GORK JOURNAL

Igumnov Mansion

Photo: GORK
Location: Moscow, RU


Yesterday, while searching for references on sunset lighting, I stumbled upon an unpublished collection of the French embassy in Moscow in the archive. It was shot while I was stuck in traffic, so please don’t criticize the composition; the light was just too beautiful on this gingerbread house.

If I were tasked with conducting an architectural tour in Moscow, I would build routes between embassy residences. Firstly, the density of the locations, and secondly, the uniqueness of the architecture. The Igumnov Mansion on Bolshaya Yakimanka would be in my top three. It was built according to the design of Nikolai Pozdeev and has played various roles from a Brain Institute to a Pioneer House (who would have thought) until it was handed over to French ambassadors in the 1940s.

The French, by the way, did a significant amount of restoration work on the building. This gingerbread house, in accordance with all the canons of Russian terema, is adorned with Yaroslavl tiles, most of which were preserved and reinforced. However, the roof, made using a virtually lost technology called "shpiatra" (a blend of copper and zinc), had to be replaced with a modern zinc-titanium version.

@gorkjournal
Architecture Gork Photo