apartment with a total area of ​​105 m2 Nina Prudnikova, Natalia Polyakova

Passing the gallery

A photo: Zinon Rasudinov

Text: Yuri Kagarlitsky

Architect: Nina Prudnikova

Designer: Natalia Polyakova

Magazine: N5 (10) 1996

What ingenuity, sophisticated fantasy is sometimes demonstrated by architects when re-planning typical apartments! But, it turns out, interesting results are possible based on a combination of simple and well-known, and most importantly, easily implemented techniques and forms ... The interior of Nina Prudnikova, which we are talking about, was created on the site of a very modest apartment with a notorious corridor layout. The expressive definition of a pencil case is perfect for this: a series of rooms stretched along a narrow passage with windows facing one side. The corridor - we have written about it many times - the curse of modern Russian apartments. But in this case it is designed easily and elegantly. Three pylons remained from the wall, inside of which there are windows on the side of the living room. The corridor was transformed into a bright, seemingly spacious gallery. Banal, in general, the interior becomes open, three-dimensional, acquires architecture that is unusual for it before. It is characteristic that an unexpected effect is achieved due to playing up on an unusual part in urban dwellings. In the same way, the kitchen, dining and guest areas are separated by an unusual way for an apartment: they are separated from each other by long low cabinets - "counters". The solution lying on the surface is original and convincing. Perhaps, because it continues the theme of architecture: how the pylons open up the corridor space, turn it into a gallery - so the wardrobes resemble windowsills ... or, rather, balustrades. And these fairly economical techniques change the look of the room more radically than the podiums, mezzanines, steps - in short, everything that, often without a sense of proportion, is used in modern interior works. The common room is generally very expressive and architectural. Massive beams at the top and cabinets-balustrades at the bottom make each zone separate and at the same time preserve a harmonious whole. The idea of ​​unity of the interior is generally close to Nina Prudnikova, who prefers to maintain the design of all the rooms in the same spirit. This is not least true of the color scheme. The tone sets the living room. The spacious, plastic, structured space is decorated in a light range, especially highlighted by dark wood furniture. Partly the situation, perhaps, to the English house with its restraint and comfort, thoroughness and durability. The blue theme, which is present in the public part of the interior, extends to intimate rooms - the bedroom and the nursery. These rooms are quite traditional and less expressive in terms of architecture. However, the deep, slightly hypnotizing color of the wallpaper in the bedroom, combined with dimmed lighting, creates a very special atmosphere. Thus, in the private part of the apartment, as in the living room, elements of a single artistic concept are found. Author's design in today's Russia seeks to make a city apartment unlike an ordinary apartment. The space, once demarcated into identical rooms, after redevelopment acquires a new meaning, a second life. The work of Nina Prudnikova shows that you can breathe in this new life by using relatively modest means - with a few decisive, deliberately simple strokes.