A house in a small village near the Pirogov reservoir, in a picturesque environment: on one side there is a forest, on the other, water - as is often the case, went to Leonidov's bureau, built to the basement according to a previous project - its plan, and even partly the dimensions and proportions were determined. But the owners, creative, active and versatile people, opponents of statics and symmetry, dreamed of an unusual house and asked the architect to come up with something new, unlike the neighboring cottages. The surrounding nature also, according to Roman Leonidov, prompted the search for an atypical, futuristic-sculptural form.
In addition, the unfinished house hid a number of design errors and problems that, according to the architect, had to be solved literally on the go. Roman Leonidov recalls that the image of a modern and multifaceted "not at home, but rather a liner" arose almost instantly. On top of the existing project, which the customer dreamed of remaking and improving, new forms grew, layering one on top of the other. Without reference to a specific style, without regard to modern trends and fashion, volumes were created, lines were drawn, details and compositional elements were revealed, revolving around an already built central core, transforming and completely transforming it.
And the house turned into a metaphor for a ship under strongly curved sails, even a fabulous ship in an imaginary sea. There are two sails and they look at each other, which does not happen in life - and it seems that the romantic image is deliberately entangled by the cubist artist, twisted, cut and unfurled. But the bend is drawn accurately and energetically, and it seems that the smaller sail, resiliently resisting the air currents, is pushing the larger one, preventing it from straying from the correct course.
You can look at the plot of the architectural image of the building in another way: a curved visor, skillfully using
bent beams of glued wood, covers the main - three-story, by the way - volume, reducing it to an extreme degree of generalization. It would be lonely if it were not for two small volumes supporting it on both sides: one duplicates the bend of the main sail in miniature, but proudly turns its back to the "parent". The second, double-height and carrying a communication core of stairs and an elevator, is covered from the outside by an inclined wall-screen and expands upward. The plans of the two small volumes are graceful arcs.
Large, ribbed inside, and outside covered with aluminum scales, bent wood forms are combined with Corbusian white slabs of concrete interfloor floors and panoramic stained-glass windows, Mondrian's pattern of metal bindings and corner supports. The picture is complemented by inserts of dark natural stone where the bends of the canopies and lattice railing of numerous balconies meet. It turns out - in addition to the ship - it looks like a giant insect or a spacecraft half-opened after landing, capable, if necessary, of curling back into a silvery egg.
Special skill was required from the designers: not only does the building have a very intricate configuration, it was also necessary to take into account the features of the frame inherited from the original project. A detailed examination of the existing part showed that it is possible to build on the house, but not to make it heavier. This is how frame walls, hard floor disks, which keep the large "sail" from shifting horizontally, and a vertical core of stiffness, which fixes it on steel cables, appeared. The construction of the upper floors is largely wooden, which also helped to solve the problem of weight (the house was among the nominees for the ArchiWOOD prize, whose winners were announced at the end of May at Arch Moscow). By the way, one of the features of this house is the masterly mixing of various materials. The wooden cornices from the outside appear to be metallic, while the concrete parts of the first floor are clad in cool, blue-gray, water-borne wood. The result is an effect that surprises the viewer - at first glance it is impossible to understand what is made of what. In addition, materials behave atypically: a tree, which is normally supposed to represent something post-and-beam, bends, while concrete, by definition, ready to be cast into any shape, dutifully adheres to the planes; even a proud stone is hammered into the sinuses between the canopy sails.
The interior space is logically arranged and contains a lot of everything, from spacious bedrooms on the second floor to the workshop of the owners of the house under curved beams on the third and exhibition space - a mini-exhibition in a double-height hall with a staircase. Not without a spa, gym and dance hall adjacent to the living-dining room on the ground floor; from the living room you can go into the "small sail" - a bright, glazed terrace on three sides, and from there - go to an open balcony on the roof of a wide U-shaped canopy that serves as a canopy for guest parking. In the underground tier there are utility rooms, in a separate block next to the main entrance there are housing for service personnel and a garage. The architects carefully thought out the neighborhood of rooms inside the house and arranged them so that from each one could go to the balcony or terrace.
The variety of forms and functions balances some asceticism of the interior, where daylight becomes the main character, easily penetrating into the house through transparent walls. In addition, the house is correctly oriented to the cardinal points: the sun goes in a circle, illuminates one room or another, plays on the curves of walls, furniture and the ceiling. Leaving as many open and smooth surfaces as possible, the authors use the simplest materials for finishing: light stone, wood, concrete, plaster. Metal, glass, leather appear somewhere. The lack of color "in the mass" is compensated by unexpected local flashes in the form of bright furniture or multi-colored textured fabrics.
The main façade is facing the water, and most of the open terraces and balconies also go here. A well-maintained blooming courtyard with a web of winding paths gradually merges with the shore, where, over time, a cereal garden should be planted and a field of bright flowers planted.
The house turned out to be difficult, it has a tense internal dialogue - take at least two arcs that hold the energy of the main plot: the main volume and the terrace adjoining to it, instead of snuggling comfortably, turn away from each other, sharply arching their backs, although they retain obvious similarity. A dispute instead of a hierarchy, a hollow where you expect a smooth descent, and a polyphonic play with texture and the usual roles of different materials: a curved wood covered with metal and simple concrete disguised with wood - the house seems to be taking apart itself into proto-parts and immediately folded back, demonstrating a confident command of the language of deconstruction: the manifestation of tension within the form, attraction-repulsion is akin to atomic, the alternation of caesura and arrays. Meanwhile, despite the lively dialogical nature of plastic, Roman Leonidov managed not to overcomplicate the author's gesture, but to subordinate it to the reflection of the contemplation of the landscape. However, talking about his project, the architect emphasizes that he was able to achieve the desired result only by joint creativity and mutual understanding with the customer, ready for risk and experiment.
