Chaplygina
This apartment is situated in the very heart of Moscow - its historical part. Over the past hundred years, the apartment was made over several times and as a result nothing of the historic decorations was preserved. But the location itself, the view from the windows and the atmosphere of the district as well as the client’s expressed wish encouraged us to develop a design that would, to an extent possible, provide for restoring the historic content of the time when the building had been built – the 1880s. Curiously enough, after the project had been completed, the old blueprints of the building’s layout turned up to reveal that our project layout fitted the old one to a tee. An important task was to have the flat fitted out with “old-school” double-glazed windows that, unlike any other windows, allow light to reflect as if through a double lens. The doors and stucco were made to original 19th century drawings. The pattern of the parquet floor is based on a piece of the original parquet floor that was found during the dismantling of the flooring layers. This project qualifies as a restoration to the extent we have strived to recreate the atmosphere of the late 19th century.
The clients – a French couple in love with Russia that has lived here for quite some time. Both the clients and the architects agreed that this space should be furnished with Russian antique pieces, while the light fixtures should be contemporary to dilute the general atmosphere. Paintings by reputable Russian artists that our clients collected during their sojourn in Russia decorate the walls.
