Height Restrictions Prevented the Designers of This Moscow Apartment From Covering Its Ceiling — So They Built an Entire Second Floor Into It Instead
Lake & Walls's ingenious reworking of a Soviet-era printing house turns its bones into a family home's greatest asset, carving distinct moods for each environment
Moscow, Russia: a bustling capital city with a rich, layered history. The vibrant Maryina Roshcha district is no exception, set among a former industrial estate once home to the famed Detskaya Kniga printing house. Charm and storytelling are at the neighborhood’s core, with rich cultural offerings and grand architecture at every turn. It's the ideal location to call home.
Local interior design and architecture firm Lake & Walls is the mastermind behind an eclectic apartment that leans into all that the district has to offer.
"The concept and style of the project are based on the unique history of its location," Oksana Zavarzina, one half of the studio with co-founder Evgeny Shevchenko, says of their commission, Jazz Apartment, which was constructed in 1972 and redesigned in 2026. "The project gained its character and distinctive atmosphere from these historic buildings, which the developer carefully preserved and transformed into contemporary apartments" — modern homes with a lingering past.
Elements of the neighborhood's history, including sturdy concrete slabs, rugged columns, and industrial-style steel I-beams, seep through the modern, minimalistic layout of this Moscow apartment.
Jazz Apartment was designed as a family residence, and Zavarzina and Shevchenko considered the clients' needs and interests throughout. They incorporated elements of their favorite travel destinations, including subtle nods to Parisian-style decor, and paid special attention to the couple's busy lifestyle.
"They are an active and passionate family, and it was important for them that the interior felt alive and soulful, but not overloaded," Zavarzina notes. "The aim was to create a space where technology, functionality, history, and emotion could naturally coexist."
While history certainly plays an important part in the bi-level property, the designers were careful not to overcrowd things with folklore motifs, ornaments, or obvious decorative references.
Instead, they were much more interested in exploring Russian cultural heritage through architectural language — in a more restrained and contemporary way.
To do so, the pair opted to lean into the 90-square-meter apartment's origins and current surroundings, preserving some of the original structural elements of the building while breathing fresh life into it. Think sturdy concrete slabs, rugged columns, and industrial-style steel I-beams.
Balanced pops of color add a bold richness to the otherwise neutral kitchen and living spaces.
Image credit: Lake & Walls
"They are an active and passionate family, and it was important for them that the interior felt alive and soulful, but not overloaded," Lake & Walls' Oksana Zavarzina notes.
Image credit: Photo credit: Lake & Walls
"These elements were carefully styled into the space and painted in the same color as the surrounding surfaces, allowing them to blend into the interior rather than dominate it visually," Zavarzina explains.
She adds that they treated the concrete structures, columns, beams, and the original detailing as the starting point of the project.
Once the foundation was laid, though, it was time to make it fit for modern living. And so, while concrete and metal became the architectural framework, wood, textiles, color, and art became the house's beating heart; it's human, not purely structural, side.
According to Zavarzina, the project contains some of the qualities of Russian Constructivism: honesty of structure, exposed architectural elements, geometry, functionality, and transformation of space.
"The former printing house already carried its own industrial memory. We didn't want to erase it, but to continue its story," she says. Two particular areas that put that vision into practice are the kitchen and the foyer.
In the kitchen, a striking backsplash comprised of uniform glass blocks sits behind the sink, simultaneously supporting and embellishing it while also providing a natural, 'see-through' visual transition between different areas of the apartment.
"For us, they are a material with a very strong architectural memory. They were widely used in Soviet industrial and public architecture of the 20th century — in staircases, factories, institutions, and sports facilities," the designer added.
In the foyer, a wall made entirely of glass contrasts with the winding wooden staircase, again stressing the architectural movement's preference for beautifully practical materials and its tendency to disclose rather than conceal a home's structural parts.
The designers liked the idea of taking a familiar material like glass and presenting it in a new way, not as a nostalgic element, but as a contemporary architectural gesture. The glass blocks featured in the scheme let light into the space, creating a dialogue between transparency and privacy while feeding into the building's legacy.
Zavarzina and Shevchenko believe that openness and privacy can coexist. Together with the house's extremely high ceilings, this belief inspired their decision to craft a dual-level apartment rather than one built on a single level.
Contrasts were an important detail when coming up with the design elements: lights on darks, steel against wood, curved edges among straight lines.
The choice was partly mandated by height restrictions, which prevented the duo from covering the ceiling. Instead of hiding the structure, they strived to express its full potential, making it a dominant part of the apartment's design language through a generously sized, warmly furnished mezzanine.
On the main level, a neutral color palette creates a lighter and calmer space. White walls act as a neutral canvas, highlighting architectural detailing and providing a backdrop for brighter, bolder furniture and artwork.
Perhaps one of the most striking features of the property is the master bedroom's gorgeous green archway, which counters the pure white wall and doubles as a hidden bookshelf while serving as an extension of the plush headboard.
Standout headboards have become somewhat of a signature for the design duo and can be seen throughout their other projects.
Image credit: Lake & Walls
The moody duplex bedroom is deep and dark, offering a cozy escape away from the main level.
Image credit: Lake & Walls
The mezzanine level, on the other hand, was designed to feel deeper and more intimate — "designed almost like a separate cozy architectural capsule," the duo explains. The entire bedroom, from the floor to the ceiling, is painted in a rich dark brown shade, with metallic accents adding a touch of understated glamour.
"A contemporary interior should be able to change together with the people who live in it," Zavarzina explains. "Sometimes we need air, light, communication, and a sense of freedom. At other moments, we need silence and our own small world."
With multiple yet distinctively envisioned pockets of space gathered into a seamless, immersive residential scheme, the Jazz Apartment strives to answer the most disparate whims of the family it was imagined for, whether they are looking to come together and relax or soak in Moscow's majestic views from the kitchen bar.
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