On October 23, Moskomarkhitektury considered five concepts of the Art Palace business complex of crafts. Three of them were developed by Asadov's bureau, two by Totement / Paper as part of a small closed competition held by the customer at the initiative of Sergei Kuznetsov.
A new trade and exhibition center with an area of about 6,000 sq. m is planned to be built next to the shopping and entertainment center "Kremlin in Izmailovo" (1998-2007; the architecture is based on the motives of the palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, known from the engravings). The initial project of the exhibition center, proposed by the Petrovsky Dvorik company and executed in the fabulous terem style of the shopping and entertainment center, was recently rejected for working consideration. At the same time, Sergey Kuznetsov recommended that customers hold a competition and contact architects with more modern views. Indeed, they invited two bureaus, in whose works modern stylistics is combined (occasionally and very delicately) with national motives.
Three weeks were allotted for the design. Having considered the projects, the jury of the competition opted for the concept of Levon Airapetov and Valeria Preobrazhenskaya. We asked the participants of the competition to tell us about their projects; we also publish all five competition concepts.
Valeria Preobrazhenskaya:
“From the point of view of a modern architect, the Izmailovsky Kremlin is a structure that is foreign in many respects. But it cannot but attract tourists from the neighboring hotel complex; the townspeople are also accustomed to it and enjoy spending time there. The entertainment complex undoubtedly suppressed the original buildings of the Izmailovsky Palace, located at a distance, on the "island", relegated them to the background - but it cannot be denied that it has already become a fact of life in this place.
So the leitmotif of our reflections on the concept of the building of the new trade and exhibition center was the reaction to the contrasting combination of architectural images. On the one hand, there is a grandiose historical stylization of a colorful 17th century tower, on the other, extremely laconic and large-scale plates of hotels built in the 1970s, part of the image of a modern city. In addition, it was necessary to take into account that the construction of a new highway was planned nearby, and, therefore, the projected building should be looked at in a new way from an urban planning point of view.
We have offered two options. The version that the jury settled on is the closest to us, it inherits one of the themes of the Shanghai EXPO pavilion, which we implemented in 2010. The first level is as transparent as possible, here we tried to create a park landscape. The volumes of shops, cafes and technical premises are arranged in a free order like large multi-colored sculptures, and the space between them is a common walking area.
Taking into account the need to emphasize the attitude of the complex to Russian culture and traditions, we proposed to decorate the volumes of the first level with glass, applying multi-colored patterns of traditional Russian decor to it.
On top of the bright sculptures of the first tier, two white "clouds" of the main volume lie quietly. It seemed to us that a soft, viscous horizontal line with a neutral facade solution would help to remove the conflict arising here because of the proximity of many verticals arguing with each other: the Izmailovsky Kremlin turrets argue with the dominant feature of the Izmailovo hotel complex.
Another option was a kind of experiment for Levon and me, here we tried ourselves in a new capacity. The main thing in it is shaping. We tried to combine in one volume two antagonistic themes: the simple form of hotels and the bizarrely sharp silhouette of the “Kremlin”, literally cutting the stylized outline of the turrets into a simple “modernist box”. At the level of the first tier, the outline of the towers is transparent and reduced - the "Kremlin", as it were, descended to the level of a person, changing its scale and becoming figuratively more open.
The building absorbed two polar themes, and the resulting shape became the product of a rethinking of the plastic conflict between them. The form turned out to be charged with the energy of the collision of opposites, perhaps that is why we felt in it the desire for self-complication. So we made several versions: with quieter and more complex geometry."
Andrey Asadov:
“Our main task was to try to create a complex harmonious with the surroundings using modern means of architecture. A new and rather large-scale building should appear next to the Izmailovo Kremlin, and we thought that, continuing the traditions of Russian urban planning, it would be most correct to form a certain "posad" here. We wanted to create a structure that would not argue with the architecture of the Kremlin, but at the same time would have its own artistic expressiveness. As a result, we have developed several options. At first we had a "posad" in the form of "merchant towers", standing on a common basement, surrounded by a promenade gallery. The basement roof was supposed to be used as a “pharmacy garden” in summer or a skating rink in winter. Then, in continuation of the work on the project, our "terem" merged with the stylobate, there were porches leading to the exploited roof, and the arcade of the shopping gallery turned into large arched spans.
And only after that did the third option appear, which I personally like the most. It seemed to us that the separate spaces were not quite convenient in a functional sense, so it was decided to create one large volume, dug with a bright "canopy" of perforated panels. Fairy tents are the source of inspiration here. Perforated panels receding from the main facade emphasize the decorativeness and airiness of the structure.
The customer, like the members of the jury, formed a certain and denier: so that next to the active architecture of the Kremlin, the most calm and even neutral building appears. Of all the options offered, the Totement / Paper concept was the closest to this wish. I must say that the design terms were very tight, we did not even have time to really communicate with the customer in order to understand his preferences. But overall impressions from the competition are very positive. The subject of Russian identity in architecture has been of interest to us for a long time, we are actively working in this direction. The Test Project has become an interesting challenge to which we have tried to give a decent answer."
