- On ArchiWOODe you read an incendiary manifesto dedicated to DublDom and, it seems, even helped him win the popular vote. Cite the most important phrase of the manifesto …
“It was a manifesto from the Unpublished series. I prepared it for voting in case, at the last moment, one of the competitors comes out ahead, but never took advantage of it. Perhaps the main phrase was: "I am asking you to vote not for the author and not for the project itself, but for the approach to architecture and suburban construction." And I see the peculiarity of the approach in seriality, mass scale and availability. That is why I took an active part in the struggle for the popular voice, although I had never done this before.
Do you believe in the manifesto?
- Weird question. Otherwise, why would I do it? After all, DublDom is not my first modular project and not my first compact housing project. ArchPriyut was similar in concept - quick-assembly and technological. Last year I organized the MikroDom festival, which also gave a lot of ideas and real experience in the construction of mobile objects. We built many micro-houses on ArchFarm, and then transported them to Muzeon.
Is DublDom for sale at all?
- Honestly, the problem is now in production, not in demand. Many wanted to buy it this summer, but at the moment production capacity and workload with other orders made it possible to make only one sample for sale, which was immediately sold - just ten days after the start of construction.
Generally speaking, DublDom is a very beautiful idea: a finished house with all communications and even furniture. However, we know that in European countries such moving mini-houses are a very common thing and have many modifications. Can you put your DublDom in a European context? Does it differ in any way or does it reproduce some kind of sample? What did you start from?
- Of course, it would be wrong to say that DublDom is unique and was born without the influence of European models. I am constantly interested in compact housing, I have collected a large library on this topic, and, of course, at the time of the birth of the DublDom idea, I only had to combine this knowledge into a new image. And I remember the very moment of the birth of the idea - it was at ArchMoscow in 2013, where Maxim Kurenniy's FutteralHaus was shown for the first time. I was impressed with the idea, but from my own experience, realizing some of the drawbacks of the Futteralhaus sliding project, I immediately came up with another structure of the building, which did not move apart, but was made up of two halves. Maxim, probably, does not remember our dialogue: I said that I had figured out how to do it better. He asked: "How?" To which I jokingly replied: "First I will do it, and then I will show it and we will compete." As a result, together with Maxim, we are now developing this topic in Russia.
By the way, I don't focus on mobility and the ability to relocate. Modularity makes it possible to assemble a house in production, increasing the quality and reducing the cost, and mobility is really not needed: in six months, not a single person asked me about the possibility of multiple transportation. DublDom is a project that will quickly be assembled on the site, but this is not a camper on wheels.
And if we compare it with typical panel houses, popular in summer cottages, it seems, since the 1980s, or with cheap offers on the modern Russian market? After all, DublDom turns out to be more expensive? Did you research the market before starting, and what did the research give?
- It's simple: typical panel houses require improvement - finishing, communications, furniture. No one ever thinks about the final cost of a building, buying only a box, and he spends the main resources later - countless trips to get materials, settle workers, find an electrician, call a plumber. And in DublDom everything is ready - bought and live. It's like a car - sat down and drove off. You don't buy a car without interior decoration.
You mentioned Maxim Kurenniy's Futteralhaus; this year at ArchMoscow was shown its new modification - FH_25. How many more Russian analogues do you know?
- I do not know an architect who, at least once in his life, would not offer to make a house "like that of IKEA." There are many similar projects on paper from Russian colleagues, several projects are already on the network and are being proposed for implementation, but so far only Maxim and I have brought it to the final product.
You and your family live in DublDom. Have you moved there long ago? Did you find any shortcomings during such testing?
- I have been living in DublDom all the time since December 2013. The main disadvantages appeared in the January frosts, when the water laid along the outer walls froze. Now the project has been redone, and we hid all the wiring in an internal partition, so that the water has no chance to freeze. Even in my house I have not made a covered terrace and now I regret it - with a terrace the house looks better, and there is a place to sit outside in the rain and a canopy over the entrance is also needed. Now I am already testing the house in the summer heat - so far I am satisfied.
The ‘UPP’ universal park pavilion is also designed for transportation. Are typical mobile solutions a specialty of BIO-architects?
- This is both a lifestyle that I transfer to architecture, and technology, which gives a competitive advantage.
When did the bureau BIO-architects appear and how does it work? Do you have partners?
- The bureau appeared at the moment when all my social projects were closed. I have been engaged in design for a long time and since 2011 have been developing my production, but if earlier I devoted only part of my time between festivals and other programs to this, now I have formalized all my activities in an architectural and production bureau. To solve architectural problems, I often involve individual architects: for example, last year, together with Lev Anisimov, we made several projects. Production issues are resolved by an already close-knit team working on an ongoing basis. There are guys who help solve organizational issues - for example, the beautiful girl Katya Geraskina helps with the development of the furniture direction, and, largely thanks to her efforts, now we have teamed up with other young design and production companies in the Industrial Designers Club (KPD).
Your furniture is very rectangular and laconic to the point of brutalism. Three bears would have appreciated her … Is this a principle? Will everything be square or are there options?
- That's putting it mildly. I do have a series of furniture that is made of massive construction timber - these are products for centuries. But there are also lightweight designs. For example, now we are the first in Russia to start making furniture from LVL timber, and there are no right angles and massive parts in it, simply because this material plays in a completely different way precisely in curved shapes, and its strength allows making lightweight structures.
The festival period has passed, what is coming now? Was MicroLoft your last festival venue? (By the way, where is he now?)
I paused. Encoded. And no one knows what will happen next. Disassembled Microsoft is waiting in the wings at the production site near Troitsk - I hope to assemble it there.
Why did you leave ArchFarm? Were you sorry to do this?
- It was ArchFarm who left the Tula region, not I ArchFarm. I left for many reasons, and, first of all, due to the fact that further sustainable development was impossible there. It's a pity - not at all! Can you regret the experience gained? I hope that all friends of ArchFarm do not regret the time they spent there. And the concept of ArchFarm is alive - in my heart, in the hearts of friends. God willing, and someday the ArchFarm will find a new platform where it can be implemented taking into account the accumulated experience.
