Social centers are planned in Moscow as a network of places for the leisure of the older generation, one in each district: it was planned that the first pilot center would open in the Central, but it turned out that it was outstripped by the North-Eastern Administrative District, and the space in Maryina Roshcha opened earlier than others. [UPD: according to the report of the Department of Labor and Social Protection of the city, the North-Eastern Administrative District was selected among the Moscow districts to create the first center]. Its appearance was preceded by public discussion and selection of the site: the building on Suschevsky Val, 31 was recognized as the best because of a fairly spacious area - 1642 m22, and a good location: not far from the bus stop and the underground passage under the Third Transport Ring, behind the Billa supermarket.
The one-storey building is located in the courtyard of the business center "Suschevsky, 31" and a wide U-shaped frame surrounds its parking lot. Before turning into a social center, the building was rented out as part of the same business center: there was office renovation inside in 2011, the building itself was built in the late 1950s - early 1960s, it is a representative of industrial or administrative construction during the thaw: large windows, high ceilings, no "architectural frills". The architects of the Hora bureau were required to preserve the existing advantages of space - first of all, of course, light and space, adding coziness and recognition: the project is significant for the city and should vividly demonstrate the renewal of the social sphere.
The work was preceded by another order from the Department of Labor and Social Protection - to study the world experience of creating social centers, first of all, their functional composition - therefore the authors also participated in the creation of the center's program. It was based on five main zones: a reception, a living room and a creative lounge, a sports and health zone with a medical office, an assembly hall and a kitchen-cafe.
We get inside through automatic glass doors, without steps, a small difference in height is softened by a ramp. There are three inputs-outputs: right in the center and symmetrically in two corners. The interior space along the facade facing the courtyard with its large, almost to the ground, windows, is designed as a solid one, with a minimum of partitions - thematic zones "flow" into one another and suggest free movement, maybe even a walk. Plush chairs with high backs and even "ears" are placed along the windows - the type of furniture that is popular in our time has several advantages, they are not just cozy, soft and comfortable even in appearance, but also help to create a feeling of privacy in an open space, semi-closed and, as a result, comfort without sacrificing space. This is a place where you can calmly talk, looking out the window, or simply relax, enjoying the difference from the usual home environment.
The zone, let's call it that, of armchairs in front of the windows, most of all similar to the living room itself, flows into the living room-library, which occupies the northeast corner to the right of the entrance. Shelves with books on the walls create coziness, and the same high-backed armchairs and sofas similar to them are grouped around larger tables, not as "magazine" ones as by the windows, somewhere - games, with chess. Here, in combination with the dark wood of shelving, a dark green, restrained cool color of the walls appears, which will probably remind many of the "green lamp" - after all, there was even such a transfer - and in general, the atmosphere is not so much a living room as a study.
Turning the corner, we find ourselves in a pink zone - for self-cooking and culinary master classes (here, for example, one already
took place), a kitchen is equipped here. Behind it is a real cafe, in which, however, you can eat your own food prepared in a master class.
The left, western part of the building is reserved for sports and theater: it begins with ping-pong tables, a gymnasium and exercise equipment, further, around the bend, there is an assembly hall. In this zone, shades of color are more restrained, light gray prevails.
Along the "dark" walls of the outer outline are spaces for master classes, lessons and lectures, including two media rooms behind dark curtains. Closed spaces, however, appear here only where it is necessary, otherwise, even among the partitions, sliding and transparent predominate, everything is perfectly visible, and even just walking in the center, you can see where the lesson of working with social networks begins, and where the beading begins, how they talk in the living room-library and how sports-minded visitors jump (it seems constantly) around the ping-pong tables. It is curious that the zones without partitions, all kinds of living rooms and the transitions connecting them, are united by a "warm" ceiling made of wooden slats, and the semi-closed rooms - places for master classes and an assembly hall - have received ceilings with open communications that are relevant in our time, whose main advantages are - the maximum height and the ability to view their device.
The interior of the social center is an interesting hybrid of modern design and latent classics. The most readable element of tradition is, of course, high-backed soft chairs, or, for example, the curved legs of a chess table. Less noticeable signs of classics - a wide white stripe under the ceiling in all rooms and restrained respectable shades, “color and classicism : green, pink, olive, gray. An abundance of wood works for the same task - on the floor, ceiling, in furniture. This part of the image is responsible, I must say, not only for the notorious comfort, but also for emotional saturation, and partly for navigation, since it is important for a person to feel differently in different parts of the building. By the way, there is a lot of navigation, lists of thematic zones with arrows are common, not allowing you to get lost (they are developed by ZOLOTOgroup).
And yet the interior is absolutely modern and fresh, there is nothing from the restaurant and hotel flirting with tradition. Only its modernity is not frappy, without shocking, but technical, practical and understood as a reasonable necessity. Probably we can say that a balance has been achieved here between the classics and the modern, although this will sound too loud: rather not a balance, rather - the contradiction of the age-old dispute between them has been removed as meaningless and exhausted long ago.
“The space of this center, in contrast to the former models, is open, filled with light, friendly and tactful towards the user,” - say the architects, emphasizing: the main thing is value for a person. The authors consider their project to be very important precisely because it is aimed at extending the life of older people, making it rich and interesting. From the point of view of the interior, we admit that a lot has been done here for this purpose.
In front of the facade in the courtyard, an improvement designed by AB Novoye also appeared: a wooden platform, tubs with greenery, a rack, similar to the ceilings inside, a gazebo. They somewhat "move away" from the inside view of the parking lot, which still serves as a courtyard. On the other hand, 10 parking spaces here are reserved, as we were told by the guards, for the social center.
Now there are already 4 centers in Moscow: one, on Taganka, opened in the Central Administrative District shortly after Maryinoroshchinsky; two others, in Preobrazhensky and Chertanovo, opened in December. All interiors are based on the concept proposed by the Chora architects, adapted to the layouts of specific premises.
