ZIL-ART-WOOD: Timber Galleries as Root Systems

Trees in a forest share resources through their roots. Water, nutrients, and chemical signals pass between them underground, turning individual organisms into a collective system. ZIL-ART-WOOD-CO-LIVE, a project by Dmitriy Petukhov, applies this logic to housing. Four residential towers are connected by a timber gallery system that functions as the complex's root network: sharing circulation, programme, and social life between buildings that would otherwise stand alone.

Shortlisted as a finalist in the Hustle Hub '19 competition on uni.xyz, the project is sited in Moscow's ZIL-ART district. The timber galleries, the four-tower cluster, and the stylobate bases make it one of the most structurally detailed entries in the series.

The Elevation: Four Towers, One Ground

The graphic elevation is the project's most striking image. Four towers of different heights stand side by side on an ochre background, rendered in black and white. At their base, glass canopy structures and arched storefronts create a continuous public level. Residents walk, a cat sits, a child runs. The towers are individual above. The ground is shared below.

The stylistic choice matters. The black and white rendering with ochre ground gives the image the quality of a woodcut or a poster. It reads as a manifesto: this is not a single building. It is four buildings that have decided to share a ground floor.

The Root System: Timber Galleries

The structural axonometric shows the timber gallery framework that connects two towers. The exploded view reveals the system: horizontal timber beams and vertical posts create a multi-storey scaffolding between the towers. The assembled view shows how this framework becomes a covered walkway, a greenhouse, and a sheltered public passage, all in one structure.

The aerial axonometric shows the full complex. Four towers are connected by these gallery structures, with glass canopies sheltering the spaces between. The galleries are the project's root system: they carry circulation, light, and social programme between buildings the way roots carry water between trees. Without them, the towers are four separate blocks. With them, they are a community.

The Site Plan and the Section

The site plan from above shows how the four towers and their red-highlighted gallery connections form a cluster. Courtyard spaces open between the buildings. The surrounding urban context is visible: the complex is one block among many, but the galleries make it distinctive. The internal streets are covered. The courtyards are shared. The edges are public.

The building section through one tower reveals the vertical logic. Staggered balconies create outdoor space at every level. Communal double-height living spaces appear at intervals, breaking the repetition of standard floors. The stylobate base houses the public programme: cafes, libraries, workshops. The tower grows from this base the way a trunk grows from roots.

The Units: Six Layouts

Six apartment axonometrics show the range of unit types. Compact studios with fold-out furniture. One-bedroom units with separate kitchens. Larger family layouts with multiple rooms. Each one is drawn in clean line work, showing how the same structural grid accommodates different domestic configurations. The variety is produced by the module, not despite it.

The units are honest about their size. They are compact. But the project compensates for compact private space with generous shared space: the galleries, the courtyards, the double-height communal rooms. This is the co-living trade-off, and the project makes it explicit. Your apartment is small. Your neighbourhood is enormous.

Why This Project Matters

The Hustle Hub competition produced entries that ranged from bubbles to pyramids to VR towers. ZIL-ART-WOOD-CO-LIVE is the most structurally legible: four towers, timber galleries, a shared ground. The metaphor is biological (root systems), the structure is buildable (timber post-and-beam), and the social logic is clear (connect buildings and they become a community).

For anyone studying timber construction in multi-storey housing, gallery-connected clusters, or the relationship between structure and social space, this project demonstrates that the connector between buildings is more important than the buildings themselves. The galleries do the work. The towers are the beneficiaries.

View the Full Project

About the Designer

Designer: Dmitriy Petukhov

Enter a Design Competition on uni.xyz

If timber construction, gallery-connected housing, or cluster co-living is the kind of work you want to explore, uni.xyz runs competitions year-round that reward structurally grounded, socially ambitious proposals.

Project credits: ZIL-ART-WOOD-CO-LIVE by Dmitriy Petukhov. Finalist, Hustle Hub '19 (uni.xyz).