Vladimir Plotkin: "We Tried To Instill In Students A Taste For Modern Architecture"

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

Vladimir Plotkin led a group of bachelors at the Moscow Architectural Institute for the first time, and on the whole he is very pleased with the resulting projects. The graduates of the Department of Architecture of Public Buildings did not have a common theme, the students chose the direction on their own: someone participated in an international competition, someone was suggested by the leaders a platform for experimental reflections. One of the projects - "Legal Tunnel" for the adaptation of migrants on the border of Mexico and the United States, - Oscar Mamleev chose for a show at the international competition Archiprix.

“I believe that a diploma project for an architect is the first and last chance to do whatever one wants and what is interesting. Neither before, nor even more so after this will not happen: first, on course projects, the student completes educational assignments, then the architect works on order. The purpose of the thesis is to prove themselves, to show what they are capable of after 6 years of study. So the choice of topic was absolutely free, people are different, we did not impose anything, neither topics nor presentation, we only consulted and corrected gross errors if they met.

To some, I advised sites from those for which we once made bids, this concerns the film festival center in Luzhniki. Somewhere I advised a site that seems interesting to me - like, for example, the Mnevnikovskaya floodplain.

We have been leading the group since the third year, trying to instill a taste for modern architecture … During this time, the students managed to adjust their own views on the tasks of architectural design, hone the graphics, - I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of many of the resulting projects, both in terms of presentation and in terms of content, study of the topic and project proposals. I must say that the rest of the projects are also good, it was quite difficult to choose. Surprisingly, a lot of very good works turned out”.

Below are three projects of V. I. Plotkina, V. A. Grubova, S. A. Trifonenkova. Four more projects are in the next article. Selected 7 projects out of 22. All of them differ in the variety of the chosen typology, a thorough study of the semantic and surrounding context, bright ideas, solid presentation.

1. The evolution of mankind as a movement over the abyss

Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park

Polina Kazakevich

The site of the Museum of Anthropology is the steep bank of the Moskva River in the northwestern corner of Filevsky Park. To the north is the territory of the Khrunichev State Space Research Center, a space industry plant, huge, with an area of more than one hundred hectares, and intended for revitalization: closer to the bend of the Moscow River, it is planned to build the headquarters of Roscosmos, and to the south, closer to the park, AB Meganom designs a technopark, congress center, "City of Youth" and RC "City on the Water".

The high bank of the river, and therefore the museum, “looks” to the west - at the sunset panorama, as well as in the direction consonant with the key migrations of mankind on the Eurasian continent.

Vladimir Plotkin: “Polina plunged into the declared topic so deeply that it was really interesting to listen to her stories about the project. In the presentation, we saved only the key slides from the introductory part - the study of the topic was truly detailed and impressive, which did not exclude an interesting form. I would call this project the best."

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  1/8 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park Polina Kazakevich

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  2/8 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park Polina Kazakevich

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  3/8 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park Polina Kazakevich

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  4/8 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park Polina Kazakevich

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  5/8 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. Anthropology in the city Polina Kazakevich

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  6/8 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. Analysis, concept Polina Kazakevich

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  7/8 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. Exhibition visit program Polina Kazakevich

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  8/8 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. Planning composition: fundamental zoning Polina Kazakevich

Immersion in anthopology became the basis for the museum's complex program: premises for various purposes turned into stereometric figures scattered in the inner space as elements of a Suprematist picture, with the difference that colors and shapes are more complex and therefore more modern than Malevich's.

The actual volume of the museum is a three-dimensional tape of an open triangle. At the base, it is cut into the slope, and then, leaning on round pillars-columns, it hovers in space, hanging with a sharp nose above the water (the height difference on the river slope is about 25 meters). It turns out either a stylized question mark, or a spiral - both are consonant with the idea of a nonlinear, but progressive ascent of the history of the human race - hanging, however, over the abyss.

One-piece, flowing interior space is zoned interspersed with closed zones of various shapes, and the movement of visitors occurs mainly along ramps, in accordance with one of the current trends in the design of exhibition spaces.

