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project for the territory of the plant "Filikrovlya"
see more about the site and the competition
“In August 2015, we were invited to participate in a closed competition for a project of a residential complex with a noticeable social component, we agreed with enthusiasm, took it as a certain credit of trust, which we tried to justify,” the architects admit.
The complex shape of the site forced the architects of "Archimatika" to abandon the rectangular configuration of buildings and rigid schemes for their arrangement. Sports grounds are located closest to the open metro line, so that a 2-3-storey school for 500 students located behind them is at the required distance of 50 m. For public buildings, this figure is lower, and office buildings flanking the educational "core" 5 floors with cozy courtyards are located just 20 meters from the metro line. Already behind them were placed 4 complex-shaped towers with a height of 15 to 41 floors. Such a sloping composition allowed, firstly, to protect residential buildings from the noise of the metro, secondly, to set a certain human scale of volumes, and thirdly, to ensure a high level of insolation both in the courtyard and residential towers, because this is the southern side. …
The skyscrapers have a complex shape and form the boundaries of the quarter from the side of the overpasses - here the architects had to lay protection from noise in the design of facades, windows and doors. They are installed in such a way that they catch almost all the rays of the sun: the standard time of insolation is not collected only on two small fragments of the facades, less than 5% of all facade surfaces. At the same time, the towers not only have a different shape with "voids" and "slots", but are also located in the northern part of the territory rather freely. Thanks to this, the high-rise buildings form the conditional boundaries of the quarter, but do not form a "fortress wall" that protects the inner inhabitant not only from "imaginary invaders", but also from the opportunity to see the sky. At the same time, an interesting, non-linear system of open spaces between houses appears, accessible only to residents and their guests, which is again important for the formation of a comfortable, humane atmosphere.
As a result of a clear layout of the site and a well-thought-out traffic pattern (parking, of course, is hidden under the ground), each of the functional areas, be it a school, offices or residential buildings, forms its own microcosm that does not interfere with the rest. And the landscape, which naturally splashes out to the river, becomes a compound that holds them together into a single organism. At the same time, the embankment itself actively interacts with the city, as it becomes a continuation of the neighboring green zone formed within the framework of the project of the multifunctional residential complex “Western Port” - it is being designed by SPEECH, ADM and TPO “Reserve”.
In the conditions of the competition, the restrictions on the height of the new complex were initially indicated - no higher than 110 m. But the solution proposed by the architects is more than 30 meters higher than this mark. “The restrictions are dictated by the absolutely correct desire to preserve the panoramas of the city with the Church of the Intercession in Fili,” explains Alexander Popov, “but after studying the situation carefully, we found that the most powerful dominant of the Moscow City is actively intervening in all the silhouettes. A paradoxical situation is created: continuing to "cut" all the surrounding buildings to a much lower elevation, we further protrude the already too important and noticeable object, and suppress the very historical buildings, for the sake of preserving the significance of which restrictions are imposed. Of course, we still need to very carefully assess the situation from all possible points, but we are sure that the formation of some kind of balancing dominants that soften the City's pressure is not just possible, but even necessary for the city. "For the new quarter itself, an increase in the number of storeys is very important, since it makes it possible to significantly reduce the building area, while retaining more air, creating a more open, breathing environment. It was the increase in altitude that made it possible to form a low-rise front and set a humane scale, supported by the dedicated basement floors of the towers.
To preserve and develop this impression of proportionality, the architects tried to visually lighten the upper parts of the buildings by means of façade play. To top it off, the architects "landed" a floating snow-white sculptural volume on one of the towers, in which they proposed to arrange a unique penthouse or a viewing platform with a bar. Several types of stone and, of course, glass were considered as the main finishing materials. Large areas of clear glass naturally create a play of reflections. But they also allow to improve the quality of the interior space of apartments due to good illumination and panoramic views.
Terraces play an important role in the formation of the fractional drawing of the facade and the identification of the constructive structure of buildings. They are located in blocks and not everywhere. Where there are none, small glazed balconies of different sizes and different geometric shapes are provided, which, in fact, become an integral part of the interior space of the apartment. Thus, the architects propose to solve the problem of spontaneous glazing of balconies. Another common problem is the use of balconies as an escape route. Such a solution is inconvenient, since additional staircases eat up part of the valuable balcony space and interfere with the tenants, and is not effective, since many cut off spans or brick the passages despite the prohibitions. In this case, the architects were able to afford to make two internal staircases, saving all terraces and balconies from additional functional load. This made it possible to freely place them almost anywhere on the facades. Some apartments may receive not one, but two such loggias or terraces. Although with such a layout, an uncomfortable corridor arises, the architects promise to level its shortcomings as much as possible, breaking the long passage into blocks and choosing a high-quality, interesting finish.
But the main result of the resulting freedom of action was a huge number of layout options: more than 30 types of apartments from 35-meter studios to 160-meter duplex apartments. As we remember, there are no problems with insolation of facades, and apartments can also be arranged in different ways. Each of the proposed layouts has some value: somewhere spectacular corner terraces or fragments of the living room interesting in shape, somewhere you can arrange a wonderful summer recreation area, somewhere the bathroom is next to not only the bedroom, but also the terrace and you can create a very unusual solution, somewhere a large living room open to the city appears, somewhere - on the contrary, a spacious kitchen or a separate large dressing room; some apartments can even comfortably accommodate two generations of adults (in fact, two families), practically without interfering with each other. And it is precisely in such a variety of layouts, an exact answer to a variety of behavioral requests that architects see as the key to the commercial success of their project.
In search of various approaches to organizing the life of families, even a new typology arose - an urban townhouse in a high-rise. From the street side, on the first floors of residential towers, shops and public areas are quite customarily located, and two-level apartments with an area of about 120 m are facing the pedestrian courtyard.2 with access to a small fenced terrace. The solution is not that indisputable, but in many ways beneficial, since it allows you to completely remove public areas from the residential courtyard and at the same time provides a high level of comfort for residents of the first floors: the bedrooms can be raised to the second level, and the green fence will provide the necessary level of privacy for the lower residential area.
“Naturally, if, due to a noticeable excess of the altitude specified in the competition task, our bid will have many opponents today,” Alexander Popov admits. stretched upward and sought to increase the number of storeys, now there is a reverse trend. But, for example, in London, on the contrary, now about 400 high-rise buildings are being built and designed, and 10 years ago there were two to three times less of them. We propose not to look for answers along the lines of “everywhere you can’t” or “everywhere you can”, but to think: in what cases today the height restrictions preserve the scale of the architectural environment of the surrounding monuments highest altitude restrictions. Indeed, due to the contrast of scale with the historical, as well as with the new buildings that withstand high-altitude restrictions, the high-altitude record holders of the recent past involuntarily become architectural dominants, analogs of towers of cathedrals and town halls towering over the historical city, but the question is whether in this case they carry the corresponding status of architectural dominants meaning and aesthetic load?"
