LEO MILANO
A Khrushchyovka courtyard at night: lit windows, bare trees and fog.

Motion · Real-time 3D

Khrushchyovka at Night

A playable Unreal Engine environment: a Soviet courtyard in fog that slips into a red other world

A courtyard of Soviet panel blocks at night, the kind almost everyone in Russia grew up next to: a playground, a stairwell with green walls, windows glowing in thick fog. You can walk through it, and at some point the fog turns red and the familiar place becomes another world.

Year
2025
Role
Environment design, lighting, atmosphere
Tools
Unreal Engine

Idea

A playable environment, made as coursework. The panel block is the most ordinary building there is, so I made it strange the way survival-horror games do: thick fog, lamps that barely reach, and a second, red version of the same place waiting underneath.

A red slide and a roundabout in a dark courtyard, a lit panel block and a large tree behind.
Bare trees and a single lamp almost lost in pale violet fog, a red glow at the edge.
01/02 A Soviet entrance hall: cream walls with a green lower half, chequered floor tiles, mailboxes and an open lift with a red interior.
02/02 The same hall looking at the stairs, a red glow coming from the landing above.

When the world switches, the colour goes first.

When the world switches, the colour goes first. The fog turns red, the windows become red squares, and the courtyard tilts.

The playground and a panel block in dark red fog, some windows red, some white.
A panel block tilted at an angle in deep red light, its windows glowing red.
A tree silhouette in a red haze with light rays fanning out behind it.

Credits

HSE Art and Design School, BA Communication Design