The head of the project, teacher of Moscow Architectural Institute and founder of the architectural bureau "Fourth Dimension" tells about what tasks the students faced and how they solved them.
Vsevolod Medvedev:
“I have been teaching at the Moscow Architectural Institute for a long time at the Department of Architecture of Industrial Structures. Students have always surprised us with fresh and unusual solutions, but the set of this course is so strong that I want to tell you about it. Taking into account the huge creative potential and great hard work of the students of our group, we, together with other leaders, Mikhail Kanunnikov and Zurab Basaria, decided to create for them design conditions as close as possible to real ones. The group copies the model of a professional architectural bureau, and the tasks that we set for the students are comparable in complexity and level of elaboration to those of a practicing architect. The work within our team is based on the principles of equality and mutual assistance, and ideas are born and refined in the process of constant discussions. The theme of the project issued by the institute is corrected, then the design strategy and the general concept are determined - the same for everyone. It is very important that students and teachers interact as equal colleagues, and not as a student with a teacher. We deliberately bring our students to the professional level of project preparation, which may well be regarded as the stage of "architectural concept".
Observing how our students are developing rapidly, we came up with the idea of holding a kind of internal competitions, determining the top five for each course project. First, the top-5 is compiled based solely on the assessments of the teachers, and then all the work of students is exhibited for a general online vote, according to the results of which the winners are awarded prizes from the "Fourth Dimension Architectural Bureau".
This time, the guys worked on a rather difficult task - "Residential building of a middle storey". We offered them the central embankments of the Moskva River as design sites, since the full-fledged inclusion of embankments into the fabric of the city and transforming them into equipped public spaces is one of the priority tasks of the city today. In addition to the basic task of the Moscow Architectural Institute, we included the development of an underground parking lot, layouts and typology of apartments in the TK, the guys also had to present a detailed fragment of the facade and write a short explanatory note. In addition, the work had to take into account the design constraints in the selected area and the terms of reference of the hypothetical investor. Such a maximum approximation to reality, in my opinion, allows solving a very wide range of problems and gaining truly valuable experience, which is vital in the practical activity of an architect.
According to the results of the internal competition, Olga Kuznetsova became the winner and her project "Residential House on Savvinskaya Embankment", in which an interesting architectural image was found, the author's style and command of the architectural language are clearly visible. At the same time, I would like to remind you that we are only third-year students, for whom the project of a mid-rise residential building was only the third project in their life. After all, the first two years of study at the Moscow Architectural Institute have very little to do with real design, and only starting from the third year, students learn the basics of the profession, learning what a graphic representation of sections and plans is, current standards and insolation restrictions, the location of emergency exits, parking lots, etc..d. … Our task is to give them maximum knowledge and skills that will help them in their further architectural practice."
Below we present the five best projects of the 3rd year students of the Moscow Architectural Institute, the Department of Architecture of Industrial Structures, group No. 6 on the theme "Residential building of the middle storey". Project leaders: Vsevolod Medvedev, Mikhail Kanunnikov, Zurab Basaria.
First place. Residential building project on Savvinskaya embankment. Olga Kuznetsova
The residential building is located on a rather narrow and long section along the Savvinskaya embankment. Its length reaches about one hundred meters. The surroundings are dense mid-rise urban development.
The building is a composition of three volumes with rounded corners, at different levels connected by floor spans. Separate floors either shift relative to each other, then protrude beyond the plane of the main facade, or, on the contrary, form deep niches with large open terraces that serve as additional public spaces for residents of the house, from where beautiful views of the Moskva River and the Novodevichy Convent open. Such fragmentation of the facade canvas into separate buildings, floors and balconies, according to the author, not only avoids monotony, but also reconciles modern architecture with the diverse buildings of old Moscow adjacent to it. In addition, the shift of floors and the absence of solid glazing on the terraces makes it possible to solve the problem of illumination of apartments facing north-west.
