We have already talked about the project and concept of the “Microtown“In the Forest”. The comfort-class residential complex is being built by Rose Group according to the SPEECH bureau project on Pyatnitskoe highway, six kilometers from Moscow. This is a landmark project both for the developer Rose Group, which was previously known for the construction of luxury houses in the Ostozhenka area; in 2011, the company launched a project in a new comfort class segment for itself, and for architects who made an attempt to create here a fragment of a humanized urban fabric: with a quarterly layout, closed yards, shops and cafes closed from cars, not only on the first floors, but especially on the boulevard, which will be built as part of the third stage of construction and will become the center of public life, complementing the residential function with the commercial, cultural and recreational necessary for a full-fledged urban environment.
Now the master plan of the Microtown "In the Forest" covers 100 hectares, it is designed for 35,000 people, eight stages of construction are planned (the decision on the implementation of several objects will be made later, taking into account the general situation on the market - explain the Rose Group), two schools, three kindergarten. Now three multi-section houses of the first stage, one kindergarten and one school have been built, houses of the second stage are being built, at the end of August all of the above was shown to journalists.
It was pouring heavily, and Sergei Tchoban, having come to the press conference, shared: “We were afraid that it would not be bright, because in the summer we looked at the facades more often in the sun; now I see that these shades can cheer up in cloudy weather."
Indeed, the embossed yellow spots from the aluminum panels tilted at different angles seemed especially attractive that day, similar to thick smears of oil paint made with a palette knife on a white canvas - spots of the sun, pasty laid on the facade so that they would not be inadvertently washed away by the frequent Moscow rain. The facades of the first stage are known to have been developed by two Russian architectural bureaus: SPEECH and TPO "Reserve", and two German ones: AssmannSalomon AS and LANGHOF. So, it was SPEECH that suggested "sunspots"; they are echoed by the striking orange facades of LANGHOF, assembled in accordions and thus also. "Reserve" belongs to contrasting zigzags and a variant with relief irregular shading of white balconies. By the way, not every gamut here is sunny: the gray-brown tone from AssmannSalomon and his blue propylaea houses guarding the entrance to the courtyard of the sixteenth building look unexpectedly serious (by the way, "Reserve", working with the same sections-propylaea of the seventeenth building, inverted solution by color, the volumes turned out to be paired-opposite).
Each of the project participants made from two to four options, but what is more interesting - the invited colleagues did not work on separate houses-volumes (as was done in
the Grunewald project of the same SPEECH bureau, and in Sergey Skuratov's Garden Quarters), and they developed the design of the facades of individual sections, which then the architects of the SPEECH bureau leading the entire project combined with each other, focusing on the corner and final sections. In addition to each version of the facade, the same author designed the entrance groups and apartments, which are sold with a fine finish, painted walls, doors, ready-made bathrooms; various little things have been thought out, up to the number of apartments, subordinate to the general decision of the section. So, the individuality of each solution, easily readable from the outside, "seeps" inward, making it easier for residents to identify their part of the house, and, of course, working on the completeness of the solution.
In addition, the sections are deliberately made of different heights, 12 and 14-storey volumes alternate, also irregularly, after one or two, emphasizing the impression of many different houses standing in a row clearly indicated by the facades. The stepped top line is enhanced by the protrusions of the technical floors, which are moved to the plane of the facades. The top line then whimsically breaks, that suddenly calms down and stretches horizontally, in general echoing the variety of facades.
In a word, the goal of the architects was to enrich the impression, which, of course, they succeeded: it is curious to walk here, count the options, mark the ones already seen, or vice versa, new ones. The developed methodology is planned to be used in other stages, in any case, the facades of the second stage have already been drawn, the Russian participants are the same, SPEECH and Reserve, and the foreign ones have changed, now it is a German bureau
Ortner & Ortner and the extravagant Briton William Alsop, who proposed decorating the windows with multi-colored stylized flowers, picking up the theme of multi-colored frames, already set on the realized facades of the first stage from AssmannSalomon. In the second stage, some polarization occurred: everything bright went to Alsop, three others offered houses that looked more like houses, partly modernist, partly relatively conservative, which emphasizes the image of a city laid down here, consisting of different buildings that happened to be nearby almost by accident.
The dance of colors and lines is not the only architectural feature of the project. Perhaps not more important for the authors was the quarterly layout proposed here. This is now, when Sergei Kuznetsov has been insisting on the priority of block development over an open microdistrict for two years in the position of chief architect - now only a very lazy or short-sighted author does not call his projects "quarters". In 2007 when
it all started, the priorities were not so obvious - although it must be admitted that even then SPEECH was not the only adherent of the quarter planning: for example, Bart Goldhorn promoted the same idea in the A101 project; and yet, in this case, a large-scale block development project must be recognized to a certain extent as a manifesto.
On the general plan, most of the houses, with the exception of a dozen towers of the boulevard, surround their large courtyards with a dense perimeter; the perimeter opens as if reluctantly, sacrificing one, rarely two sections. The given rhythm of large squares is inscribed in a not particularly rigid, but still rather stubborn orthogonal grid.
It should be reminded that the buildings of the first stage - two squares and one L-shaped, approximately half the size, receding from the border of the site - are the tallest and largest, and are closer to the highway than others. The dimensions of other houses will be slightly smaller, although not much, by ten percent. Two full squares, buildings numbered 16 and 17, open in the middle on the east side, here, due to the relief difference, a wide, rather grand staircase is formed, leading through the courtyard, framed by two sections similar to propylets, and openings of entrances to the underground parking. On the contrary, in the western part there is an arch through which a fire engine can enter the courtyard (only it; pedestrian courtyards). The entrances and arches are strung on the central axis and line up in the semblance of an enfilade. It is assumed that children will be able to walk in the courtyards safely, without their parents.