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  1/11 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. Plan zoning scheme at 0.000. Section 1 © Polina Kazakevich

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  2/11 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. Plan zoning scheme at 0.000. Section 2 © Polina Kazakevich

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  3/11 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. Zoning scheme of the plan at -7,300 © Polina Kazakevich

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  4/11 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. Master plan © Polina Kazakevich

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  5/11 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. The plan is at around 0.000. Section 1 © Polina Kazakevich

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  6/11 Museum of Anthropology in FiliPlan Park at 0.000. Section 2 © Polina Kazakevich

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  7/11 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. Plan at -7,300 © Polina Kazakevich

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  8/11 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. Fragment of the plan at -7,300 © Polina Kazakevich

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  9/11 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. Plan at around -12.900 © Polina Kazakevich

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  10/11 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. Section 1-1 © Polina Kazakevich

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  11/11 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. View from the Moskva River Polina Kazakevich

The basis for the graphics of the facades was an enlarged fragment of the drawings of the boy Onfim from a birch bark letter of the first third of the 13th century from Veliky Novgorod - the ribbon of the museum, thus, echoes a rolled birch bark letter - although, on the other hand, it also resembles a megalith covered with petroglyphs.

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  1/4 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. Facade solution concept © Polina Kazakevich

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  2/4 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. Development of facades © Polina Kazakevich

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  3/4 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. View from the library to the courtyard Polina Kazakevich

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  4/4 Museum of Anthropology in Fili Park. View from the park © Polina Kazakevich

2. Modern school as a balance of natural and artificial

Children's educational complex in Khoroshevo-Mnevniki

Anastasia Tsoi

Within the framework of the international competition School of Thought

Vladimir Plotkin: “Anastasia’s previous term projects were distinguished by great visual courage, and the diploma, on the contrary, is very restrained and serious. But the topic of innovative approaches to education was developed by the author very carefully. Space and function are clearly and subtly organized. Here, in particular, there is a spatial axis, where other rooms come out with a second light … Everything is relatively simple, but very professional. If we talk about a school of a new type, then here it is a school of a new type, this is how modern schools should be designed."

Indeed, the project is distinguished by austere, almost monochrome graphics and laconic form: the plan, together with a green courtyard, is inscribed in a simple geometric figure made up of a rectangle and a circle. In its outline, the hands of the clock are read, showing either 35 minutes past one, or five minutes past seven - a time comparable to the milestones of the school day. The library is located in the “seven minutes” sector.

Volumes with different functional content are separated by wide galleries - internal streets. They intersect at right angles and open out onto the facades with high stained-glass windows according to the principle of passages.

The "streets" are illuminated by skylights, and the main intersection is marked by a double spiral staircase.

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  1/7 Children's educational center in Horoshevo-Mnevniki Anastasia Tsoi

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  2/7 Children's educational center in Horoshevo-Mnevniki Anastasia Tsoi

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  3/7 Children's educational center in Horoshevo-Mnevniki Anastasia Tsoi

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  4/7 Children's educational center in Horoshevo-Mnevniki Anastasia Tsoi

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  5/7 Children's educational center in Horoshevo-Mnevniki Anastasia Tsoi

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  6/7 Children's educational center in Horoshevo-Mnevniki Anastasia Tsoi

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  7/7 Children's educational center in Horoshevo-Mnevniki Anastasia Tsoi

There is a lot of natural light in the building: it comes both from above, from skylights and shed skylights, and from stained-glass windows, into which the outer walls are mainly turned. The building is light and transparent, from a distance it looks like a large park pavilion, as much as possible, blurring the boundaries between the external and internal space.

The building looks a bit like an architecton spread out on the ground - as it is assembled, as is clearly seen from the top “bird's” perspective, from volumes of different caliber and height. In elevation changes, additional skylight windows appear. One tier of the school is buried in the ground, the height of the premises can be flexibly varied as needed.

