The name of the CO_LOFT apartment complex, located near the Tulskaya metro station, reflects two paradigms - the former industrial function and the idea of a communal house, which is extremely close to the increasingly popular co-living.
A fairly compact site with three 3-4-storey buildings, located near the Serpukhov shaft. Until recently, the Electrical Measuring Instruments Plant (MZEP) was located here, leading its history since 1935, when workshops for the repair of typewriters and adding machines were opened here. It is known that the first buildings of the complex date back to the late 1920s - early 1930s. There was also a boiler room, a reminder of which today is a high chimney - a kind of high-rise dominant of the quarter. In all likelihood, the boiler house was part of the housing estate for the workers of the Novaya Zarya factory, built in 1928–1930 by the architects Ivan Zvezdin and Mikhail Motylev.
Over the course of its long life, the workshops expanded, the buildings were rebuilt, and the complex was repeatedly supplemented with outbuildings. This chaotic building cannot be called an ensemble in any way: the different scale of the outbuildings, the coloring of the bricks in different colors, the combination of panels and other materials do not allow us to speak of any pronounced architectural character.
However, it was its history, as well as the constructivist heritage of the area, that became one of the sources of inspiration for the architects of DNK ag when developing the concept of the apartments. The neighboring residential area of Zvezdina and Motylev was developed as an ensemble, which involved the creation of small housing communities - neighbors connected by everyday interests, working relationships, spending leisure time together. The idea of joint pastime of residents formed the basis of the project of redevelopment of the industrial complex of the plant and largely determined the functional zoning of CO_LOFT, and the palimpsest of buildings of different times was turned by architects into a fascinating game of volumes and textures.
“Working in the living environment of the city, we wanted to find some theme for inspiration when working with the complex, the buildings of which do not have a pronounced visual value and attractiveness,” says architect Natalya Sidorova. - The context, namely the multitude of constructivist projects in the area: the residential areas of the Khavsko-Shabolovsky complex and the Novaya Zarya, the Shukhov tower, gave us one of the starting points for the internal structuring of the complex, in which a large role is assigned to the public function. At the same time, it was important for us in the concept to reflect the individuality and diversity of life, which is close to us and characteristic of today. And all this as a whole turned out to be in tune with the client's desire to create something unusual and modern, and at the same time, having a connection with history."
A song about a new way of life
DNK ag's approach to rethinking the industrial area in the new conditions allowed the bureau to win a closed competition, and coincided with the developer's desire to develop the concept of a residential complex with co-living elements - a new housing format that is in many respects consonant with communal houses, but offers greater comfort and meeting individual needs.
The once new way of life of the socialist state demanded new solutions in housing construction. Communal houses, industrial complexes with their socialized way of life, which appeared as a result of the birth of a new formation, were a response to rapid industrialization and urbanization: a small area of residential cells was more than paid off by collective public spaces - the kitchen completely replaced the dining room, the issues of free time were solved in the account of the arrangement of the common library and game rooms. Paradoxically, after almost a hundred years, the ideas of collective pastime turned out to be relevant. Against the background of the development of technological capabilities and the information revolution, the spread of remote work, the ratio of the individual and the collective has changed. Joint actions on a common platform are a sign of modernity.
DNK ag plays on the theme of the communal home, gracefully embedding a platform for collaborative action into the fabric of the complex. The complex configuration of the object, caused by spontaneous formation, finds its resolution in the allocation of a central core with public spaces and the arrangement of residential "cells" -apartments along the perimeter.
Two historical buildings - a panel one and a brick one - meet at right angles, and the third one is separated from them. All together, they once formed a semi-open courtyard, which was built up already in the 1960s with a volume of metal structures with corrugated sheathing - they created a transitional block between buildings. Now, according to the project, a coworking space, a reception desk, a multifunctional space, a gym, a laundry room are located at this place - everything that is needed for fruitful joint actions. You can get here through the main entrance, bypassing a small square.
In the basement of the four-storey building, there was also a place for commercial space adjacent to the public nucleus. The combination of business and housing, which is traditional for a loft, is considered in this case as an opportunity for a common cause uniting the residents of the complex.
The central core also includes parking with a convenient drive-in on the ground and basement floors. The underground level of the residential buildings is also equipped with kellers - storerooms for storing things.
Life is supposed to be diversified through various services, some of which are coordinated by a community manager who also acts as a community moderator.
Apartments are located in all industrial buildings in the past. Architects preserve the dimensions and number of storeys of buildings, modifying the facades in accordance with the change in function.
The apartment layout of the complex is extremely diverse, almost each of the apartments is endowed with unique properties, allowing you to recall the experiments of the 1920s on approbation of various scenarios of life and the layout of premises. In one of the buildings on the ground floor there will be two-sided duplex apartments with their own front garden - a kind of analogue of a town house. In the other, one-level apartments have their own terrace; these small gardens form a street within the block.
Studio-type apartments - small in size, 20 m2 Are a kind of cell-modules that can be combined with each other within the framework of the supporting frame.
Unusual elongated apartments, whose configuration is due to the width of one of the buildings, are relatively small in area, but have the advantage of having many windows, which makes it possible to zone the space in different ways, forming several “rooms”. Most of the apartments have balconies, mostly French, sometimes traditional.
A feature of the complex is the exploited roof of residential buildings and built-in parking. Residents of the upper floors and apartments adjacent to the inner terrace have access to it, and thus get their own "hanging garden".
Not without two-storey apartments - as we remember, residential cells of experimental houses of the 1920s also often had two levels, for example, a cell of type K in the famous Narkomfin building. In modern Moscow design, two-storey apartments are an almost disappearing rarity, so they give the complex a special "typological" charm.
New overall look
The layering of time is reflected in the textures of the facing, in the materials of the outer walls. The "newest" steel block - a legacy of the recent Soviet past - has received glass facades. It is the link between the more material brick buildings.
The oldest four-storey building in the complex, on the ground floor of which there are commercial premises, the most vividly reminiscent of the industrial past of the place. Its red-brick walls are planned to be cleaned, and balconies and bay windows speak of the new residential purpose. The tall chimney of the boiler room turns into an artifact and also reminds us of what was here before.
The small brick building with front gardens is designed in graphic dark gray tones. The architects added floor-to-ceiling windows and glass bay windows with outrigger frames of various proportions, which formed a rhythmic composition that defines the individual character of each cell. The main feature of this building is a mosaic panel that has been preserved from an electrical appliance factory since Soviet times. This is the legacy of another period in the life of the complex - the era of modernism. Surprisingly, the plot of the panel - innovative technologies, a community of people of different professions - is in tune with the new life of our time and the concept of the project.
The third building, along which the front gardens are also stretched, has original facades in the project, emphasizing its original structure. The panels are completely dismantled and replaced by bricks.
The two-storey apartments are distinguished by different brick colors as “houses”; the planar solution is diluted with different widths of windows and bay windows.
The third level with one-storey apartments and a single corridor that unites them inside and on the facade is designed as a single one, which gives it an attic character, enhanced by the use of relief - the vertical rhythm of brick ribs visually pulls this level up.
“We wanted to preserve a naturally formed history in the complex,” says Natalya Sidorova. - It was important for us not only to organically weave new functions, but also to emphasize the continuity and historical individuality not only through the preservation of artifacts - pipes and mosaics, which, of course, we also consider as important elements of the design - but also through the manifestation of long-term “layering””In architecture”.
