The next Architectural Council, which took place on March 18 in the building of the Moscow City Architecture Committee, was dedicated to the process of modernization of industrial housing construction. Two house-building factories - LSR and Narostroy - presented new series of panel residential buildings, developed in accordance with the criteria previously approved by the council. Sergei Kuznetsov, opening the meeting, recalled that the Archcouncil had already considered six series of DSK, which are recommended for launch into production. “Our goal is to achieve the greatest variability of solutions on the existing basis,” Kuznetsov explained. "The factories, in fact, must produce a designer, from which a variety of houses will be created, forming an interesting development with the correct zoning and individual appearance."
A series of residential buildings. LLC "LSR"
The presented series of houses is based on products manufactured by its own plant "LSR", which, according to the speaker, is equipped with modern Austrian and German equipment. Buildings are formed by various sections of variable number of storeys (from 7 to 25 floors). The different heights of the buildings make it possible to create an interesting silhouette of the building while observing the insolation requirements. The necessary set of detailed angular, latitudinal, meridional and end sections makes it possible to build urban planning models with a spacious courtyard that are optimal for a particular site. The first floors can be either panel or monolithic, which makes it possible to create more comfortable and spacious rental premises with an area of more than 60 m2 and a ceiling height of more than 4 m. Glazing along the outer border opens the first floors to the city, while providing the necessary lighting inside the premises.
But the main advantage of the series is the seamless technology of facade finishing, which makes it possible to efficiently and inexpensively create vivid imaginative solutions. For this, reinforced concrete products are sheathed with insulation, and the final image is formed by a "wet facade" with rustication or a hinged ventilated facade with a variety of colors. The surfaces of the walls are added with plastics by the dynamic arrangement of balconies and loggias, as well as the use of "false shutters" made of fiber cement slabs. As for the apartments, here you can see quite standard planning solutions with a load-bearing wall pitch of 3.30 and 3.60 m and a ceiling height of 2.70 m.
It was noted that, in general, the presented series meets all the criteria of the MCA, but the transitional balconies seemed to the council too monotonous in terms of plastic, and the layouts - limited in the possibilities of replanning or combining two separate apartments. Alexey Vorontsov found the apartments too large for the social housing segment. Andrei Bokov, on the other hand, showed confidence that a 20-storey plate with a 3-meter pitch of columns has outlived its usefulness and does not at all correspond to today's ideas about comfortable housing, so he finds it strange an attempt to extend the life of this type of residential building. He also doubted that such an architecture would be in demand in 10 or 20 years, and in fact, in terms of operational indicators, it will last at least until 2100. “It is necessary to move to a wider step, - recommended Andrey Bokov, - since in this form the houses are not very suitable for permanent residence. The only area where this architecture, with the necessary modifications, can be in demand is rental housing, an extremely relevant topic in today's market."
Yuri Grigoryan also agreed with Bokov: “This project is no different from ordinary panel houses. You cannot "save" them with the help of excessive variegation and dragging along the facade of the balconies. This is a common block development, and the proportions of buildings and the rhythm of windows play a role here. Everything else is redundant for these houses."
Sergey Kuznetsov drew attention to the landing of volumes. In the project under consideration, the architects envisage the appearance of additional porches, ramps and ramps at the entrance areas for people with limited mobility. But all this only complicates access to the first floors of the building, which should be public. According to the chairman of the council, in all cases it is necessary to minimize the problem of height differences on the site and plant the volume directly on the relief, providing unhindered access to the entrances and shops of the first floors. Hans Stimmann also commented on the first floors, who also drew attention to the insufficient insolation of this layer. In addition, he was outraged by the decision to use the upper attic floors to accommodate technical rooms: in Germany, the most expensive apartments with terraces and access to the roof are located on the upper level.
The proposed facade finishing was also questioned. Sergey Kuznetsov was interested in the possibilities of variability of finishing: can, for example, brick or clinker tiles be mounted on the existing frame instead of the factory panel? The workers of the plant assured that such a possibility can be foreseen. For finishing the first floor, this can be done today without significant changes in the structural scheme.
A series of industrial residential buildings. JSC "Narostroy"
The plant "Narostroy" presented the modified series to the council again, trying to take into account all the previously expressed comments. The company has developed five types of sections with a height of 9 to 16 floors. The buildings form an enclosed neighborhood with uneven silhouette of houses and a large courtyard space reserved for pedestrians only. The entrances are made through and connect the courtyard with the street. It is possible to move the sections relative to each other, which makes the building more lively and voluminous. In addition to the standard corner sections, the option of joining two buildings using loggias is offered. This technique, according to the speakers, is very popular in Finland.
Facades are also being solved based on Finnish experience. In particular, seamless technologies are used on the basis of a Finnish enterprise. The panels manufactured at the factory are mounted directly on the site: the joints are sealed, the insulation layer is fastened, followed by plastering and painting. The volumetric surface, a kind of 3D effect, is created due to an additional layer of insulation 50 mm thick. The chosen color scheme of the houses is quite restrained, light tones dominate with the addition of ocher and gray shades. By combining contrasting colors, architects create complex geometric patterns on the walls of buildings. Another technique for creating an individual image is protruding glazed balconies located directly below each other. It was decided to place the air conditioning units not on the facades, but on the balconies, hiding them in special niches covered with a metal mesh. According to the authors, it is very convenient for maintenance. And if the owner of the apartment refuses to air-conditioning, then he can use the additional space for his own needs.
The spacing of the load-bearing walls in the meridian sections is 3–3.30 m. At the same time, some planning flexibility is achieved due to additional openings in the load-bearing walls. As a result, with a single step, you get a fairly diverse apartment layout - from studios to large three-room apartments.
Discussing this project, the council members agreed that here, too, the authors cannot overcome the image of the usual "panels": even the method of creating a deep niche by joining two loggias does not help. Sergei Tchoban chided the authors for trying to get away from the problem of creating a full-fledged massive corner, but not from the panel type of building, with the help of joining loggias. In his opinion, it is necessary to carefully study the corner sections, even if they are located at an angle of more or less 90 degrees, to learn to work with complex shapes - in each case individually. Valery Leonov, a new member of the Architectural Council, spoke on the topic of fire safety: so, in his opinion, the location of air conditioners on balconies can prevent people from evacuating in case of fire.
The outcome of the meeting of the Archcouncil was the decision to send both submitted projects for revision.
