“Drom is an unresolved balancing act between many things. It’s an omnivorous being that actively tries to bite off more than it can chew, forming playful, subtly mutated containers for new hybrid cultures,” reads the office’s presentation. It was founded in Rotterdam by Russian associates Sofia Koutsenko (Penza, 1983), Timur Karimullin (Kazan, 1981) and Timur Shabaev (Ufa, 1979), all former collaborators at OMA/ AMO in Rotterdam.

Drom is a multidisciplinary team of architects, urban planners and designers connected to a network of professionals in the sectors of industrial design, journalism and video production. An early project was Campus (2013), a newbuild 68-square-metre multi-use space for educational purposes in the outskirts of Moscow. Three compact, stacked internal spaces were designed to host the daily activities of guest participants (graphic designers), who sojourn there in residence for five weeks at a time.

Tower 24, due for completion in 2020, is based on morphological study. It is one of three towers on the waterfront of the Ob River in Novosibirsk, Russia. Seeing the developer had already decided upon and received building permission for a certain morphotype and number of storeys, Drom’s input was limited to windows, balconies and a bit of facade plasticity. Over the first ten floors, balustrades wrap around the tower forming French balconies for all apartments and creating horizontal courses. This is repeated on the upper floors, where the balustrade continues to run over the surface, but are deepened at points to create occupiable single balconies.

Recently, Drom completed the renewal of Azatlyk, the central square of Naberezhnye Chelny, whose third phase is due to be built in 2020. In place of the former central axis, the office created a “city carpet” that functions as three squares, each with its own unique character and use, equipped with functional pavilions. Drom designed the urban furniture and lighting in collaboration with local manufacturers. This fresh public space is multifunctional, with fixed and moveable features, with green zones and spacious areas that invite citizens to gather. These three diverse pieces of work illustrate Drom’s talent in nimbly shifting from public to private, from standardised to artisanal solutions, from conformed to experimental functions.