The Arch group architectural bureau, founded in 2007 by Alexey Goryainov and Mikhail Krymov, has established itself as a team with great creative potential in seven years. The last Moscow competitions were held with their constant participation. And the work, as a rule, turned out to be among the best. With the heads of the bureau, we decided to discuss not only successful participation in tenders, but also their special interest in reconstruction.
Archi.ru:
Reconstruction is one of the leading activities of your bureau. How did you choose this direction and why are you interested in it?
Mikhail Krymov:
- Architecture is reconstruction. We do not create something new in an airless vacuum, like God on the first day of creation: we sculpt from existing clay, changing the image of the world around us. All the tasks we face are reconstruction of a different scale: from major urban tasks of city reconstruction to the reconstruction of the housing of an individual. When creating a project, we take into account the existing structures, and the environment, and the prevailing scenarios, and previously made developments, and many other factors. We leave the necessary, and identify the potential opportunities, using architectural tools for this. We are not so much demiurges as surgeons.
Alexey Goryainov:
- Moscow looks like a continuous network of industrial zones. They are like a disease - they hit the city almost evenly. In recent years, it has become clear that this problem needs to be addressed. Attempts to transform industrial territories have already been made, and competitions are being held. But this huge work has just begun. About a third of the entire territory of Moscow, not to mention other cities in Russia, is in urgent need of renovation. And this is a very ambitious task.
Mikhail Krymov:
- In addition to the existing prerequisites, such as the presence of industrial territories in need of transformation, the economic situation in the country brought us to the topic of reconstruction. Our bureau began to work actively in the reconstruction mode at the height of the crisis, in 2008, when it became obvious that it was much more profitable to reconstruct a building than to demolish and rebuild it.
What was your first renovation project?
A. G.: The story began with a project to reconstruct an office building on Nizhnyaya Krasnoselskaya Street for MOESK. By this time, our bureau had already developed and implemented the interior design of several floors, which were repeatedly awarded with various competitions and prizes. The sharp contrast between the interior of the building and its rather nondescript external appearance practically forced the customer to think about reconstruction. We came up with quite nice facades with an uneven "wave" of balconies and ribbons of fences that hide the air conditioning units. We liked the result, there was an understanding that reconstruction can sometimes give no less effect than building from scratch.
M. K.: And besides, this approach has demonstrated particular rationality. Following the first project, a number of similar objects appeared: the transformation of the facades of the CenterTelecom building, the reconstruction of the facades of an office building on Staroalekseevskaya, the concept of reconstruction of an industrial quarter on Kalanchevskaya Street into a business center …
Then they came up with a rather bold concept of reconstruction of the building on Malaya Ordynka into a club complex of elite apartments. We completely covered the existing house with panels, there were cantilever balconies and terraces on attached trusses, which made the building look like a fantastic supercar. If this project were implemented, then hardly anyone would have guessed that this is a reconstruction. This, in essence, is our approach.
You started the conversation by mentioning the Moscow industrial zones in need of reconstruction. Have you already worked on similar projects?
A. G.: Yes, and more than once. One of the largest is the project for the renovation of the territory of the former chemical plant on the Berezhkovskaya embankment. It was a closed competition held twice. For the first time, when it was supposed to demolish all existing objects, the concept of the Bureau "Project Meganom" won. We participated when the competition was held for the second time, and it was required not to demolish, but to reconstruct the existing building. And our proposal took first place.
The project was interesting not only from the point of view of the scale of the task: a huge territory, one owner and almost complete freedom of creativity, but also from the point of view of the importance of the site for the city. More than seventy factory buildings stretch along the Moskva River, opposite the Moscow City complex. According to the customer, the territory could become something like a new Winery, only much larger and with an expanded functional composition.
M. K.: We came up with a functional program, breaking all buildings into seven separate groups. For example, they decided to turn beautiful red-brick buildings into loft-style apartments; large industrial buildings have become shopping and office centers; historical buildings were assigned the role of cultural and exhibition objects. For such zoning, a very serious analysis of the territory had to be done.
