Moscow Project Received The Architecture MasterPrize International Award

Sovremennik House on Chistye Prudy received an Honorable Mention in Architectural Design prize in The Architecture MasterPrize international award, which takes place in the USA. The architectural concept was created by Anton Khmelnitsky’s AI Studio. The Architecture MasterPrize award annually evaluates achievements in innovative design in the field of architecture, interior and landscape design.

An international jury reviews projects in 41 categories. Sovremennik House is a renovation project for a tenement building located at 13 Mashkov Street, a short walk from the eponymous Moscow theater. The project was completed in 2019. Throughout its history, the building changed its functional purpose several times, and a century later became residential again. The facade of the building has retained its neoclassical style, characteristic of buildings in the historical center of Moscow. The peculiarity of the building is the new fifth floor, which has become a striking element of the facade and a symbol of the harmonious neighborhood of historical and modern architecture.

Anton Khmelnitsky, founder of the AI Studio bureau, says, «When working with historic buildings, we always strive to preserve authentic buildings as much as possible. We are grateful to the international expert community for the high assessment of our project. The building itself is interesting not only for its architecture, but also for its history: it was built as a residential apartment building in the 19th century, but rather quickly it was converted into a bath complex. Since the 1950s, it was used as an administrative building, and in the 90s it was reconstructed „in a Soviet way“: suspended ceilings appeared inside, plastic windows were installed on the facade, and all historical interiors were destroyed. For this house, we came up with two main new elements: a covered courtyard, which made it possible to organize a separate reception for residents of the building, and private terraces for sophisticated apartments with windows overlooking a well courtyard on the second floor. We also designed the volume of the penthouse superstructure in modern style: we used panoramic glazing and Corten perforated panels. It is worth mentioning that Corten is a purely modern material, but at the same time, in terms of color, it fits extremely well into the classic Moscow city center buildings with their yellow-white and brick facades».

The project developer is Vesper. Among the key objects of the company are Bulgakov in the Patriarshie Prudy area, St. Nickolas in Nikolskaya Street, Chekhov near Hermitage Garden, Nabokov near Ostozhenka Street, Cloud Nine in Bolshaya Polyanka Street, Bunin club house in Plyuschikha Street, Sovremennik in Chistye Prudy, the Lucky block and others.