The problem of air conditioners on the façade is not new. Chaotically scattered mismatched boxes disfigure the face of the house, like papillomas, unceremoniously violating the architect's plan, violating the norms of aesthetics - worse only white double-glazed windows with thick frames on historic buildings, where the original windows have thin and dark wooden frames.
After talking with experts, we tried to find out how the problem can be solved and whether it is being solved at all. We started by looking for a law on air conditioning. A source in the Moskomarkhitektury said that this is Law No. 305, but it is still advisory in nature and does not apply to all buildings, but only to new ones, that is, it is recommended to provide a special place for air conditioners on new buildings. In fact, this law does not in any way restrict the freedom of citizens to kill facades. But in Europe there is no such arbitrariness on the facades. Why? The restriction of this freedom is the work of the citizens themselves. Conscious homeowners' associations understand that with ugly air conditioners the house and apartments in it fall in value, but who wants his housing to become illiquid? Our experts reflect on how to act in the current situation and how to improve it in the future. The survey was carried out with the support of the company
TechnoDecorStroy. ***
Nikita Biryukov
architect, head of ABV Group
“There must be laws, SNIPs. It is necessary to develop fastening techniques, it is not so difficult.
Nobody does this in our country. In the West, you cannot put a television plate at home. You must first, so that the general meeting of the tenants of the HOA will allow you to do this. And it most likely will not resolve, because ugly additions lower the capitalization of the house. Let's say our people come and change the awnings on the windows. They are forced through court to put the same ones as in the whole house, so as not to distort the appearance of the facade. Our personal space ends on the inner frame. Outside frames and walls belong to the urban space. In Russia, something can be achieved only through a meeting of residents and a court.
Yuri Mikhailovich Luzhkov at one time did not issue laws, and now it is too late, everything is so neglected that metastases have begun. No laws work. Today, the problem with air conditioners on the facades is not solvable. In our RedSide facility, we have foreseen everything so that ugly air conditioners are not installed: balconies 3 m long, 70 cm high - there is room for three small air conditioners. And tenants buy one large, two-meter high to save money. And it sticks out and disfigures the facade.
In Nice, for example, this is prohibited. You can cut out a place for the air conditioner in the glass and insert it into the frame. Our analogy is the so-called Baku air conditioners - do you remember there were such? And you can't touch the walls.
I have an idea how to write norms for air conditioners: it is necessary to establish regulations, typology, height, blocks for different types of apartments. But who will do it? ***
Pavel Bryzgalov
Director for Strategic Development of Federal Grid Company "Leader"
"FGC" Leader "pays attention to the accurate operation of facades. That is why in our projects, even at the design stage, we provided for the possibility of placing an outdoor unit for air conditioners in specially designated places - on the facades of houses, the project provides for special baskets that allow you to preserve the original appearance of the object without disturbing the structure of the facades.
Our company retains the copyright for the appearance of the facades, which helps to avoid vandalism from residents, who, in the presence of specially designated places for fixing air conditioners, do not need to independently fix the outdoor unit in unidentified places.
In addition, we have developed and included a clause on air conditioning in the DDU, which says that the owner installs the outdoor units of air conditioners only in the places provided for by the project and agreed with the operating organization.
The law does not regulate the placement of air conditioners on the facades of residential buildings. ***
Dmitry Vasiliev
co-founder and chief architect of ARCHIMATIKA
“We provide for the location of the brackets, but few people use them for the reason that in fact, it is impossible to punish in any way for installing the air conditioner in another place.
Therefore, now the developers have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to prescribe in the contract with the operating organization the obligation to install air conditioners in the right places and penalties for installing them in any other place. In case of non-compliance with this clause of the contract, the violator pays a fine and must, at his own expense, bring the facade back to its original form and install the air conditioner in the place designated for it.
For example, the Central Park residential complex provides for the installation of air conditioners in the loggias, as indicated in the contract, and no one violates it.
In order for the owners of real estate not to spoil the facades, it is necessary, firstly, to provide places for the installation of air conditioners, and secondly, to make them convenient so that the installation of air conditioners in them is inexpensive and practical.
