Multicolour Moscow

Combining ‘Kabanchik’, typically used in Soviet pre-fab apartment blocks, with modern fibre cement panels, this housing project attempts to breathe life and colour into the surrounding area. With traditionally soulless towerblocks in varying shades of grey and beige in mind, Italian architecture firm Iosa Ghini Associati designed these exteriors with a little more joy.

They also took charge of the landscaping and communal areas, providing space for residents to bring their children and enjoy the outside. Bright reds and yellows are vibrant against the green spaces whilst the buildings are decorated in a variety of colours, with shades ranging from pale and pastel to vivid and lively.

Two 10,000 square metre courtyards sit amongst the 47 multistorey towers. Offering green spaces and multiple entry points to remove some of the claustrophobic elements of many residential tower blocks. The two sets of buildings each have a distinct personality, one lighter and brilliantly colourful, the other with darker elements and colour popping sporadically throughout. The fibre cement cladding offered an element of freedom within the design, allowing for this fun and enticing use of colour.

Many of Moscow’s suburban streets are indistinguishable from one another, but this project in Dmitrovskoe Shosse headed by Mosproekt-3 isn’t the first to attempt to use colour to distract from the monotony or decay of the city outskirts. Many have simply painted over original facades, such as in Ramenskoe where rainbows and butterflies now reign supreme, or in Belgorod where a new suburb was built with the aim of putting the residents first.