Initially, Dom Express was designed by the Hong Kong architect Gary Chang, whom Totan Kuzembaev invited to participate in the development of Pirogovo in 2005. Chang is a master of transformations, who built the most charming "Suitcase House" in the "Commune at the Great Wall of China", and in the Moscow region he decided to develop this particular genre. Since the task was originally set to create not so much a house as a showroom, the architect came up with an object in which not only the interior could be transformed, but the building itself as a whole. That is why, in fact, Express (by the way, Gary first suggested calling the house "Matryoshka") - everything in it was quickly sorted out and just as quickly assembled, instantly adjusting to the needs of visitors. Chang's house was a box, any wall of which could be opened, so that the building actually dissolved into the environment, and the interior, for example, a staircase to the second floor, a bathroom block or a storage room, turned into a kind of pylons around which you could walk like on park. Chang treated the furniture even more interestingly - it was “packed” in a special transformable module, consisting of several cubes nested inside each other, which went out of the house along rails and were laid out in a table, a bed, even a jacuzzi.
In this form, the project delighted connoisseurs of modern architecture, including Alexander Yezhkov, who dreamed of realizing Chang's plan in Pirogovo and making Dom Express one of the recognizable symbols of the resort. The economic crisis made adjustments to these plans - it turned out to be not only difficult, but also very expensive to implement all the technical ideas of Gary Chang, therefore the idea of building a pavilion "for everyone" rails are not relevant) quickly abandoned, and the project of the Hong Kong architect found a new customer. However, the pavilion as a place of permanent residence did not suit him, so it had to be rethought taking into account the new function, and this work was quite logically entrusted to the workshop of Totan Kuzembaev, which accompanied the project from the very beginning. “At first, we talked quite actively about this with Gary, but gradually it became clear that adaptation to our climate and permanent residence would be too drastic, and we took up the project on our own,” recalls the architect.
Starting work on the alteration of the Express, Kuzembaev tried to preserve as much as possible the principle of universal transformability, which was the basis of this project - if not external walls, then at least internal spaces. The general composition was also preserved - the house, which in the plan is a laconic rectangle, was complemented by a very large rectangular terrace. In the initial project, it was on this “deck” that pieces of furniture were driven along the rails, and Kuzembaev at first refused only the guides themselves - an outdoor pool was designed on the terrace, and from the south it was equipped with a mobile fence. The interior of the house was conceived even more varied. Thus, the semi-basement could be accessed by moving the floor panels of the first floor, and the double-height space of the living room was transformed with the help of a mobile panel, which formed a second level with an additional bedroom and, using a folding ladder, organized access to the operated roof.
Unfortunately, after drawing up the final estimate, the customer also recognized these "half measures" as too expensive, so the architects were forced to revise the project once again. “It is clear that there was only one way to make it cheaper - by replacing all transformable elements with capital ones,” Totan Kuzembaev throws up his hands. So two stained-glass windows from floor to ceiling of the living room, one of which faced east and the other to the west, turned into nine standard double-glazed windows, grouped vertically in triplets, the mobile panel was replaced by a solid reinforced concrete floor, the folding staircase disappeared altogether, and in its place the usual one appeared, connecting the first floor not only with the second, but also with a flat exploited roof. And since the new staircase actually "pierces" the building through and through, it was very difficult to fit it into the original modest dimensions of the house - the architects found a compromise, partially taking it outside the main rectangular volume. The laconic form of the "box" was thus complicated - the architects seemed to cut its southern facade in the middle and bent part of the wall, thanks to which the house had a diamond-shaped bay window, facing west, towards the water. Moreover, it is cut into the main volume in such a way that at the level of the first floor the "ledge" is minimal and plays rather a decorative role, denoting the entrance to the house, but a small tower-booth now rises above the flat roof, ideal for contemplating the vastness of the Klyazminskoye reservoir.
The interfloor ceiling, in turn, has been extended in such a way that a full-fledged balcony appears on the second floor. It rests on square columns, and the architects bring not two, but as many as four supports, and a deep niche appears on the terrace - visually the very "depot" from which the transformable furniture left the street in the very first project. By the way, it is furniture - sofas and armchairs - that is stored under this canopy. The rail, of course, is no longer there, and they themselves do not add up, but no one bothers to quickly distribute them on the "deck".
Balcony fences, like the fences of the operated roof, are made of transparent glass and thin metal cables, which actually make these structures invisible - from the water side, a house sheathed with wooden panels still resembles several boxes stacked on top of each other. As if the structure invented by Gary Chang froze in a partially disassembled form - even if all technical tricks had to be abandoned in the end, but visually, Totan Kuzembaev, even in the architecture of a capital structure, was able to embody the idea of a transformer.
