Team approach
One of the popular ways in our time to diversify the development of a large-scale project is the team method of work, in which several architectural firms are invited to design individual buildings. The authors strive to create a high-density and at the same time comfortable environment with a developed recreational and social infrastructure, high-quality landscaping and well-developed public spaces.
All these principles are taken into account and developed by the new project of the residential complex "ILOVE" from the KORTROS group of companies. Four leading architectural firms specializing in residential and mixed-use development are involved in the design. The general designer and developer of projects for buildings 1 and 2 is the APEX bureau. The AECOM bureau has developed the planning concept, design code and is responsible for the project of the 5th building. Bureau "Ostozhenka" and TPO "Reserve" supervise buildings 3 and 4, respectively.
A universe out of the void
The territory of the future residential complex "ILOVE" - 7 hectares of the former industrial zone. The buildings of the meat processing plant that occupied it did not have historical and cultural value, they did not need to be preserved, the work was carried out "from scratch", which simplified it, but deprived the authors of the opportunity to use the memory of the place for the plot basis of the residential complex.
In almost every architectural project, a figurative solution is now being laid, which is characteristic more of a marketing strategy than of project documentation. Architects are happy to be involved in the process of inventing a “legend”, suggesting names, design and decoration techniques that reveal the associations inherent in the project, building in their minds not only the volumetric and spatial parameters of future buildings, but also modeling the life scenarios of future inhabitants. “We believe that it is interesting and helps our work,” says Anton Bondarenko, head of the APEX architectural studio, “stimulating imagination, inspiring employees to search for non-standard solutions. I invite the guys to come up with a name for the complex, draw a logo and a brand book, the features of which can be used in the design of facades, in the solution of landscaping, as well as in the graphic presentation of concepts. This helps us to convey the idea to the customer, to involve him in the modeling of the new world."
In the case of the “ILOVE” residential complex, the reference point for the “legend” was the history of the district, where many streets bear names associated with space. The project was conceived as a kind of inhabited galaxy, where all volumetric-spatial elements: the drawing of facades, the concept of landscaping and lighting, are based on stellar associations.
Maximum of all
The configuration of the site resembles a spiral of a galaxy with a "prominence". Capital Group, together with the project partner, the KORTROS group of companies, invited the AECOM bureau, which has extensive experience in developing territorial development concepts, to create a planning project according to the specified TEPs.
Having highlighted the main trapezoidal part of the territory, the architects of AECOM, the developers of the master plan, built a boulevard inside it, resembling a pentahedral bastion in plan, with its edge directed to the south-west. This is the main promenade and main thoroughfare for the residents of the area. In the center there is a pedestrian zone and a green public square. Around the boulevard there are sectional houses forming open squares and brackets; in plan they resemble the famous "books" of Novy Arbat. Under the entire complex there is an underground parking for 1.5 thousand cars. Due to the complex configuration of plans and the well-thought-out mutual arrangement of the buildings, each house received a landscaped courtyard. The "prominences" remaining on the periphery of the territory were given over to green areas and a school building for 300 children. The target audience of the complex is young families with children.
The height of most of the sections is 10 floors, some are raised by 35-storey towers - a hybrid of block and high-rise buildings, which is popular today, helps to maintain a comfortable scale, gaining the required amount of space. The high-rise parts are dispersed - the distance between the towers is at least 200 meters, which allows you to maintain optimal insolation and views from the windows.
Different vision, one approach
The development of the planning project based on the master plan prepared by AECOM was carried out jointly with the participation of all design offices. The general designer, APEX, prepared the initial permits, coordinated the most complex work of the team and brought together all the proposals, linking them to the set indicators and regulatory requirements.
The CEO, responsible for the project from the side of APEX, Irina Volenko, commented on the complexities and advantages of teamwork: “The teamwork of several independent design organizations differs significantly from the independent project management. Each team member has an empirical opinion and needs to work together to find ways to incorporate those opinions and approaches into the project. In this case, taking into account the scale of the complex and the proposed bright author's solutions, we preferred to preserve the individuality of the planning and facade solutions of each building. It seems to me that this practice is so effective that it should be applied even when the project is managed by one organization. You can distribute buildings between project teams and give them the opportunity to look for their own solution within the framework of a single approach."
