For the development of course projects, Nikolai Belousov proposed to his students a complex and seemingly rather narrow topic - "Wooden Tower". The main task was to try to learn how to work with wood as a building material for high-rise construction. The result is a strikingly diverse range of designs, from a lighthouse library to a truss tower.
Nikolay Belousov
architect, head of the studio:
“The theme of our studio is“Wooden Tower”. Initially, it was wood that inspired us - the oldest and still incomprehensible material. And the image of the tower arose so that through the most complex constructive solution, students could feel the material most acutely. I must say that the students and I were engaged not only and not so much in architecture. We devoted quite a lot of time to diving into the topic. It all started with the tactile feel of the material. At first we just touched it, tried to catch the smell, examine the texture. This is similar to how a child explores the world as a child, touching objects with his hands, tasting and smelling them.
The first task offered to the students is to bring a wooden object to class that means something to them. They brought all sorts of things. One student, for example, brought her great-grandfather's wooden suitcase. Then they began to comprehend the shape of the tower, comparing stone, concrete, glass towers with wooden ones. Students made observations, drew amazing paintings. A useful event was the visit to the Good Wood seminar in Firsanovka. A six-story office building is currently under construction there. With the students, we visited the construction site, looked at the columns, floors. We also went on an excursion to a summer cottage settlement, where we found the old wooden dachas of Vesnin, Golts, Semyonov. We went to the factory in Galich, where we got acquainted with the process of assembling wooden log houses and even spent the night in one of these houses. In short, the immersion in the topic was very deep and serious. And I like the result.
Insanely interesting students gathered in the studio. Almost all projects have been completed at the highest conceptual and technical level. It was extremely interesting for me myself to observe how themes were born, how the research took place and the architectural project was created. I cannot fail to note the work of Artyom with the prison tower, which he proposed to place right on the square of Tverskaya Zastava. The bird tower turned out to be very elegant, and the pavilion floating on the Volga was especially romantic. Conquered by the work of Anna Panova and her "in love" skyscraper. Lena came up with a lighthouse at the end of the world, combined with a library. This is a really brilliant idea. Paul-Philippe turned out, on the one hand, an insanely creative project, and on the other, worked out with European pedantry, meaningful and ready for implementation. Each project turned out to be interesting and unique”. *** Tower of Imprisonment
Artyom Polsky
The theme of the project - a wooden prison tower - reminds of the towers of the Russian stockades and, of course, the high-rise prison in Chicago. The prison building in the city center with its extravagant architecture suggests a new attitude towards the place of detention, temporary physical isolation does not make a prisoner an outcast, an outcast. The structure of the building is organized in such a way that it implies the possibility for a person to return to society. The building has a load-bearing external timber frame that changes in scale and density depending on the height. As the term decreases, the prisoner moves to another cell with b abouta larger window area, thereby gradually integrating into the surrounding life.
*** White Cloud Tower
Ekaterina Vakhrameeva
The romantic intonation of the project is inspired by the old dovecotes, which have been preserved in some places in the courtyards of Moscow. In addition to housing hundreds of pigeons, the tower will become an observation deck, a special landmark and high-rise dominant of the sleeping area, as well as a public space. The construction of the building assumes the presence of a dense core of boxes for nesting pigeons, surrounded by a staircase and a light openwork lattice - a "cloud" - where pigeons walk without flying out, and people have the opportunity to stroll through the gallery.
*** Tower for privacy
Anna Panova
Functionally, this wooden tower is a hotel. It is located on the shores of the White Sea, in a desert area, at the very edge of the water. A bridge leads to the entrance from the steep bank. Each floor is a single room with windows facing out to three sides. On the lower floors there are the common areas of the hotel, and a pool is carved into the rock at the base. The walls are made of hand-hewn logs, reminiscent of the wooden churches of the Russian North.
