Kleinewelt Architekten was founded in 2013 by three partners: Nikolai and Sergey Pereslegin and Georgy Trofimov. Over the past years, the bureau has managed to implement projects in Moscow and the regions and won several large closed competitions for private companies. Over the past year alone, the number of employees in the bureau has tripled. Archi portal. ru met with partners to discuss their perception of the profession and the principles of work that allow them to achieve such significant results.
Archi.ru:
How did you choose your profession? What is architecture to you?
Nikolay Pereslegin:
- Since childhood, the most interesting thing for me was to invent and create some kind of worlds, some kind of spaces. But at first I wanted to go to MGIMO to study international relations. True, I quickly realized that this was not mine at all, and opted for the profession of an architect, in which, in my opinion, much more opportunities and areas of application of various skills are focused. Including the ability to hear, listen, and, conversely, defend your point of view. At some point I wanted to become a scientist, study physics or mathematics, like my grandfather (he is a physicist-oceanologist). My parents graduated from Moscow Architectural Institute, my grandmother was also an architect. So, answering your question, the choice of a profession for me is both a combination of personal factors and the general atmosphere in the family. Architecture is more interesting than economics, than jurisprudence, than international relations and molecular physics. I am engaged in architecture because it is close to me and combines many related areas from a wide variety of fields. Perhaps this is the most versatile profession. In general, I can’t imagine how you can do something if you don’t like it, if you don’t burn with it every day. Many people go to work every day, but from the very morning they have already cursed everything, and they need to go somewhere, and everything is bad there. In architecture, this is definitely impossible, because in this way no building can be neither designed, nor thought of, nor, moreover, built.
Sergey Pereslegin:
- Personally, I always wanted to do something creative, completely different, but something that can be shown and what will remain. I considered different options, up to microbiology, which in my case was quite realistic. But at some point I realized that abstract fundamental science is not for me. I wanted to see the result of my work, and for people to see it. But I tried to preserve the element of a scientific, research approach, and it helps us in our work. This is why we all view what we do as an invention in large part.
Georgy Trofimov:
- My choice of profession was absolutely deliberate and not accidental. Since childhood, I loved to draw, assemble from a construction set at home and all the time I made something. The craving for inventions, creation, and led me to architecture. But before becoming an architect, I tried myself in different creative professions. Among other things, he was a graphic designer and photographer. Which made me realize that 99% of a creative product is short-lived and designed for a short lifespan. Unlike architecture. The realization that you are working for the long term, that you are doing something serious, that which will remain for a long time, gives tremendous inner energy. And this affects our approach.
We do not like any "package", ready-made solutions. We are constantly inventing something, inventing, starting from some simple things and ending with whole facades. Every element of our product is a small invention.
What is the subject of your research? Forms? Scenarios of a person's existence inside an object? Or something else?
N. P.: The subject of research, the primary impulse is, as a rule, the person himself. The most interesting thing is to see how completely different people will react to some of our decisions. For example, people who will live in our houses or perceive them as part of the city. How it will affect their mood and attitude. It’s interesting to try to simulate some scenarios for people, for the end consumers of our product, and do it not just because we like it, but in order to bring some values that matter to us into the surrounding reality. And we hope people will feel it.
S. P.: I will add that most often the subject of research is information. At the first stage of solving any problem we face, we are collecting any information that will help us to concretize the object and its features. It can be information from completely different layers, from the historical to the social, from the cultural to the functional and the most simple everyday. In the depths of this information, there is some truth that is inherent in this object. She is not fictional, not sucked from the finger.
G. T.: We are not engaged in empty form creation. We have a deliberate approach to everything.
N. P.: The first stage of any of our projects is scientific research. A huge amount of data, graphics. Sketches appear later.
S. P.: It is research that makes it possible to make a project an invention, a discovery.
N. P.: Initially, we try to limit ourselves in order to treat a new project without emotions. Because emotion can interrupt the texture, prevent you from seeing some kind of individual quality. Only then do we begin to reflect, react, and emotionally perceive the collected information.
Analysis of a potential consumer and collection of information can go on indefinitely. At what point do you start designing?
