Architect：Brusnika Company, Russia KCAP Nöfer Architekten

Location：Печерская улица, 2, Екатеринбург, Russia

Project Year：2024

Category：Apartments

Na Nekrasova, a new residential quarter, is located in the centre of Yekaterinburg. Despite its central location, the area has always served an industrial function with utility blocks and private garages. Located nearby are a railway with a train park, office buildings, a metro station and a boating station on the quay. In 2020, Brusnika launched a redevelopment project aiming to integrate this area into the urban fabric, making it well appointed, safe and attractive for city-dwellers.

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The plot master plan was designed by a Dutch KCAP bureau. The architects divided the area into four separate residential blocks located around a linear park. One side of the park area abuts onto a pedestrian bridge and a ravine with disused railroad tracks, which is conceived as a prospective area for sport and recreation. On the other side, the plot is linked to a city square and a regular park next to the Railway Administration. This building, constructed in Soviet Neo-Classic style, defined the character of the whole project and affected its space design. To match the context, Brusnika was looking for a project architect that would create contemporary formal architecture relevant for the time and existing historic ensemble. In 2018, it tendered an international competition to design a collection of city blocks. A German bureau Nöfer Architekten, chosen as the winning project, designed the quarter.

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The project combines two building typologies — high-rises and C-shaped row houses overlooking the park. The height of the construction perimeter-wise is 7 to 9 storeys, bathing courtyards in daylight and adding extra transparency to the space between the buildings. Towers of 17 to 25 storeys are designed as architectural landmarks. Clearly visible from afar, they are strikingly lit in the dark, locating the quarter in the cityscape.

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The block facades are accomplished in Modern Classic style. Despite strict exteriors that they create, multiple traditional elements composing the buildings add variety and maintain the general architectural context. The facades are finished with ecru stucco. In the zone of human perception, the house basements are clad with travertine. Depending on the house height, the travertine belts change their proportions — from three to five floors in high-rises to two lower floors in row houses. The top sections of the blocks are articulated in different ways. The upper floors of row houses are shifted from the entire structure and converted into attics to host two-level flats and penthouses. The roofs accommodate private terraces for top floor residents. The towers are topped with finials designed as a crown-like colonnade with more terraces and double height apartment spaces. For a more delicate look, the architects create verticals by adding elegant rows of faceted bay windows and French balconies with neat metal railings. This division creates an illusion that several volumes co-exist within one, making the building visually better perceptible, neat and compact. Numerous ledges and recesses on facades create intense light and shade at different times of the day.