Project Details
Project Name – Apart hotel with underground parking
Location- Moscow, Russia
Firm – APEX project bureau
Typology-Residential, public
Year-2017-2020
Project area-7650m
Client – Russian Hotels, LLC
Status-Competed
Design Concept
The 25 Dolgorukovskaya high-end apartment complex is made up of two buildings connected by an underground hallway. The exquisite building merges seamlessly with the surrounding cityscape. The concept is developed in a modern European style and pays homage to the adaptable and elegant Dutch architecture.
During the residential complex’s construction, the developer renovated a remarkable wooden home on the site that had survived the 1812 fire. The manor was meticulously renovated utilising traditional building techniques. It emphasises the architectural link between times.
Designing in the city centre entails investigating the region’s past, looking over old maps and documents, and coming up with creative and useful city planning ideas. For the architect, however, it is crucial to capture the mood, comprehend the ambience, and blend into the historical environment.
The Setting of the Neighbourhood
A prominent feature of the neighbourhood is the bell tower of the Church of St. Nicholas, which carries the hallmark of the Byzantine tradition, distinctive of Russian architecture. The implementation of facade solutions that would resemble the revenue houses of the early 20th century was prompted by environmental experiences.
The Neo-Russian architecture of the opulent revenue houses from the previous century is evident throughout the neighbourhood, along with ornate themes, references to mansards, warm brick tones, etc.
Planning
Given the small size of the land site and the height restriction of 23 metres, the architects had to carefully plan the complex, shaping the future buildings step by step while showing the client various options, discarding some, and improving others. This level of responsibility is enormous for architects working at the intersection of European and Russian architectural traditions.
Because of the urban planning strategy chosen, the project building has the chance to have a front courtyard-cour d’honneur, a public landscaped space in front of the site entrance from Dolgorukovskaya Street, a beautiful view of the church bell tower and Dolgorukovskaya Street, and the green area adjacent to the south.
A yard exists in between the two rectangular structures and steps back from the “bank” projection. There are two floors of an underground parking garage underneath the yard and the entire building plan. The entrance lobbies are arranged on the lower levels, closer to the yard and the projection of the “northern neighbour.” The ground floor of the western building has the management company’s office in addition to the entrance lobby, while the ground floor of the eastern building will also house a cafe. The lowest floors are intended to be accessible to the general public. The area of the apartment complex is extended by amphitheatre stairs that lead down to the yard and shield it from the noise of the street.
Apartments on levels two through four include three rooms and range between 39 and 78 square metres in size. Higher up, the architects created two-level penthouses that surround the centre of the building’s perimeter and hide the mechanical rooms’ protrusions (according to the authors, the technical apparatus must remain undetectable). The penthouses’ exterior walls lean inwards, giving the building an obvious resemblance to an ancient Russian treasure chest, the kind that may be seen in regional history and folklore museums.
Material and Style
The ornate “shutters” built of glass fibre reinforced concrete contribute significantly to the “Parisian” aspect of the building’s appearance and enable the top portion of the building to appear to be a single integral volume. The brick ornamentation draws attention to the resemblance to the major accent, the belfry. The designers chose seamless solid-body hand-moulded bricks with a cutaway at the margins to highlight the ribs of the joints. window jambs composed of panels that look like copper; In addition, there is a height differential, or “jump,” between the first and second sections of the belfry, which is essentially typical for Naryshkin silhouettes and also mirrors the mansard slant of the structures.
The brickwork is softened with decorative insets, including a meander that pays homage to the nearby Klein and flowery ones that resemble the diamond rings on medieval treasure chests. The finished product bears some resemblance to the Igumnov home. Due to height restrictions and the “tower” typology with a communication nucleus in the middle of the volume, the outlines of “treasure chest” buildings are slightly squatting. The architects did everything they could to combat this appearance by removing almost all horizontal dividing lines except the meanders and slightly raising the overall height.
References
- Â Meticulous Work. (n.d.). Archi.Ru. https://archi.ru/en/81103/meticulous-work
- 25 Dolgorukovskaya (Moscow, Russia). (n.d.). https://www.goldtrezzini.ru/en/nominees/25-dolgorukovskaya/
- DOLGORUKOVSKAYA. (n.d.). APEX. https://apex-project.ru/en/projects/dolgorukovskaya
