Transforming an obsolete object into a modern office center is not an easy task, but it is quite common these days. It is unusual in this case only that the subject of reconstruction - the mill of the merchant Zaryvny, built in 1894 - an example of the provincial Russian brick style, is located in Orenburg. And he was not just "turned". This is the city's first experience of reconstruction in the loft style so popular today. And this first experience turned out to be successful: the work of T + T Architects bureau in collaboration with Mealhouse Concept Design immediately won the International (Europe & Africa) Commercial Property Awards 2010 (London), winning in the category of the best architectural object (office building).
Once upon a time, in the 1940s, Americans were the pioneers of the process of converting abandoned industrial facilities into housing. They also formed intra-procedural fashion and style. The fashion that gradually appeared in Manhattan to convert empty industrial lofts - those same lofts (from the English loft, attic) - into studio apartments, has grown into a fashion for a complete reconstruction of industrial buildings for residential buildings. But the architectural and design features of the original dictated their own conditions, and the idea of converting factory buildings into apartment housing over time was transformed into the idea of reconstruction into apartments with offices. The next logical step, of course, was the reconstruction of outdated factories and factories into business centers.
Fashion changed, but the style, based on the indispensable idea of introducing authentic details of the reconstruction object into the context of a new architectural solution, developed, remaining basically unchanged. Factory chimneys, stairs, lifts and even some fragments of production were made by the architects integral elements of the new, reconstructed building.
This is exactly how, scrupulously following all the laws of the genre, the authors of the transformation of the mill, or rather, the red-brick building of the flour mill of the merchant Zaryvny built in 1894, into a class B office center for the Russol company, did the same, creating a canonical example of style in provincial Orenburg (work began in 2010, ended in 2014). On the one hand, an architectural monument, careful conservative, admiring attention to detail, reconstruction - almost restoration, preserving everything that can and should have been preserved: from the size and rhythm of the semi-basement windows to the laying of arches on the gables of the main facade. On the other hand, there is an open space arrangement behind a giant glass over an extension of a former boiler room, an exhibition area on the mezzanine of the fifth floor, obligatory meeting points for informal communication at each level, and a reception desk painted with true metropolitan chic, surprisingly similar to a container for evaporating salt. It is not without reason that the customer is the largest private salt producer in the country.
The authors also proposed a project for office interiors: in calm light colors with cheerful color accents and color-coded floors.
The arrangement of a showroom open to visitors is not on the first, but on the top floor, or rather even above it, just like the location of the cafe in the basement is a traditional and absolutely precise solution in the loft style: the visitor is simply obliged to see all the possibilities of the reconstructed space - from open foundations to the roof rafters.
Metal parts of the facade require a separate mention in this project. The presence of metal elements - those very stairs, lifts or structural elements - is one of the fundamental rules of a loft. But traditional red-brick architecture most often has no metal columns, no floor trusses, no lift fences, or any other metal arsenal that could be used for the good of style. And without trying to imitate anything in interiors, where the only exception is the metal staircase leading to the mezzanine level, the authors came up with an ingenious inversion, bringing vertical metal trusses onto the transparent side facade of the extension. A four-story glass wall rests on them, the sole purpose of which is to act as a billboard for the company logo. Theatrical scenery is usually built according to this principle.
But if the trusses of the side facade are an absolutely obvious element of the decoration, then the metal of the main facade is a serious restoration work based on an almost exact reproduction of historical analogs. Here the metal theme is continued by a series of wall lamps, above-window elements, behind which are hidden the blinds of the windows of the first floor, stair railings and canopies. The final point of this metallic environment is the fire escape of the rear façade, a replica of their New York progenitors who once shaped this redbrick style.
It is also noteworthy that, despite the absolute self-sufficiency of the object, the authors never considered it as a single building surrounded by degraded buildings of the city bakery. Judging by the general layout, designed in the spirit of Libeskind, the reconstructed mill was supposed to become the starting point for the creation of a multifunctional residential complex here with its sports core, hotel, children's educational center and a system of squares united by a pedestrian structure running through the entire territory. But this is, unfortunately, only a project so far. Today, the amazing picture of the loft world for the Russian hinterland is completed by the restored boiler pipe, designed, according to the authors, to "maintain the spirit of the loft", and the grain elevator building preserved nearby, which will eventually be turned into a hotel and entertainment complex, creating another model for many their own kind.
