The practice's high-end residential project ORDYNKA, due for completion at the end of this year, was selected by a professional jury to win "Best Architectural Design" prize at the Urban Awards 2020 - ahead of designs by MLA+ and Dyer, among others. The Urban Awards is a developer focused competition, which recognises the highest quality residential projects, in relation to architecture, landscaping, infrastructure and development of the urban environment.
ORDYNKA consists of seven high-end residential buildings connected by an internal courtyard. The project occupies the site of a famous chocolate factory, in the historic heart of Moscow. The original facades of the factory were renovated to retain its historical appearance. In contrast to the original buildings, the facades facing the courtyard have an emphatically modern design: polylines, panoramic windows, large modules of white architectural concrete, natural stone and anodized copper - which give the whole development an unequivocally modern character. In addition, ORDYNKA features a carefully restored 19th century merchant mansion - a classic manor house with portico and two outbuildings.
The project is designed rather pragmatically, by dividing it into separate objects. Thus, the complexity of such a large structure within the historic city centre has been resolved, giving an illusion of individual objects. To do so, a universal module was used in plan and on the facades of all buildings. The original building faces Malaya Ordynka Street, hiding a modern spacious courtyard formed of two modern linear volumes with 3D facades, interconnected by two raised volumes-bridges. The facades are clad in contrasting shades of light stone and dark metal. Wavy geometry is created with a simple movement of the planes inward and outward, forming a regular pattern of "waves".
The founder of AI Studio Anton Khmelnitsky said: "ORDYNKA was a painstaking but very interesting project for us. Our goal was to organically install uncompromising contemporary architecture into the context of historical Moscow. We are very happy that the jury appreciated our efforts!"
Project info:
Address: 25 Malaya Ordynka Street, Moscow
Floors: 6
Total area: 18,300 square metres
Number of apartments: 82
Apartment sizes: 45.4- to 315.6 square metres
Underground parking for 107 cars
Completion: December 2020
Budget: circa £60 million
Developer: Insigma
Photos by Dmitriy Chebanenko