Moreover, it is important not only to think over the convenient location of the baskets and install embedded parts, pipes for the freon line leads and so on, but it is important to think over and provide a drainage system, either internal or external, depending on the solution. ***
Roman Nikushkin
Deputy Head of the Design and Technological Institute of the KROST Concern
“We do not put baskets for air conditioners, and for some 3-4 years we have initially provided for central air conditioning at all of the company's facilities. One external block of the air conditioner is placed on the floor and provides cold from 8 to 12 apartments. When a house is being designed, we lay down all the main routes, we do the wiring in the corridors, we put the end of the pipes into the apartments, we connect the other end to the central external block, which we cover on the facade with a decorative grill in specially provided niches. Buyers are encouraged to connect - or not connect - to this system. Until, of course, it happens that residents have time to buy an apartment and immediately install air conditioning units - here, if time is lost, we can no longer do anything, this is their right. But for the most part, there are no blocks, randomly placed on the facades, in our houses, the construction of which was completed in the last two years, there are no baskets or brackets. ***
Natalia Sidorova
architect and partner DNA AG
“We know little about the legislative regulation of the installation of air conditioners on facades. But as far as architectural practice is concerned, the topic of installing air conditioners is very important and relevant. In our country, people want to install air conditioners by all means, for example, even on the northern side of the facade, where there is no strong heating. Therefore, when designing a house or a residential complex, it is very important to initially lay in special architectural solutions that provide for the installation of an air conditioner on the facade, if the project does not provide for built-in systems (in this case, we are talking about business-class housing). Among such solutions, you can bring floor niches with decorative screens or individual blocks.
It is important that the proposed solutions fit into the structure of the facade, and moreover, can serve as a kind of accents. For example, in our project RC “
City-resort MAY "in Gorki near Moscow, color screens covering air conditioners create a contrasting color palette of the facade. In the residential complex "Severny", decorative grilles of "balconies" for air conditioners give more plastic to the side facade. Thanks to this, it is easier to perceive on a visual level, as it stretches along the entire street. " ***
Stanislav Kondratyev
Director of Product Department of PIK Group
“Unfortunately, there are no prescribed mandatory requirements in the legislation governing the location and appearance of air conditioners on the facades of buildings. Therefore, each developer independently decides how and where to place air conditioners. These solutions are far from always optimal.
If we talk about civilized approaches to solving the problem of placing air conditioners on facades, then today there are several of them. Central air conditioning systems are most often used in business class houses. The system itself implies the placement of blocks on the roof of the building or technical balconies / loggias, while the facades do not require any measures to place external air conditioning units. This type of air conditioning is not suitable for projects of the "standard" class, because not all residents are willing to pay for air conditioning, and in this case the use of a central system becomes impractical.
Another option is individual air conditioning systems. Usually they are placed in special niches or baskets attached to the facades. Niches allow not to make protruding elements on the facade, but the area of apartments decreases, and the configuration of the rooms becomes not the most convenient. Therefore, in "standard" class houses, we prefer to use baskets for outdoor units for air conditioners, fixed on the facades of buildings. These baskets have a special design that facilitates the installation of the outdoor unit. We prefer to use split systems that require a basket to be placed for each room with a window. This is much cheaper than installing multisplit systems that use one outdoor unit for several rooms.
The PIK Group has several requirements for baskets. First, they must fit into the color scheme of the facade. We now use galvanized baskets, which are powder coated at the factory to prevent corrosion. In the future, we plan to switch to composite materials, which in principle exclude the likelihood of corrosion processes. It should be remembered that different facade systems require different solutions for fixing air conditioners. And also do not forget about solutions with which condensate will be drained from external units. We make special drainage pipes in the warm contour of the building to avoid condensation from the air conditioner on the facade.
Finally, one more important point in the PIK Group projects is the lack of connection to the manufacturer. Some builders use baskets of sizes that are only suitable for certain A / C manufacturers. Blocks from other manufacturers may not fit there. The inconvenience for the client is obvious, but this is also reflected in the external appearance of buildings, as clients are forced to mount such external units not in baskets, but in other places on the facade.
