“…” (Nikolai Malinin, Headquarters

If the orthodox communist mother from the German film Goodbye Lenin were now pulled to Moscow, she probably would have been able to survive a lot. Gritting her teeth, would endure bowling with aquaparks (all for health’s sake), would put up with multiplexes and nightclubs (some kind of culture), restaurants and fast food (I want to eat), and even mega-malls and boutiques would get used to (getting dressed too). But the jackpot, and even a separate building – this is too much! So many years to fight with money-mania to build a temple of the golden calf – this is incredible to the mind!
Indeed, 15 years ago it was difficult to imagine such a thing. Then just the first shopping center instead of a pile of stalls near the metro marked a new stage in the development of the economy. The first full-fledged jackpot (instead of the usual shed at the subway) marks, apparently, the next stage – not so much economic, as psychological. Perhaps this should be encouraging, although so far – more confusing. Because, besides time, there is still a place.
And the place where this object appeared, is not just a classic sleeping area, but one of the most miserable. Built in the early 80s with the same 17-20 floor floors, it is much more depressing than the “hruschob” or “12th Stroiteley” neighborhoods: the scale is very inhuman. Despite the fact that over 20 years some trees grew, between the clumps of houses the wind still walks, and the infrastructure of the region has long been exhausted by the cinema “Tajikistan” and a supermarket nearby. Life began to get better, but then it turned out that the Stroginsky Bridge (the only way to Moscow) could not cope with the flow of cars. In short, residents still want to hang themselves.
And to say that the jackpot is exactly what they lacked, it would be a big stretch. Having asked for directions to him several times, I fully felt the whole measure of social tension about this. Although it would seem: a bright spot against the background of a typical building, a striking contrast to the rectangular architecture, dirty white color and the standard in general. And in the basement, besides, there is a disco: not a library, of course, but still not a “street”. And in general, the jackpot is not only an opportunity to lower the extra money, but also a vague chance to dig up the missing …
For Russian literature of the 19th century, the phenomenon of the game which was closely studied (Pushkin-Gogol-Dostoevsky), it was this vibration that was the most interesting. The main Russian question can be safely divided into two parts: “What to do if there is no money” and “What to do when they have nowhere to go.” The answer is the same: play. The path from one to another (and back) exactly at the locus of the card table (casino, roulette) is sharpened to the limit. It is this dramatic ambiguity that the Asadov jackpot develops.
The house is bright and unusual, which is an ideal advertisement for an entertainment center. Irregularly shaped prism, window-portholes, pink color of metal cassette cladding, glass cube embedded in one of the corners, well, and of course, a huge stained glass window that obliquely overlaps the facade (the form is inspired by the sails of windsurfers who ply the bay opposite). On the facades you can not hang anything: the legs themselves will carry.
However, for external gaiety, other meanings can be subtracted. The walls of the building “fall off”, the portholes evoke thoughts of the “Titanic”, the girl’s pink color forms a horrible contrast with a stained glass blade, and the glass itself flies into the sky, losing its practical meaning and becoming a metaphor of either flight or fall. Of course, before the drafts of the space in the spirit of Coop Himmelb (l) au (and the thought of their UFA Dresden film complex is the first thing that comes to mind), our jackpot does not hold out a bit, but the staircase behind the stained glass window turns the road into a true ascent .
And here is the most interesting. Attracted by this stained-glass window, a naive person might think that behind him lies a vast space flooded with light. However so. Jackpot and casino (it is on the third floor, on the second – a restaurant) – things that have strict regulations. So that the visitor does not leave here as long as possible (and left here as much as possible), there should not be any clocks or windows – all that the player can remind that there are still children and a wife, and home (oh-oh!). Therefore, stained glass is in fact a clean decoration, hanging glass, behind which is a blank wall. And passing between them and admiring the bay, you find yourself in an almost tight space, painted under Las Vegas. That is, the form not only perfectly responds to the function (tempt with ghostly happiness), but also metaphorizes it.
However, the closeness of the interior is not one hundred percent. Step aside – and here they are, the windows-portholes, another step – and you’re in the transparent cube of the restaurant, but if you want to – roll the sausage back along the ladder. And you won’t forget the ascent through the sky either. Architecture plays with you, vibrates with meanings, and, no matter how you twist, happiness is not in money, but our whole life is a game. Well, the question of whether to enter or not, everyone decides today.