The new stage of the Taganka Theater is going to be built behind the existing buildings, in the courtyards along the Nizhny Tagansky deadlock, between the Garden Ring and the two-story house, which now houses the Vladimir Vysotsky Museum. After the construction of the new stage, all the buildings of the theater will be united into the "International Experimental Theater Complex", the creation of which was authorized by the Moscow Mayor. Nizhniy Tagansky blind alley will turn into a theater boulevard and will be closed to cars.
The new building, designed by Jürgen Willen, is an eight-story high glass prism that hides the heart of the theater - a gilded stage and auditorium with 1,000 seats. Outside, the volume of the auditorium is covered with a heterogeneous golden shell. The air gap between the "gold nugget" and the glass envelope plays the role of a foyer. Upon entering, the visitor immediately finds himself in an unusual space, gigantic, transparent and whole - striking - immediately immersing the viewer in the atmosphere of theatrical effects. The anticipation of the performance, therefore, begins with a sense of space, with architecture, which is included in the theatrical play, using the maximum of modern possibilities for this - for example, structural glazing, which allows the creation of undivided glass surfaces and turns the wall into a giant showcase.
The meaning of the architecture of the new Taganka stage by Jurgen Willen is to direct the relationship between passers-by, spectators and further - between theater visitors inside the foyer. “See and be seen” - this is how the architect expresses the main idea of the building. This is the preparatory stage for the performance, the work on which is undertaken by the building itself: everyone looks at each other and, willy-nilly, become actors of the "experimental complex". Between people inside and outside there is a thin glazing barrier, but it already introduces the effect of "defamiliarization": everything from the other side is perceived as a painting. To enhance the effect and improve functionality, full-height curtain curtains are provided behind the glass walls. On a flat glass roof there is a crystalline film, which, by means of polarization, can make the ceiling either transparent at the request of the organizers, or turn it into a screen and project images there.
The second stage of preparing the audience for the performance is the rise of the theatergoers to the boxes along the spiral of the ramp located around the main volume of the theater. A performance unfolds in front of the visitors: shots of different views from different vantage points successively replace each other, and the architecture of the building directs the views.
The author himself, discussing his idea of transforming theater visitors - in part - into actors, recalls theatrical performances of the London artist Bruce McLean: when the audience was seated on both sides of a closed curtain, and they sat like this for about forty minutes, then the curtain was finally opened and one half of the hall I saw another - instead of actors who did not appear at the performance.
The entrance to the theater is located from the side of the Garden Ring, where the main facade of the new Taganskaya stage opens out. Its glass wall is in contrast to the once iconic brutalist Taganka building of the 1970s: there is a red-brick mass, there will be no walls at all - one continuous showcase, which, like a stage, can be covered with a dark crimson curtain.
Behind the theater building, in the back of the courtyards, there are three “investment construction” buildings (project developer - Rose group). In this case, they turn out to be a logical continuation of the theater - it is planned to place several cinemas, bookstores, galleries, many cafes and several pseudo-loft - spacious rooms “for life and work”. The top and sides of the building are covered with flexible strips of stone material, and the wide "main" walls are glass and echo the theater building.
The composition of the three buildings, as conceived by the author, reflects the urban planning dynamics of the Taganka area: the buildings are lined up, one after the other going deeper into the quarter. Moreover, each next one is slightly smaller than the previous one. In fact, these three similar buildings are embedded in the urban environment in the form of a beam that expands towards the Garden Ring. Echoing houses from neighboring courtyards, the buildings are not strictly parallel, but at different angles - the first echoes the stage building, the other two are placed perpendicular to the Nizhny Tagansky deadlock.
Hanging galleries connecting the buildings with each other also intersect at different angles. They pass through the buildings and connect them to each other at different levels. Inside, the passages are closed, glazed - for winter time, and green squares are arranged on their roofs, which the architect calls "piazzo" - squares. Cafes can work here in the summer, and most importantly, from some places, despite the low height, good views open, in some places even to the Kremlin, and somewhere to the golden shell of the new stage.
Below, under the passages, at the level of the first floor, two courtyards are formed - the architect calls them "multicultural venues" - these are places for performances, open-air shows, meetings and all sorts of "parties". The author sees these sites as a mixture of Covent Garden in London and Hackeschen Hof in Berlin.
Now - the paradoxes.
The architectural image that has developed in this project is inspired by the search for a modernist or experimental theater, actors' exits to the auditorium and attempts to invade everyday life. The most striking and already textbook example of such innovations in Russia is the Taganka of the seventies. The German architect Jurgen Willen is not familiar with the local cultural phenomenon, but he knows nothing about the subsequent splits and quarrels. When designing the third "Taganka", the architect proceeded from the primary European experience, did not awaken memories, but only tried to create an innovative image of the theater. And surprisingly he got into almost ten. Because emotional, “artistic” activity, going out “on the street” and refinement of simple forms to the maximum effect are all the features of the old “Taganka”, which, on the one hand, they seem to remember now, but on the other hand, they seem to have already begun to forget …
