t_mono_52(166)2017_buromoscow_e-book

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Alexander: Is it the first Tatlin Mono by Buromoscow? Then one needs to start from the beginning — from the history of the bureau. Olga: We are friends with Julia since 12 years old. Together, we were preparing to enter the Moscow Architectural In- stitute, we studied there together, then we drifted apart but were always in touch. In the early 2000s, I worked at the office of OMA and we began to work on Russian projects. We worked a lot for concern KROST then, and its co-owner Alexey Dobashin offered me to return to Moscow, to work directly. Julia: And by that moment, I had also had some 10 years of practice in various places. Ten years is a time when an archi- tect starts thinking about his or her own practice. There was a lot of work and it’s where our interests met. Alexander: How come, a lot of work? Julia: Construction boom. This was the time when many Moscow bureaus were established. One could sit in a kitch- en and work on an assignment for 70 thousand square me- ters — we had our orders before we got an office. Olga: For one year, there were four of us, we had two part- ners from Germany. Then we liked a lot a popular idea that it would be possible to work over the world from small of- fices — Buromoscow, Buroberlin, Buroshanghai… But our German colleagues found it difficult in Russia and they Olga: It is very interesting here now, and it was then. No- where else you are able to change the world around you im- mensely with only slender means. Alexander: And when did you feel that you established your- self as an office, that after the first and the second order there would definitely be the third one? That you would not need to back down? Olga: Never. We hadn’t had such feeling, and we still do not have it. During this period, the bureau changed its size sev- eral times — from two to 20 persons, vice versa. By the way, our Dutch friends say the same about themselves. Julia: But we had no doubts, we were focused on our own business from the start and we were not going to drop back. First, there was KROST, then PIK — it was the first time when they made a notice of us as of architects who worked with panels. They got interested because there appeared an idea of modernizing the integrated house-building facto- ries. The developers who owned the factories carried out tenders for new series. On that stage, all the projects were a pure paperwork, but it helped us to make the next step. Then we were approached directly by an integrated house-build- ing factory — real plant workers, serious people. They real- ized that they needed development otherwise they would cease being competitive. But what was their way of think- ing? We change an entrance, place something on top, add some color — and it will work. Olga: They always start with the color: let’s select another color, but change nothing. We explain that changing color won’t do. Then we made a research on the history of pan- el, it was carried out by Dima Zadorin, who later became chose to leave despite the construction boom. Alexander: But you were not scared, were you?