apartment with a total area of 100 m2 Stanislav Old
Passing the gallery
Interview prepared: Oksana Kashenko
Stylist: Julia Krugovova
A photo: Aleksey Naroditsky
Project author: Stanislav Starykh
Fireplaces: Gennady Vzorov
Furniture: Viktor Fedorkov
Construction Manager: Alexander Puchkov
Textile: Lilia gioge
Magazine: N (98) 2005
Ampir can measure the depth of love for Russian culture, the level of IQ and the presence of blue blood in the pedigree. And you can - the height of the position in the public service and the quality of high-level relations. True, the Empire style in these calculations used different. In the first case - Russian, in the second - French ... The eminent Moscow architect Stanislav Starykh, creating his own empire interior, set himself other tasksDid this interior start with style? - This is not the first interior that I do for my customer, we already had mutual understanding, so the issue of style was quickly resolved. Here we immediately started with the planning. I really do not like interiors with complex plans. Plans should be simple. The situation is perfect for me when the customer looks at the plan that I drew and says: "Well! .. Everything is clear. There can be no other way, it is natural." When I get such an answer, it means one hundred percent hit: the customer will be comfortable in this interior. Comfort is such a strange thing: you come, you sit on the sofa and you feel that you are well in this room ... This apartment is small, only 100 square meters. m, of which 60 square meters. m, we gave to the hall and about 15 more - to the hall and bathroom. And the kitchen and bedroom made tiny. Since the apartment is not intended for permanent residence, but more for meeting with friends, we could afford such a seemingly disproportionate zoning, which, however, ultimately gave a feeling of comfort. And at the same time, we tried, at least in part, to organize the space in the way it was done in Russia in the 19th century.SALON: How did this wall color come about? - You know that blue tones, in principle, are characteristic of the Russian Empire. We used a slightly different shade. The apartment is all bluish-blue, calm, a bit evening. It looks especially attractive in the evening, as we planned. The whole interior is not bright, not bleached, nothing hurts the eyes, everything gives rest. On the walls - silk blue-gray color, very soft and not screaming. Upholstery and curtains - blue with gold. But the gold here is also not brilliant, yellow, but subdued, platinum. At the same time, the whole apartment is actually multicolored, as was the case in Russian classicism. You go into the hallway - it strikes you with its white with gilding. White floor, white walls, white furniture, gold finish. You open all the doors and from the hallway you see the bathroom, or rather that part of it, where the onyx pylon, white and pink, with a golden sink stands. To the right of the bathroom is the kitchen. Also snow-white, with a magnificent marble worktop and gold trim in the style of Jacobs. (We had to make all the facades in St. Petersburg to order.) Next is the bedroom. It is made in golden green tones and furnished with mahogany furniture. That is, each of the rooms is very soft in its color scheme, and in general the apartment looks contrast, festive, luxurious. S: Luxury turned out to be some kind of special ... - There is such a thing - Russian luxury. She exists. As our ancestors lived, no one in Paris or London ever dreamed of. Because there they counted money, but here they were able to spend. No wonder there is a saying "to litter money." In Russia there was such a tradition - to spend money on luxury. The same Faberge eggs, in my opinion, could appear only in Russia. Russian luxury is an indescribable thing. To some extent, we tried to return to the concept of “Russian luxury”. And first of all, think about why we should put in our Russian interior a thing made in Italy? Before designing, I drove through many salons, looked at what is called luxury items, made in the spirit of the Empire style. And I realized that everything must be done by myself. There is no other way out, because the Russian interior should be made here. Things should be done by us, in this country and by our masters, whose hands are simply golden. And I think that we managed to create now, at the beginning of the XXI century, an interior that could serve as an example of the Russian Empire style.S: Is it possible? - I once talked with art historians, who said to me: "You can not call it Russian Empire style." I say: "Why?" - "Russian Empire is what it was in the XIX century." But the Russian Empire style can no longer be the same as it was 150 years ago. There are no longer those volumes, there are no those palaces, there are no those suits in which people went then; Now other requirements for things. But at the same time there is a certain stylistics, certain laws of construction of the interior, which have passed in our time. And these patterns must simply be tailored to our apartments, to our lifestyle, our costumes. Before you is my work, which I call the "Jazz Interpretation on the Russian Empire". I improvise in the same way that a jazzman who takes a theme leads her, but improvises along the way. Yes, of course, you can say that this is not a Russian Empire, because of the furniture there is not a single antique item. But this does not mean that the style is broken. On the contrary: there are no copies and fakes. Here, all things are copyright, everything is an individual hand-made, special order. And these things are clearly superior to many antiques. Because far from everything that was done 150 years ago, was done with soul and with high quality. Furniture, for example, we created a very long time. There were controversies of a stylistic nature with manufacturers. As a result, not only I am pleased with the result, but also the manufacturer. Returning again to the question of the authenticity of my Empire style, I would note that all the furniture was made according to the original Russian technologies: pine solid wood and veneering with Karelian birch were used here. And all the pads that you see are not imitations, but real cast bronze, minted and gilded by hand. Many forms had to be made specifically for our order.S: What fabrics did you use in upholstery? - The issue of upholstery has arisen already in the process of furniture production. It is clear that for such a level of furniture it was impossible to take a standard upholstery. I expressed my professional opinion to the customer that FABERGE is needed here. And it is fortunate that the customer agreed. Because the company FABERGE develops these "historical" fabrics specifically for modern interiors. And while they look not a museum, but somehow easy, relevant. S: What is the most outstanding in this interior? - Chair, standing near the sofa.Stanislav Starykh: “We tried to return to some extent to the concept of“ Russian luxury. ”And first of all, we thought about why we should put an item made in Italy in our Russian interior?”