This complex was built at the intersection of Valovaya and Bolshaya Serpukhovskaya streets, on the site of bakery # 1. The decision to demolish the latter was made by the city back in 1998, and from the very beginning it was assumed that the bakery would remain in this place, simply, equipped with more modern and compact equipment, it would occupy a much smaller area, yielding part of a very advantageously located plot to the business center. This was supposed to become an example of a fundamentally new scenario for Moscow of relocating production, when it is not taken out of the center, but reformatted. However, the search for an optimal architectural solution dragged on for so long that it is no longer necessary to talk about any know-how. The customer turned to TPO "Reserve" in 2008 with a request to correct the facades of the concept developed by another bureau, but the team of Vladimir Plotkin proposed its own version of the location of the business center.
Taking into account the key location of the site (right on the Garden Ring, and it is in this place that it makes a characteristic smooth bend), the architects rethought the shape and plasticity of the object itself, likening a building standing at a bend to a hinge. Then, in 2008, the cylinder of the main building, assembled from triangular bay windows and as if "tied" with wide belts of natural stone and glass, looked more than innovative (we find a similar motif in the project of the residential complex"
District ", on which Vladimir Plotkin worked in the same years). Undoubtedly, the ribbed "hinge" would have brought a nontrivial freshness and symbolism to Sadovoye's appearance, which is sorely lacking in this part of the ring, but the architectural community did not believe in such a bold form, and its authors received recommendations to do something more traditional. As Vladimir Plotkin admits, at this stage he was ready to abandon Gross at all - but a crisis broke out, the volume of work was sharply reduced, and, as they say, any order came in handy.
In the summer of 2009, "Reserve" again presented the revised project to the architectural council. This time, the complex in the plan already had a trapezoidal shape, which actually repeated the shape of the site and made it possible to maximally indicate its presence at the intersection. But the theme of "articulation" was still guessed in the project: the building seemed to embrace the site. True, the authors were advised to abandon this direct hint of plasticity, as well as the theme of broken edges-lamellas that adorned the facades. As for the latter, the members of the council strongly insisted on observing the "traditions of the Garden Ring architecture", but it is in the Valovaya region that such a polyphony of styles reigns that it was very difficult to choose a possible landmark. “At one time we were advised to focus on the neighboring house, built in the late Stalin era, but this is not an outstanding project, which seemed strange to us to clone,” explains Vladimir Plotkin.
Nevertheless, some general Moscow themes appeared in the architecture of the complex: the authors introduced clear vertical and horizontal divisions, preferred a beige-ocher palette, and suggested using panels of natural stone with carved ornaments. In a typical Moscow way, the two upper floors of the building were visually separated: the glazing area there is much larger, and the ornament gives way to laconic rustication. However, even this version had to be finalized by the architects: gradually the ornamented inserts and the visual difference between the floors disappeared from the project. The option that eventually went into operation is called by Vladimir Plotkin “the most relaxed”.
In accordance with the original terms of reference, the complex consists of two volumes - the main building of the business center facing the Garden Ring, and the production building, built along the rear border of the site parallel to Valovaya Street. They are solved in completely different ways, both in their form and in the design of the facades. The main building has retained the trapezoidal shape of the plan, and in both bases of this trapezoid, rather deep recesses were made - a kind of light wells, which made it possible to retreat to a standard distance from the metro ventilation shafts located on the site.
The angle with which the volume faces the intersection is minimal, but nevertheless smoothed, which is elegantly and unobtrusively emphasized by the curved glass used here. The two planes of the main facade diverging from this axis form a wide angle, exactly echoing the red lines of intersecting streets, and the dynamics of this expansion is emphasized with the help of contours that dominate in the design of the building. Light beige belts of interfloor floors are cut through with darker decorative slats, concealing the width and monotony of these elements. The architects gave the same darker shade to the vertical inter-window inserts.
The cladding is made not of stone, but of glass-fiber-reinforced concrete panels integrated into a modular system - this relatively new material makes it possible to make the facade plastic quite rich and complex, without making it heavier: the average panel thickness is one and a half to two centimeters. In addition, the project immediately took into account the decorative illumination of the building facades: special niches for lamps are fully integrated into the facade cladding.
And if all the belts are solved in the same way, then the inserts from window to window change: architects impose a thin rectangular grid on a darker textured plate, the "cells" of which are constantly varying, bringing an interesting intrigue to this really very calm facade. The building, remote from the Garden Ring, differs significantly from the relief-lined main facade: the same modular grid is interpreted here thinner and, if I may say so, cleaner. The end of the body is covered with a light pattern of smooth, rough and velvety glass fiber reinforced concrete slabs, enlivened by several windows; on the rear façade, the windows in a checkerboard pattern alternate with protruding glass panels covered with silk-screened stripes.
When driving past a building in a car, you don't have time to see such nuances - the eye notices only a train of belts streaming along the intersection - but pedestrians walking towards the complex or past it will not be bored.
Speaking of pedestrians. On the first floor of the main building, the architects do undercut and stained glass: the building recedes from the red lines, acquiring a more friendly and open look. In front of him, a small landscaped area is broken, forcing you to involuntarily slow down where before the human flow went exclusively in transit. A walk around the complex is also a great aesthetic pleasure. The rear building, which is unlike a more laconic parallelepiped, faces its closest neighbor with a fully glazed facade, and at the level of the roof there is a narrow bridge between them, which in clear weather almost dissolves into the Moscow sky, but nevertheless serves as an indisputable material embodiment of the blood connection of two so different volumes.
