Kadashev Experience

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

The project of the residential complex "Patron" has a difficult and in many respects unique history. The idea to build something impressive on the site of a Soviet canning factory east of the famous Church of the Resurrection in Kadashi has existed for a long time, in the 2000s for sure. The complex was called Five Capitals. In 2009, the demolition of factory buildings began - and then the project met with fierce resistance from the public, both the church parish headed by the dean of the faculty of church arts of St. Tikhon's University, the rector of the church, Alexander Saltykov, and the Arkhnadzor movement, which they attracted. The problem was best described by Alexander Mozhaev. It seems that no one has ever seen the project itself, but the visualization of its volumes, five or six-story high (in fairness - not thirty-five at all), closely surrounding the masterpiece of architecture of the late 17th century, the undisputed star of Zamoskvorechye, went around many publications. The situation itself is not new, but it is surprising that in 2010 the mayor of Moscow, then still Yuri Luzhkov, canceled the Five Capitals project. At the end of April of the same year, the City Council discussed a new proposal that did not go beyond the so-called regeneration, restoration of urban tissue without significant excess and changes. The height has changed from 5-6 floors to 2-3, the total area has decreased by about three times. In 2013, it became known that Ilya Utkin was working on the project, whom at the beginning, in 2011, the customers called "to the facades", but later they nevertheless transferred the entire project to the architect.

At the initiative of the Department of Cultural Heritage and personally Aleksey Emelyanov NPO-38 Research and Development Institute of the General Plan under the leadership of Elena Solovieva, a detailed urban planning regulation of the territory was developed, all restrictions were detailed on the basis of visual landscape analysis, trying not to jeopardize any of the valuable species on the monuments. The fact that the project managed to be made delicate in relation to the city is a great merit of DKN. Representatives of Arkhnadzor also participated - they came to the workshop, checked the drawings and models, made sure that all points were visible and the views were preserved. However, all 8 years of design and subsequent implementation still turned into a history of constant struggle to preserve the parameters of the project, endured and approved in 2011.

The final project was supported by city rights activists, and in 2015 it passed a working review by the chief architect of Moscow, Sergei Kuznetsov.

Everything in this story is surprising: both the cancellation of the project by the mayor, and the subsequent consent - some, it turns out, understand the horror of large-scale development next to the monument, although recently it seems that they did not; others agree that something needs to be built, especially since at the time of the scandal part of the apartments in an expensive complex in the center of Moscow had already been sold (it cannot be said that all problems were immediately settled, Father Alexander Saltykov continued to struggle with construction as such, but in the meantime, some agreement was established; see interview with Ilya Utkin). The resolution of the situation seemed exemplary, almost ideal, it would always be so. Since then, there have been many changes, hopes and disappointments, we can say that the protection of monuments in Moscow has gone through another difficult stage of its life over the past 10 years, with the beginning, middle and end. And the complex, which at one time caused so much talk, was finished building just this year - now they are cleaning the territory, generously decorating it with various plants. We visited Kadashi together with the author of the project, Ilya Utkin, a staunch supporter of traditional architecture, a "paper" architect and a person who received the Venice Biennale prize for a series of photographs of ruins. And we saw what happened in the end.

We enter the territory from the north, from the 2nd Kadashevsky lane; or from the west, from the 1st, through the Kadashevsky dead end - the new residential complex bypasses the Church of the Resurrection in Kadashi with an angle, echoing its main street: approximately in the middle, it turns at right angles, and in front of the main preserved and restored monument, the Olenev Chambers, which have preserved the vaults of the XVIII and XVII centuries, a small area is formed.

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1/7 Moscow. Kadashevskaya Sloboda, XXI century Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi Watercolors by Maria Utkina
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2/7 General plan. Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi © Utkin Studio
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3/7 Layout. Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi © Utkin Studio
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4/7 Historical plan for the beginning of the XX century. The status quo. Project proposal. Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi © Utkin Studio
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5/7 Restoration project. Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi © Utkin Studio
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6/7 3D view. Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi © Utkin Studio
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7/7 3D view. Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi © Utkin Studio

Residential buildings are built at right angles to the main street, between them there are small branches, some of the buildings can be walked around, the structure of the plan is clear, but you can wander here for a long time. Because the main advantage of the urban space formed inside the new residential complex is, of course, the views: the Church of the Resurrection and the Kremlin with Ivan the Great. They are not always present, but rather suddenly reveal themselves in perspective: we are constantly in some rather integral and calm urban environment, but suddenly we see something bright in the alignment of houses - which is a very Moscow effect of the perception of space; here architectural monuments often appear unexpectedly, without spatial preparation and pathos, and the randomness of the wings through which we look in this or that case is part of the game.

