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STANISLAVSKY FACTORY BUSINESS AND CULTURAL MASTERPLANHORUS CAPITAL MOSCOW

JOHN McASLAN + PARTNERS | DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS

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The modern office is becoming a more and more dynamic organism. All the

customary canons of working space and organisation are being re-examined

and discarded. The new economy does not tolerate repetitions and demands

innovations and a more creative approach to each working day. This makes the

most common place routine in thriving companies less boring and tedious. In

response, at Stanislavsky we placed many activities and functions together to

dissolve the traditional boundaries between work, leisure and living.

And this is splendid!”

“Why should work and the workplace be so dull?

Sergey Gordeev, Horus Capital

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“We started work on the Stanislavsky Factory early in 2005 and it was one of our first projects in Moscow for Horus Capital.

The owner of Horus is Sergey Gordeev, who is a highly respected and cultured patron of russian architecture and art. It was really pure luck that we found him or he found us. Either way he and his colleague Alexey Blanin, the Chairman of Development Solutions, remain very much at the centre of our relationship with the City. To a London-based practice with an international portfolio, Moscow appeared a mysterious place and we were intrigued by its unique social, historic and physical context. It has a completely different urban scale to many European City’s and it now has the great potential to repair, regenerate and rediscover its remarkable history.

In this regard, although we admired many of the great historic and modernist buildings in the Moscow, we felt International architects have struggled to read the City and many recent buildings have been realised as “quick fit” commodities rather than rooted in a thoughtful analysis of the local context and need. At Stanislavsky, we arrived with no pre-conceptions, no solutions and a real intent to listen and understand and what followed was the creation of a unique place in a unique city. It is a small but important part of Moscow’s continuing Renaissance as a truly great world city.”

Aidan Potter, Design Director, John McAslan + Partners

1.0 INTRODUCTION | 52.0 SITE LOCATION | 63.0 HISTORIC CONTEXT | 84.0 THE STANISLAVSKY FACTORY: MASTERPLAN | 105.0 STANISLAVSKY RESIDENTIAL | 146.0 THE HISTORIC STANISLAVKY FACTORY | 427.0 THE MUSEUM AND BUSINESS CENTRE | 448.0 THE MUSEUM COURT | 529.0 THE STANISLAVSKY THEATRE | 5410.0 THE THEATRE SQUARE | 56

CONTENTS

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

The Stanislavsky scheme has invented a new strategy for sensitive regenerative interventions within half a mile of the Kremlin and Red Square, in a city planning climate that lacks a comprehensively detailed approach to most forms of urban development. There is no urban planning Best Practice to refer to; and, until the completion of the Stanislavsky Centre redevelopment, no innovative contemporary regeneration project for planners or architects to cite.

The regulatory situation is volatile and the city’s judgement of redevelopment proposals as “good” or “bad” remains relatively random. The preservation or thoughtful regeneration of Moscow’s historic fabric is usually fought for by beleaguered heritage groups, and a handful of historically sensitive developers. Moscow’s planners, in search of “World City” status, are more interested in instant western-style urban architectural makeovers. Significantly, Sergey Gordeev, chairman of the Stanislavsky project’s developers Horus Capital, has supported the preservation of threatened Modernist architectural icons such as the Melnikov House.

At the Stanislavsky Factory, one word – complexity – sums up the challenge to transform the site so that it retained its historical gravitas, yet became a distinct and pioneering mixed-use environment in Moscow. John McAslan

+ Partners’ scheme is based on a series of architectural and spatial contrasts tied together by a landscape scheme that has brought coherence to an almost implacably cluttered site. It was notable that, as the main interventions took shape, urban parcels opposite the main street-facing range of Stanislavsky buildings, became subject to copy-cat regeneration schemes by other developers.

