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The Chimney of Nikola-Lenivets

In this issue, we are examining the “Obelisk House” designed by KATARSIS and built for the Arkhstoyanie 2023 festival. However, it was only finished later on, and this is why we are examining it now. It seems to us that after the “Obelisk House” appeared in Nikola-Lenivets, a dialogue and a few inner connections appeared between the temporary structures built here. These houses no longer look like “accidental neighbors”, more of which below.

01 August 2024
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The “Obelisk House”, designed by Petr Sovetnikov and Vera Stepanskaya (KATARSIS) joined the Nikola-Lenivets bunch of “art object” houses last year, having changed its name at least once (we will discretely refrain from telling you the original one). Then it took some time to finish it, and it was only recent that the architects felt up to showing their creation in all living glory, and finally sent us its photographs.

Although its authors call the house “Obelisk” now, the first thing that comes to mind when you look at it is a chimney – the kind that usually survives along with the brick furnace after something happens to a wooden house (burned down or just rotted away and collapsed). Nothing seems to be able to destroy this brick furnace that keeps staying out in the fields forever and ever. And, of course, it immediately evokes associations with the brick stove from the Russian fairy tales that used to force-feed children with her tasty pies – at least because the house, just like the stove from the old Russian cartoon, is kind of hiding behind the trees. It looks like it’s about to say “Come and taste my pies, children”. And I’ve saved the best for last: the only window that the house has is horizontal, and it looks like very much a mouth.

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    The Obelisk House
    Copyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by KATARSIS Architects
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    The Obelisk House, a project
    Copyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by KATARSIS Architects


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    The Obelisk House
    Copyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by KATARSIS Architects
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    The Obelisk House
    Copyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by KATARSIS Architects


The Obelisk House
Copyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by KATARSIS Architects


All these metaphoric similarities make one perceive it not so much as an “Obelisk House” as a “Chimney House”, and, hence, a semantic vis-à-vis to another “Chimney House” across the road: the “Russian Ideal” designed by Sergey Kuznetsov. Both houses feature a chimney, but one of them, horizontal, rounded and metallic, hangs over the slope. The other one, vertical, square, and wooden, stands upright, firmly rooted into the ground. Marriages are made in Heaven – they definitely belong together. 

This is a statement, which is quite appropriate for Nikola-Lenivets: no statement – no art object. And a statement surely looks better when it’s part of a dialogue.

However, the house is involved in a dialogue with yet another house – the PO-2 villa designed by Alexander Brodsky. In my opinion, things they have in common are vertical arrangement, a skylight at the top, wooden interior, and ironic allusions to classic art.

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    The Obelisk House
    Copyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by KATARSIS Architects
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    A fragment of the interior of “Villa PO-2”. The skylight. Arkhstoyanie 2018
    Copyright: Photograph: Archi.ru


In addition, both houses are hiding among the trees! However, Obelisk is more austere, more volumetric, and closer to “Russian Ideal” – it also has something “ideal” about it.

And it’s not just the symmetry that’s ideal – it’s also the authors’ perfectionism! Brodsky’s house is intentionally sloppy, just like many other works by this architect, and particularly like its prototype, “the fence”. After all, still before the house was completed, they allowed it to stay there with a bunch of trees inside of it; it looked as though the house grew from the forest and the fence.

In our case, however, not only do the logs fit perfectly together, forming a neat beveled shape, but also the concrete base is designed in the spirit of brutalism with traces of wooden cladding: the wooden pattern is embossed on concrete. On the one hand, it’s brutal, yet, on the other hand, you can’t help but marvel at how neatly it is executed.

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    The Obelisk House
    Copyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by KATARSIS Architects
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    The Obelisk House
    Copyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by KATARSIS Architects


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    The Obelisk House
    Copyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by KATARSIS Architects
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    The Obelisk House
    Copyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by KATARSIS Architects


In other words, if “Russian Ideal” and “PO-2” were mostly connected by the contrast between them (look how different they are!), now the three “key” houses of Nikola-Lenivets have formed a mise-en-scene; there is now a dialogue between them, all thanks to the KATARSIS house.

Back to examining the house, though! The architects’ description “The house is a spatial metaphor for our life, which inevitably repeats itself from century to century. Ilya Oblomov and Andrey Bolkonsky could live on different floors in the house” intrigues us even more, making us want to live in this house for a while in order to understand the difference between the floors.

