The RASSVET LOFT * Studio of architects DNK ag is the result of the reconstruction of part of the buildings of the Rassvet machine-building plant located in the center of Moscow on Presnya. The plant is gradually being transformed, some of its buildings are now leased out in almost their original form, and buildings 34 and 20 have turned into apartments - city houses, whose scale and especially the internal structure are in many ways an innovation for Moscow. The project has been developing since 2014 and has collected many prizes over the past time, from Tatlin at the Zodchestvo-2016 festival to being included in the WAF'2019 shortlists and the Dezeen awards - in the latter it turned out to be the only Russian project. It is not surprising that LOFT Dawn graced the cover of the second monograph DNK ag, published by Tatlin magazine this spring - at the moment it has become a kind of iconic, favorite object of architects.
We have already considered
the project of building 34 - a building-plate, installed end-to-end to the main pedestrian walkway on the territory of the former plant and visually divided into six facades that are similar to each other, but different in nuances, so that it looks like a classic city, but without historicizing elements, but this is scaled and proportional … Building number 20 is not so noticeable - a short, extended block with two protrusions was an outbuilding of a Soviet-era plant. It is parallel to Rastorguevsky lane, but located in the back of the courtyard - it starts almost from the corner of 3.34, but ends up passing by the “old” building of the former Shchukin Museum of Russian Antiquities, now Timiryazevsky Biological Museum, to the corner of its “new” building on Malaya Gruzinskaya. Such a dense involvement in the building is explained by the location of the original farm building, the appearance of which, I must say, was extremely unassuming - but the Soviet industry was calm about the neighboring monuments of the 19th century. Two words about museum buildings: the first was built by Boris Viktorovich Freidenberg, the second a couple of years later by Adolf Ernestovich Erichson, the first is pseudo-Russian, the second is more likely neo-, both appeal to the "brick mannerism" of the Russian 17th century, but the first is covered with brick, the second with tiles, although the theme is common … Both museum buildings are a binding neighborhood. However, for the architects, in their own words, both the proximity of the Shchukin buildings and the brick building erected by Roman Ivanovich Klein for the Myur and Meriliz factory and the Polish church of St. Thomas Osipovich Bogdanovich-Dvorzhetsky standing a block away were important - all they defined the brick style of DNK ag buildings.
Meanwhile, it should be noted that in Soviet times, industrial territories were actively built up and, as a rule, new buildings were of an exclusively pragmatic nature. The reconstructed buildings were part of the Soviet development of the plant territory, did not have historical and architectural value and looked like this:
-
zooming Dawn, building 34, original view Courtesy of DNK ag
-
zooming Dawn, building 20, original view Courtesy of DNK ag
Brick, metal, wood
Brick facades are true love that has ousted concrete, glass and metal from the hearts of today's architects. Brick allows you to subtly play with texture, saturate surfaces non-figuratively, demonstrates hand-made and gives a variety of shades, without going beyond the warm, terracotta tones that are comfortable for the human eye. It is also the best justification for a conflict-free dialogue with the context if you are surrounded by industrial architecture, or even more so build on its territory, and even with the support of samples of 19th century architecture, appealing to the 17th century, another period of the flourishing of brick patterns. In other words, the choice of brick facades was three times inevitable: because of the nearby monuments, the surroundings of the old industrial and modern preferences. Brick is beautiful, durable, and nowadays it has acquired the aura of an expensive, if not exclusive material. So the main material of the facades unites both cases with the surroundings and with each other, endowing them, on the other hand, with the win-win materiality of a good tweed coat.
In the large building 34, the brick became the basis for tonal differences between the sections, giving them a semblance of a city street with uncharacteristically narrow for Moscow, but typical for Europe, plots built up with similar but different houses close to each other. On the extended facade, brick frames accentuated the windows, and the ends formed textured panels that work well in oblique light and echo the symbol of the complex - a striped spot of light, the "sun" above the entrances.
-
zooming 1/9 Club complex RASSVET LOFT * Studio, 3.34 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
-
zooming 2/9 Club complex RASSVET LOFT * Studio, 3.34 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
-
zooming 3/9 Club complex RASSVET LOFT * Studio, 3.34 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
-
zooming 4/9 Club complex RASSVET LOFT * Studio, 3.34 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
-
zooming 5/9 Club complex RASSVET LOFT * Studio, 3.34 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
-
zooming 6/9 Club complex RASSVET LOFT * Studio, 3.34 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
-
zooming 7/9 Club complex RASSVET LOFT * Studio, 3.34 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
-
zooming 8/9 Club complex DAWN LOFT * Studio, 3.34 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
-
zooming 9/9 Club complex DAWN LOFT * Studio, 3.34 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
But if in the multi-storey 34th nuances of color and texture prevail, and the relief is extremely restrained and limited by stripes of large frames and similar hatching at the ends, then the case 20 is more restrained, it has more smooth surfaces, which makes the smaller volume more concise, gives the wide gable-top volumes a resemblance to the warehouses of the Hanseatic merchants. The handmade brick, with the scale shining in the sun from metal inclusions, looks like a melange fabric from the autumn collection. But the relief also appears - the bricks, brought out by the corners to the facade, create a textured velvet panel, accentuating the house number. And vertical brick gratings in combination with glass blocks on the ground floors provide natural lighting to the parking lots located inside (yes, parking lots on the first floors) - and at the same time, the ensemble echoes the relief stripes of the neighboring building.
