Seven-League Boots of Monolithic Construction

Have you decided to buy an apartment? An upscale apartment somewhere—not, of course, right in the city center, but not on the outskirts either? Wondering where to start? You should start by choosing a developer, since you don't want to overpay to agencies when you can buy an apartment directly from the developer of the new building. Buying from the developer, besides offering an optimal price, has another important advantage: as a rule, developers of upscale new buildings continue to act as the utility operators after the sale and keep servicing the development. And that's, after all, not an unimportant matter. I'm sure you've had occasion to deal with Moscow utility services, from whom you can usually get anything only one way—by concreting the whole bunch into concrete "boots," like the Italian guys from the Cosa Nostra used to do. Considering that we are not in Italy and the wild 1990s are behind us, the optimal choice is a developer who guarantees future utility maintenance of your future home.

Having chosen the developer of the new building, let's choose the type of "your" house. The ideal option is a monolithic new building somewhere not far from the capital's center. Think finding an upscale new building in a good neighborhood is a utopia? Not at all — today it is quite possible. This is because upscale monolithic developments are usually carried out using infill construction. In other words, a monolithic upscale building is integrated into an already established Moscow neighborhood, and such a development typically has a secured territory and its own sports facilities, playgrounds, etc.

What makes it possible, you may ask, to "fit" a new building into a long-established built-up area? This is possible thanks to the specifics of erecting monolithic buildings. When constructing a monolithic development, builders are not bound by strict standard dimensions: the structural grid spacing in a Moscow new building can be from 16 to 20 m, so the building's width can be varied within different ranges. Monolithic construction is the erection of a building frame by sequentially pouring concrete using special formwork. At the same time, all utilities are predesigned and are also cast in concrete.

In this way, a residential complex was erected at Nizhegorodskaya St., bldg. 84 in the South-Eastern Administrative Okrug of Moscow, which was named "Rodnik" (Spring). It is an 18-story monolithic-brick building with two entrances. The "Rodnik" development has a convenient location and well-developed infrastructure. Nearby are all the necessary social facilities: a kindergarten, a school, a clinic, a bowling center, a fitness club, a library, a savings bank, the "Rubin" cinema. Shopping centers: "Zvezdochka", "3D"; cafés and restaurants: "Yakitoriya", "Planeta Sushi", "Bierstrasse"; supermarkets: "Gorod", "Auchan", etc.

Thanks to the monolithic construction technology, the upscale apartments in the "Rodnik" development have enhanced thermal efficiency even in winter and provide high sound insulation. The ceilings and walls of the upscale apartments in "Rodnik" have an ideally even surface, which is sometimes difficult to achieve in ordinary brick houses. The settlement of the "Rodnik" building is uniform, which helps avoid the cracks that form in brick buildings. The load-bearing capacity of the floor slabs in the "Rodnik" upscale development is almost three times higher than in panel buildings, which allows installation of heavy equipment such as jacuzzis, pools, saunas, etc. In other words, planning and installing a custom-sized home sauna or a heavy pool can be done safely only in such an upscale monolithic building as "Rodnik"; in a brick house this would be quite problematic.

As you have seen, buying an upscale apartment is easy, but choosing the one that meets all modern requirements and will last "for centuries" is not an easy task. By the way, the "Rodnik" upscale development will stand for at least 200 years, although some experts claim that even after 300 years it will still look as good as new.