apartment with a total area of ​​131 m2 (Moscow) Oleg Klodt, Alexander Erman

Passing the gallery

A photo: Alexey Knyazev

Interview prepared: Natalya Sedyakina

Architect: Alexander Erman, Oleg Klodt

Magazine: N10 (77) 2003

The question of what is more important in private architecture - self-expression or strict adherence to style, mix or delicate balance between originality and pathos - decides for itself the architectural tandem of Klodt and Herman in their new work a la fusionSALON: Which style is closer to the apartment you have made: Art Deco or Fusion? Oleg Klodt: Neither one nor the other. We do not embody any of the existing styles in its pure form. For us, the priority is to make an interior in which people will live with pleasure, and not an interior in which we can express ourselves. For this, mutual understanding with customers is very important. In this case, our clients were of solid age, people from the old Moscow intelligentsia. Despite the fact that we have a big age difference with them, we became friends. Although at first they were not going to work with us. Wife went to several apartments, looked at our work. And she did not like everything terribly. After that, she called me and said: "You know, Oleg, I don’t like absolutely everything you do, but I see that you have good taste."S: How did you develop the project? - Very fast. Because, despite the difference in our tastes, we were still able to find a common language. This apartment is 130 square meters. meters, and in terms of planning, we almost did not change anything. We mostly decorated it. Carefully picked up the furniture, much did to order. The only thing that we globally changed was the removal of the ugly vestibule connecting the dressing room with the living room. The fact is that the dressing room has a double function: not only the dressing room and the study, but also the need for a bedroom. Although only two people live in the apartment, the son comes here with his family, who stay in this very bedroom. Therefore, it was very important to make a competent, from the point of view of aesthetic and practical connection with the common living room. In general, what I personally like very much here turned out to be - something like the “living” London and Parisian interiors. In what is being done here, the author’s style is often felt, i.e. receptions - a circle in the plan, ceiling lines, etc. etc. In my opinion, an apartment should not serve as a manifestation of the author's principle, an apartment is when it is understandable, comfortable, cozy. In our case, we tried to achieve the effect, as if the apartments were built not just that, but a certain note of habitability was already present for a long time.S: It turns out that the author's style should not prevail over architecture? - Absolutely.S: So, should the customer's architecture determine the particular architecture? - In general, probably not. A customer often has a “super-idea”, but by and large he doesn’t have any idea what it really is ... Therefore, an architect, in a sense, must also be a psychologist. He must, without breaking the original "high" idea of ​​the customer, do something that will integrate his inner world.S: That is, in accordance with your philosophy, there are no pure styles in private architecture. Any style humanized? - It really is. The concept of "style" in modern life is absent. Everything is eclectic. There is, for example, the style a la Klodt and Hermann, and not the Art Deco style reproduced by the workshop of Klodt and Hermann.S: In modern architecture, do you have idols? - There is one person we focus on in the interiors - Philip Stark. absolutely everything he does.S: But this is the author's style. The key word after all is “style”. - Absolutely. Уникальность его интерьеров в том, что они всегда "попадают" туда, куда нужно. Не сказать в цель, но в некую сверхактуальную "струю", что ли... S: That's right, because they don't aim anywhere.. - Yes. Because Stark is a genius. But not me. This is, after all, the Starkovian phrase “I'd rather do ugly, but not trivially”? I am not ready to think so. Anyway, not ready yet.S: Do you have some preventive measures against banality? - Of course have. At the level of sensations.S: How do you manage to work in tandem? You do not argue? - You know, it surprises me very much. We do not argue especially strongly. We have a mutual understanding.Oleg Klodt: "This is not art deco or fusion. We did not pursue the goal to embody any style in its pure form. It was important for us to create an interior in which people could feel comfortable. Therefore, we even tried to give the apartment some kind of habitability, due to with which they were decorated very carefully. And much of the furniture was made to order. "