The exposition dedicated to the anniversary of one of the most famous and successful Moscow architectural firms presents its best buildings and projects. The number of works shown exactly corresponds to the number of years of the company's presence on the Russian market - in total, the Museum of Architecture displays 20 architectural projects and 20 interior projects, which are dealt with by a separate division in ABD Architects. Here is one of the most large-scale new buildings of recent years - the White Square complex, and the famous Mercedes-Benz, and Metropolis, which has not left the pages of professional publications for a long time. The selection of interior projects was no less stellar: the offices of Siemens, KMPG, SNS, Total and Nestle were awarded the most prestigious awards in the field of interior design and commercial real estate.
It is no coincidence that the name of the exposition also includes the word "dialogue": in its work, the bureau adheres to two fundamental principles - the effectiveness of design solutions for the customer's business tasks and respect for the environment, including both natural and cultural and social contexts. “Buildings and territories are never a 'thing in themselves' for us, but they are always in dialogue: with the city and nature, people and technology, with us, their authors,” the head of the company Boris Levyant formulates the golden rule of ABD Architects' work.
For the anniversary presentation of its works, the bureau has designed special black stands that can be placed both along the walls and in the center of the museum halls. In the latter case, they are combined in pairs and turn into solid structures, with their massiveness as well as possible corresponding to the expanses and rhythm of the suite of the Museum of Architecture. And to present the buildings and projects of ABD Architects in the most favorable light, special lighting provided inside each stand helps to avoid the use of spotlights, which often reward museum exhibits with annoying glare.
The very first hall of the suite is dedicated to the bureau and sponsors of the exhibition project: the companies Asteros, Aluterra, Bene, Stroymoda, Mercury, HunterDouglas, Zumtobel, Guardian. There is also a photo collage, which contains portraits of all ABD Architects employees, both current and those who once started their work in this bureau (for example, Alexey Bavykin, Anton Nadtochiy and Vera Butko, Natalia Sidorova and Danila Lorenz, for a long time gone on a free float). Other rooms of the famous suite are completely reserved for the works of the workshop. Interestingly, the organizers focused on visual information: the projects are not accompanied by textual explanations, or even an indication of the area and the exact address. And, in general, this calculation is not only understandable, but also justified: the architecture speaks for itself - large-scale expressive photographs are only in some places supplemented with sections, general layouts and structural schemes. Those who are interested in receiving a complete dossier for each object can take with them as a souvenir of the exhibition the booklets "Architecture" and "Interiors", enclosed in one narrow and long folder made of black cardboard with cut rectangular windows, referring to the facades of "Metropolis" …
Interestingly, the works are shown not in chronological order: the already completed buildings and awarded with many professional awards are interspersed with competitive projects (for example, the reconstruction of the Dynamo stadium or an office skyscraper in Novosibirsk) and urban planning concepts that were not used for economic reasons. And at the end of the exposition is the ABC News building - one of the first projects of the company, implemented according to a completely new scheme for the then post-Soviet Russia - with an American developer, a client and a new Russian bank. Next to this object is even more unexpected - the Temple of the Holy Unmercenaries Kosma and Damian, which is on Kitay-Gorod, the restoration of which the bureau, it turns out, was engaged in in 1994. In other words, the exhibition presented at the Museum of Architecture allows us to judge not so much about the professional evolution of ABD Architects (because all objects are made at the same high level), but about the variety of typologies and approaches to design. Rather, we have before us a brilliant portfolio that once again confirms the exceptional reputation of hardly the most "western" of Russian architectural firms.
