MOSKVA, Russia—SPEECH architecture firm’s modernist residential street block ‘Vodny’ (or in English: ‘Water’) consists of five, 26-story buildings, each featuring a detailed facade differing in color and texture creating an undulating effect, ArchDaily writes, describing the work as “a memorable contribution to the city’s skyline.” We agree. The buildings appear to rise from nowhere, towering, like ships rising from the sea to stunning effect.
Chief Architect Sergei Tchoban drew inspiration from his years-long sketch series “City and Water.” Utilized over the year in various cities, “they are all devoted to the study of the dramaturgy of the relationship between architecture and water space,” the architects writes, adding each complex’s entrance features these drawings. (Below is a translation from Russian of that process)
In total, together with the customer, 15 works were selected – three for each input group – which were then applied to the glass by digital printing. According to the architects, this gave each of the entrances an individuality, and also more fully and figuratively revealed the very name of the residential complex.
Interior featuring ‘City and Water’ drawings. Click for larger image
The complex features 1,496 studio and one- and two-bedroom apartments. The entry floor consists of a kindergarten, a fitness club, cafes and restaurants and household services.
This residential complex consists of five 26-storey buildings arranged in a checkerboard pattern on top of a multi-storey underground car park. This configuration of volumes of identical shape and height has made it possible to create a system of semi-enclosed inner courtyards between the blocks. The main entrances to the buildings face the courtyards and take the form of stately portals.
Interior featuring ‘City and Water’ drawings. Click for larger image
Interior featuring ‘City and Water’ drawings. Click for larger image
About SPEECH: The SPEECH office was established in 2006 as a result of a long cooperation between the Berlin office of nps tchoban voss, headed by Sergei Cioban and the Moscow office “Choban and partners” from the workshop “S.Proekt”, headed by Sergey Kuznetsov. SPEECH is today one of the leading architectural bureaus in Russia. The workshop specializes in the design of buildings and complexes of different functional purposes, the development of town-planning concepts, as well as the creation of interior solutions.
Photography by: Dmitry Chebanenko.
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