two-level apartment with a total area of ​​357 m2 Dmitry Velichkin, Nikolai Golovanov, Alexander Shevchenko

Passing the gallery

A photo: Zinon Rasudinov

Text: Vasily Koretsky

Architect: Dmitry Velichkin, Nikolay Golovanov, Alexander Shevchenko

Magazine: N11 (78) 2003

The owners of these two-story apartments in an apartment building have long been living in their own house, decorated in a classic style. In their new apartment, they wanted to recreate the cozy and conservative atmosphere of this mansion and at the same time to refresh and modernize the familiar style. “We were not the first workshop that customers turned to,” says one of the project’s authors, Alexander Shevchenko. “We developed the basic concept in stages, the entire workshop. The work was carried out in close cooperation with the owner, who approached the project very carefully; her every detail of the interior down to the smallest detail. " Art Deco was chosen as the starting point for the development of the project. In the arsenal of this style were both traditional materials for classics, "soft" wood and marble, and "sharp" - glass and metal. As for the principles of planning, the private and guest areas of the apartment are located both on the upper and lower tiers (below is the children's room, the master bedroom, upstairs is the kitchen, dining room, living room, second children's room and guest room). The construction of the building itself largely determined such a non-standard hierarchy of rooms, including the location and size of the front area - the largest room in the apartment. The fact is that in one of the walls there was a ventilation duct - a finished chimney for the fireplace, and the presence of three internal bearing walls did not allow for a radical redevelopment. The core of the living room and at the same time a transparent barrier clearly dividing it into a library, a fireplace and a home theater, was the staircase between the floors. The monumental construction that penetrates the room would create a heavy, oppressive feeling. A staircase spanned only by light metal railings does not crush space, does not visually reduce it. The staircase not only organizes the living room space, not only connects the parent zone with the children’s, but also maintains an important for the owners stylistic balance between classics and modernity. Combining warm wood and cold stainless steel, heavy, solid marble and dynamic rounded lines in its design, it defines the rules for reading the entire interior, creates a context in which the rest of the rooms coexist, gathering them into an ensemble. Alexander Shevchenko: “The idea of ​​Art Deco didn’t appear immediately: the customers saw their future apartment as modern. During the discussions, we noticed that many elements, materials, which the hostess prefers, are classic in terms of shaping. At the same time, she likes avant-garde lamps and furniture .. . "