-
zooming 1/3 Club complex RASSET LOFT * Studio, building 3.20 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
-
zooming 2/3 Club complex RASSVET LOFT * Studio, building 3.20 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
-
zooming 3/3 Club complex RASSET LOFT * Studio, building 3.20 Photo Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
The roofs in both cases form a simple meander of ledges and ledges, only in the large building the line is determined by the alternation of the height of the "houses", and in the small one by lucarnes. The roofs are made of dark gray metal, and on the second building, the metal part occupies about a third, and somewhere half the height, protruding almost on an equal footing with the brick, capturing the upper part of the building. The metal coating is carefully traced: only vertical joints are visible, the distances between them are not the same and not arbitrary, but add up to a rhythm like a waltz.
Metal also manifests itself in the frames of windows and simple, but still the same color, balconies. There are three types of balconies in the building of 20: fences built between the slopes of French windows; flat balconies, protruding about half a meter, and still others, striding far forward, with a one and a half meter extension. French windows are encountered from time to time, and large and small balconies form a regular rhythm that organizes and enlivens the facades. The bars of the grilles echo with the parking facades; in building 20, as a whole, vertical shading prevails, occasionally enlivened by a transverse horizontal one.
-
Image 
zooming 1/4 Club complex RASSVET LOFT * Studio, building 3.20 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
-
zooming 2/4 Club complex RASSVET LOFT * Studio, building 3.20 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
-
zooming 3/4 Club complex DAWN LOFT * Studio, building 3.20. Photo Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
-
zooming 4/4 Club complex RASSVET LOFT * Studio, building 3.20 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
There is less wood, but it appears in key places - for example, it decorates the entrances in the corner, the most comfortable, sinuses of the house, and decorates the slopes of large attics, softening the brutality of the metal top.
The entrance doors are made of the same light wood, which also picks up the theme of vertical shading. If we continue the analogy with the fabric started above, then the tree takes on the role of a kind of "lining" - it is more often used where the house interacts with a person, primarily at the entrance. Wood is the "warmest" of the selected materials, characteristic of interiors and small forms, and on the first floor its style tends to the slatted language of the latter, and on the upper floors the wooden slopes emphasize the presence of housing behind them, and not a factory workshop. On the one hand, it delicately emphasizes the typology, and on the other hand, it sharpens the perception of industrial allusions, which, of course, are present in the interpretation of metal upper floors.
-
Image 
zooming 1/4 Club complex DAWN LOFT * Studio, building 3.20. Photo Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
-
zooming 2/4 Club complex RASSVET LOFT * Studio, building 3.20 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
-
zooming 3/4 Club complex RASSVET LOFT * Studio, building 3.20 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
-
zooming 4/4 Club complex RASSVET LOFT * Studio, building 3.20 Photo © DNK ag, Ilya Ivanov
Structure
The most interesting thing about both buildings is their structure, the authors emphasize. There are few atypical layouts in Moscow, and the number of newly designed bunk apartments is simply approaching zero. Here, both houses consist mainly of non-standard options: two- and three-storey apartments, dwellings with access to the street from the first floor, with front gardens, balconies and terraces. These are not just housing, but places where you can live and work according to the "medieval" neo-urbanistic principle, setting up an office or a workshop in part of your apartment - residents are already realizing this opportunity, the architects of DNK ag emphasize. All these features are popular and appear from time to time, sometimes more often, sometimes less often, in different residential complexes. The difference between LOFT Dawn is that it is literally recruited from atypical options, consists of them. Of course, such a completely unexpected and soul-warming diversity is supported by at least two circumstances: the status of the reconstruction and the central location in the city, which implies an expensive, although not at all outrageous, “club” housing format for Moscow.
So, building 34 consists of 6-meter high bunk apartments with "lofts", open mezzanines inside each of them, just according to the precepts of Moses Ginzburg, only more spacious; The 4 upper levels are connected by corridors through the floor, the lower ones have their own entrances from the street and front gardens. The upper apartments are illuminated, among other things, by zenith roof windows, and have terraces and fireplaces on the upper floor.
