ASADOV ARCHITECTURAL STUDIO

By Francesco Pagliari - 16 June 2014

Founded in 1989, Moscow architecture practice Asadov handles a broad spectrum of briefs including large projects. Recently the firm has been engaged in several urban-scale architectural ventures that have taken them to the forefront of expressive experimentation. Ambitious structural design and a new take on the way materials are used have produced landmark architectures that have made a ‘monumental’ impact on the landscape. Asadov projects successfully combine technological prowess and intuitive sensitivity, rationality and modern architect traditions. Theirs is a fine balance between the lyrical and the futuristic. Their residential complexes, for the most part located in Moscow, comprise aligned same-size blocks made distinctive by their different colours and combination of materials. Designs vary from inter-connected high-rise tower blocks conveying a sense of solidity, to extensive residential complexes rendered less massive by a series of ‘slender’ volumes where high-tech metal slab cladding effectively breaks up the horizontal expanses.
Asadov’s large-scale hotel complexes - in Moscow and Astana (Kazakhstan) - are part of the modern high-tech hospitality scene with an abundance of steel and glazing. Their retail briefs also impart a strong identity: contemporary architecture complexes whose wide expanses of glazing provide transparency and internal luminosity and also create a local landmark. An ‘all glass’ example is the Mercedes-Benz headquarters in Moscow. In contrast, the glazed façades of the Land Rover and Hyundai headquarters are partially overlaid with metal slabs that have the effect of de-materialising the perimeter walls.
Completed in 2013, the mixed-use retail and business complex Olympic Hall has below ground parking and a striking aboveground volume with dramatically cantilevered upper floors that project outwards like the prow of a ship. This design and the wide use of façade...