apartment in the attic with a total area of ​​250 m2 (St. Petersburg) Anna Apraksina

Passing the gallery

Interview prepared: Lilia Gelman

A photo: Peter Lebedev

Project author: Anna Apraksina

Design: Evgeny Grigoriev

Magazine: (75)

In addition to the historic façade, which at different times could be observed by noble maidens, revolutionaries and crowds of tourists who visited the nearby Smolny, the owners of the new "elite" apartments got a communal layout typical of St. Petersburg: aside. " Anna Apraksina and Evgeny Grigoriev, invited to arrange one of the apartments in the attic, offered their own version of her interpretation.MansardEvgeny Grigoriev: When the owners bought this apartment, the house was still not completed and they were counting on a penthouse. However, when the roof had already been erected, it turned out that the light-flooded space that could have been unfortunately failed. Since the number and size of the windows were clearly insufficient. We added openings where needed. And the arrangement of windows in the project of the house turned out to be quite random in the end. In the living room, where this arbitrariness most caught the eye, a false beam system of laid-out relief imitating half-timbered was arranged on the ceiling — the windows were framed with rafter drop lines that were going to the central light dome. "Accident" in the placement of windows also created difficulties in where to install partitions. For example, in the bedroom I wanted to take the largest possible area under the bathroom, and the windows on the ceiling did not allow the wall to be moved further. Additional space was managed to carve out only with the help of a special wavy wall ...LayoutAnna Apraksina: The most offensive in the layout, which existed at the time of completion of construction, was that the complex and beautiful attic space with a height difference from one to six meters was cut across into small pieces by interior partitions tightly separating the premises. Most of all went to the kitchen and hallway: the average ceiling height in the kitchen was about 2 meters, and the hallway stretched upwards with a “stocking”. The glass wall, which replaced the usual one, on the one hand, made it possible to separate the hallway and the kitchen, on the other - to preserve the feeling of a single space, since the light entering the hallway through the dormer windows penetrates the kitchen through a translucent stained glass window.AntressolesES: The apartment has two levels - the main and mezzanine. The height of the ceilings did not allow everywhere to make the second floor. The staircase had to be arranged in such a way that an adult could climb it without bending down. Because the mezzanine are closer to the ridge of the roof, where, accordingly, the ceiling is higher.DecorA. A .: Despite the presence of outrageous things: furs, curtains with huge red colors, this apartment has an internal restraint - stylistic and color ... In many ways, this apartment is built on contrasts, but on St. Petersburg contrasts. Dark brown against a beige-sand background is the maximum that we could afford. Of the fashionable materials that were used here, wenge (still one of the most relevant trends of the last Milan salon) and maple. The floor is made of solid wood, which was selected from the category of "natures" - with knots, stains, divorces, which, in our deep conviction, make the tree only more interesting. In the selection of furniture for an apartment as a whole, apartments of Paris and London were a standard - a bunch of things gathered from where it was not clear: something was bought in an expensive store, something was cheap, something was inherited, something was presented ... Presence some confusion, which, in my opinion, just creates a sense of shelter. HostsA. A .: Amazing people. It was nice for them to do something good. The hostess was mainly involved in creating the apartment. Perhaps that is why the apartment as a whole turned out to be quite female, with the exception of the cabinet - we tried to make it “under the owner”. Remember, Akhmatova: "He loved three things in the world. During the evening singing, white peacocks and erased maps of America ..." By the way, there is a peacock in the apartment ...Anna Apraskina: "It seems to me that there are two fundamentally different interior directions: Moscow and St. Petersburg. What is being done in St. Petersburg often looks like an expensive thing, whose fur is not on the outside, but on the inside. It is not exposed luxury, but inner luxury, luxury for which may actually be real. "