The architectural workshop of Sergey Estrin (AMSE) is twelve years old: it is not yet time to sum up the results, but you can talk about what has been achieved, analyze the results and try to predict the future. We asked several questions to Sergey Estrin and his partner, co-founder of the bureau Konstantin Levin.
Sergey Estrin; Konstantin Levin © AME
Archi.ru:
Twelve years of work in the workshop is enough time to start dividing your story into stages. What stage do you have now?
Sergey Estrin:
- The first stage was the time of working with sharply rich clients, each of whom wanted to show themselves brightly, demonstrate their success, unlimited possibilities of money and imagination. And we gladly joined the process. From a professional point of view, it is incredibly interesting and creatively unlimited time.
Then came the period of work with corporate clients and international customers - the stage of professional organized work: stable orders and stable income from them. The workshop has raised its own heads and project managers. Their knowledge of the market, manufacturers of building materials, contractors and suppliers allows them today to take on almost any task and meet any deadline. A striking example of this is work for the Russian Railways group of companies: 22,000 m2 - from a draft design, which included almost 70 visualizations, - to a "work", which includes engineering. Everything in five weeks.
Now we want to move on: in addition to continuing to work in interiors, to work more actively in volumes, keeping the vector aimed at the imagery and emotionality of our projects. And this movement is bearing fruit: a residential complex in Novorossiysk, which has already received the Best Architecture Multiple Residence Russia award in London, is ready for construction; we also recently made a concept for a residential complex in Astana and a very non-standard concept for an urban area in Novorossiysk. We are working on individual residential buildings near Moscow and in the south of Russia.
Konstantin Levin:
“For twelve years we have grown, and the market has become more professional, and the customer that has grown with it has become more sophisticated. On the one hand, it became difficult to surprise the customer: he saw a lot, on the other, he stopped being afraid of bold decisions, knows what he wants and trusts the architect. And by trusting, he receives a project that is ideally tailored to his personal needs.
There are more and more large projects in your portfolio: buildings, layouts. Is this the result of a deliberate desire to expand specialization or is it just the circumstances that are developing like this?
S. E.: It is a deliberate desire to keep the level of interest in the work in the workshop high. It is this that prompts us to move forward. It has always been this way: we have designed private houses, interiors, a synagogue, a research center, an institute for eye diseases, an interior of a private jet, and a complex with a casino. And practically every project has a lot of peculiarities: from the necessary certification of the object (this was the case with the Institute of Eye Diseases) or certification of materials (for an aircraft), to the physical impossibility of implementation in a given time frame and for a given money (each of the penthouses). And you must constantly take into account a variety of factors, even, for example, such as the effect of the sale of apartments in Astana. It would seem that it is not directly related to our work, but we have to reckon with it, and it strongly affects the design result. But all conditions and restrictions are always beneficial … Over the years of work, we have been convinced more than once that there are no hopeless situations, and complex tasks contribute to the emergence of witty and unexpected solutions.
Meanwhile, the number of large-scale corporate interiors for which your bureau is famous has not decreased. How do you manage everything?
S. E.: There are more of us. New ambitious GAPs have grown up … And I never had enough time. It is not enough even when there is a little work and you are looking for it; it is not enough even when you have found it and must already do it.
Sergey, do you set the main theme in each project? Or do you already have co-authors whom you already trust to "whistle a melody"? How "mono" is your workshop?
S. E.: I participate in the development of ideas for each project. Often I come up with and draw an idea myself.
K. L.: We have an author's workshop, and it is Sergey who determines what the project will be like. Then I connect. There is a rigid, well-established sequence of project implementation: each stage requires the work of certain people and their interaction. All participants involved in the design process must be included in the work on time. Any oversight can lead to financial losses. And we work with large investments, so the principle of free trust cannot exist in the bureau: I have worked for six years and that's it, we believe you, do what you want.
S. E.: Nevertheless, I always give the GAPs the opportunity to make their proposal. And, of course, everything interesting goes to work.
At what stage is the construction of a residential complex in Novorossiysk now? Did you manage to find materials and technologies suitable for its implementation?
