Let's say right away that this project will not be implemented. It is one of the experimental designs that these authors love so much. In their portfolio there are many similar concepts - a kilometer TV tower, for example, or the recreation complex “Mirax-Sad”, which is remembered by many. The architects themselves call them "Alternative Moscow", appreciating the opportunity to dream about what the Russian capital could be like if it were not for the steel shackles of regulations and other restrictions. And customers, in turn, appreciate the willingness of architects to think boldly and look to the future (cities and architecture) with optimism, therefore they regularly contact them with such proposals. This time, the topic of the “alternative reality” was the placement of the Parliamentary Center on the site of the unfinished building of the Moscow Government in the Moscow International Business Center.
As the authors explain, this idea arose in the fall of last year, when it became clear that the territories of New Moscow were not infrastructure ready to accommodate a large number of federal departments. As you know, against moving outside the Moscow Ring Road
State Duma deputies themselves objected, so the capital began to look for an alternative platform for the parliamentary center. One of the options was the Moscow City International Business Center, where a large plot of land that was once allocated for the construction of the capital's mayor's office is still idle. Actually, the mayor's office was partially erected (the construction stopped in 2010, first temporarily due to the crisis, and then permanently, after the city administration changed its mind to move), so the architects received a very specific task - to analyze whether this unfinished to adapt to the needs of the federal government. The architects had to fit into the existing building area, using the already erected underground part of the complex, and at the same time offer the building at the same time sufficiently spacious and expressive in appearance.
Asadov is very familiar with the site in MIBC. In 2003, he participated in the competition for the building of the Moscow City Hall, and in 2004, he designed a high-rise business center in the vicinity of it in the form of an expanding tower, inside which another building “grew”. Returning to the site ten years later, the architects deliberately chose a completely different tactic, proposing not a vertical dominant, but an expressive composition “volume in volume”. “We didn’t start designing a skyscraper for several reasons,” the authors explain. - First of all, there are enough of them in Moscow City - in the panorama of the city this area looks like a palisade of verticals, to which it is pointless to add another “pole”. And secondly, the very functional program of the projected center dictated the creation of several volumes, because this complex is designed to unite the upper and lower chambers of parliament”.
The authors assemble the Parliamentary Center from functional blocks of different sizes and shapes. This is a kind of volumetric tetris, in which blocks of a simple rectangular shape form independent buildings of the State Duma and the Federation Council, and S- and U-shaped jumpers form premises for joint work of deputies and members of the Federation Council, as well as all kinds of auxiliary services. The parking lot is completely taken out in a separate "block", attached to the main volume at the back and connected to it by a covered passage, which serves as a continuation of the central lobby. The architects assigned the first six levels of the complex to the Parliamentary Library - this, according to Alexander Asadov and Karen Saprichyan, would be not only convenient for officials, but also deeply symbolic - books and codes of laws would serve as a common basis for the work of the two chambers of parliament. In addition, the square configuration of the original building was ideally suited precisely to accommodate the book depository, which, frankly, needs to least experiment with shape and layouts.
But the structure that the architects are placing above the library is nothing like a classic skyscraper. Rather, it is a building-frame, a building-window: from the square-section tower, the authors remove most of the corner facing the Moscow River, as well as the one opposite to it, and then also complement this niche with a deep horizontal cut so that the Bagration Bridge the building looked not as a massive solid facade, but as an elegant niche. The unusual shape of the opening is emphasized by the cladding - the niche is finished with metal panels with a copper sheen and glass, tinted in the same shade. However, the main decoration of the niche is not even its golden underside, but the egg-shaped volume inserted into it - these are meeting rooms, one for each chamber and another common one. If you look at the Parliamentary Center from the side of the embankment, you get the full feeling that this shiny flattened ball is just floating in the air, by some miracle it landed under the console of the Federation Council bloc. The architects diligently maintain this illusion: the covered passage to the main building is designed so that it is not visible from any point, and the pillars supporting the sphere from below are disguised by the trees planted under it and the metallized glass cladding itself.
The height of the upper lintel, which, in fact, makes the building look like a giant window, joining two towers into a single whole, is three floors. Here the authors intended to place the offices of the chairmen of the State Duma and the Federation Council, as well as representatives of the head of state. And this is also symbolic: the ruling elite is located at the very top, having several helipads at hand for every firefighter. By the way, about fire-prevention measures: the laconic decoration of the facades and the windows lined up in narrow vertical rulers (where in pairs, and where in "columns" 5-6 floors high) make the presence of three technical floors completely invisible, which allow, if necessary, to completely isolate the library, premises for joint work of deputies and members of the Federation Council, the State Duma faction itself and the Federation Council committees, as well as the highest corridors of power. In front of the building, the architects divide a small square, to which a wide staircase leads from the Krasnopresnenskaya embankment. All together - a plaza raised above the river, a glittering airship soaring above it and a high-rise building that surrounds it with a gilded interior create a vivid image for the Russian parliament, perhaps even too progressive.