Even a bullet-point history of the Stanislavsky site demonstrates the complexity of the existing architecture and site plan that confronted JMP’s Urban Design Director Aidan Potter. By the end of the 18th century, the Aleksayev family’s mercantile success included a gold and silver thread factory that was re-planned at the end of the 19th century by Konstantin Stanislavsky, whose equal interest in theatre led to the construction of the so-called 1912 Building, cable and tungsten filament factories, and the Moscow Arts Theatre on the site. In the Soviet era, three more industrial buildings were built. Apart from the Theatre, and the proprietors’ classically styled 19th century private homes along the main street edge, the site is dominated by industrial buildings set out in a crudely ad hoc way. When bought by Horus Capital in 2004, it was mostly derelict; even the theatre, where Method Acting was invented by Konstantin Stanislavsky, was ruinous; parts of the site – and many of the interiors – recalled scenes from Crime and Punishment.

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2.0 SITE LOCATION

access. The regeneration treatments for the six buildings included re-cladding three of them; converting the decrepit 19th century houses into a restaurant and hotel complex; and designing newbuild apartment blocks of an elegant but restrained architectural manner on the edge of the site facing an historic church. Because of the ad hoc development of the site over time, with no two buildings parallel, the site had no formal logic. This made JMP’s landscaping scheme crucial to the way the scheme was held together internally, in particular so that its commercial and domestic elements remained strongly connected with the theatre’s iconic cultural presence. The internal garden tableaux are refreshing focal-points in a coolly graphic paving scheme that has not only added colour and texture at key points, but brought a return of bird’s, bees and other insects to the heart of the Stanislavsky Centre.

“The client was completely committed to doing something different, something intuitive, something not done before in Moscow,” explained Aidan Potter. “They shared with us an emotional commitment to the history of the site, and in the idea of

the 19th and 21st centuries living together. Even the main lobby of the 1912 building, now offices, became a gallery and museum about the history of the site. The client was incredibly patient, and when we advised them, for example, that whole sections of facing bricks on the theatre facade were useless, they had many hundreds of them carefully chipped out by hand and replaced.”

The Stanislavsky Centre scheme is now regarded by both Moscow planners and heritage groups as an exemplary innovation in regeneration, and the scheme has generated further comparable projects by Horus Capital, and by other developers – the beginning of a critical mass of high quality regeneration in Moscow’s central historic quarters. The ambition of the Stanislavsky project has already demonstrated one important form of sustainability: its occupation, and space-values, remained untouched by the effects of the 2008 economic crash, and it is considered a signature mixed-use development, whose occupants in 2009 range from professionals and wealthy Muscovites, to multinationals such as Panasonic.

AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH OF MOSCOW

WHICH ILLUSTRATES THE LOCATION OF THE STANISLAVSKY FACTORY

JMP’s interventions were developed and construction began, at a time when labour was plentiful and cheap in Moscow: it would have been relatively easy to clear most of the site, apart from the 1912 Building and the Theatre, and treat it as an urban tabula rasa on which to import “instant” contemporary architecture; The city planners might well have preferred this approach, not least because public consultation is not the norm in most heritage or regeneration projects in Moscow. But JMP’s Client wanted to achieve a great deal more than that – a regeneration in which the history of the site remained evident. This demanded a mixture of restoration, repair, reprogramming, and newbuild, retaining and re-using existing buildings as offices, apartments, or restaurants; it required the testing and subsequent decontamination of land on the site; and, perhaps most interestingly, the theatre was revived as a premier Arts Centre – which, by 2009, had again became a reactor core for radical theatre productions.

JMP’s first step was to establish a masterplan for services, parking, landscaping, and public and private

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StaniSlavSky Factory

red Square

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3.0 HISTORIC CONTEXT

The STaniSlavSky FacTory: MoScow in 1854

The original factory at Stanislavskogo Street, was established in 1854-56 and was a family business which manufactured gold and silver thread. The business had been established in 1746 by Aleksy Petrov in Moscow and it flourished providing materials to the Aristocracy and the Church.

