The competition was announced on June 6, 2011 - according to the order of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. The journalists were told about this yesterday at a press conference at the RIA-Novosti agency. Let us remind you that in June 2010 the British company “Event Communications” won an international competition for the concept of creating a museum. Then, for a whole year, museum design specialists deepened and clarified plans for the future of the oldest natural science educational center in Russia. Now, with the help of an architectural competition, it is necessary to find out exactly how the museum needs to be rebuilt in order to implement them.
“The situation for Russia is completely unique,” commented Grigory Revzin, a member of the competition jury. - Participating in many similar projects, I can say that usually everything starts with an architectural competition - people are trying to figure out what they want to build. Here, a year has been spent to clearly understand what we want to make of this museum. The concept describes in great detail what and where should be. Architects must implement it.
According to Revzin, the essence of the restructuring is to create a feeling of a complex urban space inside a huge building (the museum occupies an entire block). During the existence of the museum, which turns 140 this year, the original gallery structure of the building has been severely distorted - now it is an almost random set of rooms, stairs, halls.
“When non-specialists say“let's keep everything, nothing should be touched”, few people think that the museum building has undergone not very pleasant changes during the Soviet era,” said Boris Saltykov, director of the Polytechnic. - Everything is twisted by partitions, rooms and offices. The main idea of the reconstruction is to return the building to its original appearance.
A return to architectural origins also has quite definite utilitarian tasks: to increase the exhibition space by 30-40%, to expand educational functions by 80%, to place a cafe for visitors, and also to find a place for shops (“Initially, the entire lower floor was occupied by shops - the first years existed only at the expense of rent. Only then the emperor allocated state money for its maintenance , - reminded Boris Saltykov). At the same time, the changes can only relate to the interiors - the building cannot be changed from the outside, since it is a monument of cultural heritage. By the way, there are many elements inside the museum that are subject to protection - stairs, spatial structure, decor.
The organizers involved the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design as a consultant. The competition will be held in two stages: the first stage will be open - three weeks are allotted to collect the portfolio. From the submitted applications, no more than four finalists will be selected, who will be asked to design the key areas of the future museum. The fee will be 30 thousand euros. The winner will be eligible to create a project to rebuild the entire museum. An exhibition of architectural concepts is expected to open on September 12, 2011. At the same time, public presentations of the concepts will begin in the Large Auditorium of the Polytechnic Museum. The jury of the competition will be headed by the Milanese architect Stefano Boeri and the Deputy Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Pavel Khoroshilov. The jury members are physicist, director of the CosmoCaixa science museum in Barcelona Jorge Wagensberg, director of the Glasgow United Museums Mark O'Neill, critic Grigory Revzin, architect Nikita Tokarev, German writer and director Michael Schindhelm.
According to the organizers, another architectural competition is planned for the fall, for the new building of the Polytechnic Museum. It will be located on Lomonosovsky Prospekt, not far from the Main Building of Moscow State University and right behind the new university library. From the presentation posted on the museum's website, in particular, you can learn that the new building will be intended for storing museum funds and scientific work - this will also free up space for public space and for visitors in the historic Polytechnic building.
According to Boris Saltykov, for the next two years the museum will operate as before - the move will begin at the end of 2012 with the closure of the library. The museum will not be fully closed until the end of 2013. Reconstruction should be completed in 2016-2018. Now the question of where the collections and employees will move during the perestroika is being decided - according to the director of the Polytechnic, it is possible that two or three pavilions at the All-Russian Exhibition Center will be given as a temporary shelter for the museum.
