Splicing Method

2024 Author: David Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 02:26

The residential complex "Aleksandrovsky Sad" is being built in the historical center of Yekaterinburg, not far from the Iset River and the Bazhov Museum, a 10-minute walk from the Geologicheskaya metro station and the arboretum. T + T Architects began to work with his project as a result of a competition, but not quite according to the classical scheme: at first there was a residential complex project, almost finished, but the customer decided to change its appearance and held a competition for the facades. Participating in it, the architects expressed so many proposals for optimizing the design, synchronizing the facades with the internal structure, and others - that as a result, T + T became the authors of a new concept for a residential complex, whose construction began this year.

The complex is being built on a plot of almost 2 hectares with a slightly zigzag outline, but with comfortable wide proportions. It is located in the middle of the block, indented from the streets, and only Stepan Razin Street enters the red line, where two entrances to the territory of the future residential complex are planned. The city around is historical, but colorful, with many lacunae and late blotches: for example, characteristic Soviet buildings prevail on the side of Razin Street, and Chapaeva Street, renamed in 1920 from Bishopric, is a collection of monuments of provincial eclecticism and partly classicism. The brightest of them is located on the opposite side from the residential complex - this is the palace of the estate of the Oshurkov brothers, a house with luxurious Corinthian columns.

ЖК «Александровский Сад» © Т+Т Architects

Three less imposing, but still architectural monuments are lined up along Chapaev Street: two more houses of the Oshurkovs, one of them is the "former", that is, preceding the palace opposite, and the brick house of the merchant Afonin on the corner, around which the Au Room business center is built is not the worst representative of modern architecture. From the side of Dekabristov Street there is another two-storey house dating back to classicism; there we can also see a wooden house of the eclectic period.

Image

zooming

1/3 RC "Aleksandrovsky Sad". Development analysis © T + T Architects
zooming

2/3 RC "Aleksandrovsky Sad". Development analysis © T + T Architects
zooming

3/3 RC "Aleksandrovsky Sad". Development analysis © T + T Architects

All historical buildings are endowed with status and protected zones, in addition, the architects themselves consider them, like the provincial image of the former Bishop Street, to be of value, in no way arguing with them and emphasizing the project's loyalty to the monuments. On the east side, the complex appears to a greater extent in a neutral key, while its western façade, on the contrary, translates the charm of restrained classics into a slovenly “former Soviet” context. What, in fact, is the solution to the first task that the architects set for themselves: to “merge” the existing environment without conflict, to “glue” it, forming a stable core with a calm, delicate classical architecture.

Three sectional buildings, corresponding to three stages of construction, have the contours of "chambers", that is, in the plan of each one reads the letter P, but of different proportions. Building 1, facing Razin Street, has asymmetric "legs" stretching far into the depths, ending in a 4-storey section of reduced height in the regulation zone of the Afonin building. Otherwise, the height of the sections varies from 7 to 9 floors. The “risalit” sections of the other two buildings are shorter, and they are all located on the territory as a kind of spacious puzzle: they occupy the site effectively, do not leave excess space, but retain enough space for yards, interconnected, but semi-closed by the “frames” of U-shaped houses. The space turns out to be zoned, but connected, not too parceled. A single-tier underground parking space occupies a spot under all yards, with storage rooms located under the houses themselves, and a minus-second tier of parking appears under the courtyard of building 1.

План -1 уровня. ЖК «Александровский Сад» © Т+Т Architects

The plasticity and texture of the facades connects the techniques of tenement houses of the eclectic period, which is more than contextual in this environment - with the techniques of the Bauhaus and workers' settlements of the 1920s, as well as modern ones. Many bay windows unite the loggias of the apartments: on the outer facades they are somewhat more closed, in the courtyards they allow themselves more glass surfaces, but in both cases they figuratively refer to the 19th century. The upwardly protruding volumes of the staircase and elevator halls, as well as the small, one-floor, height differences, provide a stepped silhouette and get rid of monotony. Avant-garde corner windows, on the other hand, not only provide the apartments with light, but also figuratively return us to the 20th century.

The facades follow the principle of the classic three-part, developed in the 1930s by Art Deco architects: the two lower floors are united by stripes of horizontal rusticated light textured bricks, the same brick, but without stripes, is responsible for the main "body" of the building, the two upper attic floors are faced with more with a light stone, which is carved with grooves of a very thin, graphic rustication. However, brick bay windows, going up the tier, emphasize the interpenetration of textures, avoiding the exaggerated rigidity of the three-part structure.

However, the dialogue between stone and brick surfaces is ubiquitous here: the facades are interpreted as multilayer and paneled, stone horizontals are drawn under the stepped brick verticals - a well-known technique that allows you to accentuate the thickness and plasticity of the wall and, as the authors of the project rightly note, resembles weaving of fabric or baskets …

The stone horizontals of the "braid" are covered with carved ornamentation, which goes back simultaneously to the folk Ural embroidery and the wooden frames of the windows of Yekaterinburg. If we take into account that embroidery was one of the sources of the woodcarving pattern of the eclectic period, then, strictly speaking, there is only one prototype. But this is insignificant, the main thing is that the authors emphasize the local identity of the house, its belonging to the history of the city, at the same time saturating the facades with ornaments and thus following one of the popular trends in modern architecture.

If you look closely at what happened in the end, then the layered paneling of the facades refers us to early French classicism, the ornament to wooden eclecticism, the bay windows of the loggias remind of tenement houses, and the beige and fawn tone of stone and brick, as well as thin strips of rustication, are built rolls with Ottoman Paris - a resemblance that should definitely appeal to future buyers.

The apartments are varied and do not suffer from the predominance of studios: here, in a business-class building, most of all "family" two- and three-room apartments, there are four- and five-room apartments. The apartments on the upper floors will have double-height living rooms, the apartments on the first floor will have high ceilings, and some of them will have entrances directly from the courtyard and their own front gardens. Premises for commercial infrastructure are grouped along Razin Street, where the complex goes to the red line; here, along the wing of the 1st building, a mini-boulevard and café tables appeared - a calm, but urban and public part of the complex.

An important task has also become to form a rich landscaping in the courtyards, akin to a "landscape park". The architects proposed two sets of paths: the main paved paths, connecting important points and the secondary, walking paths, laid out in a dotted line in the grass, dividing the hills of geoplastics with trees and benches built into the slopes. Geoplastics appears not only in the courtyards, but also in front of the facades facing the depths of the quarter; every piece of land is used to create a “park”. The project managed to saturate the yard with both greenery and functions: sports and playgrounds for different ages, gazebos with awnings, a pergola with swings.

The main paved paths take on the function of passages for special vehicles, the rest of the courtyards are closed for cars, although several flat parking lots are planned along Razin Street. Note that the very idea of a courtyard-park, as a U-shaped plan of all buildings and a certain, tangible on the facades, gravitation towards historical classicism, can be understood as a kind of homage to the old city, for example, the memory of the park of the Oshurkovs' estate on the banks of the Iset River. The combination of textured facades and rich landscaping of courtyards, perhaps, really conveys the coziness of the old city, and it is the Russian one, which combines the charm of facades and greenery.

As you can see, the residential complex complies with most of the modern principles of comfortable urban housing, observes the rules in relation to monuments, delicately distancing itself from them and taking on the role of a background. It is distinguished by a detailed study of many topics: proportions, layouts, materials, landscaping, lighting - all this becomes the basis for quality, which does not have to be catchy and bright. At the same time, a significant share of respectable conservatism in this case does not mean direct flirting with the classics or with the fractional decor of neighboring houses of the eclectic period - the new complex does not argue, but differs.