The establishment of the new factory was followed with the birth in 1863 of Alexsey Petrov’s great grandson Konstantin Sergeyevich Alekseyev who later changed his name to Konstantin Stanislavsky. Konstantin was educated at home and entered the family business in 1882 working on the shop floor, studying the machinery and basics of metallurgical production. During this period, the young Stanislavsky established the Moscow Art Theatre located in a Reading Room in The Factory with an assembled theatrical troupe consisting of factory workers.

At that time in Moscow, the foundation of a theatre was not supported by the authorities which suppressed civil and cultural liberties, to avoid censure therefore the theatre was created under the title “ Rogozhskvoe Department of first Moscow Society of Soberness”

The first performances were reported in all the main newspapers and their popularity led to the construction of the original theatre on the site in 1900 designed to seat 250 people at a cost of 50,000 rubles. The theatre closed in 1909 and Stanislavsky moved on to create the Maly Theatre Group and was to establish himself with a world reputation as a director and acting theorist.

STaniSlavSky and The STaniSlavSky MeThodAs founder of the first acting “system”, co founder of the Moscow Art Theatre (1897-), and an eminent practitioner of the naturalist school of thought, Konstantin Stanislavsky unequivocally challenged traditional notions of the dramatic process, establishing himself as one of the most pioneering thinkers in modern theatre.

Stanislavsky coined phrases such as “stage direction”, laid the foundations of modern opera and gave instant renown to the works of such talented writers and playwrights as Maksim Gorki and Anton Chekhov. His process of character development, the “Stanislavsky Method”, was the catalyst for method acting-arguably the most influential acting system on the modern stage and screen. Such

renowed schools of acting and directing as the Group Theatre (1931-1941) and the Actors Studio (1947-) are a legacy of Stanislavsky pioneering vision.Using the Moscow Art Theatre as his conduit, Stanislavsky developed his own unique system of training wherein actors would research the situation created by the script, break down the text accordingly to their character’s motivations and recall their own experiences, thereby causing actions and reactions according to these motivations. The actor would ideally make his motivations for acting identical to those of the character in the script. He could then replay these emotions and experiences in the role of the character in order to achieve a more genuine performance. The 17th Century melodrama Tsar Fyodor was the first productions in which these techniques were showcased.

Stanislavsky clearly could not separate the theatre from its social context. He viewed theatre as a medium with great social and educational significance. During the civil unrest leading up to the first Russian Revolution in 1905, Stanislavsky courageously reflected social issues on the stage. Twelve years later, during the Red October of 1917, Bolshevism had swept through Russia and the Soviet Union was established. In the violence of revolution,

Konstantin Stanislavsky’s great-grandfather Alekseyev (1724-1775) comes to Moscow and establishes trading business.

1785 - Stanislavsky’s great-grandfather (1751-1823) Semion Alekseyev establishes a gold and silver thread factory in Yakimanka district of Mosocw. The business is successful providing materials to the court of Katherine the Great.

1746 1805 1814 1835 1856 1862-63

Semion Alekseyev becomes merchant of the first guild in Moscow and was given surname Serebrenikov (Russion for silver).

Factory burnt down in great Moscow fire of 1814 and Alekseyev opens new factory in Taganskaya district of Moscow. The business continues to grow supplying gold and silver thread to the church.

After Semion Alekseev’s death his wife Vera oversees business which enters international market and by 1843 the factory annual production reached 500 thousand roubles.

The business passes to Stanislavsky’s grandfather and the factory moves to Malaya Alekseyevskaya street. Sales increase after coronation of Alexander II.

Vladimir Alekseyev dies but business wins medal of honour at international exhibition London.1863- Konstantin Alekseyev is bornlater uses stage name “Stanislavsky” Educated at home participates in amateur theatricals at home.

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Lenin’s personal protection saved Stanislavsky from being eliminated along with Czardom. The USSR maintained allegiance to Stanislavsky and his socially conscious method of production and his theatre began to produce plays containing Soviet propaganda.

