The building plot on which the MR Group is building a new multifunctional residential complex is located in a natural environment unique for the capital's conditions. Not only is it separated from the nearby Entuziastov highway and the dense development of residential neighborhoods in Perov by the green areas of two hospitals and the House of Stage Veterans, but also practically at its very eastern border, literally in a couple of minutes walk, the territory of the famous Terletsky Park begins - a monument of landscape art with a cascade of ponds, an old oak grove and other park pleasures, not to mention the vastness of the Izmailovsky forest stretching on the other side of the highway. In such a luxurious location in terms of ecology and future species characteristics, there is another advantage - the architects did not have to think about how to fit the project into the urban context due to its complete absence, context. One of the authors of the complex under construction, Andrei Romanov, compares such objects with a submarine that exists autonomously, exclusively according to its own rules. “The main thing,” he adds, “is that the object itself is integral and internally harmonious.”
The main idea that Andrey Romanov and Yekaterina Kuznetsova put in the basis of the project was the theme of “their own territory”, in other words, the notorious quarter, because the quarter is essentially nothing but a cell of the city structure that is scaled to a person, within which its inhabitants there should be a feeling of "home". It is clear that it is easiest to build such a cell in the traditional way - by enclosing the interior of the house with a closed loop - but if this is not possible, the same result can be achieved using less obvious architectural techniques. PerovSky residential complex consists of three 23-storey towers: no matter how hard you try, you cannot build a traditional quarter from such components. Therefore, the ADM architects combined the towers with a two-story stylobate. This technique has proven itself perfectly: a low massif does not put pressure on the viewer, does not shade the courtyard, but does an excellent job of being a connecting link - the architects also used it in their previous work for MR Group, a residential complex on Vorobyovy Gory.
In this case, a complex volume, now pedantically repeating the straight lines of the towers, then suddenly receding into the depths of a parabolic bend, not only contains all the necessary infrastructure - from a supermarket and cafe to a fitness center - but also serves as a barrier that separates the internal territory from outside, street. The main lobby of the stylobate leads to one of the residential buildings; to get into the other two, you have to cross the courtyard. The excavation of the second entrance leads to a kindergarten, designed not only for the residents of the complex, but also for their neighbors. Its promenade, lined with colored triangles, was removed by the architects outside the courtyard - it adjoins the outer side of the stylobate.
The facades of the residential buildings, despite the obvious stylistic unity, are plastically solved in different ways. More precisely, the theme is one, but there are several variations. This is partly due to different apartments, location on the cardinal points, and partly - the desire to give individuality to each of the high-rise parallelepipeds. For all the facades, clinker bricks were used, but the wide range of colors of this material made it possible to choose its own tone for each case, revitalized with more or less accentuated pixelation, creating a sense of volume and even movement - a slight variegation is more comfortable for the eye than a dull monotony. In the interfloor strips, the crossbars are placed vertically, forming light unobtrusive friezes, hinted only through the pattern of the lining seams.
Another tool for organizing the wall is the rhythm of the windows; as in their previous projects, Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova build it masterly. In one of the buildings - red-brick - lined up in vertical rows of windows allow themselves a diagonal dynamics, consonant with the same, across the floor, alternation of corner windows. The regular but flexible pattern of the openings lightens the wall, compensating for the tangible materiality of the dark red brick. The second building is lighter, stricter and more regular, its openings noticeably thicken towards the center of the facades, accentuating the density of the corners. The third building is even lighter, and its rhythm is complicated by horizontal alternation, which turns the facade into a checkerboard pattern. The theme is supported by metallized horizontal inserts in the upper and lower parts of the windows, vertical wooden panels (they are found in the second building) and small latticed balconies for air conditioners.
The walls of the stylobate are noticeably thinner, the glazing plane is larger, and its volume spread over the ground is perceived as slender and light. A strip of light wood stitches both tiers of the stylobate in the upper part with a solid frieze; it is located deeper than the embossed ribs, but higher than the glass planes, obeying the same multilayer wall effect as the residential towers. Where the straight planes of the stylobate facades continue the lines of the walls of the buildings, they are transformed into a red-brick lattice, genetically related to the terracotta theme of the first building. In the recesses of the mini-squares in front of the entrances, the architects replace the brick edges with even thinner white ones - the effect of the "bitten apple" thus obtained emphasizes the openness of the entrance zones, invites you inside, and at the same time allows you to feel the space of the sites as a transitional one, located already inside the geometric contours of the parallelepiped, but still outside, behind the transparent glass surface. It is planned to plant greenery on the roof of the stylobate, so that the view from the windows of the buildings will not disturb the harmony of the forest panorama around.
What Andrei Romanov and Yekaterina Kuznetsova never save on is landscaping. And it's not only and not so much about the budget, but about ideas and time spent on development. Indeed, in addition to performing applied functions: benches for recreation, playgrounds for games, trees for shade, the correct design of adjacent territories also solves serious macro tasks. The architects are sure that even the best facade cannot be perceived by a person in isolation from the landscape context. “This is a question of goal-setting,” comments Andrei Romanov. "We want to create an environment in which a person should be interested and comfortable, even if he perceives many details only on a subconscious level."
The PerovSky residential complex should be intriguing even on the way - in front of the main lobby there is a picturesque foreground with trees, circular benches and concentric circles of multi-colored tiles; the same, but smaller, will appear at the entrance to the kindergarten. But, of course, the residents of the complex will get the most intricate and carefully designed landscape design. In the courtyard, it is planned to fill in real hills (since there will be an underground garage under the courtyard, a certain amount of soil will need to be added to plant trees), to equip playgrounds, not to mention flower beds, lawns and paths that fold into pictures, sometimes reminiscent of samples of the classic avant-garde. Children who grew up in such a courtyard can only be envied - they will have their own little world with mountains, gardens and back streets; and adults in such an environment will find where to rest and where to stop their eyes. The saturated landscape together with the enclosing, but light and transparent volume of the stylobate will form at the level of pedestrian perception a fragment of the equipped city - a comfortable space on a human scale. To some extent, this can be considered a solution to the a-priori problem of the inhuman scale of high-rise buildings: the towers recede into the background, only the two-story part is perceived and "working" from the street, and although after going home, a person will feel the height of the towers, from here it is perceived differently - through the panorama of the surrounding parks and cities in perspective. And in our increasingly less comfortable time, both landscape comfort and the effect of "flying over the city" are useful.
