A St. Petersburg architect talks about working on his new project. Vyacheslav Chomutov.

SALON: Where is this apartment located?

 - In the center, in an old house on Chernyshevsky street. Earlier on the site of this apartment were an apartment and attic. We made an attic from the attic, adding in this way 100-120 square meters. m square For a long time issued the documents. Longer than building an apartment. The laws are constantly changing. It was required to collect signatures of all tenants ...

S: And you did it !?

 - I was interested in the development upwards, to come up with ladders to build a glass dome. I wanted to implement a plastic idea, and I convinced the customers. In addition, we calculated how much housing is needed for a family of five people plus servants, I'm not talking about cats anymore, and we came to the conclusion that the area - the one that was - is not enough.

S: Did customers set some tasks?

- I wanted beauty, as always. And the rest I was given a blank check. I usually show magazines to find out what I like, what not. It turned out that these people are not radicals. Therefore, we did everything quite gently. In the project, the apartment was tougher, because initially we discussed it with a man. Then his wife also had the opportunity to communicate with us - so the Baker chairs, a handmade fireplace with flowers, light curtains appeared in the apartment ...

S: Apart from documents, it took a lot of time to implement the project?

- Three years. For such a volume very much. But the apartment is complicated. We removed the roof ridge and made a glass bell in its place, the same as in the drawing. This allowed to increase the space and create a second light. The ceiling in the living room turned out 7-8 meters. When you are here, the full feeling that this is a house, and not an apartment, is because of the roof with slopes. I like this sensation the most.

S: With the stairs, probably, also had a hard time? Where does the idea come from?

- From Piranesi. He has pictures of ladders - one wriggles around the other. Without Escher, too, has not done.

S: But, if my memory serves me, their stairs can be called rather fantastic than real.

- Yes, it was terribly difficult to count them. The height is minimal. We made these stairs, like yachts, in a huge workshop ... We were not completely sure that we would get there. But as a result they became the dominant of the interior.

S: Do you often experiment like this?

 - Is always. The main thing is to decide: there can be anything, and act on that basis. Of course, it's hard to do something for the first time. And expensive. Therefore, we try to save on some other things in order to be able to come up with something interesting and completely new.

S: Furniture according to your sketches?

 - Partially. For this apartment we designed several items. Cabinets in the office and in the bedroom. In the office - a table, black. When they did it, I thought: right Tresser! Sliding doors in the living room - walnut. Stainless steel handles for these doors, we asked to come up with the St. Petersburg sculptor Viktor Vodsky. The work for the sculptor is not entirely creative, but I really like what happened. I always come up with some furniture for my projects. I am very proud of my chairs, which I made for a St. Petersburg restaurant several years ago. Four years stood, and not one cracked!

S: Are your pictures too?

- Pictures from the gallery of Marina Gisich, Kitaev's photograms, several paintings by Gleb Bogomolov, an asymmetric picture by Volodya Zagorov, one that is in the shape of a parallelepiped. We were lucky: customers agreed to works of art.

S: What are you working on now?

- We are building two private houses, together with the Italians we are reconstructing the Babochka store (“Butterfly”) on Nevsky, agreeing on a project to reconstruct the plant into a business center.

Project author Vyacheslav Chomutov: "We call our style polystylistics. The styling elements are not vividly expressed, but the individual parts correspond as closely as possible. We try to be concise in planning solutions, colors, selection of accessories and furniture. Radicality?

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