On Wednesday, June 19, a new summer pavilion of the Center for Contemporary Art “Garage” was opened in Gorky Park, built as a result of a closed architectural competition that took place in March this year. Young architects not older than 35 years old were invited to participate in the competition (thus the Garage management decided to support young artists and architects), 16 works were submitted to the jury. Experts recognized the project of Vasily Bantsekin, Sergey Nebotov, Ilya Ternovenko and Maxim Khazanov as the best with the participation of Anastasia Balakireva and Olga Lebedeva.
It is known about the authors of the project that four of them studied at Columbia University, and are currently working in large Moscow architectural bureaus. They united into a team specifically to work on the project of the summer pavilion. It turned out not quite a pavilion, but rather an open summer area under a canopy. Which is closer to an interior solution than to a volumetric design. At first glance, the project evokes associations with the snow-white structures and open spaces of terminals at international airports. I also remember the interior of Frank Lloyd Wright's Johnson Wax headquarters in Wisconsin. Only there the columns held an incredibly high ceiling, and here they hold the air.
As the authors said, they did not want to clutter up the space with a massive, heavy object. They started from the fact that the site is located in a park, on the banks of the Pionersky pond, where greenery should dominate in any case. In addition, on the right, in the immediate vicinity of the site, there is a fairly large volume
pavilion "Garage", built last year by the project of Shigeru Bana, and did not want to argue with him. Apparently, this is why the architects turned to simple, organic, natural images.
Approaching the site through the gaps between the trees, you can see only fragments of round white hats - as if a mushroom clearing suddenly appeared in the middle of the park, only mushrooms of the same height as the trees. It is quite difficult to guess on the fly what it is, how and from what it is made, therefore it is impossible to pass by - the desire to solve all the riddles will force you to go inside. Immediately behind a low fence, the doors of which are open all summer from ten in the morning until ten in the evening, there is a library offering a wide range of educational literature. And if you suddenly want to read, then here you can always choose something to your liking, and free of charge.
For convenience, there are sun loungers, tables, chairs under the canopy. And for those who come with laptops and tablets, Wi-Fi works and connectors for recharging are provided. For children who need something to do while you read or work, there is a playground with colorful swings to the right of the entrance. If suddenly someone did not have enough space under the shed, several park benches were installed in the shade of the trees between the two pavilions of the Garage. And, by the way, the structure of the summer area is best seen from here, which is a composition of nine snow-white columns, towering on a wooden platform (sheathed with light pine). The total area of the site is 850 sq.m.
But the main attention is drawn to the accumulation of giant "mushrooms". They vary slightly in height and, stepping on top of each other with canopy hats, form an almost continuous cover that can protect from rain and sun. On the platform, the "mushrooms" are unevenly distributed, again imitating the natural prototype. Their thin legs, slightly widening upward, confidently hold rather large round hats in diameter, the lower part of which quite accurately imitates the soft mesh surface of the mushroom. The same texture is used on the “legs” columns. Only after a good look you can understand that the shell is made of architectural fabric - a spectacular, but not very common material in our country. A metal frame is hidden under it, pipes for rainwater drainage are hidden inside each column.
Once under the cascade of awnings, you can feel the fullness of the atmosphere created inside with its cozy coolness and inexplicable silence. And the secret is that the acoustics are very well calculated here, the sound-absorbing surfaces make the noise of the city practically inaudible. Among other things, a cooling and humidification system is installed inside, and bright interactive lighting works at night.
The project is modular and can be quickly built. Materials may vary depending on the request. You can build something similar, if necessary, in any part of the city, and also - quickly disassemble or move. In Gorky Park, the pavilion should exist until autumn. The organizers promise a rich program of lectures, master classes and concerts. The rest of the time, the entrance to the territory of the pavilion is open to everyone.