Between the central and one of the side blocks there is a through passage from the side of the embankment to the inner landscaped courtyard. Due to the active plastics of the main facade along the embankment, additional pedestrian space is freed up, which is proposed to be turned into a busy city street. In this regard, the first floors of the residential building are reserved for the placement of cafes, bookstores and various showrooms.
Second place. The project of a tenement house on the Savvinskaya embankment. Polina Yavna
A site along the Savvinskaya embankment was selected for the design. Architectural and planning solutions are based on the peculiarities of the location of the site in the city, its orientation and proximity to such important objects for the city as the Novodevichy Ponds Park and the Novodevichy Convent.
The shape of the building grows out of the outline of the site - narrow and elongated. As you approach the park, the volume narrows even more, which gives it a dynamic character. The main facade of the house is oriented to the north-west, which could have led to a lack of illumination of the apartments, if the author had not provided for a slight turn of individual residential blocks towards the west. This idea grew out of the image of the fingers locked into a lock, and the result was a beautiful composition of evenly spaced “fingers” sections. The depth of the façade is emphasized by the choice of materials and color schemes: some protruding volumes are made entirely of glass - for example, the volume of a penthouse in the top of the house, others are made in light natural stone, for others a dark chocolate shade is chosen.
It is proposed to expand the pedestrian zone along the embankment by moving the first fully public floors deeper into the site. Closer to the park, also on the ground floor of the building, a cafe with an open veranda and a view of the Moskva River has been designed.
Third place. Residential complex project on Sadovnicheskaya embankment. Yana Ostapchuk
The design site is located on Sadovnicheskaya embankment, where the author proposes to place a residential complex of three separate elliptical buildings in the plan. This solution allows the apartment windows to be oriented in such a way as to provide all residents with views of the city and the nearby Moscow Kremlin complex. Low round towers are made with decorative glass and aluminum panels. Two of them, facing the Moskva River, are almost identical, and the third, hidden in the depths of the site, is solved somewhat differently: it is one floor higher than its neighbors, and the technology of the "green" facade is used for its decoration, which is why the embankment seems like there is a lot of greenery in the courtyard of the complex. The effect is enhanced by the original solution to fill the courtyard with water, and access to the buildings is carried out exclusively through the provided walkways.
The complex is separated from the embankment by a one-story stylobate with an exploited roof, which is entirely devoted to public functions and the location of infrastructure facilities.
Fourth place. Residential building project on Kotelnicheskaya embankment. Anna Tuzova
The selected site is located in the historical part of the city, in the immediate vicinity of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, built according to the project of OI Bove. The volume of the building is lined up along the perimeter of the site, resulting in a closed shape of a slightly deformed ring. Inside, a spacious courtyard was formed for the inhabitants of the house. The roof was also made exploitable and turned into a green public space.
For the decoration of the facades, continuous glazing is used, thanks to which the residents of the apartments receive the best panoramic views of Moscow. To open the courtyard to the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, it is proposed to break through the volume of the residential building with two arches of complex geometry. Their inner surface will be mirrored, made of polished steel sheets. In addition to large arched openings, landscaped terraces and balconies of the same intricate shape add variety to the facades.
Part of the first and second floors is supposed to be given for public functions: shops, cafes, cinemas.
Fifth place. Residential complex project on Sadovnicheskaya embankment. Vasilisa Kotlyarova
It is proposed to place a complex of four volumes of approximately equal dimensions on a rectangular site. All four buildings of the residential complex are parts of one puzzle or one geometric figure, divided into several elements of a bizarre shape. Two of them are designed in smooth, rounded lines. To maintain the softness and weightlessness of their image, blue glass is used. The other two buildings, on the other hand, have sharp corners and concave wall contours, and their facades are designed with embossed stone adjacent to smooth plastered surfaces and the beat-up rhythm of window openings.
The buildings are located on the site quite close to each other, but the windows of the apartments are oriented in such a way that the residents do not have to look at the end of the neighboring building. Instead, each apartment has river and city views.
For all residents of the complex, a common promenade has been created between the embankment and the playground. The entire perimeter of the site is occupied by public spaces, while the inner courtyard area belongs exclusively to the residents of the house.
