- You often use clinker in your projects. What does this “work with material” mean?
- Firstly, I work not only with clinker, but also with many other materials, but clinker is my favorite material, especially in the last twenty years, and when you work with clinker, you need to understand what properties of this material you bring to the project how this material changes your project, how it imposes certain obligations on it. What's the most interesting about clinker? Clinker is a material that brings continuity, tradition, durability, reliability, and environmental friendliness to the project.
This material is, of course, good when there is a mass of wall in the building. Because if you use it only as some small elements, when there are thin pylons, then, of course, it does not seem to work itself out.
Therefore, for me, clinker is in some sense a replacement for classic ornamental walls, because I do not accept ornament as such, as, in fact, Adolf Loos wrote in his time that ornament is a crime, but for me a clinker surface is the richest a surface with many textures, elements, protrusions; he is impossibly tactilely attractive and very complex, diverse. Therefore, the clinker wall can replace any ornamented wall from the classicism era.
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zooming Residential complex "Garden Quarters" Photo © Sergey Skuratov Architects. Provided by Hagemeister
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zooming Residential complex "Garden Quarters" Photo © Sergey Skuratov Architects. Provided by Hagemeister
How does clinker help to create a full-fledged urban environment on the site of former industrial zones?
The clinker helps, firstly, to realize the idea of the spirit of the place, because industrial territories are, first of all, clinker of the 19th - early 20th centuries, although, in general, it is a brick, but in terms of its properties it is very close to clinker, it just as strong, just as durable. If you have ever held a brick in your hands, for example, from the Valaam Monastery in 1895, you understand that this brick will outlive us all and will still exist for several thousand years.
Therefore, modern clinker restores these lost connections, it helps to create surfaces that are similar in their sensations to those surfaces and buildings that existed on the site of industrial zones. In general, I adhere to the point of view that in industrial zones it is necessary to preserve everything that can be preserved and restored, and reconstruct everything that can be restored and reconstructed, and only carefully supplement this whole history with modern inclusions. Clinker in buildings, clinker in landscaping allows you to build these connections, build these bridges and sew this torn fabric.
Do you use clinker facades among a variety of architectural environments - both new and existing: how do you assess the contextuality of this material, human perception of clinker among other buildings and their plastered, metal, glass surfaces?
- I want to say that not everything is done by the material. Not all relationships with surrounding buildings are subject to material. Still, architecture, admittedly, is made not only by material. It is done by shape, size, composition, glass surfaces, etc. Of course it all works together. The clinker helps to build bridges or create bright buildings or background, depending on the task that you give this building, because if there are some historical buildings made of bricks in the neighborhood, and you understand that in this place, conditionally speaking brick failure, then of coursea brick building will balance and restore this situation. If there are a lot of concrete, aluminum, plastered stone buildings around, and you need to add an accent to this place, then you use clinker on facades or on landscaping, etc.
But if there are a lot of buildings made of clinker bricks around, then maybe in this place it is not necessary to make such a house, maybe in this place something needs to be done of glass or stone or copper. Therefore, in general, clinker is not a panacea for solving all issues. It is only a tool for building a bridge between the external context and the internal one, your own work, your thought of the soul, your creative search.
You are very attentive to the choice of clinker grading, you have created your own grades together with the specialists of Hagemeister. Perhaps you can tell in more detail how this choice is made for a new project, how do you see this future facade?
- Choice of color: we all know very well that the human eye reacts to color very emotionally. Dark colors evoke some feelings, light - others, contrasting - still others. Therefore, there are different color combinations, different colors globally "brick colors". This is based on what I said about your previous question. Still, first of all, a certain aesthetic and artistic problem is solved. When we make a very large house, then, of course, its size, its pressure, its effect on space must somehow be neutralized a little. Probably, tall houses should not be made of dark bricks, because they are already large, and they can affect like the mass of rock, the mass of brick, stone on a person.
Therefore, it is probably better to choose lighter shades and tones. But, in any case, I always choose a mixed brick, mixed stone in order to create a variety of shades and make the wall more attractive, more lively. We are now filming an interview against the background of such a wall - here, look how many shades there are, how many textures there are, although this is basically the same brick in reality. It's just that he is so lively and so expressive that nothing else is needed. And in those cases when we allow ourselves some liberty and make walls with protruding bricks, we are very attentive to the thickness and color of the seam, its deepening, and so on, this is also serious work with the quality of the surface and its effect on the human eye. This is a continuation of the image of the building.
If we want to make the building so gentle, non-aggressive, very modest, then, of course, we work with the surface like a sheet of paper, I mean that it is flat. And when we need to create some kind of character of the building, then protrusions appear, fragments of chipped bricks appear, the wall begins to breathe, it begins to react to the surrounding space. But this is all life. This is even a life that sometimes is not even subject to an architect. In general, everything is very complicated, although, in general, at the same time and simple.
