Architect Vladimir Bindeman is well acquainted with the outskirts of Krasnogorsk near Moscow: in particular, it was here that he built his “Riga quarter”, which was repeatedly recognized as the best business-class settlement and received the Silver Zodchestvo mark 2013. The new district is being created in the immediate vicinity of it - on the territory between the "Riga quarter" and the Volokolamsk highway. Despite the fact that these projects have different investors, the architect received a rather rare chance in Russian construction practice to “continue what he started”. And he used it brilliantly, providing the new complex with a memorable individual look and tangible architectural continuity.
Formally, the territory between the village and the highway is divided into two sections - almost the same area (0.73 and 0.95 hectares) and a similar trapezoidal shape - one of which stretches along the highway, and the other is oriented perpendicular to it. Unfortunately, there is no way to unite the plots - there is a road between them, which, in fact, provides an access to the "Riga quarter". However, in terms of architecture and planning, their disunity is not emphasized in any way. On the contrary, architects place the same types of houses on both sites, varying only their number and layout.
The development, built between the highway and the townhouse village, has two "layers" - external and internal. The first, quite predictably, plays the role of a harder, protective "skin", while the inner belt of houses is a delicate "pulp". In architectural terms, this, of course, is most clearly manifested in the choice of materials and the palette of cladding (the dark terracotta range of bricks is opposed by white panels and inserts and light wood), but at the level of planning, the duality is read instantly. On both sites, the architects are placing multi-section residential buildings with a height of six floors parallel to the highway, and another such house is placed along the long side of the site that is perpendicular to the highway. Thus, both the new district and the village spread out at a distance appear screens that separate them from the outside world. As for the internal development, here the architects preferred point four-six-storey towers - compact in plan and lower in number of storeys, they provide a harmonious transition from townhouses to apartment buildings.
Of course, visual relationships are created between two objects and at the architecture level. And if for the decoration of townhouses Vladimir Bindeman at one time came up with a universal mix in which dark brick, white plaster and natural wood were combined in equal proportions, then on larger volumes of sectional houses these materials are separated. The "screens" are faced mainly with bricks (with a distinctly different, more terracotta than "Riga quarter" shade), the brutal character of which is shaded by interfloor channels and mansard roofs made of dark gray metal. However, realizing that the houses do not last long and can be likened to fortified walls, the architects “dilute” their inaccessible appearance with large-scale glazing of the first public floor and triangular snow-white niches-dents, due to which the area of apartments on the central floors has been reduced to the required area.
The elongated shape of these volumes, repeatedly emphasized and accentuated with the help of interfloor channels, is contrasted with the snow-white towers, which, although shorter in growth, are directed upward. At least, this is exactly the impression created by the vertically united rather narrow windows, with which these houses are facing their brick counterparts. On the "Riga quarter" and its main natural attraction - the lake - the towers, on the contrary, look with almost continuous glazing. The only more material, than glass, vertical lintel here is an insert made of light wood - exactly the same is used in the design of both townhouses and the entrance group of the "Riga Quarter".
It was originally planned to place an underground parking under each of the two plots, but the excessively watered soil did not allow this to be done. “We actually had to pull the parking lots to ground level, but the landscape suggested the right decision - we dumped them and greened the slopes, thereby hiding the base of the houses from the eyes of future residents,” explains Vladimir Bindeman. This decision also gave rise to a fundamentally different organization of the entrance groups: the entrances are cut into the slopes and flanked by concrete planes and pergolas, which the architects propose to paint white. The architects give the slopes themselves a picturesque wavy shape, emphasizing their man-made nature, and the system of ramps and terraces makes the public floor of the complex accessible, which is supposed to house the office of the management company, a cafe, a restaurant, a supermarket and a fitness club. Thus, each of the houses receives an elegant base, in the form of which snow-white surfaces alternate with green surfaces, setting a single high standard for the improvement of the entire territory.
