The greenhouse is in this case not a pretty name, but a direct indication of the function of the building. After Totan Kuzembaev designed a house, a yacht club, guest houses and a restaurant for the founder of the Pirogovo resort, Alexander Yezhkov, he ordered a greenhouse for the architect to grow organic vegetables and herbs. The term "greenhouse" became for the architect a direct indication to action - Kuzembaev reinterpreted the image of the traditional cultivation "makeshift" in spectacular wooden structures.
After all, what is an ordinary greenhouse? A primitive house with a sloping or gable roof, where polyethylene or polycarbonate is stretched over a simple frame, and inside there are numerous tubs with plants that need a special microclimate. Having that carte blanche, which, perhaps, only Kuzembaev can boast in Pirogovo, he, of course, could have gone as far as he liked from this typology, but the architect, who adores non-trivial tasks, decided to act in exactly the opposite way. His project is the answer to the question of what an ordinary greenhouse can be if it is built taking into account modern environmental technologies, The greenhouse consists of a main room for growing plants, a vestibule, in which the sensors of engineering systems and a porch are located, and is a glazed volume with a high pitched roof. The transparent casing is "stretched" over the frame made of glued timber, consisting of openwork supporting frames and connecting braces and an enlarged truss. Kuzembaev is true to himself: all structural units here are designed with hidden fasteners, and some elements of the truss are an integral part of the supporting frame, making the wooden skeleton of this building seem like an ingenious puzzle.
The walls and roof of the greenhouse are assembled from the RAICO stained-glass system, which allows combining several different materials of the supporting frame in one facade fragment. In this case, the architect "marries" wood and aluminum, releasing metal structures, painted in dark gray color. And if at the ends of the greenhouse the joints are almost imperceptible, then the roof slopes and side facades, on the contrary, are "lined" with verticals of aluminum ribs, which add additional intrigue to the extremely laconic volume. From some angles, it seems that the house has a telescopic roof that can be folded and moved apart as needed - and although this impression is deceiving, it makes the gaze linger for a long time at the Greenhouse, trying to figure out its structure.
Due to the fact that absolutely all the edges of this house are transparent, the structure seems almost weightless and literally just put on the site. This impression is misleading: the Orangery has a solid foundation, resting on a reinforced cushion of B15 concrete with a height of 200 mm. From the outside, the foundation wall along the entire perimeter is insulated with extruded polystyrene foam and protected by brickwork, which serves as a kind of camouflage - Kuzembaev uses brick of the darkest shade, visually practically merging with the ground. And so that the brick "pedestal" does not interfere with the access to the greenhouse, a ramp leads to the entrance door of the Greenhouse - both it, the porch, and the floor in the vestibule area are tiled.
The internal frame of the building, as already mentioned, is made entirely of wood. Thanks to this, an interesting visual effect is created - the graphite strokes of the external structures seem to be highlighted with a honey tint of wooden beams repeating them from the inside. This effect is greatly enhanced at night, when special phytolamps are turned on - fixed on the lower belt of the farm, they are especially clearly visible through the ends of the Greenhouse, revealing the two-part structure of this volume, where a smaller wooden house is inserted into a larger transparent house.
The external simplicity of the structure is many times compensated for by its technical equipment: numerous devices installed in the vestibule provide the temperature and humidification of the greenhouse, automatic watering of plants and heating of the soil. In fact, the "smart home" system is integrated here, only it monitors the comfort of not people, but seedlings, and this system can be controlled remotely.
The transparent greenhouse built in Pirogovo, filled with light and lush greenery from the inside, gives the impression of a fairytale house. Christmas candlesticks are often made like this - I put a small lighted candle inside and the windows glow comfortably, multiplying the comfort of the hearth. Totan Kuzembaev came up with such a house for his beloved resort - built in full size, this "candlestick" symbolizes the beauty of simple eco-friendly solutions that have become Pirogovo's lifestyle.