The last thing on the list, but not least, that needs to be considered is the laying of the wiring at the stage of finishing the house. In apartments for rent with finished finishing, it is assumed that all the wiring is done in advance, and the owner only has to connect the blocks to the terminals. Our wiring is suitable for air conditioners of any manufacturer. Otherwise, such a simple thing as an air conditioner can ruin not only the appearance of the building, but also repairs in the apartment. ***
Igor Shvartsman
head of the company "Sergey Kiselev and Partners"
“Of course, a resident of any apartment prefers to hang an air conditioner on the wall, even if there is a place for it on the loggia or balcony - the loggia is“their own”area, everyone wants to equip a pantry on it or, less often, a table for morning coffee. Or simply add the total area to the apartment. This happened in our house in Tekstilshchiki, where the architects provided gratings in the fencing of the loggias, behind which it is possible to place air conditioners. These grilles are an integral part of the facade, an element of its plasticity, but these arguments are at least incomprehensible to residents and officials. And on Nagatinskaya the situation is similar: on a number of balconies a fenced-off place with a slatted floor was provided. So after all, they pre-monolithized the ceiling, removed the partition - and a ready-made additional room.
As far as I know, there are no laws, nothing regulates the preservation of the architectural appearance in general, and the placement of air conditioners in particular, it is useless to fight in court. We tried to have conversations with both tenants and developers, but I can't say that we were heard.
You can try to use our arsenal of design tools: identical baskets that also become part of the facade. Or, recently we went to Kiev to our colleagues from Archimatika, they showed their bright Comfort Town area, there are no baskets there due to economy, but mortgages were left for potential brackets - inventory brackets are better than a variety of self-made baskets. The same is with glazing - when it is uniform (or it is not uniformly), which is somehow thought out in the project, the result is completely different than after spontaneous glazing. *** Zabaluev Sergey
Head of Engineering Systems Department, Facade Solutions LLC
The company specializes in the production and installation of decorative elements for facades. Including casings (baskets) for air conditioners. “The issue of“protecting”the facades of new buildings from chaos, developers have begun to deal with relatively recently. The only way to protect against the randomness of the installation of air conditioners on the facades is the agreement of the DDU (equity participation agreement), in which the developer prescribes the conditions for the placement of air conditioners. Major players in the construction market have adopted several solutions:
- Decorative casings (baskets) on the facade, which are installed under or above the windows of the rooms. The tenant has the right to install an air conditioner in them.
- Ventilation grill in balconies. The tenant has the right to install an air conditioner on the balcony. The facade is prohibited. The grill is necessary for air exchange.
There are many technical problems when installing baskets on the facades of new buildings. At each facility, everything is individual. We try to provide all the main points at the stage of development of the AR project and detailing drawings. From the main ones: the dimensions of the basket, appearance and color, fit into the architectural concept, the durability of the basket (protection against corrosion and resistance to weathering), the method of attachment to the supporting structures of the building, the ability to remove the basket for the operation of the air conditioner, etc.
The problems of installing baskets on the facades of historical buildings are even greater. It is used extremely rarely. ***
One of the possible solutions to the problem of air conditioners on facades is prefabricated baskets for air conditioners, in particular those offered by the company " TechnoDecorStroy".
The prefabricated option is good in that it allows you to choose between economical installation of brackets and installation of baskets, which allows you to achieve a more holistic and vivid image of the facade of a modern building. One of the convenient and versatile options - mounted on brackets screen, which covers the front surface of the air conditioner, and leaves the ends free. It is these screens that are used on the facades of the Varshavskoe Shosse residential complex of the PIK Group of Companies mentioned above.
Prefabricated baskets, fully galvanized or painted, are made without welding, since the welding seams are the first place for corrosion.
"TechnoDecorStroy" makes baskets for air conditioners to order according to the sketch of the project architect - in this case the baskets or screens can best fit into the intended imagery of the facade and will not violate, but reinforce and emphasize the author's intention. You just need to think in time about the future life of the facade of your building.