The landscape improvement concept was developed by the Berlin bureau St Raum A under the leadership of Stefan Jäckel and the Moscow-based Ilya Mochalov & Partners, who then completed the working documentation for the first stage and are now working on the second.
The resulting courtyards are equally far from the Stalinist ones and from the historical quarter buildings of the 18th-19th (and even the 20th) centuries, the scale of which is much smaller (in Stalinist houses on avenues: 9-11 floors, courtyards 8000-15000 m2; in apartment buildings on Liteiny Prospekt, 4–5 storey buildings, courtyards from 300 to 800 m2, in Ottoman Paris or the center of Rome there are courtyards and 200 m2 at the same 4–6 floors; in the "Microcity" In the forest "we see houses with a height of 12-14 floors, the area of the yard is 5700 m2).
It turns out something in between, far from the scale of the historical city (in which, for example, the project
"Residential hybrid" MVRDV, typologically a townhouse), but also significantly pacifying the "Hong Kong" growth characteristic now for Moscow and the Moscow region, up to thirty-forty, or even seventy floors. The resulting quarter is somewhere between these poles.
The resulting not large - not small, although it feels like still large volumes, in fact, have become the main module: it will consist of such houses, arranged in groups and separated by very wide passages. Their volumes are very solid, dense squares, and the shell of different facades stretched on them serves, of course, as a decoration that hides the scale, distracts attention to itself and even argues in the rigid regularity of the volume-square: it is easy to see that all the options for the facades are drawn asymmetrical - they as if they are trying to "shake" the volume, testing it with large, then small zigzags, then chaotically located spots and protrusions. The facades cut by verticals are very distantly, but still remind of cities of a completely different kind - late medieval ones, divided into miniature sections, closely built up with variegated and multi-colored, albeit similar buildings, where the verticality of narrow facades is emphasized by stepped pediments. The centers of all Hanseatic cities, Denmark, Holland, Poland are built up like this. But in this case, their image is not copied, but as if shown through a kaleidoscope: not a single similar shape (of course), although the idea can be considered. It can even be said that there is a stronger resemblance to the center of Istanbul, built up with the same vertical, but late modernist facades. However, any similarity remains a hint, an observer's fantasy - and even more an idea than an image - hence the strongest association with theatrical scenery for Andersen's fairy tale, staged in some experimental theater that despises the fabulous Christmas literalism.
Talking about the residential complex, the architect Sergey Kryuchkov honestly admitted that the name “in the forest” should not be taken literally: being guided by the name, you think that the city should be surrounded by something like taiga, in fact it is, of course, not so, the space around inhabited, on the east side, not far from the Pyatnitskoye Shosse metro station, the Mitino microdistricts begin, to the west - the Otradnoye settlement, a residential complex is also being built in it, but the closest is a clinical hospital. A real forest begins three kilometers away, behind the Sinichka River surrounded by sanatoriums. The name is explained differently: in an effort to add comfort to the economy class, the developers donated about two blocks, keeping a fragment of the forest park inside the territory (the Russian company Imperial Gardens is engaged in landscaping the park).
It must be admitted that in addition to the forest, the project contains many important details designed to improve the quality of life and attract residents; Much was said about them at the press conference, besides, Rose Group emphasizes that it is fundamentally important for them that the residential complex should live and function, and not become an investment purchase, a "concrete bank cell" (which, in general, is also new). According to SPEECH projects, a kindergarten was built: a bright one, made up of several colored volumes with a scattering of perpendicular windows, and a red-brick school, with perspective frames around windows and even doors inside, a bit like
reconstruction project of the State Tretyakov Gallery by the same authors. The school and the kindergarten are deliberately asymmetrical in contrast to the square plans of the quarters, and their appearance, also unlike residential buildings, is uniform.
As representatives of Rose Group and SPEECH said at a press conference, there are no fundamental technical or service innovations in the project, but much was first used in the comfort class, brought from the more expensive elite. For example, all apartments are sold with one obligatory underground parking space (there are also ground spaces, they are guest ones and are located outside the quarter's perimeter - the courtyards, as we remember, are pedestrian). The fiber-optic channel laid in houses is capable of simultaneously supporting a telephone, intercom, and the Internet (moreover, residents can choose from three providers, between which competition is deliberately created); if desired, this connection allows you to organize a full-fledged "smart home" system in the apartments. Cars entering the garage are identified by remote reading of the access card on the windshield, similar cards will be in children at school. Intercoms are located inside transparent vestibules in front of the lobbies so that guests do not freeze in front of them on the street; the ground floors have storage facilities for strollers and bicycles. The school will cost residents 10,000 rubles per month (for a commercial school this is a small fee received as a result of a special agreement between the developer and the school operator, the normal average price is 35,000 rubles, this was announced at a press conference), and walking to it from houses the first stage for about four minutes, no more, although through the internal road. Residents, however, do not accept all the innovations: for example, many were not happy about the absence of a garbage chute: it is good that it does not smell in the entrance, but sometimes it is so convenient to throw something on the floor … have not decided whether they are ready to pay for it, and if it turns out that they are not ready, perhaps everything will be limited to grass on the lawns, without garden excesses.
Many of the listed little things, details of both architectural and household properties respond well to the declared definition of a comfort class: it is really felt how, not without difficulty and compromises, some fundamental things are introduced step by step: from a mandatory parking space (which, if If you want, you can sell) and the decoration of apartments (which will not be so difficult to redo), - to the image of a city striving to refine the brutal Moscow region spaces. The place here is such that everything is close by: cottages, townhouses, sanatoriums, microdistricts, a large shopping center, as well as a forest and a field. “Microtown“In the forest”among them seems to be their own, and it seems to be another completely, joyful, clean. Well, typical middle class.
