ZILART is a unique construction project
“ZILART, a residential area on the peninsula of the former ZIL plant, 5 km from the center of Moscow, is unique in its approach to design, so we accepted the invitation to participate in this project with great interest. Its uniqueness lies in the co-creation of many architectural firms and in the presence of a design code. And according to Yuri Grigoryan, founder of the Meganom bureau, author of the master plan and chief curator, ZILART is a pilot project of modern Moscow urban planning policy, part of which is the reconstruction of industrial zones: cities and invented a lot of new things."
DNK ag designed the house "Chaika" on ZILART, block 14 in the second stage and 26 in the third stage.
ZILART as a curatorial project
“The concept of ZILART is a well-thought-out master plan and a unified design code, where buildings and quarters are developed by different architects, thus creating a variety of environments. In the first stage, the customer (LSR company) invited architects, each of whom made his own block. Then three curators were selected from the first stage, who were engaged in the architecture of the second stage. They are Megan, Sergey Skuratov Architects and Tsimailo, Lyashenko and Partners. Each curator had two quarters, one he designed himself, and the second he gave to invited architects. Sergey Aleksandrovich Skuratov called us, and we made the "Seagull" tower in a single block with Ilya Utkin. Despite the fact that each author presented his project to the customer, the curator was responsible for the overall result. For him, the difficulty consisted in unpredictability: what other authors would bring and whether the customer would like it. Curators do not interfere with the creative process, while their task is to assemble the right orchestra and conduct. The customer liked our "Chaika", and according to the results of the second stage, we were offered to supervise the whole quarter in the third.
ZILART as a synergy of architects
“This is one of the important features of ZILART. Design for all quarters was carried out in parallel, for everyone, something changed, so it was necessary to coordinate the tasks of planning, insolation, mutual coordination with neighboring quarters. Everyone agreed on how and what to change. The defense of one of the queues was very interesting. There were many architects, twelve bureaus. Each gave a presentation at his home, and each interpreted the same program differently. The challenge was to achieve diversity: they used the same design code, and the results were different."
Design code
“In our projects, we followed the design code of ZILART. He set urban planning parameters and parameters for buildings in terms of height and main divisions of volumes, requirements for materials. In each turn, a set of several heights was given so that the silhouette along the streets was heterogeneous: not a series of plates, but a rhythm. For example, for the second stage in our project, as part of the design code, it was specified that some houses are point towers, and others are plates around the perimeter. Together they form a rather permeable quarter. Permeable quarters of different heights - this is how one of the principles of the ZILART design code can be described. As for the tiers, everything was democratic: the author himself chose whether to divide the facade into tiers or not. In the materials, the distribution was as follows: 70% brick and 30% other material. The colors of the houses were supposed to be red brick, dark and white. Just in the 14th quarter, in which we took part together with Ilya Utkin, we had a white tower "The Seagull", and Ilya had a red-brick house.
For the improvement of the entire territory and courtyards, rules were also developed in the design code. There is a garage under each block, and a courtyard is located on its exploited roof. We also made the underground part and the improvement of the courtyards in our 14th and 26th blocks by our own bureau”.
Materials (edit)
“Due to the rectangular grid of the master plan and brick facades, ZILART has a partly image of New York, which is unusual for Moscow. The advantages of ZILART are very good proportions of streets, the ratio of the width of streets to the height of houses. It is already clear that the structure created by Meganom is successful. It has its own "Central Park" - "Tyufeleva Roscha", its own Broadway - boulevard with high-rise buildings, which has not yet been built. Most likely, according to the proportions of streets and houses, everything is also well guessed there.
As for materials, there were plans to release designer bricks. The LSR company has its own production, and it has achieved some success in the production of bricks, but the economy is now not conducive to individual authoring developments. For the most beautiful bricks, according to architects, the most expensive clays are needed, but there are none in Russia. However, with the use of certain technologies, it is possible to obtain white, black and glossy bricks. For all projects, a full-size example of a fragment of the facade must be made. LSR has an understanding that the cladding material must be durable and easy to use. This is not a developer who operates on the "build and leave" principle.
In addition to the material as such, the plastic of the facades and the consideration of light and shade on the surface are very important in the project, since almost all buildings are perceived from the perspective of the streets. Our brick house in the third stage in some way continues the theme with a multi-layer facade on "Dawn". A ribbed surface was invented for a kindergarten. On the "Seagull", in addition to the folding of the general geometry of the facade, the surface has a relief surface.