In 1918, Stanislavsky established the First Studio as a school for young actors and in his later years wrote two books, My Life in Art and The Actor and His Work. Both have been translated into over 20 languages. Throughout his earnest professional and educational leadership, Stanislavsky spread his knowledge to numerous understudies, leaving a legacy that cannot be overstated.In 1938, just before the World War II, Stanislavsky died holding on to the ideal of a peaceful, socially responsible world.

1898 1938 2004 2008-1019171904

Stanislavsky starts Moscow Art Theatre using Assembled troupe of factory workers. First productions were given in reading room of factory.

Grand opening of factory theatre and play “Forest” directed by Stanislavsky1907Gold and silver business declines and factory changes to manufacture of copper for telephone line

After Russian revolution factory is Nationalised in United Copper Manufacturing Factories1918Stanislavsky establishes first studies as school for young actors and writes My Life in Art and The ActorAnd His WorkHe visits America and becomes founder of new ‘realist’ school of drama

Stanislavsky dies in 1938 just before WWII. The factory continues and is amalgamated into “Elektroprovod” industries.

Horus Capital aquires factory buildings when business is transferred to town of Ivanteevka2008-2010

All phases of Stanislavsky Masterplan completed

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1. THE RESIdENTIAL HOUSE The residential development is a new exclusive living quarter within the overall masterplan. The complex consists of five villas varying in height from three to six storeys and contains fifty apartments with a variety of layouts and panoramic views of local and distant Moscow landmarks. The buildings are finished in limestone and brickwork and are designed to fit comfortably in the historic context of the district.

2. THE HOTEL In the historical architectural monument of 1840 belonging to the Stanislavsky Centre a hotel for 26 rooms is situated. The hotel recreates the spirit of the Stanislavsky era with an inimitable atmosphere of

a boutique-hotel. The four-star hotel is equipped to accommodate guests from all over the world and touring theatrical troupes on daily basis.

3. THE RESTAURANTAn exclusive 170 seats restaurant is located in the historical building namely architectural monument of the 19th century which was reconstructed.

4. THE THEATRE In 1898 the famous Moscow Artistic Theatre founded by K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko was opened. After only a few months, amateur performances with the participation of

workers and Stanislavsky were held on The Gold and Silver Thread Factory. In 1904 the building with a permanent stage and containing all the latest improvements of technology was constructed. One hundred years later the theatre is being revived! After a reconstruction the historical building preserved in good condition until nowadays is ready to welcome the theatre-goers. The new stage with 200 seats will host most of the popular Moscow theatres.

5. THE MUSEUM Refurbishment of an iconic building converted into a combined museum and lobby, a café, and a business centre.

4.0 THE STANISLAVSKY FACTORY: MASTERPLAN

STANISLAVSKY FACTORY - AERIAL VIEW

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Ultra modern, multimedia installation and general design of the Museolobby will account for Stanislavsky’s life and personality and will remind the visitors of the fact that The Gold and Silver Thread Factory which belonged to Stanislavsky’s family was located in this unique building many years ago.

6. THE BUSINESS-CENTRE Another part of the Stanislavsky Centre consists of office building dated from 1980s. This building is carefully reconstructed, contrasting in the spirit of time but at the same time creating the integral architectural ensemble of the two epochs.

STANISLAVSKY FACTORY MASTERPLAN

RETAIL

PARKING

HOTEL

THE STANISLAVSKY THEATRE

STANISLAVSKY RESIDENTIAL

PUBLIC REALM

CAFE+RESTAURANT

GARDENS

MUSEUM

THE BUSINESS CENTRE

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4.0 THE MASTERPLAN

The Stanislavsky Factory has an extraordinary context. It is a complex miscellany of different buildings from different periods located in a large urban block approximately 38,395m², (3.84ha.) to the south west of the City core and the Garden Ring.

Originally an industrial complex the site is dominated by the original factory built in 1912 and the original Stanislavsky Theatre, birthplace of Konstantin Stanislavsky’s original theatre ensemble and the School of Method Acting.

