The residential complex in Moscow Khovrino, with the name Discovery, pleasant to the ear of the traveler and motorist, is located at the intersection of Belomorskaya and Dybenko streets, surrounded by the standard mass development of the 1980s. The plot is an irregular rectangle with one strongly beveled side. The developer, MR Group, decided to split the project between two architectural teams: ADM architects by Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova - and Tsimailo, Lyashenko and Partners. The architects did not immediately decide on the choice of areas of responsibility, discussed and passed tasks to each other; at some point they even threw a coin during a telephone conversation. Then a mutual understanding was born between all participants in the project, - the authors recall. Ultimately, ADM designed two high buildings along the streets, an underground parking and landscaping of the courtyard, and the Tsimailo and Lyashenko bureau - three towers in the back of the courtyard, facing the beveled edge of the site.
Andrey Romanov, ADM
We made the composition together, as the houses needed to be mutually coordinated both in terms of layouts and in terms of insolation. But then, when the general composition was determined, each team developed the plastic of the facades individually, and we saw the final version of the other team only at the very end. Our colleagues have got more laconic houses, ours - more plastic.
Thus, the task of the architects of ADM was, among other things, to emphasize the "facade", facing the city contour of the complex, consisting of two houses: in the corner light 31 floors, in the dark - 23.
ADM architects proposed a dynamic technique: the volumes seem to be assembled from two-tier cells, which acquire "mobility" at accent points, at the corners. It seems that the cells, firmly connected by the force of internal stability, slightly "pulled at the corners", blinded the shape, gave plasticity to the contour. The structure of the "movable" cells resembles a creeping fan, or an accordion fur "on inhalation", or a pleated fabric stretched over the frame.
The ends of the two volumes became pronouncedly diagonal, and the light corner house, which in this case occupies the main position, also received a ledge-waist along the extended sides, so that its plan became like an hourglass, and the volume when viewed from the side of the yard, and, which is more important in terms of town planning, from the crossroads - to the "house book".
House-book, reminding of the famous CMEA only remotely - the main, front building of the complex, an accent that attracts attention to it in the city. Representatives of the developer say that the shape has successfully coincided with the realtor's name Discovery - "discovery" - according to its brand, the LCD is positioned as a home for people "open to the world", as indicated by the shape of the open book and large panoramic windows.
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zooming Residential complex "Discovery" Photo © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
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zooming Residential complex "Discovery" © ADM
The house-plate is entirely subordinated to the diagonal movement - as if it is "walking" along the passage, - and its dark tone serves as a transition to the brown color of the towers of colleagues in the courtyard, - together with them, the building forms a "background" that emphasizes the light color of the corner house, visually pushing it forward to the fore as the leader of the entire composition.
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zooming Residential complex "Discovery" Photo © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
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zooming Residential complex "Discovery" Photo © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
In general, two houses perpendicular to each other, similar in structure and design, but different in height and silhouette, form a pair, contrasting with each other as light and dark, vertical and extended, maybe even yin and yang.
The cells that make up the shape are reminiscent of the structuralism of the 1970s, with the exception that it is not so much the arrangement that changes, but - little by little - their size. There is a connection between this ingenious kinetic form, this fan-like construction, but not a direct one. “Everyone wants apartments to be gradually expanded from small to large in small increments. And so that big apartments are upstairs and small ones downstairs. You design a one-room apartment, it gets bigger with each floor and turns into a small two-floor apartment after two floors. The two-room apartment, gradually increasing over several floors, turns into a small three-ruble note. In LCD Discovery, the growth goes not only vertically, on the facades the windows also expand from the center to the periphery. Of course, this is not a direct semblance of apartmentography, but fitting and alignment. It could have been done in a direct home, but we preferred a more interesting option,”says Andrei Romanov.
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zooming 1/3 Section 1-1. Residential complex "Discovery" © ADM
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zooming 2/3 Residential complex "Discovery" © ADM
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zooming 3/3 Section A-A. Residential complex "Discovery" © ADM
The two-storey cells are articulated with brick frames (faced with ceramic tiles, seemingly indistinguishable from brick). The cells resemble blocks put in place by a crane, but not yet assembled completely - as if they are experiencing the "idea of modularity" before our eyes, formulating the image of a prefabricated house - but in reality the structures are monolithic. Modular cells build shape and give it a sense of movement. The eye perceives them as rather the same, which even better works for the effect of "stretching" the house, for a nuanced plastic paradox.
Semantic overlaps with the idea of a "prefabricated block" house, which may arise when studying the shape of both houses, are more than offset by the "precious" golden decorativeness - which blocks? Rather, they are boxes of some expensive piece of furniture. Responsible for the theme, first of all, are patterned window rails combined with baskets for air conditioners - made of spray-painted steel, golden window frames, color of interfloor inserts and ends - all create the effect of a precious "lining", shading the main brick surface. The lattice pattern resembles dense, unreadable italics, as if the building were partly a letter, and in gold ink.
All golden elements, both the lattice and the "lining", are folded into "threads", equally stitching both facades, demonstrating their kinship with each other and emphasizing the relief; endowing the form with "glow" and shine. The color gold works not only as a sign of value and high cost, but more generally as a light that unites everything, a visual analogue of a "force field" that seems to keep the deconstructivist form on the verge of a slight fluctuation of matter.
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zooming 1/5 Residential complex "Discovery" Photo © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
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zooming 2/5 Residential complex “Discovery” Photo © Alesya Malomuzh / provided by ADM architects
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zooming 3/5 Residential complex "Discovery" Photo © Alesya Malomuzh / provided by ADM architects
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zooming 4/5 Residential complex "Discovery" Photo © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
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zooming 5/5 Residential complex "Discovery" Photo © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
The courtyard, bounded on two sides by white and black residential plates, and on the third side by three towers of the partner bureau, has been landscaped, we recall, according to the project of ADM architects. It is covered with grassy hills with trees growing from them, which, especially in autumn, red and yellow foliage are in harmony with the golden patterns of the facades. The surface for games has smooth shapes, as if numb between the hills. Equally fluid forms are given to the structure for climbing, multi-part and multi-level, but at the same time, a single and next spot of the site.
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zooming 1/4 Residential complex "Discovery" Photo © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / courtesy of ADM architects
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zooming 2/4 Residential complex "Discovery" Photo © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
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zooming 3/4 Residential complex "Discovery" Photo © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
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zooming 4/4 Residential complex "Discovery" Photo © Yaroslav Lukyanchenko / provided by ADM architects
Returning to architecture: ADM architects are generally good at plastic walls. Starting from the house on Berzarina Street, where the noble, with the effect of old masonry, the surface of brick tiles and French windows were complemented by peculiar wooden "shutters", and ending with the expressive composition of the residential complex "Malaya Ordynka 19", where as many as three variants of the textured surface were created: clinker wicker with figured lattices, stone with wood inserts and glass waves. Architects have a lot of experience in this area. They work just as interestingly with the tectonics of the facade, as, for example, in the Vitality residential complex.
The composition of the LCD Discovery is consonant with Vitality, since it is also based on the counterpoint of two buildings, long and vertical, dark and light, and is endowed with accented plastic that reveals the depth and relief of the facade. But Discovery - right by consonance - goes a little further: it bends, sculpts surfaces, complicates and adds visual kinetics by a method akin to a discrete one - that is, it balances on the verge of a simple, restrained, clever, and complex, mobile form. That, of course, along with the "golden lining", adds plot and visual value to the facades of the main, accent buildings of the complex - just in accordance with the well-known maxim that an architectural solution can significantly increase the value of a project.
