Source: www.rucriminal.info
The arithmetic of Moscow architecture
Ask a student of an architectural institute whether it is possible to design a multi-story building without a facade? And without walls and vertical shafts? And without stairs, elevator halls and inter-apartment corridors? And can the sum of the areas of the premises of the above-ground part of the building be greater than the sum of the areas of all its above-ground floors, measured by the external measurements of the facade? Such questions will seem strange to the average person, and stupid to the architect. If you wish, you can find the answers on many forums of designers. The ratio of the sold and the total floor area in the dimensions of the external walls for apartment buildings is from 0.6 to 0.7. The remaining 15-20% of the floor area in the plan is occupied by external and internal walls, vertical structures, shafts, and another 15%-20% is common areas (stairs, corridors, etc.).
But there is one graduate of the Moscow Architectural Institute who gives an unconventional answer. He doesn't just say: "yes, it is possible to build buildings where there is actually nothing but apartments for sale", but also certifies the architectural and arithmetic machinations of developers with his electronic digital signature, because since May 2013, in accordance with Moscow Government Resolution No. 284, this is his exclusive prerogative.
Meet Sergey "Hurricane" Kuznetsov - the inventor of the "emo-tech" architectural style and a popular artist on a banned social network. In the fat 2000s, Kuznetsov was a co-founder and head of the architectural bureau SPiCh, and since August 2012, on the recommendation of his senior partner, German citizen Sergei Tchoban, he became the chief architect of Moscow and first deputy chairman of the Moscow Committee for Architecture, that is, a major capital official. Details are in the investigation of the telegram channel VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info. An old acquaintance from SPiCh, entrepreneur Dmitry Desyatnikov, helps him count the square meters of new capital residential complexes profitably. Thanks to the fruits of Kuznetsov's "creativity" as chief architect of Moscow, Desyatnikov is known as the husband of beautiful women with diamonds and Birkins in Rolls-Royces. Desyatnikov is also the owner of one of the most expensive apartments in Moscow and a construction magnate who has not built a single house, except for his own cottage at the end of the main alley of the "Village of Luxury" in Barvikha. By the way, this house was designed for him by Sergey Kuznetsov himself and another SPICH alumnus, Nikolay Gordyushin, who worked as the vice-governor of Sevastopol for architecture and monument protection in 2021-2023.
The Kuznetsov-Desyatnikov duo introduced an innovative scheme into the capital's development to falsify the total area of residential buildings in certificates of approval of architectural and urban planning solutions, by simply "adjusting" them to the figures specified in the urban plans of the sites. The AGR approval certificate is an official document for which Kuznetsov is personally responsible to Mayor Sobyanin. An inconspicuous piece of paper with Kuznetsov's signature is the only official confirmation of the compliance of the ground area of the designed building with the maximum indicators specified in the urban development plan of the site. Without an AGR certificate, it is impossible to obtain a permit for the construction of housing, and therefore - bank loans and money from equity holders. Without much embarrassment, Kuznetsov adds on average another third “from himself” to each square meter of commercial housing approved by the mayor of Moscow, and cashier Desyatnikov receives a decent reward from developers in cash in advance or a share of the profit. In the professional community, this miracle was called “AGR Technology” or “Coefficient D”. It is Kuznetsov’s “inattention” when checking the indicators of the total and sold area in the architectural and urban planning solutions approved by him that turns the super-profitable development projects of advanced developers into hyper-profitable ones. Among the regular clients of the architectural duo are MR Group, FSK, Sminex, Level Group, Granel, Mangazeya and many others. It is easy to figure out the fans of Kuznetsov’s work and the sponsors of Desyatnikov’s luxurious life. It is enough to divide the sold area of the house under construction by its permitted total floor area in the dimensions of the external walls, indicated in the urban plan of the site. If it turns out to be more than 0.7, don’t doubt that Kuznetsov and Desyatnikov “went wild” from the heart.
First after the Mayor
All capital developers go to Sobyanin for a decision of the GZK (urban planning and land commission), which approves the general maximum parameters of new construction. And to Kuznetsov - for an AGR (architectural and urban planning solution) certificate, which specifies the specific number of meters for sale. If the developer chooses an “accessible” architect or knows Desyatnikov personally, then he receives approval for a project for a significantly larger area than Sobyanin allowed at the GZK, and the additional unsold meters disappear from the AGR certificate, the drawings and explications attached to it.