Directly adjacent to the site there is also the fabulous St Martin’s Church built in 1788 by Rodion Kazukov which is one city’s finest Neo-Classical buildings justly famous for its simplicity and elegance.This span of nearly two hundred years of architecture and culture anchors the site in the history of the city and the proper respect for the setting and significance of these cultural icons is at heart of our work on the new masterplan.

The initial brief at Stanislavsky was to create elevational proposals for the re cladding of existing rather poor commercial buildings constructed in the 1950’s. This was an odd commission in isolation but it quickly became a larger project to produce a unifying masterplan with proposals for landscape, refurbishment of existing historic buildings and the design of new buildings within the entire estate.

There is no unifying geometry within the development and without intervention the sense of enclosure and spatial definition is fractured and incomplete.

This circumstance led us to design a new landscape within the site with its own geometry and order to bring an identity to its interior spaces. It is not an urban space but rather a series of linked gardens and the “greening” of the masterplan was an important theme throughout the project.These gardens are actually integrated into a complex series of internal car parks,

COMPUTER-GENERATEd IMAGE OF RESIdENTIAL COURTYARd

routes and building entrances and the greatest challenge of the landscape plan was resolve the operational demands of these functions without compromising the bigger vision. Stanislavsky is much richer than just a landscaped car park and this human quality comes from the setting of a series of landscape set pieces which provide places to sit, chat with friends or simply enjoy the plants and wildlife.

RESIdENTIAL COURTYARd GARdENS

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KEY:

1. RESIdENTIAL dEVELOPMENT

2. HOTEL

3. RESTAURANT

4. THEATRE

5. THE FACTORY: MUSEUM, CAFE, LOBBY, ANd OFFICES

6. OFFICES

7. BOILER HOUSE

8. THE PAVILLION

STANISLAVSKY FACTORY - SITE PLAN

MUSEUMCOURTYARd

GARdENS SQUARE

THEATRE SQUARE

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WEST ELEVATION

The most challenging part of the masterplan was the design and integration of the new residential buildings which are directly adjacent to Kazukov's St Martin's Church. The concept for these buildings has been to create a series of linked Villa's which step down the significant slope of the site offering a varied silhouette and giving a natural ascendancy and setting for the Church. The style is understated and simple. The essence of the architecture is the quality of the materials and the proportion of individual parts within the composition.

The reSidenTial deSign - conTinuiTy and change

5.0 STANISLAVSKY RESIDENTIAL

The buildings are finished in a crisp white limestone and a contrasting semi vitrified brick. This considered essay of textures, light and the creation of simple cubic volumes to articulate the buildings is really the essence of the design. The buildings are arranged around a series of stepping gardens and are linked through a dramatic ramped sequence to the Theatre Square and Cherry Orchard. The residences at Stanislavsky are modern but also timeless, they are properly respectful to the Kazukov's masterpiece but they also have a real individual confidence and connection to the wider masterplan.

“The concept for these buildings has been to create a series of linked Villa’s which step down the significant slope of the site offering a varied silhouette and giving a natural ascendancy and setting for the Church.”

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SOUTH ELEVATION

ST MARTIN’S CHURCHR. KAZAKOV 1788

“In the creation of neoclassical Moscow, Matvei Kazacov was joined by younger architects such as Rodion Kazakov (no relation), who distinguished himself above all in the design of churches. The largest among them is the church of Martin the Confessor (1782-93) in the Taganka district, a monumental exercise in column and mass, that despite its luxury projects a cold monochromatic impression - particularly in comparison with the polychrome of the seventeenth-century churches in the same area. The appearance of this superbly constructed church might suggest that Russian Orthodoxy had indeed become the captive of the bureaucratic formalism of the Holy Synod and of wealth without a popular spiritual following.”

