Kraskovo is a village in the Lyubertsy District, between Malakhovka and Tomilin, an old summer cottage with its own history (they say that it was here that Anton Chekhov met the hero of his story "The Intruder", unscrewing the nuts on the railway) and architectural monuments. Like most similar settlements close to Moscow, Kraskovo has long received the status of an urban-type settlement and is being systematically built up with multi-storey real estate. The current urban planning plans of the urban settlement administration give cause for optimism; One of those objects that should form a new image of Kraskov will be a residential complex designed by JSB "Ostozhenka", which has now reached the stage of the foundation pit.
The building plot is located at the crossroads of Yegoryevskoye and Korenevskoye highways. Egoryevskoe - on this section it is called Karl Marx Street - the Moscow highway, which means that the buildings along it bear the responsible function of the "face" of the settlement. On the territory entrusted to Ostozhenka, there is a spent sand quarry, which is now an artificial pond with overgrown and littered banks (you cannot swim in it because of the many underwater metal structures); the rest of the site was formerly occupied by a military unit, also long abandoned. The authors of the project plan to make the most of the water space on the site. In part, it is proposed to use it to expand the building area, by erecting a school on the bulk territory and equipping a park space with a promenade; the rest of the pond will be sanitized, the banks will be cleaned, and the residents of Kraskov - and first of all the projected residential complex - will receive a spacious recreational area with children's playgrounds, sports grounds, bicycle paths and a beautiful view of the water.
The microdistrict itself is a complex of four mini-quarters, each of which hugs a green and car-free courtyard with a perimeter. Two of them in the plan look like identical elongated rectangles, another one is distinguished by a certain curvilinearity of the building stretching along Korenevskoe highway, the fourth block turned out to be more extensive, with additional living space inside the courtyard, which, however, does not violate the unity of the courtyard space. The quarters are separated by boulevards with pedestrian paths and lanes for vehicles. In addition, a kindergarten and a school will appear on the site - from the side of the embankment - and, at some distance from the housing, two multi-level parking lots. The number of storeys of residential buildings is variable - 7-8-13-17 floors - and from the side of the residential complex, with all the stylistic unity, it will look like a small town, which seemed to have grown naturally. Distributing the volumes along the perimeter of the quarters, the authors of the project paid special attention to the strict observance of insolation norms - which, given the required area output, turned out to be a difficult task. However, the balance of requirements and restrictions, as is not the first time in Ostozhenka's projects, has presented the complex with a motivated and picturesque silhouette, all the cuts and asymmetries of which are justified by the need to give way to the rays of light. But at the same time, they turn the complex into a kind of alternation of walls, battlements and towers of a fortress, which has grown according to the requirements of life and history, and not a regular plan. What enlivens the silhouette, making it similar to other similar projects of the bureau, for example, to Aquarelle in Balashikha. But there is no play with reflexes, but the "serf" theme - however, this one is not at all straightforward, without literal resemblance - is supported by a dark brick cladding with "stones" of small balconies arranged along its surface in a checkerboard pattern and similar to the tails of some wooden beams, either holding the facing of the fortress, or serving to fasten wooden galleries to the wall. The balconies are designed for air conditioners. And the asymmetry of the cutouts is supported by the equally picturesque arrangement of the protruding blocks of glass loggias.
The main expressive element in the hands of the architects was the color scheme. In addition to brick, it is proposed to use white plaster for decoration - the material, according to one of the authors of the project, Ilya Ivlev, "in our conditions is rather difficult to implement, but we decided to take a chance." The general principle is as follows: the outer perimeters of the blocks, including along the boulevards crossing the microdistrict, are brown, and the inner-house facades are white. Of course, not everything is so simple: somewhere the architects visually lightened the outer silhouettes of the highest towers with white plaster, somewhere, fighting monotony, they introduced brick planes into the space of the courtyards. As a result, the combination of contrasting colors looks like a natural alternation of light and shadow, from any angle and at any time of the day, giving the outlines of the mini-city a sense of life and movement.
In addition to the two main ones, each courtyard also received its own "identification" color. Open galleries with columns along the first floors of the buildings will be painted yellow, green, orange or red, as well as, probably, air conditioning units on the facades. The colored interior of the galleries echoes even more strongly with "Watercolors" and seems to be the trademark technique of "Ostozhenka". There is no color along the outer perimeter of the quarters: here the blocks are disciplinedly merged with brick or white plastered walls. But the colors of the courtyards enthusiastically pick up the design of the facades of the school and kindergarten. Both, designed according to the standards for residents of the new microdistrict, are located away from highways, between residential buildings and a park area. The main materials here are the same - brick and plaster, but the ratio has been significantly changed in favor of white, which, in combination with solid glazing areas, gives a feeling of lightness and light. For example, in a kindergarten building, staircases are completely decorated with glass stained-glass windows, and the walls of the courtyard are completely occupied by multi-colored abstract painting, visible from afar through the entrance columns - an inexperienced viewer might think that the fresco was collectively performed by the future students themselves.
The architects of Ostozhenka, known for their sensitivity to their surroundings, in this case managed to listen even to a context that did not yet exist. On the opposite side of the T-shaped intersection of Yegoryevskoye and Korenevskoye highways, it is planned to build another residential complex, which is being built by the Bogachkin and Bogachkin bureau. “We decided to support the green line of our colleagues' project,” says Ilya Ivlev. “As far as possible we retreated inland from the highway and stood with them almost in alignment.” That is why the seven-storey building along Korenevskoe highway received a smooth rounding: a small but full-fledged square should be formed at the intersection, which - especially given the indistinctness of the current environment - has every chance of becoming a center of attraction for the residents of the district. The objects that are planned to be located here, such as a supermarket and a clinic, may not be too romantic, but they are clearly necessary for everyone, so the square's liveliness is guaranteed, and there is enough space for retail on the first floors of buildings to eventually appear here nice cafes., and shops with their own "face". Further, along Yegoryevsky, the street facade is cut up to the level of the third floor and faces the sidewalk with sharp angles of diagonally deployed pylons. And in the center of the square, the authors of the project plan to put a clock tower - as in the real central square of some European town.