N. P.: We have a fairly tough management in our bureau, and we ourselves cultivate this in every possible way, including in our personal part of the work. A clear and even rigid organization of the process, primarily in terms of timing. I think this is the strong point of our bureau. And this gives us the opportunity to calmly do our work. First by science and research, then by a reaction to this science, by developing a concept that takes into account the entire mass of collected information.
S. P.: Yes, you can accumulate information endlessly. But at some point, there comes an understanding that it is enough and you can continue to work with it.
G. T.: And of course, we do not exclude intuition from the process.
How does intuition fit into the project story?
G. T.: Science is also intuitive. How are discoveries made? Nobody knows. In the same way, we collect information, ponder, and then some thoughts arise, an understanding of what is right and what is wrong. The creative search begins.
What then is the form for you? What does it matter?
S. P.: We get satisfaction when we understand that the form is justified, when it corresponds to both function and place, and a whole range of functions.
N. P.: We find it unprofessional to discuss form, layout or materials separately. When you get into a Tesla car, you may not know how it drives, how many inventions and scientific developments it contains, what a gigantic work of a huge number of people is in it. But you enjoy the perfection of this machine, the feeling that you have a quality product in front of you.
We do not consider ourselves to be some kind of creators of great art who drew some kind of crooked line - and everyone should run to realize it. It's not like that at all. We just do our job with high quality and very well. Just as a good teacher teaches children well, a good doctor treats his patients very well, a good postman delivers mail very well. What we do is called architecture. This is what we do very well, combining together a huge number of very different elements and solutions to create a quality and very interesting space. But the most important thing is the feeling, mood of people and, as a result, their style of life. We are producing life.
What kind of mood should people have?
N. P.: Human values are important for us and we want people to be kinder as a result of our work, to think more about how to create and create, than to destroy and conflict. We try to appeal to some high values, some concepts that are quite abstract, but at the same time they are important and can be conveyed through specific design solutions. Combining knowledge of technology and a highly emotional component, we try to make sure that the life that will take place in our buildings and spaces makes people happy every second. It is very important.
S. P.: Form is the final answer. Each project is a multifaceted, multi-level story that answers the initial question and adds up to the overall image of the building, in which the solutions found are developed at every level, down to the last detail. It is very important to formulate this first question correctly - it just requires study, research.
What is Kleinewelt Architekten architecture? What features of it could you highlight?
G. T.: Of course, we are all individuals, but any of our products is the result of the work of a whole team. Any solution that can be seen in our facility is the result of multiple discussions and internal disputes. We always have internal contests, some small internal clauses, when literally for an hour the whole bureau opens up, and everyone makes some sketches, and then we sit down and discuss everything together, choose some best solutions or determine the direction of movement forward …
N. P.: The individuality of our architecture is shaped by the three layers that make up every project. The first layer is science. The second layer is reflection, our emotions, our attitude. And the third layer is already working on the project. And this, of course, leaves an imprint on any solution, on any facade, on any space, on any structure that comes out of our bureau. Thanks to this method, each decision is justified and individual.
S. P.: A big imprint is imposed by our internal attitudes, the internal code on which we rely, regardless of anything. It was formed as a result of repeated discussions and covers the basic principles of our work. Both shaping and working with materials. For example, we know for sure that we will never make an imitation, we will not pass off plastic as a stone or wood. This can be called material honesty.
Is there for you the question of finding an original architectural language?
G. T.: This issue is solved within the framework of each project and depends on the specific task. For example, if a place or function requires some kind of bright statement, we certainly will not hesitate.
N. P.: In each of our projects, we try to mend a piece of fabric torn or worn from time to time, so that this fabric will live on. In each of our projects, we try to fix the world, and every time we try to find the right wrench or screwdriver, so that everything fits with jewelry, so that the thread does not break in any way. But when we understand that nothing can be fixed and we can only create something new, we go for it, re-creating a fragment of the world, fully aware of the extent of the responsibility that we impose on ourselves. And if we undertake to build some kind of world, then be sure that it will be very good.
