Modern glass housing in the capital is a rarity sought after by young professionals – but modern structures are showing signs of spring up after Sergei Polonsky’s Federation Tower received approval after authorities threatened to pull the plug.

«Moscow is still grasped by ‘capitalist constructivism’, and it’s hard to change society’s perception of glass buildings and make them match neighbouring buildings,» said Yury Kochetkov, a real estate analyst at Investcafe. «The Moscow River embankment may be the best place for them.»

New glass projects designed by foreign construction companies have been put on hold for a variety of official reasons.

British architect Norman Foster’s plans for a huge glass building replicating an orange to replace the Central House of Artists have been frozen, while a multi-functional Crystal Island in Nagatinskaya Meadow have also stalled.

But despite the slow speed of construction following the crisis, glass houses are beginning to appear. New skyscrapers, noticeably near Moscow City on the Krasnopresnenskaya Naberezhnaya, often use glass facades as they weigh less, while high-prestige country houses can offer views of the landscape.

These modern constructions tend to be more popular with up-and-coming young people, who are more daring in contemporary design.

«Older and more conservative people won’t choose dwellings with panoramic glazing – they feel unprotected in it,» said Alexander Ziminsky, director of the elite real estate department of Penny Lane Realty.

Soviet skyscrapers

Glass constructions did come into vogue briefly during the Soviet period. The Cosmos Hotel on Prospekt Mira, Hydroproyekt’s building on Leningradsky Prospekt, and a book store on Novy Arbat are the oldest see-through structures in the city.

The heavy traffic and muck in the city centre can discourage Muscovites from buying flats with panoramic views, but new technology in glass construction helps prevent dust getting in and dirt sticking to the windows.

Residents also have concerns about the strength of the buildings. To dispel these fears Mirax Group owner Sergei Polonsky once threw a chair into the glass wall when presenting apartments at the threatened Federation Tower.

Huge strides have been made in construction, and better designs could help attract more people to the buildings.

«Modern glass facades don’t have to look like fish tanks,» said Ilya Martinov, deputy head of the project management department at Don-Stroi Invest. «They can have complex forms and may vary in colour to make the sky-scrapers look lighter.»

Green credentials

While glass walls help save on electricity bills by letting more sunlight in, they can also require more energy to control the temperature.

«Flats with panoramic glazing are much more expensive to live in – in winter glass and metal constructions let the heat out, and in summer it’s expensive to cool them down,» said Anna Levitova, managing partner at Evans. But newer constructions have argon between the glazing, which helps cut heat loss in half.

They also require more cleaning – around two to three times a year – which costs between 50 and 100 roubles ($1.78-$3.56) per square metre. If residents team up to pay for industrial alpinists to scale a building it can work out cheaper.

And newer buildings often have more energy saving technology, which can help cut down on carbon emissions and save on bills.

«Glass buildings can be really sustainable,» said Marina Gubanova, director of the equities managing department at Capital Group. «For example houses in the Legend of Tsvetnoi use energy saving technologies like automatic heating and lighting systems and free cooling. And of course, natural light coming through the windows is also more eco-friendly.»

And while energy saving may be a concern for environmental reasons, penny pinching on the purchase price is tough as glass apartments tend to cost three to four times more than normal housing.

One square metre with an outer glass wall will set you back from $5,000 to $35,000, while apartments run from $5 million to $30 million.

Out of the city

Although the majority of panoramic flats are located in skyscrapers near the city centre, there are also dwellings in the country that can offer big windows and a spacious, airy atmosphere closer to the ground.

Some of them use modern implementations of «fachwerk» – a German term for framework – which allows buildings to have 60 per cent of the walls made of glass.

«It’s worth building country houses from glass in a large open landscape with great country views, various elevations and water basins,» said Oleg Stupenkov, general director of Miel- Investments in low-storey buildings. «Each of these houses employs a very complex system of heating and ventilation to prevent windows from condensation. But living in it is not very easy due to having many rules governing how to use it.»

Source: The Moscow Times