It was decided to build up a multifunctional office and residential complex, which had been empty since the 1970s, at the intersection of the Garden Ring with Sakharov Avenue. GC "Osnova" held a closed competition, where it won the MVRDV project under the working title "Silhouettes". The 76-meter-high red multi-storey complex became the subject of extensive discussion after the results were announced. The powerful resonance and the importance of the place caused the MVRDV concept to be submitted for consideration by the Moscow Architectural Council.
In the presented presentation, the urban planning situation was analyzed, taking into account the location of the new facility in relation to important buildings located nearby, in particular - to Alexei Dushkin's skyscraper on the Red Gate, the Le Corbusier Centrosoyuz building, Leonid Polyakov's Leningradskaya hotel. Particular attention was paid to the building of the People's Commissariat for Land, the work of Alexei Shchusev, located across the road from the projected complex: the red color and the solution of the corner windows were borrowed from it. Together with the Shchusev building, the new building should, according to the architects, create a "symbolic gateway to the city center."
The complex shape of the building, which, when discussing the project on the network, was already called the camel and the head office of the Moscow metro, was dictated not only by the poetic arrangement of the silhouettes of the capital into abstraction (this was the basis for the name of the complex: "Moscow silhouette"), supported in the presentation by the demonstration of the "Red Square »Kazimir Malevich. The sculptural cutouts in the upper part of the building are due to the norms of insolation, and in the lower - the optimal location of the entrance groups. The resulting apartment terraces and numerous ledges enhance the specific characteristics of the building.
The project is supposed to be carried out in a fairly simple structure, with an emphasis on facade decoration - the brick used must have a different reflectivity. There were also presented alternatives to the red solution of the facades - in sandstone and white brick.
All members of the council noted the importance of the appearance in Moscow of such iconic architects as MVRDV: “It's nice that now our students will be able to study your work from nature, and not from books,” said Alexander Kudryavtsev. One of the first to speak at the discussion was Yuri Grigoryan, who is well familiar with the territory and the customer's specifications - the Meganom bureau was one of the three finalists of the closed competition held by the Osnova GC. “There is a very important point of perception of this site from Sadovo-Kudrinskaya. The 78-meter-high building, placed on the red line of the street, closes the Dushkin skyscraper. As a Muscovite, it is important for me to hear: could the architects somehow deviate the axis of the building from the Garden Ring in order to reveal this view? Another wish of the architect was the activation of life from the side of the rear façade, so that there was a connection with the adjacent streets.
Nikolai Lyashenko supported the project, expressing concerns about the quality of its implementation: "It is important that when construction starts, the developer does not turn on the" calculator ", and everything is implemented as intended."
“It is obvious that here the architects were faced with an extreme task - both volumes and heights, and an adequate architectural answer was given to it, also as extreme as possible. Moreover, all these maximum categories are a little off scale. It contains a huge potential of all qualities, and it seems to me that the light version presented today could become the measure that holds all this back. A light solution will also work better on the silhouette, while a building in red version will look like a dark mass in the conditions of Moscow illumination,”Andrei Gnezdilov shared his thoughts.
The relevance of such a large-scale structure in the city center also raised many questions. Alexander Kudryavtsev spoke out especially categorically: “When I look at the project separately, I am deeply satisfied with it. But out of touch. At the end of Kutuzovsky Avenue, it could look great. But from the point of view of the urban planning situation, this object violates the traditions that have developed in the central part of the city. On the other hand, if we correct the project, then the sharpness that is inherent in it will disappear in it."
Summing up the meeting, the chief architect of the city Sergey Kuznetsov noted the difficult task facing the council: “To paraphrase Dovlatov's quote, we can say that a good author does not need an editor, and a bad one does not need an editor, but, nevertheless, it is obvious that there are still many work. And in many ways this is the responsibility of the customer. We congratulate MVRDV for getting the board's approval. " The project was approved in the brightest "red" version.