S. E.: This is one of our favorite and most interesting projects over the past few years. The examination has been carried out, the work has been completed. We are waiting for the start of construction. I don’t want to mention the political situation and the crisis, but of course, they cannot but influence the project. We only hope that our complex, despite the situation, will be in demand and built. We are all entering a period of shifting priorities. It can be assumed that people will withdraw and stop spending money altogether. And we can assume that attention will switch to "oneself beloved", and everyone will inevitably come to the need to create symbols of local pride within Russia …
You are definitely not afraid of complex shapes, take at least a whirlwind in the atrium on 1st Brestskaya, or an aquarium in the form of a wave in the apartment of Mr. Sh.; the eye-shaped reception desk at the Johnson & Johnson Institute … What do you achieve by experimenting with texture and shape?
S. E.: Our principle of work in interiors is to find a vivid image, expressive plastic, sculptural, whatever, but our own for a specific place and a specific client - as a gift to him personally. Getting something personal, which continues to be liked for many years, is in great demand today by the customer. A modern interior is the creation of an emotionally rich space. We are not talking about decoration, we are talking about an architectural interior or an interior solved by architectural means. And if when creating the wave we used a modern shape, an asymmetric composition and modern technologies, then in the vortex on Brestskaya there is a classic composition, columns gothic in cross-section and even a very traditional material - reinforced gypsum.
Your portfolio also contains examples of projects in the spirit of classical architecture: in Zhukovka in 2007, in Krasnodar in 2011. Later, this topic did not develop. Why?
S. E.: We deliberately do not go to design in the spirit of classical architecture. Everything that we have done in the classics was done at the insistence of the customer, whom we could not refuse. We like to create modern architecture for today's customers. It is important to be honest with the customer. We often "lead" the customer, "start" him. The highest pleasure is to work when the customer is passionate about the project, waiting impatiently for what we will show him, then he sees something unexpected for himself and says that he needs to think … And then he comes back, as if stepping over some kind of internal barrier, ready for a new one approach, jump. The drive begins, which often leads to great results. So it was with Astana and Novorossiysk. And when the customer starts talking about the fact that he got used to the classical style (when did he grow up in the palace?), And we need to collect architecture for the “Customer's graph”, I don't really believe in its origin and the need for a classic environment. … And to come up with architecture for non-existent "noble" and create "family nests and estates" is not very honest and very uninteresting …
Although on trips, I am primarily interested in looking at the old architecture. How much clever and beautiful has been done!
You design a lot for Novorossiysk: there is a house in 2007 in your portfolio, then this difficult volume in a curvilinear "grid", now a whole area of low quarters. Why there?
S. E.: All projects come from one customer. We are interested in what he is planning and planning. We, apparently, are interesting to him for our experience in business architecture and creative approach. This is exactly the case that we talked about: a person has a drive, he lives with these projects, his new business ideas are born on the wave of design, and the process goes on. Everything is together here: business calculation, ambition, thirst for new things, technical interest, and a philosophical approach, in the end.
Now it has become very popular to work with public spaces, landscaping, painting facades and other "architectural moding". You had experience of such work in 2011 for Vedis-group, you painted a lightning on the facade of a panel house there. And now you do not seem to take part in the general hobby for landscaping … Why?
S. E.: Landscaping is a separate and extremely interesting topic. In addition to work for Vedis-group, we did the reconstruction of facades for Lanit. We also worked on a facade sign for buildings built by Capital Group. We will gladly take on the improvement within the framework of our project in Astana. But we do not consider it as a separate area of work in our workshop.
What are your impressions of participating in the NCCA competition? Do you plan to continue this practice, since participation in competitions is an interesting business, but costly?
S. E.: Both costly and emotionally very exhausting. To do a competition without a good, bright idea is a waste of time, the birth of an idea is most often a painful process that tears you out of your life for some time. You need extreme concentration. And here around - regular work with her constant questions and problems. But we will do contests. You just need to go to the competition with an idea. As for our competition for the NCCA, I am satisfied with the result. He is honest - this is our attitude specifically to the declared theme of contemporary Russian art - at the yard of a large shopping center. Both the image and the resulting sharp environment around, in my opinion, are successful.
