RESIDENTAL COMPLEX WITH UNDERGROUND PARKING
Moscow, Soymonovsky driveway, 3
2020
Competition project
FOREWORD TO THE PROJECT
In the early 80s, by the will of fate, I lived on Ostozhenka street for some time. Here my family life began, maturation and formation of the worldview took place. Our room with Lenka in a communal apartment was on the 4th floor in the Volkonskys' apartment building, which is opposite the Church of Ilya Obydenny. My two eldest daughters were born here. Then the apartment turned into an architectural studio, where we made competitive projects with Sasha Brodsky, and in the evening this place became a fun meeting place for friends and acquaintances! This happiness lasted until 86, until we were evicted, according to Soviet laws, to Yasenevo, to a completely different country, to another city incomprehensible to us ...
So, I found Ostozhenka, still untouched by today's "renovation", and managed to enjoy its beauty! The street was called Metrostroevskaya, it started from the Moskva pool and ended with the Chaika pool. To the right, to Kropotkinskaya, and to the left, to the Moskva River, the ball is entirely historical buildings with cozy courtyards and quite old living Moscow. With her smells and linen on the ropes. And unlike new buildings, it was very green and quiet. All the vanity of life swept past somewhere. Of course, even then it was clear that this seeming paradise was not for long. Already come across evicted houses with broken glass windows. And the communal apartments were too overcrowded. And these courtyards, overgrown with old poplars and insanely beautiful brick walls, seemed too romantic. The smells of vanilla from the Krasny Oktyabr factory... Buns with poppy seeds in a bakery on the corner... yes, all of these are, of course, important details.
But seriously speaking, the nature of the place is determined, nevertheless, by the architecture. In architectural terms, in the center of the compositional basis of Ostozhenka lies the Conception Monastery, which adjoins the building line of the street. White Chambers, which are closer to Prechistenka, and that part of the city that finally took shape at the end of the 19th century, where among two-three-storey buildings there are 4-5-storey apartment buildings in the then fashionable styles: Pozharsky Lane - neoclassic, 1st and 2nd Obydensky lane - with the characteristic features of Art Nouveau, elongated upward forms. The main pearls of this style were the "House of Pertsova" by architect N. Zhukov and the house of architect L. N. Kekushev. This is all true. But I would note that the apartment house of YM Filatov, architects R. Nirnzee, V. Dubovsky, N. Arkhipov (“House under a glass”) had the greatest influence on the image and mood of the place in this ensemble. A house with features of neo-Gothic and German romanticism subjugates the surrounding space without conflict with the surroundings. This feature is rare. We can say that time stops next to real architecture, this inexplicable feeling, in which a moment of happiness suddenly slips. This is what I then experienced back in 1980.
Approaching the design of a residential area on Soimonovsky Proezd, I will not hide the fact that I designed architecture with this very feeling.
I will not talk about the features of the planning solutions, but will only say about what seemed important to me to emphasize in the overall architectural composition of the complex.
To begin with, the building patch is too large for one house to stand on it. Therefore, visually, the quarter should consist of a number of (so-called historically) apartment buildings, so as not to destroy the existing historical image of the development, which is also very important for me. Gothic motives appear for a reason. They can be successfully used to complicate the images of the architecture of penthouses - the so-called, a kind of "estates" on the roofs. There is a psychological reference and respect for the 'patriarchs' of the place.
It is important to respect the historical red building line and the regulation height. The scale of the house is not only the height and proportions, but also the size of the window opening. The style of architecture should be friendly to our historical image of the quarter. The cladding materials of the facades should not contrast with the surrounding buildings.
It seems to me that I know exactly how a house or a city should look, and this may be a sign of high professionalism, or it may be a sign of old age...
Ilya Utkin