In addition, we were very close to the aesthetics of this place, crossed by suspension bridges, transformed into illuminated walking trails that unite the buildings on the second level. The project has preserved greenery, ponds and the main axis - a wide pedestrian street.
As far as I understand, reconstruction is still a topical direction of the bureau's work. What are you working on?
M. K.: One of our latest projects is the Novoostapovsky business center. We won the design right in a closed competition announced by the customer. It was necessary to transform an extended two-story industrial building, stretched along Sharikopodshipnikovskaya street, into a modern office center. The task was complicated by the fact that only half of the building was owned by the customer, and the second part of it had to remain intact. We offered an interesting, in my opinion, solution: refusing to continue the horizontal theme of development, we split the building into a series of vertical volumes. This cutting of differently solved fragments imitates a heterogeneous urban environment with closely adjoining facades, which are finished using different materials and differ slightly from each other in height and depth of indentation from the building line. Thus, instead of one very long building, a whole busy street appears. Behind the diverse bright facades are offices and small shops, which are so lacking in the area. And most importantly, the place has a human scale.
Another similar project, which also came to us as a result of a closed competition, is the redevelopment of the A. S. Popov in Omsk. Its main difference from the previous one is that here it was necessary to reconstruct a functioning and, in fact, a city-forming enterprise: three buildings of different heights that do not have a common facade. One of them is a small checkpoint, the second is a large panel block, and the third is a traditional brick building. But, unlike the previous project, in this case it seemed right to us to make a solid facade, the same for all three volumes. They decided to unite the buildings by completing a passage between them. And the general motive was the image of a mysterious radio device: a drawing was applied to the walls of the main facade of tinted glass, symbolically repeating a complex spectrogram of radio waves.
In addition, fragments of Soviet architecture have been preserved here. The most important and expressive details are enclosed in special covers made of metal mesh. This technique allows you to preserve the memory of what the building was like before the reconstruction. Illuminated from the inside, these details turn into some kind of sculptures reminiscent of the factory's past.
A separate block in the bureau's portfolio is the reconstruction of airports. How is this work progressing?
A. G.: We have indeed completed several projects for the reconstruction of airports in large Russian cities. These are mainly typical Soviet buildings with old panel facades. In all cases, it was supposed to leave only a structural frame, on the basis of which a variety of facades could be created. Somewhere the airport simply acquired modern features, and somewhere, such as in Abakan, the facade was designed taking into account the national characteristics of the region.
And what about the reconstruction of the facades of children's clinics?
A. G.: As for the polyclinics, it was the city's initiative to modernize them. And it seems to me that the idea was very correct. On this wave, we made several suggestions that could turn dull and intimidating panel buildings into bright, cheerful buildings. However, the matter did not go further than the idea: the city initiative was curtailed as suddenly as it had arisen.
You mentioned your participation in closed competitions. Do you like to participate in them more or in open ones?
M. K.: In fact, we really like closed contests more. And the point is not in the number of participants with whom one has to compete, but in the approach to the evaluation of competitive projects. In a closed competition, works are considered directly by the customer, who first of all draws attention to their compliance with the technical specifications, economics and common sense. In open competitions, the choice of the jury is most often dictated by a vivid impression of the presentation or an accidental emotion, and such an assessment is not always objective. It is very difficult to win in such a competition, so we see it more as an exercise for the mind.
Still, you actively participate in open competitions, including in the field of reconstruction. For example, recently the work of your workshop was awarded in competitions for a project for the reconstruction of a swimming pool in Luzhniki and a bakery in Cheryomushki …
M. K.: The Luzhniki Basin is not quite a reconstruction, since the entire existing building is being demolished, including the foundations, according to a tender. However, three walls of the pool are supposed to be recreated exactly, but the fourth, facing the metro bridge and overpass, became the subject of design.
A. G.: Luzhniki is a complex built during the Soviet era as a single ensemble. The pool building is clearly visible from the bridge, but practically does not fall into the panorama of the city. We completely hid its volume, lowering the roof in a beautiful bend, so that the main arena of Luzhniki was clearly visible from the city. And they thought out in detail the fifth facade of the pool, facing the metro bridge.
