it is organized from the level of residential courtyards, but planning this volume is isolated from them. You can also get to the health complex from the pedestrian street, to which it faces the main facade, made up of multi-colored vertical stripes. Bright verticals generally become a key feature of stylobate design: residential buildings are partially raised on supports, but the architects tried to disguise and level this massive structural element, and with the help of imitation of a colorful "palisade" on the glazed facades, they quite succeeded.
In contrast to the active use of color in the decoration of the stylobate on the facades of residential buildings, it is more illusory, although it plays an important role in shaping the appearance. Three 23-storey buildings are lined with white slabs, the long house standing perpendicular to them, on the contrary, is painted in a dark color, but the slopes of the windows in all four cases are made in different colors. “We had a discussion about whether the colored slopes would somehow distort the perception of the view from the window, but after long research we were convinced that this was not the case,” says the chief architect of the project, Andrey Nikiforov. "So we boldly made such a decision." Due to this, the facades do not seem very variegated when you look at them from the front, but when you move around the houses from a variety of angles, the effect of shimmering color suddenly appears on the light and dark surfaces of the walls.
“The location in the center of the Mytishchi residential development and the scope of the task itself pushed us to a solution in which color is the defining element of the composition,” continues Andrey Nikiforov. - It is not without reason that the working title of the project is the funny Italian word confetti. According to the architects, the obvious presence of bright colors on such large-scale planes could visually make living volumes heavier, while a subtle spark of color, on the contrary, attracts the eye and creates an interesting visual intrigue - both when looking from the courtyards of a residential complex and on the scale of development the whole city.