The project, like the previous work, was preceded by a serious study of the topic of modern approaches to school education. The motto of the project is that a modern school should be a balance of natural and artificial.

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  1/4 Children's educational center in Horoshevo-Mnevniki Anastasia Tsoi

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  2/4 Children's educational center in Horoshevo-Mnevniki Anastasia Tsoi

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  3/4 Children's educational center in Horoshevo-Mnevniki Anastasia Tsoi

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  4/4 Children's educational center in Horoshevo-Mnevniki Anastasia Tsoi

3. A beautiful answer to an important question of American politics

Legal tunnel

Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees

on the border of Mexico and the United States in the city of Piedras Negras

Sibgatullina Anastasia | Alexey Ustinov

The project, which vividly responds to one of the key issues of Donald Trump's policy, was also created within the framework of an international competition. Now, as a reminder, he has been selected for the Archiprix student work competition. The idea is to legalize and organize some part of the flow of migrants from Mexico, striving to the United States for a new life and opportunities, and sometimes from terrible poverty and mortal danger, by building a bridge building on the border in which emigrants will live during the period adaptation. Since one of the important routes of illegal migration is tunnels, the building is called the "Legal Tunnel" is decided as an extended faceted volume, similar to a tunnel, carved out of red desert soil and suspended on supports over the Rio Grande River and Shelby Park; although the authors themselves compare their building with a canyon.

As the basis for the experiment, the authors chose the International automobile-pedestrian bridge, which connects the Mexican town of Piedras Negras with the American Eagle Pass. Piedras Negras is dysfunctional, it is here that drug trafficking is growing rapidly, in 2019 it grew by 179%, the authors emphasize.

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  1/4 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Waiting in the cities Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  2/4 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Piedras Negras as part of the migration route Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  3/4 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Situational plan Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  4/4 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Portrait of a refugee Piedras-Negras Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

Inside, the "tunnel" building is divided into several tiers and filled with functions that should provide its temporary inhabitants with "protection, care, help, communication and knowledge."The volume - "inexpensive and fast-build" - consists of multiple-size modules interconnected between horizontal and vertical communication. Among the functions - residential, and the minimum capsules are offered as free ("L-shaped docking allows you to double the number of refugees in the same area"), and family apartments are paid; public living rooms and sports spaces; school and kindergarten. There are Protestant and Catholic churches and a medical center, shops, pharmacies, cafes and parking lots - in essence, all city functions are at a minimum, plus space for immigration services.

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  1/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Formation Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  2/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Facades and fragments © Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  3/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Cuts. Constructive solution © Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  4/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Sections © Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  5/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. El tunel module Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  6/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. The structure of the building Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  7/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Public living rooms © Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  8/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Kindergarten © Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  9/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees © Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  10/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Sports block © Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  11/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees © Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  12/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Catholic Church © Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  13/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees © Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  14/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees © Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  15/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees © Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  16/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Tunnel. Horizontal communication Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  17/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Capsules Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  18/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Capsules Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  19/19 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

On each side, it is proposed to build two entrance pavilions: orange, like the "tunnel" itself, the pavilion of Mexico, in the shape of an angle - a Mexican eagle, with amphitheaters inside and outside, and a light US pavilion, the basis of the plan of which the authors put a 5-pointed star with American flag, but disassembled into asymmetric beams. “The entrance pavilion is a unique object, because it is the gateway to the whole country. In such an object, as nowhere else, it is appropriate to talk about the history and culture of the place where you enter. The context of the pavilion is the whole country,”the authors explain.

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  1/8 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. General plan Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  2/8 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Mexico Pavilion. Concept © Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  3/8 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Mexico Pavilion. Section Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  4/8 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Mexico Pavilion Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  5/8 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. Mexico Pavilion Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  6/8 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. USA Pavilion. Concept © Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  7/8 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. USA Pavilion. Section Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov

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  8/8 Multifunctional adaptation center for refugees. USA Pavilion Anastasia Sibgatullina, Alexey Ustinov