The industrial development quarter - the territory of the former Rubicon plant near the Voykovskaya metro station, is subject to demolition - Moscow, as befits a metropolis, is changing industrial zones to retail and office agglomerations. A three-storey shopping and entertainment center (ADB jointly with the American company RTKL) and an office complex will be built here.
The architects have repeatedly emphasized the differences between the two parts of Metropolis - warm orange facades and complex configuration of the plan of the shopping complex perfectly reflect its purpose, contrasting with the crystalline austerity of office buildings: the island of commerce and entertainment is reflected in the mirror of glass icebergs.
The office center, located in the southeastern part of the site, consists of three independent blocks, standing on a one-storey podium - a pedestrian square. Two volumes are the same, nine-storey, the third is slightly larger and higher (eleven storeys). The simplicity of cubic volumes is compensated by the original play of shapes on the facades - smooth glass planes are broken by rectangular depressions and protrusions located in a sequence that vaguely resembles a chessboard. The building looks like either a giant logical cube, where, if you click on one panel, another slides out, or like a safe lock device that works in a similar way. Full - top to bottom glazing of facades enhances this effect, making the volume partly closed in itself, partly permeable, starting its own architectural dialogue with the surrounding space through depressions and protrusions.
When placing commercial and office buildings, the architects paid special attention to the organization of pedestrian and traffic flows. A wide boulevard will appear in front of the shopping and entertainment center, accepting metro passengers. From the northwest, where the electric train station is located, galleries connecting the platforms of the surface railway and the metro will pass along the second level of the shopping center. Thus, those arriving by electric trains from the Moscow region will receive a passage to the metro, closed from rain, wind and snow, and retail outlets will receive additional customers. In Moscow, which is rich in squares and avenues, so windy and uncomfortable most of the year, I would like to note this concern for pedestrians separately. However, the automobile entrances to the complex are also cleverly thought out - the architects are reconstructing the surrounding streets, removing part of the load from the Leningradskoe highway.
When planning parking lots - there are two of them in total, an overground one with five levels and a two-storey one underground, a discussion arose with the European consultants of the project. The fact is that, according to foreign standards, the number of parking spaces required for a complex of this scale (3300) turned out to be almost half the Russian (6000). Such a clear discrepancy between the standards forced an additional analysis of the parking load during the day, during which it turned out that the peaks of activity of the offices and the retail part mutually complement each other - by the traditional evening hour for purchases, clerks disperse, and on the most important days not at all. As a result, they agreed on the average number - the complex will receive 3879 parking spaces.
