From Foundation To Spoon

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

Usually Olga Budyonnaya and Roman Leonidov, an architectural and family duo, design houses in the style of modernism. But for close acquaintances, they made an exception. The customers of the house are very open-minded people who are fond of visual arts and theater. The hostess herself is engaged in creativity and is in love with Art Nouveau. The style of the house is the client's wish, she participated in the design as a co-author-decorator, and, taking into account this constructive creative relationship, the architects decided to “play Art Nouveau”. This is how they defined the creative challenge - playing Art Nouveau. There are no literal quotes in the house, but there are characteristic recognizable motives: arched windows, stained-glass windows with semicircular "flattened" ends, a curved roof and decorative ceramic elements of the facade. It is interesting that along with curly stained-glass windows, simple rectangular windows with "factory modern" reticulated glass are also used. Red brick with white stucco details is not the most common solution for historic art nouveau buildings, but it is found, say, in Riga and Kharkov; well, or at Shekhtel in Ermolaevsky lane. In other words, when creating the image of a house, Art Nouveau was not a dogma for architects, but a starting point.

The design consisted of several stages. The key event was that the customers were inspired by the interior

Villa Kerilos (1902), which is located on the Riviera, in the town of Beaulieu-sur-Mer near Nice. This villa was built by the architect E. Pontremoli for the archaeologist and philanthropist T. Reinach, combining the ancient Greek style with the Art Nouveau style. The experience was so breathtaking that they decided to quote some elements in their home, such as a chandelier in the hall or some motifs in bathroom décor. This reading of Art Nouveau and the way in which classical details were introduced into it were adopted by the architects.

The division of creative duties was traditional: Roman Leonidov was engaged in the volumetric composition and structure of the house. Two high volumes, connected by a one-story passage, did not arise by chance. At first, the house was intended for two friends and business partners and their families. Then the plans changed, as a result the house is occupied by one family, but the buildings, each with its own character and form, were decided to be kept. Moreover, the asymmetry of volume is a characteristic feature of the Art Nouveau style.

Now the structure with two raised hulls has found a new functional explanation. Now the house with an art nouveau hat-roof is occupied by the parents' quarters, and the lower building, with a simpler end, is the children's half. A high volume "with a hat" is placed in the center of the composition, to the right of it is a spacious garage, on the roof of which an open terrace with a wrought-iron fence and green spaces was arranged.

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House in the Moscow Region Photo © Sofya Leonidova
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House in the Moscow Region Photo © Sofya Leonidova

The public space on the ground floor is designed as a classic suite with transverse branches. From the entrance hall, located on the central axis of the house, the visitor enters the central hall with a staircase with wrought iron railings and the same chandelier - an analogue of the chandelier from the French villa Kerilos, made by craftsmen from St. Petersburg.

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1/4 House in the Moscow Region Photo © Sofya Leonidova
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2/4 Plan of the 1st floor with furniture arrangement. House in the Moscow Region © Roman Leonidov Architectural Bureau
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3/4 House in the Moscow Region Photo © Sofya Leonidova
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4/4 House in the Moscow Region Photo © Sofya Leonidova

To the left of the hall is the ceremonial area, which consists of rooms flowing into each other: the kitchen, then the dining room, then the fireplace, which plays the role of the main living room, and the living room-winter garden, which is a bay window with continuous glazing, decorated with tropical plants.

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House in the Moscow Region Photo © Sofya Leonidova
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House in the Moscow Region Photo © Sofya Leonidova

To the right of the hall is the hostess's office with a library, a work table and a sofa area, which was decorated with an author's coffee table, made by a cabinetmaker from the Moscow region according to the authors' sketches. From the office you can go to the garage-loft. This is a special space with high ceilings of 60 m², one of the walls of which is cut through by seven high windows with the same factory glass-glazing, as if it were an old workshop. In the strict sense of the word, this is not only a garage, but also an atmospheric loft that can be used for receiving guests and parties.

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1/3 House in the Moscow Region Photo © Sofya Leonidova
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2/3 House in the Moscow Region Photo © Sofya Leonidova
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3/3 House in the Moscow Region Photo © Sofya Leonidova

From the garage-loft we go down to the basement, where we find ourselves in the home theater and further into the workshop. It is equipped with a large work table, at which children and adults gather to practice fine and applied arts. The logistics chain of creative spaces is curious: the hostess's office - the loft - the cinema - the workshop.

On the second and mezzanine floors there are private rooms for family members: a parent unit and two children’s blocks. They all consist of two levels: on the lower one there are small living rooms and work areas, on the mezzanine there are bedrooms, two of them are led by spiral staircases. The parent's living room has access to a large terrace with a garden, which is formed by an alley of spherically trimmed maples, planted in a "flowerpot" designed on the roof, which allows growing large-sized trees. This detail is associated with the "hanging garden" and complements the architectural composition of the house. One of the children's living rooms also has its own balcony, and a large covered loggia, located in the center of the house, between the two main volumes, unites them both visually and functionally. Color is actively used in children's rooms: they are painted green and yellow, and the walls of the master bedroom are decorated with panels with decorative author's paintings. Vaulted ceilings are made of wood.

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3/4 Plan of the 2nd floor with furniture arrangement. House in the Moscow Region © Roman Leonidov Architectural Bureau

Bathrooms and toilets, like so much more, are inspired by the interiors of Villa Kerilos: they are decorated with exquisite fish scale mosaics, stencil paintings, rich colors and aesthetic fittings. In the bathrooms, as in the rest of the house, many details are custom-made by artists.

As already mentioned, the hostess actively participated in the creative process, proposing ideas, stimulating interesting solutions and choosing decor: sculptures and antique vases, chandeliers and doorknobs. Much of this was collected from European antique salons, others were made to order based on analogs of items of that time. Thanks to the hostess, romantic details appeared in the interior, such as internal balconies on curly designer brackets and a hamam with Moroccan mosaics.

Modern customers in many countries, for example Russia and the USA, have a good attitude towards Art Nouveau. Let me suggest why: modern of the styles closest to modern times is the most emotional. Architects have a more complex attitude. Answering the question about the reasons for the popularity of the Art Nouveau style, Olga Budyonnaya and Roman Leonidov emphasized the features close to each of them. Olga Budyonnaya said that they love Art Nouveau for very beautiful things, for the opportunity to decorate and present them subtly, and at the same time, for their conformity with modernity and emphasized functionality. Roman Leonidov believes that “the main feature of Art Nouveau is the author's total control over the entire life of the house: from the foundation to the teaspoon. This trend continues in Art Deco. Both Macintosh and Wright were involved in everything: architecture and design of furniture and objects. In this particular case, we can say that total control was exercised by the authors: Olga Budyonnaya, Roman Leonidov, Ksenia Volkova and the owner of the house Nadezhda Fomenko. The result was emotional, corresponding to the educational and creative pathos and social temperament of the owners.