Arma: Improvement

2024 Author: David Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-16 00:40

Over the past five years, the word "improvement" itself has managed to get stuck in the teeth, along the way convincing everyone of its importance. The idea of the commercial value of architecture has finally sprouted from the inside - out, from the beautiful interior of the nineties through the beautiful façade of the 2000s - to the understanding of the value of a well-equipped urban space. In this case, there are two projects: the improvement of the territory of the former plant was developed by the architects of AM SK&P in 2012 and implemented in 2014–2015, and the architects were engaged in the adjacent Nizhny Susalny in 2015, having generally completed the work by the City Day in September. There are two projects, but the goal is one: to put in order the space of the former plant and its immediate surroundings, so everything provokes to look at the improvement of "Arma" in general.

He has at least two features. Firstly, the funds are comparatively economical and minimalistic, without pretending to both the modernist luxury of materials and the Biedermeier with curved benches that we love so much on Moscow boulevards. Perhaps the fact is that a creative cluster and its inhabitants, by definition, should treat any delights with irony; and it is possible that the reason was the convictions of the chief architect of both landscaping projects, Alexei Medvedev, a staunch minimalist, but the landscaping turned out in a harsh "factory" style. And that's true: next to a brick pipe growing out of the ground and a gas valve growing out of the wall, the fintiflyushki are inappropriate: the place itself dictates the approach. At the same time, compared to the neighboring art clusters Winzavod and Artpley, where there is any improvement at all, it is hardly noticeable, here an order of magnitude more effort has been invested.

Арма: благоустройство территории. Вид с высоты птичьего полёта. Визуализация, 2012 © Сергей Киселёв и Партнёры

Арма: благоустройство территории © Сергей Киселёв и Партнёры. Фотография © Юлия Тарабарина

Improvement elements are thickened towards the center and thinned out along the edges, looking for the comfort of a pedestrian "core" inside the territory and giving the outer contours to cars. The main character is a pedestrian boulevard between buildings 3 and 4, with the same pipe and valve. Corten steel is used here - a brutal material, but not at all cheap, just from a number of artistic ones. The beds are lined with it, raised to knee level, framing wooden benches. On the contrary, there is a row of milk-glass tube lanterns that set the same low human scale. This is a boulevard for gatherings and conversations, in order to stop at it, take a breath.

The second boulevard coincides with the main axis and, on the contrary, is mobile and is divided longitudinally between cars entering through checkpoint No. 1 from Nizhniy Susalny lane and pedestrians. The watershed holds a row of lanterns, nice modern lanterns looking on two sides. The pedestrian part, following the elevation difference, and it is more than two meters on the territory of "Arma", is also divided into two: upper and lower, the first adjoins the automobile part and you can run through it inward or even through it, the second is below a meter and a half, here we are we go down the steps and from here we find ourselves in buildings 4-5, here the movement slows down and the mini-boulevard turns into a mini-square.

Two boulevards are the axis of space and inner life, but it also has some branches: a park with a monument of the Second World War between buildings 3 and 1, apparently, after the completion of all the work, it will continue with a pedestrian and automobile street; the space between the gas holders and the 5th building has already turned into a square with round lawns, where Moscow girls willingly arrange photo sessions, one after another.

Арма: благоустройство пешеходной зоны © Сергей Киселёв и Партнёры. Фотография © Юлия Тарабарина

The second feature is the openness of the territory, the same one that every reconstruction of an industrial zone in Moscow strives for in words, but ultimately closes either completely or emotionally, exposing such checkpoints outside where you can’t stick with an idle purpose. Here it is not entirely true: people pass through freely, inside, too, you can be quite calm. It turned out to be an inner-city area, it is well felt that this territory was exactly what was added to the city, and has the potential to develop further. Of no small importance for the effect of openness is, of course, the creation of four entrances: two from Nizhny Susalny lane, one from Mruzovsky and a fourth entrance-entrance for those who know, from an unnamed alley in the northeastern corner.

Nizhniy Susalny Lane, previously obstructed by elevation differences and stalls, was cleared, landscaped and donated to the city. All the differences were comprehended and used to create a "stepped" space, with raised lawns and a wide march of stairs - it became noticeably easier to breathe in it, the feeling of the gorge was replaced by delight in front of the unpredictability of Moscow's relief, either steep or flat.

Арма: главный въезд. Вариант 1. Визуализация, 2015 © Сергей Киселев и Партнеры

Arma: landscaping

Where:	Russia Moscow. Nizhny Susalny lane, 5
function:	Urban planning / Improvement project
workshop:	AM Sergey Kiselev and Partners /
architect:	Vladimir Labutin, Alexey Medvedev

The territory for the Moscow center is large, 5.5 hectares. Going inside through checkpoint number 1 from Nizhny Susalny lane, you understand that the work on its reconstruction is not completely finished, or more precisely, there are no clear boundaries. For a creative cluster with a loft design, this is quite normal and even good, as it creates a feeling of natural growing into or out of life. We enter along the axis of the old factory building, which later became the spatial axis of the territory; on the right - the equipped southern part, on the left - the waiting northern part. But the buildings facing the axis are also part of the "Armagh", they are planned to be reequipped, in the meantime they look natural-shaggy and even romantic. Somewhere in the depths of the pile-up of a high tower, one would like to suspect the remains of the left wing of the old factory building, which survived longer than the right wing. But historians say it was completely redone in the 20th century. In addition, on the horizon, in addition to emptiness, loom Soviet buildings, the same "Mosgaz" - in a word, the territory feels like open, moreover, due to the proximity of the stadiums of the Institute of Physical Education in the estate of Count Razumovsky, from the inside of "Arma" border - some end of the world or a large field.

Much is arranged here simply, but with meaning. The territory is large, and there are a lot of passages for cars; for them - asphalt driveways, for pedestrians - barely raised sidewalks with gray blocks and many lawns, each of which, as a rule, frames one or more trees. There are not so many trees, but they are of different species: long-needle cedars alternate with simple-looking Christmas trees and birches - the trademark of modern landscape planners. In some places, among the trees and birches, there are some quite garden bushes.

In Moscow, there are rare areas, finished with special care - such micro-paradises, which seemed to be cut out with scissors and pasted into our still wild urban space. These areas are not bad, but the line between beautiful and terrible is a little shocking. On "Arma" there is no such a sharp drop: she goes out into the city, spreading the influence of her landscaping into the alley, not that intrusively, and inside the space is somehow very evenly arranged in the democratic sense of the peaceful coexistence of people and cars, trees and garden plants. Therefore, inside you feel calm: not only because the guards are not interested every 20 minutes, who you are and what you are doing here, but also because the cars drive slowly, but are not completely driven out; or because it is not empty here, people linger, stand, sit, walk - even on a day off. The pleasantness of the furnished space dissolves into the surroundings and does not seem too planted. It is simple, and people are drawn to it.