STANISLAVSKY FACTORY - John McAslan + Partners

STANISLAVSKY FACTORY
BUSINESS AND CULTURAL MASTERPLAN
MOSCOW
JOHN McASLAN + PARTNERS | A B DEVELOPMENT
1

THE STANISLAVSKY FACTORY WON THE 2012 CIVIC TRUST AWARD. THE
JUDGES COMMENDED THE SCHEME AS: ‘AN EXEMPLARY INNOVATION
IN REGENERATION, ACTING AS A CATALYST FOR FURTHER HIGH QUALITY
REGENERATION IN MOSCOW’S CENTRAL HISTORIC QUARTERS.’
IN 2011, THE STANISLAVSKY FACTORY WAS THE FIRST PROJECT IN
RUSSIA TO WIN A PRESTIGOUS RIBA INTERNATIONAL AWARD.
THE PROJECT WAS ALSO HIGHLY COMMENDED AT THE UK LANDSCAPE
INSTITUTE AWARDS. THE JUDGES COMMENTED: ‘A STRONG DESIGN
CONCEPT, OFFERING A TRULY URBAN DESIGN SOLUTION. THE LIMITED
PALETTE WORKS WELL ACROSS ALL THE SPACES, LINKING THEM BOTH
VISUALLY AND PHYSICALLY.’
CONTENTS
1.0 INTRODUCTION | 5
2.0 SITE LOCATION | 6
3.0 HISTORIC CONTEXT | 8
4.0 THE STANISLAVSKY FACTORY: MASTERPLAN | 10
5.0 STANISLAVSKY RESIDENTIAL | 14
6.0 THE HISTORIC STANISLAVSKY FACTORY | 42
7.0 THE MUSEUM AND BUSINESS CENTRE | 44
8.0 THE MUSEUM COURT | 52
9.0 THE STANISLAVSKY THEATRE | 54
10.0 THE THEATRE SQUARE | 56
“This year has seen further fruitful collaboration between Development Solutions and John
McAslan + Partners - the completion of the Olympia Park business campus in Moscow, which
also features an impressive sports centre with a 50-meter pool. Ongoing projects include the
new-build Electro office development in St Petersburg and a brown-field regeneration project
which draws on our joint experience in the regeneration of inner-city former industrial sites. Our
successful partnership has already delivered the RIBA award-winning transformation of the former
Stanislavsky Factory in Moscow, a mixed-use masterplan including commercially successful
offices and 60 luxury apartments, now recognised as one of the finest contemporary residential
developments in Moscow.”
Alexey Blanin
Chief Executive, A B Development
“We started work on the Stanislavsky Factory early in 2005 and it was one of our first projects in
Moscow for Sergey Gordeev.
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 A B Development, 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 Cities 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
2 3

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, the Stanislavsky
project’s developer, 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 copycat
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 the client 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.
4 5

2.0 SITE LOCATION
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
TAGANSKAYA
ULITSA ZEMLYANDY VAL
SADOVOYE KOL’TSOR
MARKSISTSKAYA
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 Factory.
“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,
MARTYNOVSKIY PEREULOK
ST MARTIN’S
CHURCH
ULITSA STANISLASKOGO
ULITSA ALEKSANDRA SOLZHENITSYNA
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 Factory 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 the same
client, 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 spacevalues,
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
RED SQUARE
STANISLAVSKY
FACTORY
6 7

3.0 HISTORIC CONTEXT
1746 1805 1814 1835 1856 1862-63
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.
Semion Alekseyev
becomes merchant of
the first guild in Moscow
and was given surname
Serebrenikov (Russion for
silver).
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”
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 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 METHOD
As 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 actingarguably
the most influential acting
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 born
later uses stage name
“Stanislavsky”
Educated at home
participates in amateur
theatricals at home.
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
1898 1904
1917
1938 2004 2008-10
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 Stanislavsky
1907
Gold and silver business
declines and factory
changes to manufacture
of copper for telephone
line
later, during the Red October of 1917,
Bolshevism had swept through Russia
and the Soviet Union was established.
In the violence of revolution, 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.
After Russian revolution
factory is Nationalised
in United Copper
Manufacturing Factories
1918
Stanislavsky establishes
first studies as school for
young actors and writes
My Life in Art and The
Actor
And His Work
He 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.
In 1938, just before the World War II,
Stanislavsky died holding on to the ideal
of a peaceful, socially responsible world.
Horus Capital aquires
factory buildings when
business is transferred
to town of Ivanteevka
2008-2010
8 9
All phases of
Stanislavsky
Masterplan
completed

4.0 THE STANISLAVSKY FACTORY: MASTERPLAN
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 Factory
a hotel for 26 rooms is situated. The hotel
recreates the spirit of the Stanislavsky
era with an inimitable atmosphere of
1
STANISLAVSKY FACTORY - AERIAL VIEW
1
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 RESTAURANT
An 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
1
2
3
4
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.
6
Ultra modern, multimedia installation and
general design of the Museolobby will
present an account of Stanislavsky’s life
and personality, highlighting for visitors
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 Factory
consists of office building dating
from 1980s. This building is carefully
reconstructed, creating an integral
architectural ensemble of two distinct
epochs.
STANISLAVSKY FACTORY
MASTERPLAN
10 11
5
6
PUBLIC REALM
RETAIL
HOTEL
THE STANISLAVSKY THEATRE
STANISLAVSKY RESIDENTIAL
THE BUSINESS CENTRE
GARDENS
PARKING
CAFE+RESTAURANT
MUSEUM