And the difference is like this. The concrete base is buried in the ground, and the entrance, which is located on the road side, leads downward. The bottom part is sunken in the ground half of its height. It contains a kitchen, two beds on the sides, and the aforementioned horizontal window, which faces the side opposite to the entrance. The top floor is placed “on the shoulders” of the bottom one; it tapers upwards, and ends in a skylight. The top floor is 8 meters high.

The Obelisk House
Copyright: © KATARSIS Architects


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    The Obelisk House
    Copyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by KATARSIS Architects
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    The Obelisk House
    Copyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by KATARSIS Architects


The Obelisk House
Copyright: © KATARSIS Architects


This immediately evokes associations with the heroes of the Russian fairy tales, who do nothing but lie on the stove until they’re 33 years old… You have a kitchen below, aka, stove, and a warm space at the top, aka “on the stove”. Probably, the last character of such type was Ilia Oblomov? And his couch was also a kind of “stove”? Whatever. 

In addition to the neat wooden surfaces and a steep staircase, there is a checkered restroom, the kind that was fashionable back in the 1970s, in the brutalist period, and is becoming fashionable again now. Seriously, folks, it is suddenly checkered and black-and-white, dispelling the “village” associations evoked by the dominance of wood.

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    The Obelisk House
    Copyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by KATARSIS Architects
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    The Obelisk House
    Copyright: Photograph © Daniel Annenkov / provided by KATARSIS Architects
 

Here you again pay attention to the precision of the volumetric shape, and the wood – again, it looks very “ideal”. Well, it may go gray when exposed to rain, but then it will rhyme with its neighbors even better.