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1/5 Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi Photo © Ilya Utkin
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2/5 Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi Photo © Ilya Utkin
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3/5 Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi / architect Ilya Utkin Photo: Yulia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
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4/5 Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi / architect Ilya Utkin Photo: Yulia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
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5/5 Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi / architect Ilya Utkin Photo: Yulia Tarabarina, Archi.ru

The author, Ilya Utkin, had many tasks: to preserve and partially restore the old buildings that had not yet been destroyed at the time of the dispute; choose a scale that suits the place and does not go beyond the regeneration; find a suitable style that lends itself to logical justification; and, finally, to find grounds for the integrity of a new fragment of the environment - a site with a complex contour and several historical impregnations. And although when working in a historical environment, the main attention always goes to the preserved monuments, the visual integrity and emotional qualities of the architecture that reappears are important and play not only a background role.

ЖК «Меценат» в Кадашах / архитектор Илья Уткин Фотография: Юлия Тарабарина, Архи.ру

In this case, the chosen style was historically determined: at the end of the 19th century, there were buildings of the Grigoriev sausage factory on the territory (it was they who were replaced by the Soviet experimental canned food factory) - brick, low, with a simple ornamentation characteristic of industrial historicism of the runner, teeth and belts of square niches-widths …

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1/5 Grigoriev Factory. View from the entrance gate, 1910 Courtesy of Utkin Studio
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2/5 A fragment of historic brickwork used as a motif for an ornament in a new project; 2013 Courtesy of Utkin Studio
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3/5 Building plot of the Kadashevskaya Sloboda. Present Situation, 2013 Courtesy of Utkin Studio
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4/5 Grigoriev's factory. Present Situation, 2013 Courtesy of Utkin Studio
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5/5 Present Situation, 2013 Courtesy of Utkin Studio

“The territories around the temple were a village-industrial suburb: here both pigs were slaughtered and sausage was cooked,” Ilya Utkin said in 2013, motivating his decision to focus on the merchant-industrial architecture, as opposed to another project that was being put forward at that time, which consisted of houses with columns. - Next to the sausage factory, its owner, Grigoriev, built a large manor house, a sausage shop opened on Kadashevsky Lane. The factory workers lived in the attics of numerous and very densely built factory buildings. This place has a special spirit."

Some of the buildings of the factory were placed so close to each other that in Soviet times they were united by one roof - this is how a conglomerate of buildings of different times arose, which, even if desired, in our time was impossible, if only because of the standards: the distance between the houses should enough for a fire truck. But the images of the factory show that some of its buildings on the left, when entering from the 2nd Kadashevsky lane, were placed in a row parallel to the lane - that is, approximately the same as now the buildings of the residential complex.

So, the basic image was determined by the industrial architecture of the 19th century, but there is no complete resemblance to factory buildings and could not be - after all, the business office function was canceled by Yuri Luzhkov in 2010, now the LCD is a club house in the center of Moscow and cannot afford to look completely like factory. Therefore, the "merchant" style was added to the old industrial style, which for Zamoskvorechye was also determined historically. This is how metal balconies, reminiscent of cast iron, of the 19th century appeared. Ventilation equipment is assembled in a kind of pipes, which looks traditional on hip hip roofs and correlates well with mansads, whose outline is also borrowed from factory buildings - although the attic is considered not quite a Moscow element, at times they met, and this is exactly the case here.

Фабрика Григорьева. Вид из двора на ворота Предоставлено Студией Уткина

The architecture of new residential buildings, meanwhile, looks more strict and neat than usual for industrial buildings of the turn of the century: the impression is largely determined by dark brown brick, similar to Art Nouveau facing tiles and just as neat, it is supported by wide bow-shaped sandriks made of fiber-reinforced concrete, similar to white stone built into smooth interfloor friezes - all this gravitates more towards the beginning of the 20th than the end of the 19th century, and the strict light vertical lines framing the entrances send the observer even further, somewhere to the 1930s. In general, it turns out to be something between industrial architecture and an Art Nouveau mansion, remembering, however, the Piazza Augusta in Rome. From the wash-out, the brick and the assembled composition of frequently placed buildings, from the mansion, the graceful bend of sandriks and "cast-iron" balconies, from the August Square, a general slenderness, unexpected for merchant Moscow, but appropriate in a modern residential complex. In the end, the modernity of the building must also be emphasized, so as not to be confused with a fake, as the Venice Charter asks us for, - the new volume must be distinguishable from the historical one at a glance.

