Sergey Kolchin and the Le Atelier team realized the order that many architects dream of they turned the house into a total work of art.
Good architecture is born from two principles: the talent of the architect and the request of the customer. Sergei Kolchin was lucky to meet, as he himself says, “a super interesting woman with incredible taste.” She bought an unusual house on Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway. The floor, walls, and ceiling are all made of concrete, and beautiful wooden windows are inserted into the concrete box.
“Our customer has an atypical idea of country life. Turning the building into a piece of art and creating a space that “transmits silence” – these two points were the key points in our terms of reference,” Sergei notes. A concrete house with wooden windows – an image, as laconic as it is perfect, inspired the architects. Therefore, among the possible options for updating, they also suggested this one: leave everything as it is.
“We have preserved the concreteness of the house, its “incompleteness”, although it cost a lot of effort: the project contains complex engineering – ventilation, electrics, heating were cunningly carried out. In most rooms, there is nothing to suggest that there are appliances here – it was important for us to preserve the feeling of emptiness that captured us when we entered the house. They did not leave the original concrete – the material did not meet the proper quality. Its texture was reproduced by modern plaster and micro cement.
Artistry is in every detail: in the zigzags of the steps and the lines of the fireplace echoing them, in the wave-like bends of the concrete wall, in the adjusted forms of the furniture — the basis is the design of Olga Engel and the Edra factory. Designed specifically for the project, the ceramic tiles are folded into a geometric abstraction on the wall, the air vent looks like an art object.
The special pride of the designers is the staircase. A gigantic sculpture and a complex engineering structure, hang from the ceiling, barely touching the floor. To realize the idea, it took a long search for contractors and solutions. Kolchin and Le Atelier are planning to release an interior object that will repeat the shape of the staircase and will be exhibited as a sculpture in one of the art galleries. “The interior will get a second life in the objects that will be extracted from it,” says the architect.
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