московская квартира Павел Руденко, Мария Руденко, Ekaterina Kostina

Passing the gallery

A photo: Evgeny Luchin

Interview prepared: Oksana Kashenko

Project author: Maria Rudenko, Pavel Rudenko

Architect: Ekaterina Kostina

Magazine: N10 (99) 2005

Maria Rudenko and Ekaterina Kostina, the authors of this object, can rightly be rewarded for their special contribution to the development of private architecture. In working on this project, they managed not only to brilliantly cope with the task, but also to give a new breath to the modern style.How did the customer decide on an interior in modern style? Was that your recommendation?Maria Rudenko: The customer came to us with a ready-made solution: the apartment should be in modern style. Honestly, we were very surprised. The apartment, of course, had a good area, but for the modern it is also necessary to have a height that was not here at all. And modern - the style is still representative, it does not really fit into modern life. And our customers are sociable people, friends often come to them, they have two children, to whom classmates come to visit ... They needed this apartment not for rare visits and receptions, but for permanent residence.SALON: What inspired modernity?Ekaterina Kostina: For the customer - the house Ryabushinsky. For us - the house Bakhrushina. In fact, there is modern with gothic elements. In all the rooms of the mansion there is very little light, so there is a feeling of some kind of bohemian. Strangely enough, but in the apartment of the customers there is also something similar: the head of the family expressed the wish to install a special highlight along the entire corridor akin to that which happens in cinemas. We highlighted. It turned out very theatrical: dark red ceiling, red curved corridor, columns, and everything glows. The design of the corridor, by the way, was for us the most difficult and, probably, the most interesting. Since the layout of the apartment is quite traditional in terms of functional zoning, it was impossible to avoid the corridor, and, whatever one may say, it turned out to be curved. For a long time we couldn’t decide what to do with it, how to connect it with modernity. Namely, in the house of Bakhrushin they saw a similar, initially terrible corridor, which by means of decor was turned into a beautiful one. There, its curvature was deliberately underlined by a parquet line. So we thought that we also need to turn the lack of an apartment into its dignity.M.R .: We emphasized the curvature of the corridor with a tile pattern, as if edging it, and, as already said, everything was highlighted. And the ceiling was partially painted in dark red.S: Is it typical of modernity? It seems to me that such colors were not applied at all. Everything was mostly olive, ocher, lilac ...EK: Russian modern is so good that if you feel it, imbued with it, it gives you great creative freedom. This is not French Art Nouveau, which is permeated by mathematical calculation. Russian modern plastic.M.R .: Of course, we gasped when the customer said that he sees his apartment in bright green and dark red. We always ask what colors the customer loves, and which colors he cannot bear. But nothing, red with green, in principle, very good colors. Another thing is that there was not an English interior, where they would be appropriate, but modern.S: And yet how did the ceiling turn red?M.R .: It was necessary to visually increase the height. But since the customer does not like the blue color, and the green ceilings will look strange, we decided to make the ceiling dark red. You know, in a white frame and with the original backlight, it looks very impressive.EK: I was very worried about the ceiling lighting. The fact is that chandeliers and sconces, on which we chose and which corresponded to the declared style, give very little light. Alabaster, from which the ceiling made, almost all absorbs. They look, of course, elegantly. But the problem of light does not solve. And to hang a technical light here would be blasphemous. Yes, and multi-level ceilings had to somehow decorate. The way out was found simple: they installed tiny but powerful light bulbs. It turned out well.S: You originally planned to place the dining room in a separate small room?M.R .: From this dining room there was a whole story: in fact, the living area of ​​the apartment ended in the living room and kitchen. And there, where the dining room is now, there was a huge glazed, but uninhabited space. In general, when we took up this object, we still didn’t know how it would all end. After all, we could simply not agree on the accession of the loggia.EK: But, fortunately, we were allowed to attach, and make a huge opening, and even take out the heating. Only we were delighted that such a large space was organized, as the hostess set the condition for us: the dining room should be separated from the living room. There are many men in the family, plus guests, everyone loves to sit at the TV. By fencing off the dining room, and at the same time the kitchen from the living room, the hostess once and for all stopped the attempt to carry food to the TV. Such a funny story.M.R .: We are grateful to our customers for a wonderful object. We are glad that they liked our work and the house is always full of guests. Maria Rudenko:“Of course, we were surprised when the customer said that he sees his apartment in bright green and dark red tones. Red and green are, in principle, very good colors, but after all, we didn’t have an English interior, where they would be appropriate, but Russian modern. ”