the SPIRES APARTMENT

words YUZU Editorial 

photos Liza Gurovskaya 

A quiet negotiation between modern and classic.

In Moscow’s Spires residential complex, this 130 m² apartment by Yulia Starikova, founder of Starikova Architects, starts with a straightforward move: combining two separate units into one. But what’s interesting is not the merge itself — it’s what follows. The plan doesn’t feel assembled. It settles. Circulation is loose, almost unforced, and the apartment reads as a continuous space rather than a sequence of rooms. You move through it without really noticing where one zone ends and another begins.

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HOLDING THE BALANCE 

The brief wasn’t entirely clear-cut. The client, used to the comfort of a private house, wanted something more modern — but not at the expense of familiarity.

Instead of choosing one direction, the project stays in between. A modern classic, but without the usual weight. Lines are kept clean, details are reduced, but there’s still a sense of softness in how everything comes together. Nothing feels overly styled. Nothing feels stripped back either. It’s less about contrast, more about holding a certain balance and not pushing it too far.