William Craft Brumfield

A History of Russian Architecture

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reSPonding To SiTe ToPograPhy

The development sits on three levels of extensive basements providing dedicated parking to all the apartments. The formation of these basements and the provision of stepping landscaped decks between the buildings was a significant technical and engineering challenge. The articulation of the site topography and the resolution of multiple movements between levels was a key design feature of the development.

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5.0 STANISLAVSKY RESIDENTIAL

STANISLAVSKY RESIdENTIAL - GROUNd FLOOR PLAN

STANISLAVSKY RESIdENTIAL - TYPICAL FLOOR PLAN

PHOTOGRAPH OF COMPLETEd RESIdENTIAL

COURTYARd LOOKING THROUGH THE RESIdENTIAL

BUILdINGS TOWARdS ST MARTINS CHURCH

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5.1 STANISLAVSKY RESIDENTIAL INTERIORS

The apartments are very high value given the excellent location and quality of the setting of the masterplan. The studies below illustrate the key living spaces within the development many of which will enjoy fabulous views of the local and distant Moscow landmarks. The approach has

been to create modern living spaces to suit the demand for contemporary open plan design.The apartments have high ceilings and full height windows which maximise the admission of natural light and the views towards Moscow.

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STANISLAVSKY RESIdENTIAL TYPICAL HOUSING BLOCK

1 - LIVING ROOM SPACE OF PENTHOUSE

2 - dINING SPACE OF PENTHOUSE

3 - RECEPTION SPACE

4 - TYPICAL dINING SPACE OF THE TWO BEdROOM FLATS

5 - LIVING SPACES OF TWO BEdROOM FLAT

6 - TYPICAL BATHROOM

7 - TYPICAL MASTER SUITE

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BUILdING FACAdE

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AdM TECHNICAL dRAWINGS OF BUILdINGS

ELEVATIONS FOR CONSTRUCTION

The facades were constructed from limestone and semi vitrified Wittmunder bricks imported from Germany. Although the elevation language is very simple the buildings required detail coursing and brick setting out construction drawings to ensure alignment between the stone and brickwork variants.

The above technical drawings prepared by the executive architect ADM in Moscow were part of their comprehensive suite of production information which was developed in a close and highly successful collaboration with the JMP team in London. ADM provided a well resolved and crafted interpretation of the detail design intent drawings and made all the statutory submissions directed by Horus Capital / Development Solutions.

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PHOTOGRAPH OF COMPLETEd RESIdENTIAL BUILdINGS, COURTYARd FACAdE (EASTERN ELEVATION)

TYPICAL BAY - STONE TYPICAL BAY - BRICK

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5.2 STANISLAVSKY RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION

These photographs show the extensive basement construction that is located beneath the residential buildings. These basements provide secure car parking for the apartments which minimises the area of car parking at grade which created more space for landscape. There was a significant engineering challenge to

RESIdENTIAL dEVELOPMENT UNdER CONSTRUCTION 2007-2008

stabilise deep basements and maintain continuity of services across the site. The basement construction also had to accommodate the increased loadings required for extensive tree planting and landscaping. The building frame and structure were concrete offering flats slabs throughout the internal spaces.

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AdM TECHNICAL dRAWINGS OF BRICK FACAdE

SHOWING dIFFERENT TYPES OF BRICKS USEd

ANd THE LAYOUT ARRANGEMENTS

PHOTOGRAPH OF COMPLETEd FACAdE

SHOWING THE TWO MAIN MATERIALS:

STONE ANd BRICK

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5.3 THE RESIDENTIAL COURTYARDThe residential courtyards are linked to the main landscape spaces within the masterplan with a series of ramps and stairs. The significant changes in level are articulated with planted retaining walls to moderate the scale and provide outlook from the lower apartments.

The landscaping within the courts was designed to provide colour and form throughout the years seasons with particular attention paid to the gardens in winter and the impact of extensive snow cover.

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5.4 THE PAVILLION

This small timber building sits on the extreme corner of the site adjacent to St Martin’s Church by Kazukov.

