Where did the name Wing-house come from? According to Roman Leonidov, the image of the house arose from the character of the owner. This is a famous person in the beauty industry, with a free flight of fantasy. And so the wing motive appeared. “The customer is charismatic. I was afraid that he would pass me, he - that I would pass him. Therefore, they remained at the level of respect for each other, but sincere relations did not work out, as with ninety percent of clients."
In addition, the architect wanted to experiment with a reverse roof slope. The snow load today does not scare anyone, it is calculated for any type of roof. And the rain goes down the drain. This is how the "tick" of the roof of the main house appeared. It is repeated in the design of the roof of the side flanks. As for the structure of the "main wing", one element under the roof is concrete, because it is heavily loaded. The rest of the structures are wooden. In the roofs of the wings, curved wooden glued beams are visible: they play up the wing motif.
Modern Russian manor with courdoner
The client needed a house that was open enough and representative, and at the same time giving the possibility of privacy. Since the site is bordered by a forest, in order to close itself off from neighbors, there were no problems, but the task was to create a chamber environment in the courtyard so that a person, being there, would not feel anyone's presence. Therefore, the composition of the house includes a central high part (main house) and side lowered flanks (wings), which form a ceremonial courtyard in front of the main facade - courdoner. Going out into it, you see only the forest and the site. The fence is hidden deep in the forest, so there is no sense of being limited. The word kurdoner did not come about by chance. Roman Leonidov sees a new type of Russian estate in the typical for today functional program of the building. This includes a fairly developed public block: a living room, a kitchen, a dining room, a sports and recreation area, consisting of a swimming pool, a bathhouse and a gym. From the pool with solid glazing there is an exit to nature: to an open wooden terrace with sun loungers (in the same courdoner). This is a whole spa complex, like in an expensive resort. The customer needed this part both for his own use and for presentation to guests and business partners.
As it should be in the estate, "stables" have been built here, that is, garages with cars for the whole family. Because outside the city one car will not do. Cleaning equipment and the owner's collection of cars are also placed there. It turns out a whole fleet of cars. The territory of the estate occupies a whole hectare, so a gardener, or rather a general assistant, is involved in the landscape.
The main house has a double-height living room, dining room, and the master bedroom on the second floor. In one of the outbuildings there were rooms for households and guests, under them there was a spa complex, in the other outbuilding there were “stables” - garages, and above them was the gardener's apartment. It is interesting that the passage from the main house to the outbuilding on the second floor is a terrace open to all eyes, from which, in turn, you can admire the surroundings. The terrace gives the house an image of openness (the exploited roof, if it is already flat, should be filled with life), but its role as a belvedere is rather a representation: as already mentioned, b about the most successful is the courtier, protected from gaze.
“At first, the customer and I were shocked, but then we realized that it would be bold and good”
The trendy black is the result of a construction mistake. Roman Leonidov: “The ordered paint came, everything coincided on the invoice. The builders began to paint, they call, they say: a little dark. I come and see an absolutely black tree, I try to remove the layer and I understand that this is absolutely impossible. You can't even be embarrassed. At first, the customer and I were shocked, but then we realized that it would be bold and good. Moreover, he is an emotionally open and dashing person. I myself would not have dared to make black, but now I see that it is good luck."
“I like the villa over the waterfall for its composition, but in terms of function, it's a monster.”
Roman Leonidov says of some of his buildings that they are inspired by organic architecture. When asked if he was also based on the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright in the Wing house, she received an unexpected answer. And the conversation went to a different level. “An architect can't help but be inspired by Wright. We are all injured by Villa Above the Falls. I like it in terms of composition, but from the point of view of function, it is a monster, a thing in itself. It does not imply life. Life there only interferes with architecture. I try to be a modernist like Corbusier or Wright, but it doesn't work. Now eclecticism is in full swing. At first glance, modernism is more honest. But in fact, we are doing the same decorations as the authors of the late nineteenth century. There is no philosophical component in this that would push from the inside. Well, no. And this is the problem with modern architecture in general. There is no integral philosophical structure that would shape the content and form of architecture. But the tasks that we still have are important: we need to fit the house into nature, provide the customer's comfort and achieve external plastic perfection."
In the wing house, these three tasks have been successfully solved. Comfort was mentioned. The house is inscribed in nature due to the materials. There are many of them here: concrete and wood, stone and brick, glass and plaster. “There may be a lot of materials in our house. If there were fewer of them, it would be more solid, the form would be better read, says Roman Leonidov. "But people want texture, materiality, tactility." In this case, the architect was very sensitive to human psychology. Wood, brick and concrete are used in the structures. Limestone and larch set the tone for the decoration. The vertical towers are covered with broken sandstone: "for the sake of beauty, not function for."
The composition, as already mentioned, is built in three parts. Where a vertical accent was required, there were stone-faced "Wright" towers - a memory of "Villa over the Falls". ("The vertical wall is not a fireplace, unfortunately. It's just that a vertical was needed here"). These towers intersect with other elements, one of them penetrates the roof-wing, for example. Thus, drama is imparted to the architectural form. The tension between plastic tasks and function always persists.
As you know, people do not live in manifesto houses. If "Villa over the Falls", according to Roman Leonidov, is a monster in function with all its artistic perfection (or thanks to it), and Philip Johnson's Glass House is again a manifesto in which he did not live, then the next question to Roman Leonidov was - why is it so? And it turned out that "the artistic conception of the architect is one thing, but at the subcortex it is another." And when I asked if I should try to hear what was there, in the subconscious, the answer was: “And this is difficult. It's good when someone can correct you, help you free yourself. And when you are fighting with yourself, it's hard. My task is for my pencil sketch to be visible later on in the construction site. " In the wing house, Roman Leonidov succeeded. The house turned out to be solid in image and comfortable for life. The artistic intent with the function is reconciled and keeps a good balance.