4.0 THE MASTERPLAN
COMPUTER-GENERATED IMAGE OF RESIDENTIAL COURTYARD
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 of the 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 - a proper respect for the setting
and significance of these cultural icons
is at the heart of our masterplan.
The initial brief at Stanislavsky was to
RESIDENTIAL COURTYARD GARDENS
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, 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.
STANISLAVSKY FACTORY - SITE PLAN
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
12 13
1
1
8
1
6
4
2
7
3
THEATRE SQUARE
MUSEUM
COURTYARD
GARDENS SQUARE
5
6

5.0 STANISLAVSKY RESIDENTIAL
“The concept for these buildings has been to create a
series of linked villa’ which step down the significant slope
of the site, offering a varied silhouette and giving a natural
ascendancy and setting for the Church.”
THE RESIDENTIAL DESIGN - CONTINUITY AND CHANGE
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 villas 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 buildings are
finished in a crisp white limestone
WEST ELEVATION
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, properly
respectful to Kazukov's masterpiece
but also demonstrating a real individual
confidence and connection to the wider
masterplan.
SOUTH ELEVATION
“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 seventeenthcentury
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
ST MARTIN’S CHURCH
R. KAZAKOV 1788
14 15

SECTION AA
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.
SECTION BB
SECTION BB
SECTION AA
16 17

18 19

20 21

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
22 23

24 25

5.1 STANISLAVSKY RESIDENTIAL INTERIORS
The apartments are very high value,
reflecting 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.
1
The apartments have high ceilings and
full height windows which maximise the
admission of natural light and the views
towards Moscow.
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
26 27
2
4
6
5
7
3
NEXT PAGE: PHOTOGRAPH
OF COMPLETED RESIDENTIAL
BUILDING FACADE
(WEST ELEVATION)

PREVIOUS PAGE: PHOTOGRAPH OF COMPLETED RESIDENTIAL COURTYARD
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 the client team
and AB Development.
PHOTOGRAPH OF COMPLETED RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS, COURTYARD FACADE (EASTERN ELEVATION)
TYPICAL BAY - STONE TYPICAL BAY - BRICK
28 29

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 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 thewaces.
RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT UNDER CONSTRUCTION 2007-2008 – MAIN CONTRACTOR: MEBE CONSTRUCTION
30 31

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
32 33

5.3 THE RESIDENTIAL COURTYARD
The 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.
34 35

36 37

5.4 THE PAVILLION
PREVIOUS PAGE:
PHOTOGRAPH OF COMPLETED PAVILLION IN
TIMBER (WEST ELEVATION)
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.
WEST ELEVATION
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
PHOTOS OF SOUTH-WEST ENTRANCE TO
THE RESIDENTIAL COURTYARD ADJACENT TO
THE PAVILLION
38 39

40 41

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.
REPAIR
PARTIAL REBUILD
RENDER
CLADDING
RESTORATION STRATEGY
Part rebuild brickwork
Repoint with lime mortar mix
Repair brickwork
Seal/paint brickwork
42 43

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.
44 45

46 47

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
48 49

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.
50 51

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.
52 53

54 55

7.2 THE BUSINESS CENTRE
LANDSCAPE GARDENS
acer autum blaze
panicum vergatum heavy metal
amelanchier lamarckii
veronica spicata glory
56 57
wild cherry
acer saccharinum
cornus stolonifera
honey locust red
prunus avium plena
euonimous europaeus

58 59

60 61

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.
62 63

9.0 THE STANISLAVSKY THEATRE
THE THEATRE SQUARE
AND ADAPTIVE REUSE
OF HISTORIC STRUCTURES
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 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.
64 65

66 67

10.0 THE THEATRE SQUARE
The timber decking in the Theatre
Square features informal seating during
the working day and provides a focus for
this public space - an area for external
performances, events and exhibitions.
The key landscape spaces feature
extensive use of timber decks and
pergolas. The intention was to soften the
predominantly hard landscape spaces
with a natural material and colour.
Particular attention was given to the
selection of native species of birch trees
which have been integrated amongst
the seating to add a naturalistic setting,
reinforcing a sense of continuity with the
overall masterplan.
68 69

70 71

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)
72 73

“Love art in yourself and not yourself in art.”
Konstantin Stanislavsky (in My Life in Art)
74 75

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.
DESIGN ARCHITECT + MASTERPLANNER EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
JOHN M C ASLAN + PARTNERS
7-9 William Road
London NW1 3ER
United Kingdom
T +44 (0)20 7313 6000
F +44 (0)20 7313 6001
E mailbox@mcaslan.co.uk
www.mcaslan.co.uk
ADM ARCHITECTS
121360, 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
AB DEVELOPMENT
125047, Russia, Moscow,
White Square,
Lesnaya str. 5, bld. C, 2nd floor
T +7(495) 287 0777
F +7(495) 287 0775
E general@abdevelopment.ru
www. abdevelopment.ru
MAIN CONTRACTOR
MEBE CONSTRUCTION
109 004 Moscow, Russia
ul. Stanislavsky, 21, Building 2,
Floor 6
T +7 (495) 580-70-35
F +7 (495) 580-70-36
E info@mebecons.com
www.mebecons.com