The site was originally occupied by a single storey timber heritage building and the initial condition of the planning consent for the residential buildings, involved the reconstruction of an exact heritage facsimile on the site.

Further negotiations with the authorities allowed this to be replaced with a contemporary timber building which has the same plan form and section but is a modern construction.

The resulting building is a characterful modern statement which defers to the scale of St Martin’s but offers a vivid and abstract counterpoint to its setting. The building is to be occupied by a health club and is part of an animated ground floor of retail activities within the development.

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PHOTOGRAPH OF COMPLETEd PAVILLION IN

TIMBER (WEST ELEVATION)

PHOTOS OF SOUTH-WEST ENTRANCE TO

THE RESIdENTIAL COURTYARd AdJACENT TO

THE PAVILLION

WEST ELEVATION

GROUNd FLOOR PLAN

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6.0 THE HISTORIC STANISLAVSKY FACTORY

These photographs show the condition of the original historic properties at Stanislavsky at the commencement of the project in 2005. Many of the existing brick facades were badly damaged where successive years of neglect and the harsh climate had caused significant spalling of the brickwork surface.

An exact condition survey was undertaken and a brickwork repair methodology prepared that structured a major fabric repair contract. In many respects the transformation of the historic buildings is the real triumph of Stanislavsky and it offers a paradigm of adaptive reuse in the city.

REPAIRPARTIAL REBUILdRENdERCLAddING

RESTORATION STRATEGYPart rebuild brickwork Repoint with lime mortar mixRepair brickworkSeal/paint brickwork

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7.0 THE MUSEUM AND THE BUSINESS CENTRE The Stanislavsky Estate contains many existing historic buildings with different qualities and from different periods. The centre piece is the original factory constructed in 1912 located on Stanislavskogo Street. This confident four storey brick building is distinguished by 24 bays of a grand architectural order of vertical pilasters which give an impressive scale and presence to the Building. The

strategy that was adopted for the partial reconstruction of the business building adjacent to the factory was to reproduce the strong vertical rhythm but to express it in a more abstract contemporary language. This has created a modern but contextual building that defers to the setting of the original factory whilst providing a great new identity for modern business units within the masterplan.

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7.1 THE MUSEUM AND THE BUSINESS CENTRE MAIN LOBBY

Many of the historic interiors within the existing buildings have been retained and refurbished. They often contain bold and muscular structures which are a vivid memory of the industrial legacy of the Estate. These features have been carefully integrated into the new commercial uses and the resulting volumes are dramatic and also highly flexible.

In the main entrance lobby of the original factory building double height “gold” metal mesh screens evoke the original manufacturing output of the factory and provide a wonderful introduction to the masterplan.

The interior lobby of the main building was designed by Casson Mann Architects and was themed to be a celebration of the life and work of Stanislavsky arranged within a dramatic double height interior volume which forms the entrance to the office development.

ENTRANCE LOBBY INTERIORS BY CASSON MANN ARCHITECTS

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7.2 THE BUSINESS CENTRE BUILDINGS

In the heart of the estate there were a series of elemental industrial buildings built in the 1950’s. These buildings had interesting steel structures but were completely dilapidated in terms of their original external fabric and services.The masterplan involved the adaptive re-use of these ‘structures’ to create characterful commercial space. The building illustrated on this page was transformed to provide a multi-volume atria within which were located floating platforms of meeting rooms and breakout spaces.

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7.2 THE BUSINESS CENTRE LANDSCAPE GARDENS

The landscape is the glue that unifies the parts of Stanislavsky into one continuous spatial experience. The real intent was to reintroduce “nature” into the heart of the development with colour, textures, wildlife and a registration of the change of the seasons and time.

The key concept that structures this approach is the use of a strong organising geometry to provide a framework for each of the linked green spaces within the plan. This sliding arrangement of linear planes of alternating hard and soft landscape provides an identity to the often discordant internal geometries within the development and allows a “human

measure” to be introduced into the large anonymous spaces between the existing buildings. Although there was a functional requirement for large parking and hard landscape areas for servicing and congregation the fundamental objective has been to ‘green’ and soften the internal space through extensive tree planting and the introduction of contrasting evergreen shrubs and biannual planting.

