The project of a multifunctional residential complex, which is supposed to be built on 1st Bukhvostov Street, this spring became the subject of a closed tender held by Sistema Hals. The developer invited several leading architectural bureaus of Moscow to participate in it, including the studio "Sergey Skuratov Architects". The proximity to the Preobrazhenskaya Sloboda and the impressive scale of the projected object suggested to Sergey Skuratov the key image of the architectural solution - an apartment building that would grow in the area where the first regular army of Russia was born, he interpreted as a fortress. A fortress protecting a cozy green oasis from an aggressive metropolis.
The site on which the residential complex will be built is located not far from Preobrazhenskaya Square and is bounded by Krasnobogatyrskaya, 1st and 3rd Bukhvostov streets, as well as by an intra-block passage. It would have had the shape of an elongated rectangle if it were not for Krasnobogatyrskaya - just in this place the street makes a rather strong bend, due to which the northeastern border acquires an arched shape. Today, this entire area is built up with warehouses and semi-abandoned industries hidden behind a blank concrete fence. These enterprises are of no value for the city and will be withdrawn in the near future. Actually, the customer undertook to conduct the tender precisely because he had at his disposal a fairly large-scale territory, obviously in need of a clear urban planning understanding.
“The atmosphere there is dull, and the situation can hardly be drastically improved by the construction of a landmark volume alone,” recalls Sergey Skuratov of his first impressions of the site. - It somehow immediately became obvious to us that when designing a residential complex here, we would have to solve several problems. On the one hand, this place really just needs a landmark town-planning object, but on the other hand, it just as badly lacks coziness, a sense of security. In general, the idea of creating a large, plastically verified volume with a large interior greened space suggested itself. Right there, on the future construction site, Skuratov firmly decided that one of the main magnets of the projected complex should be a closed courtyard without cars, permeated with light and closed from the noise of the surrounding streets, with playgrounds, green lawns, pedestrian bridges and bicycle paths. Then the architect only had to figure out how to bring this idyllic picture to life. Perhaps for someone such a task, taking into account modern Moscow realities, is a serious difficulty, but the author
"Garden Quarters" and the concept of creating a green oasis in a lifeless concrete-glass environment "Moscow City" knew exactly how to solve it as efficiently as possible.
The courtyard is formed by two L-shaped plates cut by vertical openings of different widths and heights. The horizontal displacements of these slots create the effect of two extended buildings standing on top of each other. This illusion is also supported with the help of an intermediate glass belt - in fact, on this fully glazed floor there are exactly the same apartments as in the rest of the house, but when viewed from the side, it seems that the residential complex is divided vertically into two independent halves. An additional function of the openings - a kind of loopholes, conceived, however, not for the sake of defense, but in order to visually soften the massiveness of the structure as a whole - is to provide the yard with additional light and air and improve the insolation of the apartments. For the same purpose, some of the corners of the L-shaped plates are rounded - making out the entrances to the courtyard, the rounded facades are perceived as an obvious allusion to the towers flanking the entrance to the fortress.
It is interesting that the architect splits the living space not only vertically, but also horizontally. Thus, each plate consists of two separate buildings, connected by an openwork upper belt. Skuratov used a similar technique in the already mentioned project for Moscow City, however, there the whole floor played the role of the upper belt, while here we are talking only about light walkways thrown from the roof of one block to another.
Facade solutions are built on the principle of monomateriality, so beloved by Skuratov. Outside, the house is dressed in a "skin" of red brick in several shades (and these are already obvious echoes
"Danilovsky Fort", to which the house is partly obliged for its name) - it has a single modular grid, but changes its pattern depending on the orientation to the cardinal points, on the size and location of the section in the overall composition of the complex. Somewhere, window openings in a checkerboard pattern alternate with piers of the same size, somewhere they are combined in pairs, somewhere due to thin elegant bindings they form a strict lattice. The architect visually combines the two upper floors into one - the house seems to stretch its head and aspires upward, and makes part of the inter-window lintels on the lower floors inclined, which not only introduces additional intrigue into the design of the facade plane, but also creates an interesting echo with the drawing of those very " bridges "on the roof and the shadow they cast in sunny weather.
The inner courtyard facades, in turn, are faced with white bricks. This choice is clear - although the courtyard has a very decent area, it is an almost closed space, which a priori needs the most light finishing in order not to turn into a "stone bag". It should be noted that such an active interaction of planes made of red and white bricks Sergey Skuratov has already used this year - his
he himself called the project of a residential complex on Bolshaya Pochtovaya a "palindrome". True, there red and white facades alternated almost in random order, while here color plays an important functional role: a dark tone emphasizes the reliability and solidity of the house from the outside, and a light one makes the courtyard and arched openings leading to it more comfortable.
The kindergarten is designed according to the same principle: its outer facades are faced with red bricks, and three courtyards shine with whiteness. The building of the preschool institution Skuratov is located between the residential complex and Krasnobogatyrskaya street - following the tracing logic of the latter, it acquires a predictable sector shape in terms of plan. The neighborhood with a noisy street forced the architect to rethink the traditional layout of the garden: along its outer perimeter there are cafes and shops working for the city, the next "layer" is the entrance and technical premises of the kindergarten itself, and the bedrooms and playrooms are concentrated in the center of the plan around three promenade areas. The roof of the building is completely landscaped, thanks to which from the windows of the upper floors the building is perceived as a landscape object with three playgrounds built into it.
"Disguised" under the folds of the relief and the sports complex, located on the opposite side of the residential building. And although it is separated from the house by an intra-block passage, residents will be able to get into it bypassing the road - for this the architect connects the sports area with the residential courtyard with a special pedestrian bridge. And since the courtyard itself is a complex multilevel green space, this bridge is designed as a continuation of the green ramp - according to the author's idea, it will allow residents to move along the route “home-kindergarten-sports complex”, almost without touching the aggressive environment of the metropolis. Thus, Sergei Skuratov really managed to design a residential complex, the architecture of which transforms the face of the entire district, and the unique "filling" increases its attractiveness at times. "These are Garden Quarters, but designed by one author and in one material" - this is how the architect himself characterizes his new work, who has no doubts that such objects, combining the environmental friendliness of the environment and the thoughtfulness of their appearance, can and should not appear only in the center of Moscow, but also on its outskirts.