01 August 2024

Headlines now
​A Brick Shell
In the process of designing a clubhouse situated among pine trees in a prestigious suburban area near Moscow, the architectural firm “A.Len” did the façade design part. The combination of different types of brick and masonry correlates with the volumetric and plastique solutions, further enhanced by the inclusion of wood-painted fragments and metal “glazing”.
Word Forms
ATRIUM architects love ambitious challenges, and for the firm’s thirtieth anniversary, they boldly play a game of words with an exhibition that dives deep into a self-created vocabulary. They immerse their projects – especially art installations – into this glossary, as if plunging into a current of their own. You feel as if you’re flowing through the veins of pure art, immersed in a universe of vertical cities, educational spaces – of which the architects are true masters – and the cultural codes of various locations. But what truly captivates is the bold statement that Vera Butko and Anton Nadtochy make, both through their work and this exhibition: architecture, above all, is art – the art of working with form and space.
Flexibility and Acuteness of Modernity
Luxurious, fluid, large “kokoshniks” and spiral barrel columns, as if made from colorful chewing gum: there seem to be no other mansion like this in Moscow, designed in the “Neo-Russian-Modern” style. And the “Teremok” on Malaya Kaluzhskaya, previously somewhat obscure, has “come alive with new colors” and gained visibility after its restoration for the office of the “architectural ecosystem” as the architects love to call themselves. It’s evident that Julius Borisov and the architects at UNK put their hearts into finding this new office and bringing it up to date. Let’s delve into the paradoxes of this mansion’s history and its plasticity. Spoiler: two versions of modernity meet here, both balancing on the razor’s edge of “what’s current”.
Yuri Vissarionov: “A modular house does not belong to the land”
It belongs to space, or to the air... It turns out that 3D printing is more effective when combined with a modular approach: the house is built in a workshop and then adapted to the site, including on uneven terrain. Yuri Vissarionov shares his latest experience in designing tourist complexes, both in central Russia and in the south. These include houseboats, homes printed from lightweight concrete using a 3D printer, and, of course, frame houses.
​Moscow’s First
“The quality of education largely depends on the quality of the educational environment”. This principle of the last decade has been realized by Sergey Skuratov in the project for the First Moscow Gymnasium on Rostovskaya Embankment in the Khamovniki district. The building seamlessly integrates into the complex urban landscape, responding both to the pedestrian flow of the city and the quiet alleyways. It skillfully takes advantage of the height differences and aligns with modern trends in educational space design. Let’s take a closer look.
Looking at the Water
The site of Villa Sonata stretches from the road to the water’s edge, offering its own shoreline, pier, and a picturesque river panorama. To reveal these sweeping views, Roman Leonidov “cut” the façade diagonally parallel to the river, thus getting two main axes for the house and, consequently, “two heads”. The internal core – two double-height spaces, a living room and a conservatory, with a “bridge” above them – makes the house both “transparent” and filled with light.
The White Wing
Well, it’s not exactly white. It’s more of a beige, white-stone structure that plays with the color of limestone – smoother surfaces are lighter, while rougher ones are darker. This wing unites various elements: it absorbs and interprets the surrounding themes. It responds to everything, yet maintains a cohesive expression – a challenging task! – while also incorporating recognizable features of its own, such as the dynamic cuts at the bottom, top, and middle.
Urban Dunes
The XSA Ramps team designed and built a three-part sports hub for a park in Rostov-on-Don, welcoming people of all ages and fitness levels. The skate plaza, pump track, and playground are all meticulously crafted with details that attract a diverse range of visitors. The technical execution of the shapes and slopes transforms this space into a kind of sculptural composition.
Proportional Growth
The project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential area has been announced. The buildings are situated on an elongated plot – almost a “ray” that shoots out from the center of the area towards the river. Their layout reflects both a response to Moscow’s architectural preferences over the past 15 years, shifting “from blocks to towers”, and an interpretation of the neighboring business park designed by SOM. Additionally, the best apartments here are not located at the very top but closer to the middle, forming a glowing “waistline”.
The “Staircase” Building
In designing the “Details” residential complex in New Moscow, Rais Baishev spiced up the now-popular Moscow theme of a “courtyard” building with an idea drawn from the surrealist drawings by Maurits Escher. He envisioned the stepped silhouettes and descending slopes as a metaphysical mega-staircase, creating a key void within the courtyard that gave the project an internal “spine”. This concept is felt both in the building’s silhouette and on its façades.
Projection of the Quarter
No one doubted that the building that Vladimir Plotkin designed as part of the “Garden Quarters” would be the most modernist of all. And it turned out just that way: while adhering to the common design code, the building successfully combines brick and white stone, rhythmically responding to the neighboring building designed by Ostozhenka, yet tactfully and persistently making a few statements of its own. This includes the projection of the ideal urban development composition “14–9–6”, which can be found right next door, mathematical calculations, including those for various types of terraces (and perhaps the only reminder of the Soviet past of the Kauchuk rubber factory!), and the white “cross-stitch” pattern of the façade grid.
Domus Aurea
In this issue, we examine the “Tessinsky-1” house, designed by Sergey Skuratov and completed in 2023. Located in the middle of the Serebryanicheskaya Embankment district, at the intersection of its main streets, this house assumes a sort of “nodal” role: it not only responds to everything around it and preserves many memories of the former EMA factory within itself, but it weaves all this into a newly directed pattern, reconciling bright “gold” and dark-colored brick, largely with the help of the new, modern-yet-archaic Columba brick, which, come to think about it, is the most precious element here.
The Chimney of Nikola-Lenivets
In this issue, we are examining the “Obelisk House” designed by KATARSIS and built for the Arkhstoyanie 2023 festival. However, it was only finished later on, and this is why we are examining it now. It seems to us that after the “Obelisk House” appeared in Nikola-Lenivets, a dialogue and a few inner connections appeared between the temporary structures built here. These houses no longer look like “accidental neighbors”, more of which below.
​Periscope by the Bay
The jury awarded the second place in the competition for a public and cultural center in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the companies GORA (“Mountain”) and M4. In the consortium’s proposal, the building resembles a sperm whale with a calf swimming next to it or a periscope, whose lenses capture the most spectacular views from the surrounding landscape.