M. K.: The project was very seriously worked out, right down to the structures and the water supply system. Probably, we overdid it here, because in an open competition, the image is first of all important, and only then the details. We made a project that perfectly took into account all the requirements of the technical task and offered simple and understandable solutions. And they took third place, but the experience was interesting.
A. G.: In the tender for the reconstruction of the bakery in Cheryomushki, it was necessary to solve several separate factory buildings with a complex configuration and a huge area of facades as a single ensemble. One long facade was supposed to form a street with active pedestrian and public transport traffic. The other is designed for perception from a distance, which means it must have an expressive and readable image from a long distance.
M. K.: We figured out how to combine a spectacular look with the possibility of its simple and not too expensive implementation. We suggested using a facade mesh with handprints printed on it - as if the walls had just been molded from soft dough. This is a direct association with the activities of the plant. This is the inner facade. Street looks a little more complicated. Here, the spectacularly illuminated, double-layer wall looks like a slice of freshly baked bread.
A. G.: Our work went to the final, but we didn't manage to win. As we learned from an interview with Yuliy Borisov, who served as one of the jury members, the customer doubted the reliability of the material chosen for finishing. It is a pity … By the way, it was from such a grid that the German exhibition pavilion was built for EXPO-2010, which successfully survived the exhibition, having met millions of visitors.
There was one more competition - the project of reconstruction of the visor of the hotel Ukraine
A. G.: This is perhaps the most unusual of a series of renovations. We didn't really want to take part in this competition, but when we had a completely unexpected idea of a visor, we could not resist. The fact is that the hotel canopy is needed exclusively for protection from rain. At the same time, it is obvious that any visor will simply cover most of the facade and spoil the appearance of this unique architectural monument. Therefore, the only correct decision is to make a visor, which does not exist. This is how an invisible visor appeared, which works by analogy with air curtains that cut off the air. The horizontal air curtain blows off raindrops and snow six meters from the entrance, in the direction where there is no pedestrian traffic. The visor works only during rain, and the air pressure depends on the amount of precipitation.
M. K.: At the first stage of the competition, we presented our project as an idea, and the customer's doubts about the feasibility and effectiveness of the idea were conveyed to us. As a result, for the second round, together with the German company Arup, we calculated everything. The calculations were so thorough that they demonstrated not only the operation algorithm, but even the trajectories of the blown drops and their speed. A place was found to install the necessary equipment, a summary of the annual precipitation in Moscow was presented, the cost of implementation and operation was calculated, which turned out to be about ten times less than the cost of construction work for the construction of any, even the simplest canopy … Nevertheless, the project did not win. But there is no regret: we were not interested in becoming the authors of a certain visor, but we already became the authors of an unusual solution. Surprisingly, there are no such visors in the world yet!
Were there any open competitions that you won?
A. G.: We won an international competition for the construction of a Russian spiritual cultural Orthodox center in Paris. We then proposed, after preserving and reconstructing the existing buildings, to combine them with a glass shell into a single complex. Inside the glass volume there is also a white-stone church, which, with a certain amount of irony, can be called a reconstruction of Orthodox architecture. However, even winning the competition does not at all guarantee participation in the implementation of the project. And this competition was no exception. Now another company is engaged in construction in Paris.
What is the beauty of reconstruction for you? And isn't it cramped for you in this direction?
M. K.: Of course, our bureau specializes not only in reconstruction. But at the initial stage, for such a young team like us, reconstruction has become a real opportunity to engage in architecture, while it has not yet gained sufficient professional weight.
A. G.: As a rule, we work only with the skeleton of the building, which does not narrow the architectural possibilities too much, because the architect is faced with limitations in size when he comes to an empty site. Reconstruction has its advantages - for example, it allows you to immediately assess the scale of the building, and in addition, the implementation of reconstruction projects is much faster than new objects, the construction of which sometimes takes a decade, as a result of which the architecture has time to become outdated.
M. K.: Architecture is a creative activity. The main reward of an architect is to see how the world is changing through his efforts. Creating something new is great, but transforming the existing world with your own hands is a completely different experience. This is a special architectural magic.
