забор

In recent years, a number of architectural studios with their original author’s style have appeared in Russia. However, it is difficult to remember another company that would “fit” it into their projects as consistently and uncompromisingly as za bor does. This consistency is perhaps the only one that besides the obvious and space-marked nature of the name of the bureau (the first syllables of the names of the founders Peter Zaytsev and Arseny Borisenko) links the creativity of architects with such a rectilinear and, in general, monotonous construction as a fence (in russian it sounds as ‘za- bor’). In the works of za bor there is nothing rectilinear and monotonous. Stylistics of Zaytsev and Borisenko can be described in different ways — talking about the prevalence of complex dynamic forms, talking about the method of folds, comparing their architecture to 3D origami. But all these common words do not seem to be enough, because no professional terms and art criticism epithets will convey, for example, the degree of involvement in the process: from the very beginning, all 15 years of the studio’s existence, it was built in such a way that Arseny and Peter participated in all stages of the project, including working documentation. To exclude the very possibility of misun- derstanding between employees, which could affect the outcome. For the same reason — a very clear idea of what should happen in the end — in the works of za bor there is minimum of typical solutions. Even most of the furniture they develop individually, not to mention the complex designs and volumes with which architects are just breaking the usual rectangular logic of space. Thanks to this, Zaytsev and Borisenko have gained a colossal experience in experiments with materials, technological and engineering systems — and now, it seems, nothing is impossible for them. They know how to build a house on a game of flat planes at different angles to each other — and to di- vide the gutters not outside the walls, but inside of them. They know how to make a sheet of new

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ZA BOR ARCHITECTS