The resulting landscaping is very much a series of linked gardens. It offers a real sanctuary to the workers, visitors and residents of the local neighbourhood and is a setting and back drop for all activities that occur within the masterplan.

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7.2 THE BUSINESS CENTRE LANDSCAPE GARDENS

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acer autum blaze

panicum vergatum heavy metal

amelanchier lamarckii

veronica spicata glory

wild cherry

acer saccharinum

cornus stolonifera

honey locust red

prunus avium plena

euonimous europaeus

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8.0 THE MUSEUM COURT The courtyard space is located directly adjacent to the Theatre Square. The original brickwork facades were very badly damaged and were simply refurbished using insulated render. This gives a different character to the spaces and the white finish allows for more daylight to be reflected into the narrow confines of the courtyard. The court is “softened” through the use of a timber seating deck which links the court to the Theatre Square and provides a lunch time destination for the office workers.

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9.0 THE STANISLAVSKY THEATRE

The conservation and repair of historic properties is a key part of the masterplan at Stanislavsky Factory.

At the heart of masterplan is the refurbishment of the original Stanislavsky Theatre and the creation of a new public space dedicated to its setting and access.

The Theatre is the primary cultural centre piece and destination within the scheme. It is also a beautifully repaired historic building and its adaptive reuse both as building and as a new theatre is the very

The TheaTre Square and adaPTive reuSe oF hiSToric STrucTureS

soul of the development. The approach has been to repair fabric but also to ensure that all historic buildings are brought back into active reuse. This has given vitality to the project as History comes alive and the counterpoint between new buildings and new uses adjacent to old buildings and new uses is a wonderful quality of the development. In this regard Stanislavsky is a highly sustainable project where every part of the existing fabric has been re-used whenever possible to minimise waste and costs of reconstruction.

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10.0 THE THEATRE SqUARE

The timber stage in the Theatre Square is a focus to the public space. It provides seating for the use of space by the public and is an external performance space for events and exhibition.

The key landscape spaces feature the extensive use of timber decks and pergola’s. The intention was to soften the predominantly hard landscape spaces with a natural material and colour. The decking in the theatre square provides a setting for external performances and an informal seating focus to the space during the working day. Particular case was given to the selection of native species of birch trees which have been integrated into the seating to add a naturalistic setting for space which reinforces its continuity with the overall masterplan.

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10.0 THE THEATRE SqUARE“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.”

William Shakespeare

(from As You Like It 2/7)

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“Love art in yourself and not yourself in art.”

Konstantin Stanislavsky (in My Life in Art)

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JOHN MCASLAN + PARTNERS7 William RoadLondon NW1 3ERUnited Kingdom T +44 (0)20 7313 6000 F +44 (0)20 7313 6001 E mailbox@mcaslan.co.uk www.mcaslan.co.uk

dESIGN ARCHITECT + MASTERPLANNER EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT dEVELOPMENT MANAGER

The redevelopment of the historic Stanislavsky factory and

theatre site in Moscow has unquestionably been

John McAslan + Partners’ most unusual and challenging

city centre regeneration project. Within a 4ha area of

thoroughly degraded building stock and urban junk-space,

it required a meticulous stitching together of building repair,

new landscaping, and newbuild to create a now vivid mixed-

use environment that is unique in the city.

AdM ARCHITECTS121360, Russia, Moscow, Petrovka Street, 17, stroenie 2 T +7(495) 625-27-79 +7(495) 628-49-50 +7(495) 621-14-77 +7(495) 625-24-89 E ADM@ADM-arch.ru

dEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS 125047, Russia, Moscow, Ducat Place III, Gasheka str. 6T +7(495) 287 0777F +7(495) 287 0775E general@developmentsolutions.ruwww.developmentsolutions.ru