Designing commercial real estate within the boundaries of a long-established, dense standard building is a separate genre in modern urban planning. The large number of restrictions established by regulations often tempts to search for the simplest and least expensive solutions: originality recedes into the background before the need for formal compliance with standards. Not to mention the fact that the original approach to the space-planning solution may simply not be understood by consumers. In the current situation, the slightest hint of the risks of such a plan scares customers like a bad dream. In the workshop of Sergey Estrin, they are not afraid to walk through this "minefield", easily and artistically overcoming all its imaginary and real difficulties. The residential complex "Jewel" is no exception: the author's architectural solution does not run counter to either the technical or the commercial component of the project.
The plot on which the residential complex was to be designed with an area of 6500 m2, it's pretty easy to imagine: it is typical for Moscow. A small playground is located in green courtyards, not far from a busy highway, in a dense "ring" of five-story buildings standing in regular rows, in a once remote from the center, but now quite prestigious district of Moscow, with a long-established appearance and infrastructure, with well-established pedestrian and transport routes. The area of the site is 0.45 hectares and it is an almost regular rhombus with peaks located along the north-south and west-east axes. The insolation map provided by the customer showed that it would be extremely difficult to reach such a number of square meters, while observing the rather small, demanded by the market, cuts: only in the southern corner of the rhombus the height could be up to 35.6 meters, approximately corresponding to a ten-story building, south- the eastern corner already required lowering to a six-story mark, residential buildings and a polyclinic were adjacent to the site on the remaining sides, and buildings more than 3-4 stories high would shade apartments and doctors' offices. The simplest planning solution in this situation is a U-shaped volume with a maximum height along the southeast side of the site and lower "wings". But it served only as a starting point in the process of shaping.
The variant with five buildings of different heights was immediately accepted as more promising in terms of solving both technical and spatial-architectural problems. The only thing left for the "jewels" was to give the correct cut and arrange them in the most favorable light. (The idea of comparing cases with precious stones seemed to be successful for positioning the complex in the market). The hulls, rectangular in plan, were turned into hexagons. Thanks to the diagonal sections that have appeared, it has become easier to find such an arrangement of buildings relative to each other so that the windows open up a perspective, and not a view of the windows of the neighboring building - there are no “window-to-window” apartments in the complex. In addition, both the facades of the buildings and the internal space between them look more dynamic, more diverse due to the fact that their walls are deployed at different - not right - angles. For better insolation, the hulls were placed meridionally, parallel to the north-south axis. There are no apartments in the northern part of the hexagons - there are staircase and elevator nodes.
Thus, three buildings were placed on the site: ten-, six- and four-story - and two identical buildings, three stories each. I had to work with them additionally. Against the background of the five-story buildings located in the vicinity, they were visually lost and, in order to make them proportionate to the surroundings, the buildings were united by a common stylobate part, which serves as the first floor. There are lobbies, as well as a pharmacy, kids club, beauty salon and underground parking entrance. The roof of the stylobate part is in use, it has a green terrace with exits from the adjoining apartments. Only the second and third floors are residential in these buildings. In the remaining three buildings, housing, according to the wishes of the customer, starts from the first floor.
According to the terms of reference, there are five apartments on each floor. Based on the conditions prevailing in the market, preference was given to two-room apartments: their share in the complex is about 60%, that is, there are three such apartments on each floor. In addition - one three-room apartment and one one-room apartment. The cutting by footage is rather small: there are three types of one-room apartments: 39.8, 44.2 and 45.5 m each2, four types of two-room apartments: from 51.6 to 64.2 m2 and two types of three-room apartments: 93 and 76.7 m each2… The ten-story building on the top floor has two four-room apartments of 113.6 and 105.6 m2 with panoramic glazing and access to an exploited roof, designed in the form of a circular terrace.
The stylistic solution and decoration of the complex facades were largely predetermined by the wishes of the customer. He asked to use light-colored natural stone slabs. Among the conditions were also regular windows and an overall calm, classic look, understandable to buyers. The authors of the project chose a modern style with allusions to Stalin's skyscrapers and American skyscrapers of the late 1930s Art Deco. The facades are formed by regularly spaced stained-glass windows, taken in a rigid stone frame of vertical supports and transverse beams, going from the ground to the roof, and continuous at the level of the first and third floors in all buildings, which visually emphasizes the unity of the complex. The transitions to the roof are decorated with classic cornices. The balconies do not protrude from the plane of the facades, they are located in the niches between the vertical supports. Moreover, the windows overlooking the balconies are located diagonally (the balconies are triangular in plan), and this technique gives dynamism to the facades, introduces an element of play with glazed planes. There are not so many apartments with balcony niches, but all apartments have floor-to-ceiling windows, and the corner ones have fully glazed bay windows. Accents in the regular drawing of the facades are set by the dark frames of wood-aluminum windows and metal forged balconies. For the same purposes, the authors of the project propose to use decorative metal panels.
The upper two, if you look at the map, the boundaries of the site are clearly marked by a structural partition or, one might even say, a barely outlined, but quite tangible fence, made of the same natural stone with which the facades of the buildings are decorated. It appeared after much thought: I wanted to make the boundaries of the site visually more weighty, and at the same time to structure them, to set a rhythm. At the same time, there was no obvious need for such a design. In the end, it was still decided to keep it in the project. The border structure is integrated into the stone frames of the facades, becoming their continuation. Vertical supports are made in the openings, which alternate with the same sequence, in the same rhythm as the supports on the facades. The structure, with a kind of dotted line, outlines the hypothetical contours of the complex - this is how they would look if it were made monolithic, and not divided into five separate buildings. And besides, it, like the stylobate part, on which the first lowest buildings are located, gives them even more weight next to the five-storey buildings.
Despite all the restrictions, the inner territory of the complex turned out to be quite spacious, with internal routes and without any feeling of constriction and crampedness: firstly, it is a large courtyard space that opens outward from the southwest side, just opposite the children's clinic located across the passage; secondly, there are three passages between the buildings, a kind of green streets. In front of the apartments on the ground floor, the project provides for front gardens behind a green fence. No entry into the courtyard of cars is provided, except for special vehicles: just in the inner territory there is a one-level underground parking for 78 cars.
The project of the residential complex is inscribed in the surroundings, first of all, due to the proportionality of the nearby houses. At the same time, he does not mimic, unexpectedly opening up in the space of the courtyards, as, indeed, some kind of lost jewel. The rejection of a monolithic volume in favor of five buildings of different heights turned out to be the best choice. The predominance of glass, the reduction of the veneered parts to thin lines structuring the facades, fairly wide passages between buildings and a large interior space open from one side to the outside - all this creates a visually light image, and it is this otherness that makes it stand out among the existing buildings - more material, tangible, red brick. In addition, a courtyard, shops, a hairdresser, a pharmacy forming a separate street could help establish visual and functional connections with the rest of the area. But the implementation is not planned, the project remained among the concepts.