From Arcs to Dolmens
While working on the competition project for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, ASADOV Architects prioritized the value of the natural and urban environment, aiming to preserve the balance of the location while minimizing the resemblance of the volume that they designed to a “traditional building”. The task was challenging, and the architects created three versions, one of which having been developed after the competition, where their main proposal took third place. However, the point of interest here is not the competition result but the continuity of creative thinking.
Hide and Seek
The ID Moskovskiy house, designed by Stepan Liphart in St. Petersburg, in the courtyards near Moskovskiy Avenue beyond the Obvodny Canal and recently completed, is notable for several reasons. Firstly, it has been realized with considerable accuracy, which is particularly significant as this is the first building where the architect was responsible not only for the facades but also for the layouts, allowing for better integration between the two. On the other hand, this building is interesting as an example of the “germination” of new architecture in the city: it draws on the best examples from the neighborhood and becomes an improved and developed sum of ideas found by the architect in the surrounding context.
The Big Twelve
Yesterday, the winners of the Moscow Mayor’s Architecture Award were announced and honored. Let’s take a look at what was awarded and, in some cases, even critique this esteemed award. After all, there is always room for improvement, right?
Above the Golden Horn
The residential complex “Philosophy” designed by T+T architects in Vladivostok, is one of the new projects in the “Golubinaya Pad” area, changing its development philosophy (pun intended) from single houses to a comprehensive approach. The buildings are organized along public streets, varying in height and format, with one house even executed in gallery typology, featuring a cantilever leaning on an art object.
Nuanced Alternative
How can you rhyme a square and space? Easily! But to do so, you need to rhyme everything you can possibly think of: weave everything together, like in a tensegrity structure, and find your own optics too. The new exhibition at GES-2 does just that, offering its visitor a new perspective on the history of art spanning 150 years, infused with the hope for endless multiplicity of worlds and art histories. Read on to see how this is achieved and how the exhibition design by Evgeny Ace contributes to it.
Blinds for Ice
An ice arena has been constructed in Domodedovo based on a project by Yuri Vissarionov Architects. To prevent the long façade, a technical requirement for winter sports facilities, from appearing monotonous, the architects proposed the use of suspended structures with multidirectional slats. This design protects the ice from direct sunlight while giving the wall texture and detail.
Frozen Magma
A competition for the creation of a public and cultural center was held in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Three architectural companies made it to the final, and we consider it important to share about the work of each. Let’s start with the winner – the consortium led by Wowhaus.
Campus within a Day
In this article, we talk about what the participants of Genplan Institute of Moscow’s hackathon were doing at the MosComArchitecture booth at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition. We also discuss who won the prize and why, and what can be done with the territory of a small university on the outskirts of Moscow.
Vertical Civilization
Genpro considered the development of the vertical city concept and made it the theme of their pavilion at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition.
Marina Yegorova: “We think in terms of hectares, not square meters”
The career path of architect Marina Yegorova is quite impressive: MARHI, SPEECH, MosComArchitectura, the Genplan Institute of Moscow, and then her own architectural company. Its name Empate, which refers to the words “to draw” in Portuguese and “to empathize” in English, should not be misleading with its softness, as the firm freely works on different scales, including Integrated Territorial Development projects. We talked with Marina about various topics: urban planning experience, female leadership style, and even the love of architects for yachting.
Andrey Chuikov: “Optimum balance is achieved through economics”
The Yekaterinburg-based architectural company CNTR is in its mature stage: crystallization of principles, systematization, and standardization helped it make a qualitative leap, enhance competencies, and secure large contracts without sacrificing the aesthetic component. The head of the company, Andrey Chuikov, told us about building a business model and the bonuses that additional education in financial management provides for an architect.
The Fulcrum
Ostozhenka Architects have designed two astonishing towers practically on the edge of a slope above the Oka River in Nizhny Novgorod. These towers stand on 10-meter-tall weathered steel “legs”, with each floor offering panoramic views of the river and the city; all public spaces, including corridors, receive plenty of natural light. Here, we see a multitude of solutions that are unconventional for the residential routine of our day and age. Meanwhile, although these towers hark back to the typological explorations of the seventies, they are completely reinvented in a contemporary key. We admire Veren Group as the client – this is exactly how a “unique product” should be made – and we tell you exactly how our towers are arranged.
Crystal is Watching You
Right now, Museum Night has kicked off at the Museum of Architecture, featuring a fresh new addition – the “Crystal of Perception”, an installation by Sergey Kuznetsov, Ivan Grekov, and the KROST company, set up in the courtyard. It shimmers with light, it sings, it reacts to the approach of people, and who knows what else it can do.
The Secret Briton
The house is called “Little France”. Its composition follows the classical St. Petersburg style, with a palace-like courtyard. The decor is on the brink of Egyptian lotuses, neo-Greek acroteria, and classic 1930s “gears”; the recessed piers are Gothic, while the silhouette of the central part of the house is British. It’s quite interesting to examine all these details, attempting to understand which architectural direction they belong to. At the same time, however, the house fits like a glove in the context of the 20th line of St. Petersburg’s Vasilievsky Island; its elongated wings hold up the façade quite well.
The Wrap-Up
The competition project proposed by Treivas for the first 2021 competition for the Russian pavilion at EXPO 2025 concludes our series of publications on pavilion projects that will not be implemented. This particular proposal stands out for its detailed explanations and the idea of ecological responsibility: both the facades and the exhibition inside were intended to utilize recycled materials.
Birds and Streams
For the competition to design the Omsk airport, DNK ag formed a consortium, inviting VOX architects and Sila Sveta. Their project focuses on intersections, journeys, and flights – both of people and birds – as Omsk is known as a “transfer point” for bird migrations. The educational component is also carefully considered, and the building itself is filled with light, which seems to deconstruct the copper circle of the central entrance portal, spreading it into fantastic hyper-spatial “slices”.