office interior (298 m2) Alexey Rosenberg, Edward Zabuga

Passing the gallery

A photo: Zinon Rasudinov

Text: Anna Gedymin

Architect: Edward Zabuga, Aleksey Rosenberg

Magazine: (4) 1995

“Office” is a foreign, albeit instantly understood word. They will say: "office" - and immediately imagine the bright, quiet rooms, soft carpet floor, leather chairs, blinds ... In a word, European standard Here is a building whose fate is the true history of Moscow of the twentieth century. Shortly before October seventeenth, erected as an office, in its original form, it lived to the forties. During the war here - assembly shop machine guns. Then again the offices, the offices ... Finally, the beginning of the nineties. Factory KB. Long corridor, cramped and dirty rooms, always clogged sinks. Floor by floor is diverted to commercial structures that enforce their “European standard” here. But on the third floor there is an organization that does not want any standard, even the "euro" ...City on the floor An external staircase leads to the office - iron, forged, like a fire station. True, fenced off from the outside world by glass walls - so that means no barrel. Rise, open the door. In the dressing room - a massive wooden bench. On the contrary - the guard, in front of whom instead of the rack sticks out the end of a hefty rail sticking out of the masonry. Repair them, or what? Unpainted cement walls. Window frames stained and drip. The long corridor, where the left hand - the windows on the right - the same as on the street, iron stairs. And only one sound violates the overall impression: the exquisite trill of a super-modern phone. Do not repair them. Oh, do not repair! They probably settled in the old, pre-revolutionary building, but they didn’t have enough money for decoration ... "What department do you have? Third? Please, third ladder." You go where the secretary orders, sitting behind one of the brick walls, as in a pocket. Under your feet - tile, brick the same color. The black pipe sticks out of the floor. It turns out that it is a lamp. And there is a second and a third one ... The department is fenced off from the other two by low brick partitions. Above the wall you can look into the next section, and look out into the corridor, from where you just rose. Furniture is what really makes an impression. Light, irregularly shaped tables with golden table tops allow you to instantly change the situation: I wanted to move away from everyone, I wanted to — I was reunited. The wall facing the corridor is arranged, it turns out, like a counter; retractable cabinets, boxes, personal belongings of employees - everything housed in it. Suddenly, a computer appeared from somewhere - but it just did not exist. In the background of the next secretarial "pocket" suddenly appears ... lawn! As if you find yourself on a city street - a street turned inside out. Office city. There are noisy avenues and quiet alleys, dead ends, back streets and even green spaces. Gradually, you begin to navigate in it, to comprehend its rationality and self-sufficiency."Grand piano in the bushes" “European standard with a minus sign” - this is how the architect Edward Zabuga defined the basic principle of his work. For example: the office space is certainly filled with the latest electronics. But if the "European standard" emphasizes electronics, builds into a cult, then in this case it is easily communicated with, as with the necessary tools for the work. Office equipment does not determine the style, idea, architecture of the room, but itself obeys them. Conditioners and computers are hidden from eyes. The technical equipment has been removed from the first plan: instead of a multitude of electrical, radio and telephone outlets, several small hatches were made in the floor, behind which all communications are hidden. Even under the green lawn hiding cellar-cellar. The duet Alexei Rosenberg - Edward Zabuga works with natural materials, seeking to use their potential and emphasize quality (just the grass on the lawn is artificial). “The brick should be brick, the glass should be glass,” they told me. “Pay attention to how the natural brickwork looks. Heavy concrete. Cast-iron column.” It turned out that the architects consider for themselves the highest praise if the casual visitor accepts what they did for natural antiquity. But how much this "old" is worth the effort! Window frames, for example, were painted in three layers, and each layer was skinned to produce an uneven color, "smudges". But this paint will hold on for a long time. In order to create the impression of authenticity, it is required both genuine and proper: the walls and structures of the beginning of the century, concrete, wood, brick, metal, and high-quality modern products from the best manufacturers of finishing materials, furniture and equipment. Work tables of irregular shape are made to order by a prestigious Finnish company. “There is no such furniture in Moscow yet,” they told me. Floor tiles in the hallway and on the podium - English. And so on.Let there be light! ...Dark. Only three on-duty lamps are lit — the very old pipes sticking out of the floor. Pipes do not just “stick out” - they are needed in order to “draw light circles and hold stairs”, as one of the architects put it. The seeming deficiencies are actually parts of a single architectural design. Lighting always plays a significant role in shaping the look of the interior. Here the light manipulation gives the lord of this office-city the opportunity to control the minds, attention, landscape, time of day, weather ... The thought involuntarily creeps in: it’s so bad that it is possible only on the "individual floor" ...Europe - plus! Despite the declared rejection of the European standard, the British were the first to recognize the merits of this office. In the West, this style is developed by many - carefully, in-depth; However, it is risky to talk about a uniform style here. Leaving the office, you come to several quite transparent conclusions. First, thank God, that under our (and not just under London or Paris) sky began to be born - in life, and not on paper - new, non-standard architectural objects. Secondly, it becomes obvious that such an office is not for every organization. Settle a bank here - it's unlikely his clients will feel comfortable! Where it is important to emphasize stability, traditionalism - and the form is desirable habitual. But the representation of a political party or creative union can be both, and others, and the third. And twenty third. And finally, third. For a neat Belgium or Denmark, such an office is exotic, a work of art. With a civilized, detached approach, this is an architectural style that can be enjoyed. It is also necessary for us to learn to see aesthetic value in this, and not to twist our shoulders with chilly memory while recalling our birthable under-construction and our own communal life.