The site where the OSA architects designed the apartment complex for the Brusnika company is located on the axis between the entrance to the Otkrytie Arena stadium and Volokolamsk highway, from where the new towers will be clearly visible to all passing cars. Nearby is the gigantic residential complex "City on the Tushino River" under construction, which occupies almost half of the "peninsula" of the former airfield. Compared with the "City" and the territory next to it, Vi Holding Development, the site that the OCA bureau inherited is quite small - about 3 hectares. But its location next to one of the important Moscow highways makes it noticeable - having caught this feature, the architects endowed their complex with an important role - the proportions of the new district, a spatial-spatial sign indicating the presence of Tushin in the fabric of the city.
Tushino is an arena for ambitious projects. The red and white stadium "Otkrytie Arena" for 45 thousand spectators was built with an eye on the World Cup, and
was recognized as one of the best sports facilities in 2015. For the concept for the Vi Holding Development site, Massimiliano Fuksas and Zaha Hadid Architects, among others, fought. The winner was Stephen Hall's bureau and the Stone art group, whose houses resemble parachute hybrids. The “Cities on the Tushino River” quarters are being built according to the projects of SPEECH Bureau and TPO “Reserve”.
The OCA architects saw their task as "not to continue a series of accent buildings with a wow effect, not to shout over them, but rather to unite". Without repeating any of the themes of the surroundings, we decided to play on large calm volumes and facades, making our complex rather a backdrop for everything that happens in Tushino. The author of the concept, Vasily Krapivin, says: "I wanted the complex to be visible from everywhere, to have a lot of air in it, and it was calm within its walls and materials."
The site, besides being small, is also quite complex. In addition to residential sections in the contours of the trapezoid between Volokolamka and two projected driveways, a hotel and an office building are planned, which are not related to the OSA project. There is also an operating petrol station. Due to the neighbors, the building plot turned out to be of an irregular jagged shape. At the same time, the customer, the developer Brusnika, with whom OSA has already completed several projects, gave complete freedom and did not set large budget restrictions. Since the typology of the development is apartments, there were no strict requirements for insolation.
The site was divided into a grid of planning modules with a step of 8.2 x 8.2 m. Walkways were laid along the perimeter and through the center, which continue the vectors of the paths of the neighboring territories. The result is a zone of public spaces accessible to all citizens, and three "spots" for building. They decided to put the buildings on stylobates, inside of which there are parking spaces, and along the contour - shops, offices, kindergartens, as well as through lobbies and entrances.
The dominants of the complex are four towers, each with 32 floors. The architects arranged them in such a way that even from the most distant angles they do not line up in one line and do not turn into a wall, and from everywhere they look of different heights. Along the contour of the stylobates, the towers are supplemented with buildings from 5 to 12 stories high. Thus, it was possible to achieve an expressive silhouette, and the composition is such that there is a lot of space and air between the towers. As a result, we got two scales: urban planning, built on high-rise dominants and corresponding to the scale of the metropolis, and - "more humane", close to the standards of modern urbanists. The courtyards are located on the roofs of the stylobates and are thus reliably protected from cars and are private.
The project is currently at the conceptual stage; at this stage, the architects sought to substantiate, first of all, urban planning solutions. The currently proposed facades are rather conventional, although they support the theme of noble restraint set in the space-planning composition - each of the blocks is subordinated to one shade of natural stone: gray, beige and terracotta.
At this stage, the architects prefer to evaluate the prospects for implementation with caution, joking that so far the most real object on the site is the existing gas station. However, it is possible that after a while the portfolio of the successful Yekaterinburg bureau, as well as the well-known for the quality of architectural and spatial-urban solutions of the developer "Brusnika", will be replenished with the implemented Moscow project. Not all Muscovites go on tour.
