Saari Mois (the Sarskaya Grange) is the name of an ancient estate, gifted by Peter the Great to the future empress Catherine I in 1710, on which by the time of Catherine II had been built one of Europe’s most beautiful park residences of the Baroque period – Tsarskoe Selo. Its proximity and spectacular views onto the palace park were the inspiration for the name of this unique project.

The Saari Mois rooftop villa project came about as a result of a simple request from a client to renovate two separate apartments on the top floor of a residential building.

The architect behind the project, Svetozar Andreev, proposed a left-field solution – to knock through part of the dividing walls and ceilings, thereby combining the two apartments into a single space, and to add a second floor featuring living areas and terraces on the roof of the building. As a result, a non-standard architectural solution made it possible to unlock additional space, converting two small separate apartments into a luxurious two-storey Mediterranean-style villa, with spacious terraces and panoramic windows.

Thanks to this arrangement, the project’s floorplan area has been more than doubled. A large communal area, with a living room, kitchen-dining room, and dressing rooms has been designed for the ground floor, while the private area on the same floor features a master bedroom with ensuite bathroom and dressing room, as well as a nursery. The communal and private areas are linked by a wide 20 metre long gallery with a cantilever staircase to the second floor, filled with natural light from a glazed skylight. The upper level is completely given over to a large recreation area, with its own bar and kitchen, a large chillout zone featuring a two-sided fireplace to heat both the interior and exterior areas, and also a home spa-centre with a mini-pool and open terraces furnished in the style of outdoor living rooms, complete with a bar, sun-loungers and outdoor showers. The upper floor also features automatic panoramic sliding glass doors, to enable the outdoor terraces and indoor areas to be easily combined during the warmer months of the year.

A generous amount of non-standard furnishings was also employed by Svetozar Andreev for the project, including a console kitchen, along with a dining table based on the original Stealth series, which frequently feature in Andreev’s projects and boast a single support point. All of the Stealth-series furnishings are finished in Corian® artificial stone. Large central architectural feature pieces were also made from the same polished, black-brown material, into which have been integrated a spacious living area with sofas, a media centre, a fireplace and a lighting system, as well as a sleeping area with a built-in bed, storage system, adjustable lighting, and a built-in sound system. The elegant cantilever staircase in the central gallery is also made from Corian®.

The understated luxury of the solid walls polished to a mirror-like finish, along with levelled floors faced with gloss-laquered parquet, in tactile contrast to the carpeted areas with the colour and texture of a sandy beach, the stone pebbles in the bathrooms and the large amount of tropical greenery, the linear architectural lighting and large sliding glass partitions, the exclusive original furnishings, the non-standard open-plan layout and the imposing energetic architectural forms combine to create an unusual, yet at the same time easygoing and comfortable atmosphere, something which is characteristic of all of Svetozar Andreev’s villa and penthouse projects, and which makes them unique and instantly recognisable.

Interior Concept, Architecture and Design – Svetozar Andreev Copyright © Svetozar Andreev 2021. All rights reserved. Svetozar Andreev Architecture Studio “Hotei-Russia”

Saari Mois villa total area – 520 m².

Crystal chandeliers with Swarovski crystals by Manooi. Exterior furniture, carpets and lighting by Vondom. Bathroom mixer-taps and other equipment by Gessi, Built-in kitchen appliances by V-Zug. Textiles and curtains by Sahco Hesslein Artificial stone – Corian® Bedroom and second-floor carpeting by JAB

Photos by: Ivan Sorokin and Yuri Molodkovets