In that project, typology itself and the context, in which the house are going developed become critically important.

The site for the design is in a residential area on the outskirts of the city, a wasteland amongst two series of standard houses laid out by architects in the 1970s. Different years have imposed different marks on the site, but at the beginning of our study there was a pit that had formed there just a week before the project began - the city was getting rid of an abandoned underground car park and was preparing space for a public garden.

Krylatskoe is a 'model' USSR district, surrounded on one side by Soviet sports complexes and on the other by a reservoir and a park with a rowing channel and the largest cycling track in Moscow.

The brief of this project was to choose the function freely, based on a series of small experiments based on a personal sensory interpretation of a few small tasks. But one wanted to create a building that was relevant to the context.

It seemed an appropriate and quiet gesture to propose to the neighbourhood an urban swimming pool, which could become a new point of attraction and a socially significant place (as there were none in the neighbourhood). To give the house and the surrounding area more social scenarios, making the place for the area analogous to The Baths of Caracalla, additional features were added - a small recreation complex with a common area and a complex of saunas in the basement.

The form and architectural language are both very simple and 'quiet' - a regular grid of load-bearing columns throughout the façade, opening up only by the water.

west facade

main facade

east facade

rear facade

cross section

ground floor 1:200

bathrooms

swimming pool

second floor 1:200

basement

longitudinal section 1:200