The project site is located in a new business and residential cluster “City-2” in Presnensky district of Moscow. AURUS Residences will become the first building of the development and the tallest residential skyscraper in Russia and Europe, with a total height of 394.6 meters.

One of the problems we faced when working on the project were the initial conditions of the Moscow-City – hyperdense urban environment in which citizens hardly ever want to spend their time outdoors: strong wind currents, heavy pedestrian traffic and objective lack of space. Our main goal was to soften the harsh urban environment and to create the feeling of calm and support for the citizens without compromising the image of the place being high-status and high-tech.
The concept lies on two levels – ‘a seaside’ and ‘a base’.

“The Sea on the Rooftop”
On floor 6, we suggested to make something that has never been done before – a seaside on a rooftop from which 400-metre towers rise. We looked for a strong unequivocally positive image, like a seaside in the midst of a big city.
The natural seaside inspired the design of the entire podium. The accent is on a body of water with artificial waves. As a prototype, we chose the Baltic Sea coast and the Curonian Spit as the closest in their feel, climate and type of vegetation.
In the project, we used a wave machine to create gentle waves and the soft ‘sound of the sea’. The water basin is designed to be functional all year round: in winter, the water is heated to 5-10 °C to prevent ice formation while avoiding excess steam.
“In the space where the very words ‘landscape architecture’ and ‘Moscow-City’ used together cause people to be skeptical, we offer the concept of the ‘seaside’, which does not provoke negative reactions. The intrinsic environmental limitations—winds, lack of space, the risk of pedestrian congestion —do not go away, but instead of fighting them, we should work with them: through a strong unequivocally positive and architecturally consistent idea,” said Ivan Okhapkin, lead architect of architecture firm Basis.

“Base”
The lower level is intended for people who move quickly at high urban pace. Here, a strict composed appearance and flawless functionality are important. We managed to separate the traffic flows of different users—pedestrians, cyclists, powered transporters and automobiles. Recreational areas are designed in such a way so that they would leave useful space and at the same time ensure convenient coexistence of all the scenarios without creating conflicts between them.
We used black, intentionally split stone and natural boulders as main material. This decision stresses the austerity of the space and at the same time nods to the history of the place: in the 14th century, it was where Dorogomilovo quarries were. Stone becomes the carrier of the site memory linking a new high-rise development to its historical context.
The design features boulders of natural stone and massive street furniture made of granite, metal, and wood, which gives the feeling of solidity and dependability.
The building’s ground floor is mostly used for business: a grand residential lobby, offices lobby, retail space and restaurants. The task to streetscape design is to safely and logically organize the heavy pedestrian traffic, to account for multiple technical and city planning constraints and while doing that to create an aesthetically pleasing, comfortable and user-friendly environment for the citizens living at high pace.

The chosen solutions were dictated not just by their aesthetic, but functionality: all the landscape design elements must be sustainable, long lasting and easy to use. We designed pathways and roads as spacious as possible but human-scaled at the same time, evoking associations with natural plateaux. The vegetation is sourced taking into consideration the contour of the mountainous regions and harsh insolation conditions.
A custom line of furniture was designed specifically for the project. One of the elements was a table with the shaped glass top that resembles frozen ice on a base of solid mass of rock. The armchairs, swing chairs, benches, loungers and tables are designed for different use scenarios and adapted to the spatial and semantic concept in use.