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1/8 Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi / architect Ilya Utkin Photo: Yulia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
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2/8 Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi / architect Ilya Utkin Photo: Yulia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
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3/8 Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi / architect Ilya Utkin Photo: Yulia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
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4/8 Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi Photo © Ilya Utkin
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5/8 Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi / architect Ilya Utkin Photo: Yulia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
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6/8 Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi / architect Ilya Utkin Photo: Yulia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
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7/8 Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi / architect Ilya Utkin Photo: Yulia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
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8/8 Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi / architect Ilya Utkin Photo: Yulia Tarabarina, Archi.ru

Here the distinction is remarkably observed. We must start with the source of inspiration, the only surviving factory building, it is partly preserved, partly restored. The brick is traditional, red as opposed to brown in new houses. According to the modern principle of working with the industrial heritage, the facades are cleaned and covered with a hydrophobic composition, so that we can not only admire the texture, but also observe various inconsistencies that make this building, once simple and pragmatic, a living monument of its time. The building is also residential, one of its differences - in some places on the upper floors there are two-level apartments, including attics.

The factory building stretches along the inner street behind the gates along 2nd Kadashevsky Lane, while the gates themselves have been fully restored and mark the complex on the lane line, while emphasizing its belonging to old Moscow with its gates in front of each property. The facade of the sausage shop of the Grigoriev's factory has also been restored - now it is the only place where the new architecture meets the old one, the new dark-brick building bears the old facade. In contrast to the inner building, whose brick is cleaned according to the tendencies of "loft" architecture, the gates and facade facing the street are left painted in Moscow style. The decision must be recognized as correct, since if you are to preserve the appearance of the lane, then keep it with all the traditions; the cleared brick would be too obvious here.

The oldest building, with the deepest "roots" - was dug out of the cultural layer, recognizable pits were formed around it, unambiguously indicating the historical value. The house is distinguished by its color - white and pink, manor-like - and by the relief irregularity of the brickwork, which helps to emphasize the antiquity of the many times rebuilt walls. It will become a city mansion.

Another story is connected with another building that falls out of the general color - the empire-yellow volume is located approximately on the site of the deacon's house, on the line of the Kadashevsky deadlock between two new buildings. The house was demolished in the summer of 2010, which caused a lot of

protests from the parish, but he was denied the status of a monument at least twice, and at the time of design and construction, the house belonged to the customer, the owner of the territory. In a word, the deacon's house, a former merchant's house, was demolished, and the current housing of the residential complex, which is different in color, serves as a reminder of it, and at the same time successfully thinns the building, creating the impression of a difference in time, but not invented by the architect, but motivated by the history of the place.

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2/4 Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi / architect Ilya Utkin Photo: Yulia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
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3/4 Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi / architect Ilya Utkin Photo: Yulia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
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4/4 Residential complex "Patron" in Kadashi / architect Ilya Utkin Photo: Yulia Tarabarina, Archi.ru

Another microhistory: a chapel was built by the revived parish in the factory building to the north-east of the church; The building was demolished during the construction of the residential complex, but the customers installed a new chapel on this site, also designed by Ilya Utkin, in simple classical forms aimed at not arguing with the architecture of the Resurrection Church.

It must be said that historical and memorial inclusions are good for the residential complex: their presence noticeably softens the image and works on its emotional saturation, preventing the development from turning into too new an alien spot. These elements, with their motivated unpredictability, disobedience to the general rhythm, with which they only echo - I would say, they stand up in line, but in a "free" position - emphasize the much-needed effect here, if not of the old Moscow buildings, then of the old city as a whole. Let it be in its rather new incarnation. But this incarnation, coupled with all of its difficult history, still feels like a positive experience. On the website of the residential complex, fragments of a French garden of the Versailles type are flickering, seedlings are actively transported along the lawns, the streets are paved with stone, quiet and calm - it would be nice if the complex was, despite the high cost of its real estate, open to the city, but this must be thought of as depending on customers and from the city administration.

If we talk about architecture, then this is undoubtedly the experience of real regeneration - a genre that was once talked about a lot, but the examples of which turned out to be somehow not quite appropriate. Here, thanks to the participation of Ilya Utkin with his love for the old city, and partly, of course, thanks to a long history of protests, the result came out to fit its official definition - which is a lot for the center of Moscow.