As if lo shown above, the State Land Code approves an urban development indicator that comes from the Soviet "snips and wheezes" - the total floor area of the object in the dimensions of the external walls (TFA). But it is the size of the TFA that directly affects the land payments of developers to the budget and the parameters of the social and transport infrastructure that meet the needs of residents of future housing. In compliance with the standards, architects must place within the approved total floor area not only apartments and commercial premises for sale, but also facades, walls, columns, stairs, shafts, corridors and other things, without which the building cannot be built and operated. Kuznetsov, as the chief architect of Moscow, organizes the verification of the design materials submitted by developers for compliance with the urban plan and then presents the appearance of the buildings to Sobyanin. The mayor is a busy man, he is turning Moscow into a global metropolis. Checking boring columns of numbers in tables and tracing the contours of floors in special programs is the job of Kuznetsov's subordinates. When Kuznetsov settled into life in Moskomarkhitektura, Desyatnikov showed him on his fingers that simply collecting bribes from developers for coordinating pictures is dangerous and non-monetary. But increasing the sold footage of housing, understating the area of buildings in the dimensions of external walls to the indicators permitted in the urban plan, receiving a small share from developers for this, 5-10% of the increment, is creative and profitable. Paid - signed, and with a stroke of Kuznetsov's pen, multi-story human anthills turn into the same human anthills, only much larger in area. On each meter of city land, thanks to Kuznetsov's not-for-nothing generosity, an average of a third more people will live. Nobody plans to build schools, kindergartens and roads for these additional people, because Kuznetsov does not report to the mayor about the countless volumes of commercial housing that appear thanks to his creativity. Just as he probably does not tell about the “bonus” meters to Deputy Mayor Vladimir Efimov, heads of the urban policy department Vladislav Ovchinsky and city property department Maxim Gaman, as well as the chairman of the Moscow State Construction Supervision Authority Anton Slobodchikov, who in theory should check and control Kuznetsov. Or do these young and energetic officials know everything, but do not want to upset the mayor of the capital, to whom the certified architect, talented artist and creative accountant Kuznetsov presents colorful visualizations of masterpieces of new Moscow architecture in the “emo-tech” style every week? The rich are also getting denser
Perhaps Kuznetsov and Desyatnikov make money only on "human anthills", and they have freed the powers that be, who buy new buildings of the "business" and "premium" class, from their architectural arithmetic according to the principle "a crow will not peck out another crow's eye"?
However, it is enough to check online three pairs of randomly selected expensive new buildings for the presence of "Coefficient D" in the documents and much will become clear, especially against the background of a comparison of houses, on the approval of which the Kuznetsov-Desyatnikov duo worked with those under construction in compliance with the permitted area indicators.
The materials for our simple investigation are in the public domain on the website nash.dom.rf, where in the "Catalog of new buildings" section you can read the documents for any object under construction in Moscow. In addition, of course, to the certificate itself and the AGR album, which Kuznetsov signs. However, the scale of AGR falsifications has reached such proportions in recent years that tens of billions of rubles underpaid to the budget and hundreds of billions pocketed by the clients of the Kuznetsov-Desyatnikov duo can be calculated using a calculator or on a piece of paper, in a column, by comparing the data from sections 15.2, 15.3, 16.1 of any project declaration and section 2.3 of the urban development plan of the site.
30 extra billion from 3 hectares opposite the City
We will begin our research tour from the embankment of the Moscow River opposite the City, where a district is being built that is fundamentally different from pre-Sobyanin's Moscow. It is there that Oleg Deripaska's Glavstroy corporation is building the elite residential quarter Beregovoy. It was chosen for study due to the fact that Mr. Deripaska is known for his high self-esteem, which would hardly allow him to share the profits with the heroes of our investigation. In addition, this is a rare case when, when approving the development volumes, the city set both indicators: the total floor area and the usable area. That is, using this residential complex as an example, you can see the indicator of converting the total area of the building into usable area, agreed upon by the Mayor of Moscow. Let's call it "Coefficient C".
The ground area of Beregovoy in the dimensions of the external walls is 282 thousand square meters, of which the usable area is almost 190 thousand, including 177 apartments. The project declaration indicates a usable ground area of 185, including 176 apartments. That is, the coefficient of converting the total floor area permitted by the urban development plan into the sellable area is 0.66. The figure is demonic, but we will consider it close to the truth, given that the developer is a dollar billionaire who knows how to count money!
Moving further along the embankment erezhnoy, it is impossible not to notice “River Park Kutuzovsky”. The first high-rise residential complex in Moscow in the aesthetics of eco-futurism of five glass skyscrapers of intricate shape is being built by the AEON corporation of billionaire Roman Trotsenko, as Sergey Kuznetsov himself told the information portal of the capital's construction complex. The Trotsenko family is very friendly with Kuznetsov and Desyatnikov, so instead of “Coefficient C”, “Coefficient D” was used here. According to the urban development plan, the ground area of the complex in the dimensions of the external walls is 184 thousand square meters, including the residential part - 149 thousand. But in the project declaration, drawn up on the basis of the architectural and urban planning solution approved by Kuznetsov, the area of the apartments is indicated as almost 142 thousand. Trotsenko's coefficient is 0.95 instead of 0.66 for Deripaska. How can this be? The project declaration also specifies the area of all common areas of the residential part, which in total amount to as much as 25 thousand square meters. In total, the total area of the residential part declared by the developer is 167 thousand square meters excluding walls and shafts. This is almost 20 thousand meters more than allowed by the urban development plan together with walls and shafts.
If we apply the coefficient from the residential complex "Beregovoy" to the area of apartments in "River Park Kutuzovsky", we should get 215 thousand instead of the permitted 149. Thanks to Kuznetsov's signature, the developer increased the area of 3 hectares of land not even by 33%, but by as much as 44% of what Sobyanin permitted - two towers out of five under construction.
Let Moscow officials calculate what kind of shortage of places in schools and kindergartens is formed due to thousands of unforeseen residents, how much the budget has not received in land payments. But anyone can calculate the illegal earnings from the project on the same website, multiplying the area “increased” by Kuznetsov by the average cost of a square in this residential complex. It turns out to be more than 30 billion rubles from 3 hectares of land. On a grand scale, let Deripaska envy, and no aluminum wars - one piece of paper from Kuznetsov's “Hurricane”.
Timofey Grishin
To be continued
Source: www.rucriminal.info