ZILART quartirography
“In the second stage there are rather large apartments (three-room apartments - 100-120 m², two-room apartments - from 63 m², one-room apartments - 46 m²). There are one-room and two-room apartments on a typical floor in "Chaika". In corner apartments, kitchen-living rooms are oriented towards good views. The last floor is given to the most spacious three-room apartments with higher ceilings of 3.60 m, facing two sides. The rest of the ceilings are 3.10 m.
In the third stage, three-room apartments start at 80 m², two-room apartments at 54 m², and one-room apartments from 34 to 40 m². We have many European layouts, when the kitchen is combined with the living room, although there are also traditional layouts with a small kitchen. In one-room apartments, the kitchen-living room is 16-17 m², the minimum bedroom size is 12-13 m². In three-room apartments of 80 m², we have a kitchen-living room of 26 m². This is a good size. People are quite ready for kitchen-living rooms."
Quarter 14 and the Seagull Tower
“The Seagull” is the dominant feature inside the quarter; we have given it a more active surface than the neighboring buildings. The stylized check mark - the angle of the façade bend - means a seagull due to its resemblance to the silhouette of spread wings. This motif manifests itself both in the folded facade and in the smaller diagonal pattern on it.
That is, the facade has a large drawing and a small one: plastic exists at different levels. Folding and different illumination of the edges creates a spectacular sliding perception in the foreshortening. The windows are different, the higher they are, the larger they are. There are several modules: from floor to ceiling and smaller. The glass corners of the tower are both artistic and functional because they offer views of the river.
In the block there is one main entrance to the courtyard with a reception and a concierge, and further, through the courtyard, you can already get to the entrances. The courtyard is private for residents and their guests. Public premises are located along the perimeter of the block. At ZILART, special consultants were engaged in street retail, filling the ground floors, and they indicated for each quarter where fitness rooms, cafes, offices and bakeries should be. So these are not faceless premises, but a programmed infrastructure, taking into account pedestrian and car flows.
While designing the Seagull Tower, Ilya Utkin and the author of the neighboring house worked independently, but at the same time we unexpectedly guessed each other's movements. Our folded facade structure is assembled from fiber-reinforced concrete slabs, each of which has a diagonal relief. A chevron pattern is made on the facade of the Utka house. And although Utkin and I refer to different fundamental principles, a unifying motive has formed. And the pigeon of Alexander Brodsky on his brick house, next to ours, also turned out to be in some consonance, but already on the topic of "birds", although this was not planned in advance."
26th quarter and the "Master Key"
“As mentioned earlier, after successful work on the second stage in the third, we have already been chosen as curators. We oversaw the 26th block adjacent to the school square. To work on the facades of one of the houses in the quarter, we, in turn, invited the bureau of Boris Bernasconi. The quarter consists of three residential buildings and a kindergarten, united by a common underground part.
We decided to continue the theme of cooperation between different authors, one of the most striking features of ZILART, but on a micro scale, inside our workshop. For the facade of the corner tower, each employee developed his own floor, then we randomly mixed these floors, choosing the height by drawing lots, assembled them in a model, and then finalized and harmonized the facades.
The result is a manifesto house, or, as we called it, "Master Key", in which there are many different hands, and heads, and eyes, and approaches, - a living facade with different windows and a rich surface, which has both a pattern and a relief, and texture, and texture. Variants of the “pixel” pattern have been developed: a light protruding “stone” with dark bricks, a dark “stone” with light ones. Moreover, we have a similar experience with "Dawn". Even if the relief cannot be made for economic reasons, our brick pattern will retain its character thanks to the color and “pixel” structure.
Boris Bernasconi was in charge of the White House in Block 26. He made protruding bay windows. If we have small pixels on the facade, then the window has become a pixel. At the same time, he also has an active background - a black and white birch pattern. In both cases, there is an intersection with our surface, we just have a regular ornament, and it has a chaotic one. He preferred to design the facade without tiers, monolithic.
The town-planning role of the houses in the quarter is different: the Bernasconi house and our red-brick house are inside the building, so they are quieter. Our motley Master Key tower, on the other hand, accentuates the corner, faces the street, finishes building before the school park breaks. Along the street there is a row of houses-plates, built on one grid or another, but we wanted to make a thing-event in a different logic."
“A kindergarten - a house with a pitched roof, 1-2 floors, closes the perimeter of the quarter. It has a smaller scale because it overlooks the pedestrian boulevard and the school. At ZILART there are mostly large houses, but together with the curator Yuri Grigoryan we believed that there should be micro-events. In this case, it is a kindergarten. Part of its roof is for walking. This is a platform divorced in height from the yard of the house. This is how we solved not only the functional problem, but also the theme of the roof: people will see the continuation of the courtyard from the windows”.
