The project of the Solntsevo station by Nefa architects became the winner of an international competition, about which see the article on archi.ru. The project was completed in 2018.
About love
“We love concrete in all its forms,” says architect Dmitry Ovcharov, head of Nefa architects. - We even have a concrete table in the workshop (indeed, in the office on Krasny Oktyabr there is a stylish, brutal table that chills your elbows in the summer heat - L. K.). Anything you want can be made of concrete, any surface. For example, fluted concrete panels for the Platov VIP terminal in Rostov-on-Don create chiaroscuro on the surface. We also use monolithic concrete, for example, in a free-standing colonnade in the same VIP terminal. It does not protect from rain, it has no other function at all, except to tell people who enter there that they are VIPs. Or terrazzo concrete floors - poured and polished to internal stones, in particular marble. These are historic Roman floors, very beautiful and durable. We also planned terrazzo floors for the Solntsevo station platform, but conservatism won out: the customers preferred the usual granite. But concrete has played a decisive role in the ground pavilions.
About forms
The concrete pavilions of the Solntsevo station of the Kalinin line are made in the form of houses with a pitched roof - as if from a child's drawing. This archetype of a house against the background of the total squareness of the sleeping area is very refreshing. The locals immediately fell in love with them.
It was possible to create such a shape with the help of custom-made panels. Yana Mertsalova, project architect, tells about the details: “The concrete slabs are L-shaped and lean against each other. The panel itself is placed on a monolithic structure with serrated bases. In order for the panels to be attached to each other, they have embedded elements, so the panel is to some extent self-supporting. A good foundation was needed with correctly laid mortgages. The mortgages had to be cut and rearranged. But on the other hand, we minimized the effort during installation. If the panel sat down on mortgages, then it was already clear and even. The gable small white house looks gentle and neat against the background of panel houses. It would seem that the same material - prefabricated concrete panels - is used in high-rise buildings and our pavilions, but the view is completely different."
“Carrier panels. To make the holes, I had to tweak the reinforcement barrels,”says Dmitry. “We moved the holes, reduced their volume, so as not to coincide with the reinforcement.”
About holes
The main plastic idea of the Nefa architects was to make round holes in the concrete pavilion through which the sun shines through. “We decided that since the station is called Solntsevo, there should be sunbeams there. We were not the first to come up with holes in concrete: there is an oculus in the Pantheon, and holes were drilled in the Meganoma wooden shed,”says Dmitry Ovcharov. The idea turned out to be successful: the sun glare creates the appropriate mood.
In fact, the sun's rays making their way through a concrete wall are, firstly, beautiful, secondly, symbolic, like salvation after a long dead end and an attempt to break through the wall with your head, and thirdly, the rays of every architect's heart pouring through narrow windows in a concrete wall, reminiscent of the leader of avant-garde architecture Le Corbusier and his chapel in Ronshan - an absolutely cult thing to which architects of all countries go on pilgrimage to partake of architectural wisdom or, conversely, to experience the strong sensations of a torn down roof.
In addition to Corbusier, rays through concrete are one of the favorite techniques of the equally iconic and wise modern architect Peter Zumthor, his brother Klaus' Chapel in Wachendorf and the Colomba Museum in Cologne are the same architectural Mecca, albeit less famous than Ronschan. In any case, holes in concrete are an infinitely promising trend. The important thing here is how to make the windows. In a warm room, glass blocks are needed, in a cold room, triplex is enough. This is how the "double holes" (in two radii) are made in the pavilion of the Solntsevo station, because of which the surrounding residents compare it to cheese, and the head of Nefa, Dmitry Ovcharov, calls the station Maasdamskaya. It took a contour from the outside, on which the glasses were glued.
About color
Dmitry Ovcharov: “The panels that we used in the ground pavilions of the Solntsevo metro station are honest reinforced concrete, but white, because there is white cement. It is protected by a hydrophobic solution. Regular concrete changes color when exposed to water, but protected concrete does not. The protection with a water repellent must be renewed every few years. There are no problems with the color of concrete now: you can add any pigments to the thickness, and such colored concrete looks much more noble than a surface covered with paint."
About light
Inside the station, they tried to keep the theme of the sun and sunbeams, although the panels made of fiber-reinforced concrete had to be replaced with lighter aluminum ones. “The light also penetrates through the circular holes in the ceiling, but now it is light reflected from the ceiling dome, and the lamps themselves are not visible,” says project architect Rita Kornienko. The same principle as at the famous Dushkinskaya metro station Kropotkinskaya. In addition, downlights were installed in the domes, lamps directed downward, which imitate the sun's rays. They even managed to illuminate the area above the rails, which usually remains dark. For this purpose, reflectors are installed in the holes above the tracks. The luminaires are easy to change. Additional light is provided by Corian bollards with built-in bulbs, and these same bollards serve as seats for passengers waiting for the train."
Again about love
So, architects are very fond of concrete. I remember how in a press tour in 2005 to the BMW plant built by Zaha Hadid in Leipzig, concrete amazed architects and journalists with its bluish color, whimsical sinew forms, smoothness, traces of noble formwork and so on. Among the architects, someone is a fan of black polished concrete of a mysterious basalt look, while someone is leaning towards a dazzling white, similar to Corian. Concrete can have a wide variety of fillers, from reinforcement to a variety of fibers. The era of Zaha Hadid, according to Dmitry Ovcharov, began with fiber-reinforced concrete, which, when using a filler, makes it possible to create any "squiggles". But it is not the filler that is fundamental, but the forms that can be cast from concrete. All this and much more today can be done at the Maginot factory of the Krost concern specially for the order of architects.
About the plant
Andrey Sazonov, Director of the Concern's Industry Department, comments: “The uniqueness of our products is not in the reinforced concrete itself, but in the forms. The main advantages of our factory are flexibility. We do not have serial forms. We make individual formwork for any order. In order to satisfy the need of architects for a high-quality surface, different materials can be used in the formwork: metal, plywood, plastic. Before the project, we carry out a lot of work on the selection of materials, produce materials, show samples to the customer. For architects, our products are interesting, first of all, by the ability to make a non-standard shape: it can be a staircase of an unusual shape, some kind of facade structures, urban furniture. We use B50 grade concrete to achieve uniform staining. We are 100% manufactured in our own factory. Our facilities speak for themselves: this is a famous gymnasium
"Khoroshkola", the facade of the "Gothic" plant, benches in the Zaryadye park, swings and pedestals on Triumfalnaya Square ".
About surface
In order to emphasize the natural concrete surface in the pavilions of the Solntsevo station, the architects used a peculiar kind of rustication - thin vertical grooves that divide the surface like "boards", which refers to the country houses that are in this area. On the other hand, the relief orders aging. Over time, concrete will change color, like any natural material, and "rustic" will give the surface depth and rhythm. In addition, its vertical stripes echo the accented seams between the panels: some form large articulations, others - small subordinate to them. The holes are emphatically chaotic both in size and arrangement; vertical shading enhances regularity and "collects" volumes.
A gentle relationship with concrete requires a strong producer. “KROST made concrete for Solntsevo,” says Dmitry. We figured them out ourselves in 2014, realized that they were the best, began to communicate with them, and they showed us their staircase in the Khoroshkola atrium. There is a huge span of fiber-reinforced concrete, which they made together with the French. It's amazing to make a stringer of such a span! KROST has the best developments, the most advanced. Besides them, there are only small companies that are very expensive. And KROST has both a workshop and a capacity. The precast concrete workshop has existed for a long time; it makes both fiber-reinforced concrete and reinforced concrete. And very useful for us. They experiment and are not afraid, they are proud of what they do."
