LIFE On The Banks Of The Setun

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

LIFE Kutuzovsky is located between Vereiskaya street and Mozhaisk highway and continues the development of new residential development in the Setun river valley, which is now intensively developing, mainly in the semi-abandoned areas of the former industrial sector. In the not too distant past, the local industrial fence went straight to the river, partially occupying the water protection zone and usurping the views of the coastal forest belt. Now it is a full-fledged city: two quarters have been formed on the site, bounded from the north by Gzhatskaya Street, from the east by Bagritsky Street, and from the west and south by the territory of the natural complex. Last year, the construction of the eastern quarter was completed, the western one is being completed at the moment.

If you do not know the past of this site, then you might think that the quarters were here before - it turned out so organically to form the urban space. The plot described is indeed a good place to live: affordable, quiet, with excellent views. Both quarters in the center are connected by a boulevard - a compositional pivot and the main communication: the main entrance from Gzhatskaya Street is also carried out through it, and the main public functions are concentrated here. The blocks are located here as retail in the first floors of residential buildings and one-story pavilion lintels between them.

ЖК «Life-Кутузовский» Фотография © Ярослав Лукьянченко / предоставлена ADM architects

Retail on the boulevard and along the outer perimeter is expected to be quite developed and is intended, first of all, of course, for the residents themselves: the population of the quarters is high, at the same time, from the point of view of infrastructure, the area is still quite poor. The boulevard and the adjacent recreational area along the river from the south, according to the project, are open to citizens and, of course, should become new points of urban activity, filling the existing deficit of public functions.

From the side of the river, the boulevard comes to a promenade that encircles the quarters along the perimeter: here it was possible to form a fairly wide landscaped zone, although the status of a nature reserve of the Setun River valley did not make it possible to extend recreation to the very water and to design an embankment. The territory of the residential complex ends with a circular walking trail, behind which the “wild” part begins.

The inner courtyard area is clearly demarcated from the urban area - ADM always strive to preserve the quarterly principle of development in their projects. The natural boundaries are the residential buildings themselves and the one-story lintels between them, in some places a fence is used. The two resulting blocks, according to the architects, are the best solution for a large plot. And the boulevard projected between them made it possible to bring the city territory to the river, instead of cutting off the bank completely, making visiting it a privilege of residents.

The planting of the buildings was carried out in such a way as to form the optimal size of the yards. A lot of soil was poured over the parking lot due to the stepped roof of the structure, so large trees were planted here. In general, within the framework of the yard improvement, a variety of landscape elements are combined - groves, grounds, in some places - geoplastic hills.

The courtyards are connected with the urban area by "punctures" in one-storey pavilions-bundles, combined with a part of the driveways. Their roofs-lintels step downward, following the lowering of the relief - and the relief here decreases towards the river by 7 measures - and form terraces with decorative backfill of the roof. Entering such an arch, you can get directly into the entrance, or you can go into the courtyard. Wells are arranged in flat roofs: large-sized ones are planted under them in a modernist way.

Like most industrial zones remote from the center, the site on Vereiskaya was devoid of any context. Around it is also difficult to "catch on" for something - in some places new complexes appear pointwise, on the contrary, along Gzhatskaya Street - loose and unremarkable buildings of Soviet high-rise buildings. The ADMs organized their neighborhoods with multi-story towers and section houses at the corners of the lot. The height is 12-16-18-22-23 floors.

Three color patterns from the favorite clinker of architects were chosen as the theme for the façade solutions. So, some of the houses are faced with brown-gold clinker tiles, some of the facades are white with stemalite inserts, some have a smooth wave pattern rolling from turquoise-gray to white. A wave-like gradient, a mix of tiles with golden glaze combined with white, form smooth color transitions and do not allow the general chorus to disintegrate.

The unifying theme of the multi-component composition is also plastic solutions - a uniform facade mesh with the broken rhythm of the walls, the tectonics of the top and bottom that is the same for all towers. ADM architects in all projects strive to defend the right to façades that are sufficiently saturated with relief, non-flat. Several levels of plastic create the necessary shadows. In LIFE Kutuzovsky, the textured surface of the brick wraps on slopes 38 cm deep, emphasizing the thickness of the wall and giving it a sense of holistic materiality.

The largest corner apartments have loggias, small ones - the so-called smoker's balconies with a depth of 60 cm. According to the head of the bureau Andrey Romanov, the size of small balconies is "determined empirically": in them, unlike the so-called "French", a person can go out by closing a door, - but it makes no sense to glaze such a balcony, so that the facades will not be spoiled by the arbitrariness of the inhabitants of the house: “If you buy an apartment of 55 sq.²and you have 3 m² the balcony is just the width of the facade - you immediately glaze it, insulate it and attach it. Everyone wants to get this space for half the price, so that later they can demolish the partition. As a result, these meters become a big problem for architecture. In Soviet houses, balconies were received free of charge, and then glazed, turning the facade into a kind of Istanbul. Today the market offers people an alternative, so that they have the feeling of a balcony, but also so that they do not engage in unauthorized construction,”emphasizes Andrey Romanov.

Now, when the improvement of the first quarter has been completed, and the work in the second is coming to an end, Andrey Romanov confidently says that he is satisfied with the quality of implementation: “The result is a European-level living space, and although it was not possible to include the embankment in it, the recreational zone was quite extensive and saturated with various elements of the landscape.

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1/10 residential complex "Life-Kutuzovsky". Landscaping Photo © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects

Twenty years ago, no one paid attention to this attribute of modern housing,”says the architect, the customer could open sales without telling potential buyers a word either about a yard without cars or about green areas. Then they began to "sell" the facades, and five or seven years ago, high-quality, functional landscaping became a real trend - now this component is absolutely necessary for the apartments in the residential complex to be sold, - the author of the project is sure.