Palace in a hut

house (460 m2) in the Moscow region Gulya Akhmetshina

Passing the gallery

A photo: Dmitry Livshits

Interview prepared: Olga Korotkova

Project author: Gulya Akhmetshina, Alena Belyakova

Magazine: N11 (100) 2005

In this house near Moscow, the styles of a Swiss chalet, Provence, American presidential residences of the early 20th century and the spirit of Zamoskvorechye met

There was a task to do not like everyone else, - says Gulya Akhmetshina. - How to do not like everyone else? You need to compose your own history for the house, give it an individuality, character. To make it so, as if there were a hundred years already living different generations of the family Maintaining a clear style is the wrong move. Then it’s not a house, but a museum. Or the palace. And we decided to include elements of antiquity, antiquities in a log house and get a lively interior, warm. Something like a Swiss chalet with Provence, with American notes ... Well, and since the house is timbered, associations with Russia will inevitably arise. So there was no talk of style. It was about the House.

SALON: The house does not seem to be a remake, fresh architectural and decoration work with needles.

- We sought such an effect. In general, in a sense, it is, a great story. When we met with customers and started discussing the project, I was five months pregnant. My daughter is almost five years old. So the house was exactly five years since the first stone was laid. And so it developed so slowly, slowly, and at the beginning of the process it was still completely incomprehensible what we would come to in the end.

When the family moved into this house three years later, a lot began on a new one: for example, they decided to try to make a gilded ceiling in the office. And they did. We bought furniture, then changed it to another ... We bought some fabrics (we specifically went to Thailand and chose pieces of handmade fabrics, hand-dyed, with unique colors, unique, breathtaking fabrics!). Then completely replaced all the textiles, ordering in the United States. Because customers are so carried away by the idea of ​​"evolution" at home, that from the original Eastern theme, we are increasingly shifted to Western styles. At some stages, the oriental notes returned again, and they are still present in the decor, if you look closely. A special story came out with a carpet. We brought a dozen carpets, and "flipped" them one by one, checked how they look in different lighting. With a sunny day, with a daytime curtains closed, then in the evening with artificial light. Is that the candles did not light! (Laughs). We chose three suitable pieces, then again let's try on, until we stopped at the only one that fit perfectly.

Another important point: the house is dark. Customers wanted very much to darken the texture of the logs, to make a deep chocolate color, and the interior on this background began to play like a jewel in a casket. This game of color also works on the effect of lived-in antiquity, and not the novelty of the home.

In general, this house is busy, in it a lot has been invested - and funds, and manual labor, and soul. The floor in the dining room is laid out in marble. Aged, patinated, eaten by acid. Technologically it was very difficult to lay it down: they made corners for jointing, they suffered from laying. And inside the marble "frame" lined with handmade ceramic tiles, unique. Kitchen by MOBALPA perfectly fit into this house. The hostess really likes what the kitchen looks like from the dining room through an arched doorway.

S: The kitchen in the house is often hidden, taken to the periphery. Here she is in a prominent place ...

- The kitchen hostess wanted exactly the front, cozy, she enjoys such a kitchen. Just by itself, not for anything, not for work.

S: It is known that the eclectic genre only seems to be easy, but in fact it has the rules for mixing ingredients. What is the most important professional secret?

- It's at your fingertips. Everything feels built on sensation. Already for the finished work, I can come up with a justification: this black ceiling here holds everything for me, the proportions of the furniture in some way correspond to the height of the window opening and so on. And in the process - everything is completely different. I don’t know why it should be so and so. Such a color, such an ornament. Ordered a slide in the dining room at GRANGEand for some reason I was sure that the back wall should be mirrored, not wooden (as in the factory catalog). And be sure to have lace napkins. Sure to! I do not know why. (Laughs). It's great that the house turned out to be very capacious: it is able to absorb, absorb very different motives, epochs, cultures ... Everything here is mixed and mixed, everything is a little too much. Here is a tiny entrance hall, and in it - a huge mirror, which barely fit into us. (Laughs).

But that is not all. Here and a bench, and a wardrobe. Lamp from Tiffani. And everything is absolutely from different eras. Each item has its own historical background. What gives such a historical mixture? It gives the feeling that things came to the house at different times and in different ways. It seemed to be inherited, and it seemed to be bought on the occasion, I liked it in the furniture shop - they brought it home. And it turns out that the house lived, developed, filled with years like 100 - 150 ... Layer by layer, subject by subject. But in fact, we have "squeezed" a hundred-year history and have lived it for five years.

He will continue to develop. I believe that for an architectural object this is a very important quality. The life of the interior after the completion of the work must continue, and the interior must be ready for changes, accept new things, works of art, new colors, new textures, etc.

Gulya Akhmetshina:“In a private residence, a person must express himself. He is positioning himself: I’m such and such, I want to show myself so and so. The customer gives impetus, and the architect materializes. I think I understood the customers correctly. There was no protest.”

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