Building 20 picks up the same theme, but here the composition of the lots is more complicated - three-story townhouses join the two-story dwellings, and, on the contrary, one-story apartments, relatively speaking, are ordinary, although they are in the minority. The parking lot on the ground floor adds some peculiarity, but it is not present everywhere, there is a transverse volume, but not in the lintel between them, here the apartments on the ground floors face the front gardens, which is also important, especially if you have an exceptionally quiet closed courtyard at your disposal. “Flat” parking is also available and is equipped with a lawn grate.
House 3.20 - as we remember, extended, if not long, and hidden in the yard. You can look at it from the courtyard of the Timiryazev Museum, and, from the corner, from a side street, but if you know and try. The house is hidden from the city, "hidden" in it, maybe someday it will change, but for now it is rather a hidden gem. But between it and the building along the lane, three small, but very quiet, closed courtyards are formed, for the front gardens there was also a place on the opposite side, closer to building 34.
But back to the plan: it is irregular. The elongated body has two wide projections to the north (in fact, they separate the courtyards). Generally speaking, the plan is similar to the classic Moscow estate planning, but with a small appendix, which joins it with the building of the eighties, which adjoined the museum along Malaya Gruzinskaya and is now known for the location of the Anderson cafe. A difficult plan needed to be comprehended, and this is what happened. In a narrow "appendix" behind the museum, there are three-level townhouses with parking on the ground floors. The wide wing ledges separating the courtyards contain single and bunk apartments, the second and third floors have corridors, since only duplex apartments go there. The northern extended part of the "bulkhead" between the wings is four-tiered, the southern part is three. Therefore, the two-storey dwellings of the second level, facing mainly to the north, have patio-terraces on the roof, allowing you to “scoop up” the sun from the south side and compensate for the light, and even through huge windows. The only corridor in the "lintel" passes, respectively, at the level of the third tier, connecting the same apartments with the roof terrace. Quite confusing, but if you think about it, it is logical and interesting, not just diverse, but motivated and convenient. Wanted to live in an apartment with a patio, no one rents on airbnb? Eh, it's a pity.
The structure of the roof, especially when viewed from above, definitely resembles the solutions of industrial architecture - they are similar to the shed lanterns, which were popular in the lighting of workshops in the 19th and 20th centuries, and they act in a similar way. There are many skylights and large stained-glass windows with metal bindings, sharpening the loft style declared in the name.
New but with roots
The concept of reconstruction in the Russian context continues to remain rather vague, although it changes its contours. In any case, it is obvious that in this case we are not dealing with a "classical" type of reconstruction of a prom, the preservation of a valuable building, although formally it is often not a monument, with modern invasions that manifest its otherness and antiquity. The original buildings could not be attributed to the category of things worthy of preservation, it was not even vernacular architecture, but examples of cheap Soviet industrial trash, which did not go beyond the limits of their practical purpose. Their appearance has completely changed, 34 ceased to be closed and horizontal, turning into open and verticalized, in its opposite. The twentieth was simply a barn, but got a completely readable and variable "face" and image, became everything from nothing, according to the famous anthem. Reconstruction has become rather a reincarnation, and the concept will be more accurately attributed to the territory of the plant as a whole, the transformation of its space, of which two houses have become.
The decisive quality of the project is scale. Being dictated by factory buildings and not subject to growth upward and in breadth, it turned out to be amazing, rare for modern Moscow, which gives new value to the living spaces in it. Simply put - a medium-sized, within the framework of a humane size, building has a different effect on a person, but here a number of circumstances converged so that it was possible to implement it.
Another essential thing is the image. Taking into account the initial appearance of the cases, they could be interpreted in any way - made of glass or covered with orange slotted metal; but the architects and the client chose brick and dark metal, making the former industrial context the "label" of the project. At the same time, the houses themselves are not factory houses, a city is sprouting amid the heap of industrial production, before our eyes, but gradually, so that, without knowing, we might not even notice. But houses are acquiring new qualities, adapting the previous ones: for example, brick window frames, typical for building 3.34, can be found in apartment buildings of neighboring courtyards, and the construction of narrow high facades is a modern Europeanized innovation. Small courtyards lined up in an asymmetrical line along a long building are more than a Moscow phenomenon, while multi-tiered apartments, terraces and wide Dutch gables are a fresh idea. It is not surprising that the houses have received so many awards - they are not very bright, in the literal sense, but they are full of many ideas and seem to even offer the city an alternative way of development, point-like, creative, rooted in the context, but using many modern developments. Whether the city will follow that path - frankly, now it is unlikely; perhaps sometime later. But the very fact of realizing the experiment seems interesting.
