Arteza has been involved in the project of the Gorki 2 garden since 2005. It was then that the owner of the house under construction according to the project of the Kamen art group turned to landscape architects with a proposal to create a large and very diverse garden on an 11 hectare site.
The garden plot is 1.2 km long and has a natural stream running along its entire length. The L-shaped three-story house was erected on a relief with a significant height difference (about 15 meters), and this feature of the site played a key role both in the composition of the cottage itself and in the organization of the surrounding garden. With its main facade to the south, the house descends on the slope in a cascade, thanks to which each of its floors gets its own exit to the street. In addition to the residential building, by the time the design of the garden began on the site, closer to the main entrance to the estate, a large garage complex was built, and a tennis court and an outdoor swimming pool were cut into the slope.
It was the interesting architecture of the house, coupled with the expressiveness of the natural environment, that became the starting points in the formation of the concept of the garden, the authors of which were not initially going to be limited to any one style, but relied on a variety of techniques and genres of landscape architecture. A site of such an impressive size, "Arteza" immediately interpreted as a collection of several small thematic gardens and microlandscapes built into the structure of one large garden. The authors themselves call this technique "gardens in the garden." The result of painstaking work is a multidimensional man-made landscape with a constantly changing "exposure": while traveling through the territory, one can constantly observe the change of colors, forms and ecosystems - from a dense forest to a swampy swamp.
The site is divided into several main zones, each of which has its own name. So, the space around the garage complex and in front of the main entrance to the house is occupied by the "Upper Garden", so named because of its location at the highest elevation of the relief. The area behind the house, which includes a swimming pool, barbecue, children's playground, tennis court and a rocky slope between the upper and lower levels, was named by the authors of the project "Lower Garden". Behind him is a picturesque space around two artificially created reservoirs. A separate site is occupied by the "Japanese Garden", assigned to the spare entrance to the estate. However, this is not all: most of the territory is occupied by a conditional "connective tissue", which the architects have given the most natural character, having preserved massifs of pine forest on the site, a stream winding among the hills and green lawns.
"Upper Garden" most actively supports the architecture of the house and the garage complex. Even the materials for it were selected to match the cladding of the buildings. The layout of the garden, not to mention its individual elements, is also closely related to the buildings. So, for example, the "sail" of the garage grows out of the round "pillow" of the bush, formed by means of a topiary haircut.
Inside the "Upper Garden", not far from the entrance to the house, there are two thematic mini-gardens: "Jasper" and "End" - both develop the theme of Southeast Asia. "Jasper Garden" resembles the seaside, only on a reduced scale, and the main element here are jasper boulders, symbolizing rocks. The smooth surface of the water, covered with ripples, depicts marble pebbles, and the "shore" - thickets of undersized cotoneaster and spirea. As the authors say, more daring solutions were proposed for this space - for example, it was planned to use blue broken glass instead of light pebbles - but the customer settled on a more relaxed version.
"End Garden" takes place around the corner of the house, along its end. Previously, this place was used by the owners of the estate as a small and spontaneously arising passage along the blind area of the building. Over time, it became clear that here it is most convenient to create something like a "junction", a place of intersection of the most popular routes. And, of course, the customer wanted to somehow refine and accentuate this territory. As a result, the blind area was hidden by a white blanket of small pebbles, beautifully weathered stones in the Chinese style appeared, and a low sprawling shrub was planted along the edge.
The Lower Garden is perhaps the most saturated space, where a whole range of landscape techniques are presented. The stone slope attracts special attention: the authors turned it into a real rock, from which the house itself was allegedly carved. To implement this grandiose plan, tons of stones were used, the weight of some of them sometimes reached ten tons. A picturesque "mountain path" descends along the slope to the terrace of the second level. Pines, barberries, spireas, firs are planted around, and cereals and ground cover perennials are spreading on the ground. A separate bright blotch in the slope is the rose garden, in which roses bloom from May to the end of October.
On the rise from “Nizhny” to “Upper Garden”, the architects of “Arteza”, in turn, organized a labyrinth of fancifully clipped plants, echoed by round shrub tops and standard lindens formed in the form of parallelepipeds. Linden trees are also planted near the pool and tennis court and visually separate this space from the house. At the same time, their strict form echoes the geometry of the house and is supported by outdoor furniture, wicker and glass pots and even cubic lamps.
Going down below, you can get into the so-called "Zone of ponds and streams". The central place is occupied by two large reservoirs, separated by a small isthmus. One is used as a swimming lake, the other is used as a fish pond. To create them, it was necessary to make a rather large embankment with a height of 3.5 meters, due to which the difference in the heights of the relief of the house and the ponds was reduced, and the stream passing in this place was passed under the reservoirs. It was decided to turn the bed of the stream winding along the steep slope into a kind of mountain river. Perennial plants, daylilies, irises, miscanthus, globular and weeping willows have grown around the ponds, and here and there slabs are cut into the green banks, forming an approach to the water. On the banks of the pond, there are decks for picnics and fishing, and over the isthmus covered with pebbles, an awning sail is stretched, under which sun loungers are hidden.
Below the ponds, a small garden of rhododendrons is formed, traversed by neat wooden walkways. This is a kind of border between the garden and the forest. Behind this blooming garden, both to the east and to the west, there is a forest with swamps, ravines and hillocks, which is completely different from man-made, although an incredible amount of efforts of architects and builders has been invested in every square centimeter of its area. Hidden under a green cover of grass and a carelessly babbling stream are sophisticated engineering systems that ensure constant watering, the necessary moisture and soil temperature, but the only thing that at ground level reminds of human intervention are paved walking trails, wooden decking and straight architectural staircases, combined with landscape …
It was decided to preserve the peat bog, which occupies the entire western side of the site almost to the intersection with the Moskva River, as an example of a unique ecosystem. The swamp turned out to be shallow and not dangerous, so wooden bridges raised on piles were thrown across it, serving both pedestrian and car traffic. The stream also looks untouched along its entire length, despite the fact that about 80 tons of stones and an uncountable number of plants were used to decorate and strengthen the banks. In some places, the stream is crossed by bridges, and a long cycle route is laid along it.
Another striking element of this complex man-made landscape is the "Japanese Garden". Its appearance was dictated by the very place where the stream has an incredibly beautiful bend, and around the green hills, overgrown with ferns under the masts of pine trees, gently rise. It was decided to widen and deepen the stream, turning it into a small pool surrounded by a heap of stones. A glade with a small gazebo appeared on its shore, bonsai grew. Located in the lowland, the "Japanese Garden" is clearly visible from the road, at the entrance to the estate.
It should be noted separately that the main task of landscape architects was the maximum preservation of the plants existing on the site. All gardens were formed around an established natural framework. Today the garden lives its own life, grows, gains height and color - and all this is under the strict supervision of Arteza specialists, who have been taking care of the garden for many years. It is interesting that the garden lives no less active life in the cold season: especially for the New Year, the architects come up with and implement a fairy-tale winter design, the ponds turn into a large skating rink, and the slopes turn into slides for skiing and sledging.
