apartment with a total area of ​​50 m2 in an old house in the center of Moscow Nina Prudnikova Quiet, traditional apartment with a total area of ​​only 50 m 2

Passing the gallery

A photo: Evgeniy Luchin, Oleg Kwasuk

Text: Julia Tveritina

Architect: Nina Prudnikova

Designer: Guram Zhvania, Peter Yushin, Philip Yushin

Magazine: N11 (45) 2000

The architects say that the ideal customer is one who not only understands the author, but also trusts him completely. But so that the owners say: “Make this apartment for yourself ...”, this is, perhaps, rarely heard Architect Nina Prudnikova was given complete freedom of action, although it would seem that the customer had a lot to worry about. Judge for yourself - the designer was faced with a difficult task: try to masterfully enter your ideas into a space with a total area of ​​... fifty square meters! But it just so happened that a small and not very comfortable apartment should have turned into a "secret refuge" for a woman tired of fuss and problems. In the process of communication between the architect and the customer, it turned out that their views on life and art coincide almost completely. Therefore, it is not surprising that the architect was asked to make an apartment “as for himself”. The only wish is to create an interior in a “non-modern” (in a good sense of the word) style. The hostess, a middle-aged lady, wanted to live in a calm-traditional setting, in a house where everyone would talk about family values, and the interior would resemble an old Moscow or Leningrad apartment. This choice was influenced by both taste and habits and the atmosphere of the old house in the center of Moscow. The first reaction to the finished apartment was a surprise. After all, at first it is completely incomprehensible how in the place of a narrow corridor, a tiny bathroom, a small room and just a tiny kitchen, the apartment turned out to be quite modern both from a functional and planning point of view. Since the area was minimal, they decided to combine the space in such a way that from any point of the apartment it would be perceived completely, “in full view”. The role of the temporary walls was entrusted to movable partitions that separate the kitchen-dining room (the compositional center of the house) from the bathroom and the room that serves as both a study, a living room, and a bedroom. Strange as it may seem, the bathroom is of particular importance in combining the space of this small apartment. Many guests, looking at his open door, ask the hostess: "And what have you got there, a room?" The question seems quite natural. First, we are not accustomed to enter the bathroom from the ... dining room. Secondly, the furniture there is exactly the same as in the room and the kitchen. And finally third, The toilet and shower are located so that they are not visible even with an open partition. This is the secret of turning the utilitarian zone into a “room continuation”. Despite this metamorphosis, the dimensions of the total area are estimated quite really, without unnecessary illusions. The architect believes that in this case it is not necessary to create the effect of a large space, in other words - “depict what is not”. The use of dark colors in a small apartment also seems paradoxical, but this is only at first glance. In the words of the architect, the space is “gathered by density”. Surprisingly, at the same time, the interior looks so natural that the work of the architect is almost invisible, at least it does not “catch the eye”. It turns out that such a "disguise" is a conscious device that expresses the creative credo of Nina Prudnikova: "The smaller, in the guest’s opinion, is done in the apartment, the more, and the simpler, the more difficult." In fact, this “naturalness” is seeming, because the interior is carefully thought out and “built” by the architect down to the smallest detail. By the way, about the details. It seems that the unity of space, and the color scheme of the apartment serve as a background for the main thing - personal relics, old photographs, antiques, everything related to the family history. The idea of ​​the interior is in the movement from small to large, from part to whole in such a way that the details that are important in meaning are of decisive importance, and large objects play, rather, a supporting role. And another feature - in the apartment there is almost no overhead light. It is successfully replaced by many table lamps. And it is no coincidence, because when evening comes, their bright light "snatches" the corners of the room filled with memories from the darkness. They, and not expensive accessories - the main thing in the value system of the mistress of this small apartment.