One of the consequences of teamwork was the expansion of the range of apartment types: they differ not only in the number of rooms, but also in planning methodology and mental tradition. A two-room or three-room apartment of the same area can be planned in different ways. There is a Russian tradition dating back to Soviet times, there is a European approach and even an American one. They differ in answers to dozens of questions: how should an apartment of this or that class be organized, whether a large entrance hall or even a hall is needed, how the kitchen should be located, what is the difference in area between the living room and the bedroom, how many bathrooms are needed, and so on. The peculiarities of the author's approach and the experience of each of the design organizations were reflected in the planning solutions of apartments in different buildings. Someone put functionalism at the forefront, someone - space, someone gave priority to common rooms, and someone to private areas. The architects have given future buyers the opportunity to choose a layout that is close to their lifestyle.
Each team proposed its own design option for a three-dimensional composition of a 10-storey multi-sectional part and a 35-storey tower. Someone interpreted them as a complex, but uniform form with the same interpretation of all facades. Someone, like, for example, the Ostozhenka bureau, emphasized
the hull was two-part and designed the low-rise and high-rise parts in different ways.
The pillars of creation
APEX is also developing two buildings at the northeastern development boundary. They will be built in the first place: building No. 1 is an open square, with a north-eastern facade facing Godovikova Street. Building No. 2, separated from it by a boulevard, is a plate of four sections. Both buildings consist of the main 10-storey array and high-rise parts: two towers on the first building and one tower on the second.
Developing the concept of the facades, the architects of the APEX company analyzed all the options: sectional division, division into a low and high-rise part and a single facade and opted for the latter. A stylized stylobate uniting the first two floors, a public one with a height increased to 5.4 meters, and a residential one serves as a massive base for a light gray, almost white bulk of buildings. The stylobate is somewhat recessed relative to the main facade and is faced with dark gray arhbeton. The last floor of 10-storey buildings is finished in the same way, which received an open terrace along the perimeter as a bonus. The upper floors of the high-rise sections are accentuated only by a thin eaves.
The facades of both buildings form a complex, at first glance, random system formed by window openings alternating in width and height, fixed stemalite glazing and light gray arhbeton walls. The drawing is related to the space theme. One of the authors, an expert in astronomy, suggested using the image of a real gas and dust nebula "Pillars of Creation". The architects developed a pixelated pattern that was applied to the façade in 3-D Max. Then the APEX programmers wrote a plug-in for Revit that interpolates the image into the system of openings and walls, determining the location and geometry of each block.
Playing with the size of the windows does not in any way affect the comfort and class of apartments. All windows are "in the floor", the width of the narrowest opening is 1.80 m with a room width of 3.1 m and a floor height of 3.3 m. The visual sensation of narrow openings, almost "loopholes" arises due to the fact that the windows of neighboring floors are combined in height. On the towers, the following sequence is used from bottom to top: one floor, two times two, then three times three floors, then four floors and at the very top three times five floors. To streamline the standard sizes of windows, the architects introduced a basic opening sash of 900 mm, which is always located at the wall, which fixes a single vertical in the general pattern.
Space gardens
Most of the car-free territory of the complex will be converted into a park, where natural green areas will be combined with landscaped areas and play areas, pedestrian and bicycle paths. The authors of the landscaping concept, the architects of the English firm Gillespies and APEX, also started from the space associative array, developing the themes declared in the architecture of residential buildings. The central boulevard received the name and design "Asteroid Belt", the central square became the "Sun" - the center of attraction of the region, the neighboring pedestrian zone - "The Milky Way". The five buildings are named: 1 - Earth, 2 - Jupiter, 3 - Mars, 4 - Mercury and 5 - Saturn.
Each courtyard and green area was decided individually, taking into account the degree of illumination, neighborhood with residential and public buildings, purpose and audience. In the "Mars" zone, the most shaded area of the region, bright, predominantly red colors are actively used for decoration. The Milky Way is designed as a dispersed medium in which paving areas and green fragments are mixed. The Asteroid Belt Boulevard is divided into parallel pedestrian, bicycle and car lanes, separated by “islands” of greenery and guest parking spaces. For each zone, the architects, together with landscape designers and dendrologists, selected a set of plants that will be effective both in summer and in winter.
A separate lighting concept was developed, which not only performs a utilitarian function, but is also responsible for creating a comic image in the evening. Some of the lamps are designed for theatrical effects: for example, in the "Earth" zone, the illusion of a moonlit ocean surface is created, from which green islands rise.
The search for an image and a detailed study of the "legend" of each object is not a tribute to fashion, but the desire of architects to make an integrated and harmonious product, to find, in modern conditions, within fairly rigid building parameters, planning, architectural and design tools to create a living environment that will be as comfortable as possible and will strive to make the future inhabitants of the "habitable galaxy" happy.
