Since the construction boom, new projects in the Ostozhenka area, known by the code name "Golden Mile", have not emerged very often. There are practically no free sites left, and demolishing one of the historical monuments of the 18th-19th centuries, the density of which is off scale here, is no longer as easy as it was under the Council of Ministers, when "dilapidated housing" was replaced by whole blocks with new brick, or even panel buildings.
However, as it turned out, there are hidden reserves: in the first lane from the center between Ostozhenka and Prechistenka, on the territory occupied by the Vsevolozhskys' estate two centuries ago, a building of the 1980s was discovered, erected for an automatic telephone exchange substation and abandoned in the last few years. It was taken up by the Leader-Invest company, which specializes in the construction of residential real estate of the "above average" level. However, in this case, the format was dictated by the place itself: a compact area, views of the Kremlin and surrounded by architectural monuments from the 18th to the 21st centuries. It was decided to build a club house in Vsevolozhsky lane, 5.
Generally speaking, the era of popularity of club housing in the center of Moscow has already passed. The demand for prohibitively expensive square meters in houses with no more than three dozen apartments has significantly decreased after the last two crises. So the task of the architects of the bureau "Mezonproekt" was broader than just designing a six-storey building with 21 apartments on a piece of land slightly more than 0.1 hectares. The house had to, on the one hand, meet all the generally accepted standards of "elite housing", and on the other hand, it had to stand out from its peers and have competitive advantages.
First of all, the architects provided for pauses between the new volume and the firewalls of neighboring houses. At the beginning of the 20th century, when both neighboring houses were built, it was customary to attach one house to the other, saving space, and the Soviet ATS was built in the same way. This time, they did differently, and the architects consider such a decision a blessing: “We launched sunlight into a gloomy alley located on the north side of the building,” says Ilya Mashkov, “now the sun will penetrate into the gaps, and the building itself will be perceived much better, therefore that in this way we got the front facades and beat the corners”.
The second move of "Mezonproekt" was the choice of the style of the future house: developers of elite housing, as you know, prefer historicism of varying degrees of averaging, in this case the architects, having hesitated initially over the options from the paraphrases of a more plastic Art Nouveau, offered customers an art deco saturated with ornament. In which they were supported by the chief architect of Moscow, Sergei Kuznetsov, noting during the working examination of the project that the richly decorated architecture is quite in the spirit of the capital; the main thing is that all the canons of style are observed and the details are worked out with high quality.
The architects focused on details. The outer walls of the building are dotted with geometric ornaments: somewhere they will be cut on the surface of natural travertine, somewhere they will be engraved on copper sheets, and somewhere they will be inlaid on oak panels. Along with the unprecedented depth of stone processing, available thanks to modern technologies, in creating a decorative image, the role of ornamental panels made of copper alloys is of great importance - a noble shade closer to bronze, without redness - the architects emphasize: over time, they should age beautifully, darkening and becoming patinated. Decorating the framing of windows and French balconies, copper panels will occupy about 15% of the entire surface of the walls.
Entrance groups will become another dominant feature of the facades along the lane. The main entrance with a specially designed "coat of arms of the house" above the door is slightly recessed, while the carved stone frame, on the contrary, protrudes forward. Above it, almost at the upper cornice, there is an indispensable attribute of the club house along with the coat of arms: a copper plate with the year of construction in Roman numerals. The entrance to the underground parking will also be arranged from the side of the front facade.
It must be said here that there is practically no historical Art Deco architecture in Moscow. Researchers compare the early Stalinist architecture of the thirties with him, find shades of style in the works of Alexei Dushkin, in the interiors of Kropotkinskaya and Mayakovskaya, but the Moscow version of the style is stricter and historically somehow quickly turns to the Renaissance decoration in Zholtovsky style. A rich version of Art Deco, operating with ornament as such - of almost any origin, for example, Egyptian, or stylized geometric, began to appear in Moscow, although not too often, in the 2000s, in connection with the same club order, which we are talking about here.
At the same time, the authors managed to fit into the context: geographic - the closest, and into the historical one. Rows of metal-framed triangular bay windows from Prechistenka's perspective look like a paraphrase of a corner ledge on Kostyakova's apartment building, famous for the fact that it was here that Professor Preobrazhensky bought Krakow sausage. Bay windows are lined up by the six-fold shadow of the 1910 building, their task is to incorporate the house into the rhythm of this very small, but very integral part of the city.
The predecessor, the automatic telephone exchange station, looked completely different - and yet its facade, which appeared during the period of the classicizing modernism of the eighties, in its own way reflected the desire of its authors to fit into the structure of the street. The rhythm of its white-stone facades was strictly vertical, not alien, by the way, to the ideas of Art Deco. The image was completed by a string of gilded inserts in the upper part, transforming the pragmatic industrial building into a precious box. Yes, in the eighties no one had the opportunity to bring the idea of the box "to mind" - but now, if you compare the two buildings, it may seem that the club house "sprouted", pushing apart the frequent verticals of its predecessor with its bay windows, enriching it with metal and carvings, retaining the recognizability not only of height marks, but also partly of color, rhythm, and contour and structure of the facade, where the entry point was then indicated by a visor, and now a portal. This, in fact, forms a historical continuity, about which residents will not know anything, but which, perhaps, is important for the city.
The courtyard facade is more modest; the high windows of two stair risers open up the steps and remind us of the constructivist techniques - however, the carving of the frame-framing brings us back to the ornamented style. In the part of the lobby adjacent to the courtyard, the architects plan to equip a winter garden, thus uniting the house with its small courtyard and partially compensating for its small, about 600 m2, dimensions - for an industrial telephone exchange building, they could not have been different. Nevertheless, according to the project, a comfortable closed green area will be located in the courtyard, where among lawns, flower beds and shrubs there will be a place for both the residents of the house and for playing with children: full-fledged playgrounds and sports grounds, for which there are still not enough spaces, will be replaced by small corners equipped for active recreation.
In the cold season, it will be possible not to go out: on the sides of the double-height entrance lobby, a club library and a wine bar are planned in advance. At some point, the developer was tempted to succumb to the fashion trend and invite some Western "star" to decorate them. But in the end, we thought that the project was already quite remarkable. So the interiors of all public areas, including the parking lot, the rest room for drivers and the room for caring for the animals, are being developed by the architects of "Mezonproekt" - and again, not without elements of Art Deco. In the front rooms, the floors will be finished with natural stone, the coffered ceiling - with plaster stucco molding, the walls - with decorative plaster and stained-glass windows in the spirit of Lalique.
But the apartments located from the second to the fifth floor will be sold without finishing: the Russian experience of working with club housing has shown that among its potential buyers "imposed" interiors are not in great demand. The area of apartments varies from over 100 m to almost 250 m2, layouts allow you to redeem and combine several apartments on the same floor. The windows of each apartment face two or three sides, and the most impressive views open from the penthouses on the top floor: from here, the Conception Monastery, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and even the Kremlin towers are in sight.
Rare panoramas and location, flexible apartments, high-tech life support systems, well-developed infrastructure - all this is inherent in many club-style houses. "Residence on Vsevolozhskoe" is distinguished by an attempt to simultaneously fit into the urban environment, which here has a rare integrity for Moscow - and to stand out, to draw attention to itself with ornamental originality, which is designed to provide the "carved box" with both wealth and uniqueness. What is essential for a home of this class, especially in times of crisis.
