To understand all the intricacies of this project, a general cultural and architectural outlook is not enough: it would also be nice to have a rough idea of nuclear physics, magnetic fields and Riemann's elliptical geometry. Such a theme - the project was created for the competition for the development of the concept of the nuclear energy pavilion at VDNKh, announced at the end of last year by the state corporation Rosatom. The competition caused a real stir, a total of 118 applications from 143 participants were submitted (some of them formed consortia), which is understandable - not every day architects get the opportunity to participate in the creation of a national museum, and not just anywhere, but at VDNKh, which today has become the largest and most actively developing construction site in the country. In addition, the topic is really exciting - almost science fiction, brought to life.
In mid-March, the results of the first stage of the competition were announced, within which the participants had to submit a draft concept of the pavilion. Sergey Estrin's work, called ATOMIX, was not included in the six finalists, and nevertheless, the project, which combined feasibility, a bright solution and exact observance of the organizer's requirements, which not all winners of the first stage can boast of, seems interesting.
In a very detailed and thoroughly worked out by the customer, the terms of reference were clearly formulated as the main ideological constants of the future pavilion (the course for the openness of the nuclear industry and public awareness, maximum communication with a view to various target groups, positioning of Rosatom as a world technology leader), and possible ways of their implementation. Thus, openness was to be symbolized by a transparent sphere, which constitutes the main structural element of the structure; communication - interactive media facade; scientific and technical leadership - maximum use of innovative solutions.
The spherical structure looks futuristic, but in itself it is not a challenge for the architect: it seemed like a utopia only in the 18th century, when Etienne-Louis Boullet was inspired to draw his “competing with the heavens” Cenotaph of Newton, but since the time of Richard’s “geodesic domes” Buckminster Fuller, almost every city that positions itself as advanced considers it its duty to build a spherical museum, a stadium, or at least a planetarium. The challenge in this case was, on the contrary, the task of finding some non-trivial solution, despite the fact that it was impossible to go beyond the TK ("the basis of the Pavilion is a large model of the atom, enclosed in a transparent sphere, shown literally as an unambiguous and undoubted symbol of the nuclear industry") was impossible, according to Estrin, especially and did not want to. “Everything is written there emotionally and quite tough,” says the author of the project. “It was interesting to work right away, the scenarios in the assignment are very sensible, and they didn’t particularly restrict me as an architect.”
Out of a huge number of sketches and sketches on a given theme, designed to "shake" the architect's imagination and direct it in the right direction, the concept eventually crystallized: the classical planetary model of the atom (the nucleus surrounded by an electron cloud) is supported along the perimeter by a base, which is designed as a heap of different sizes. stone polygons. Initially, they were supposed to continue the theme of the Stalinist Empire style, echoing, in particular, with the classical columns of the neighboring pavilion "Belarus", but as a result they went far enough from them, but they came close to the image of the natural phenomenon of Northern Ireland - volcanic basalt monoliths of the Giant's Causeway), which once struck the imagination of the author of the project. Another thematic association is graphite rods used in nuclear reactors. The "volcanic" landscape of the exploited roof surrounding the sphere should, according to the architect, turn into a public garden. And its internal volume, along with three tiers of underground space, accommodates most of the pavilion's expositions.
For the outer cladding of the sphere, Sergey Estrin suggested using pneumatic polymer membrane-cushions produced by a Japanese glass company (Sergey Estrin's workshop collaborated with her on a residential building in Novorossiysk). These high-tech and environmentally friendly elements are equipped with a ventilation system, reduce insolation (without which in summer a glass structure risks turning into a greenhouse), self-cleaning under the influence of precipitation and allow LEDs to be installed (media facade!), While the glass retains up to 95% transparency. And on the surface of the pavilion, along the "line of movement of the electron", according to the architect's plan, an elevator should move, which will take visitors from the surface of the earth straight to the upper "educational" level. Technically, this is quite possible, a living example is panoramic elevators climbing the spherical dome of the Globe Arena in Stockholm. To Estrin, however, their parallel trajectories seemed boring, and he launched several more orbitals on the surface of the ball, carrying a decorative, and maybe even a communication function - for example, a creeping line could be placed on them.
The small dimensions of the pavilion - 75x75 m, the height of the base up to 12.5 m and the spherical part up to 30 m (“you can't compete with the heavens itself”) plus the underground part - forced to look for interior solutions that work on the complexity of the space without being overloaded. Here, of course, Estrin and the cards in hand - his workshop has a solid experience in interior design, and in almost every of them, residential or office, the composition is built on a bright, sometimes striking dominant (remember, at least, a wave aquarium in an apartment in Moscow - City).
In this case, the central element of the composition was the "nucleus of an atom" - a sphere hovering in space, which, according to the architect, can be made also visited by placing there, for example, some kind of "control panel". From below, columns rise to it, carrying both a functional (structural elements, elevator shafts, channels for communications) and a figurative load - their nonlinear forms cause a lot of thematic associations, from isolines to graphs of the appearance of Higgs bosons. Sergey Estrin proposed to make the facing of the columns as diverse as possible, from polished metal to fabric, which also works to complicate the space.
The basis of the figurative solution of the interior was the vertical division of the pavilion space into three levels, symbolizing the Past, Present and Future. It is quite in the spirit of the given ideology of the pavilion, which should demonstrate the dynamics of the industry's development - from the exposition of the USSR Atomic Project to the Hall of Future Energy and the mysterious Neuromatrix. On the lower level, Sergey Estrin proposes to place the main expositions, on the middle one, at the level of the main entrance, leave it free, “transparent and spacious”, and on the top, under the dome, place an educational area with a lecture hall, a creative laboratory and an open Reading Garden. The movement of visitors around the pavilion, the scenarios of which have been meticulously developed in the terms of reference, is carried out, in particular, along a wide ramp that spirals around the inner surface of the sphere.
If you think about it, Sergey Estrin's project gets into almost all the main mainstreams of modern architecture. Here you have nonlinearity, and environmental friendliness, and futurism, and biomorphism, and, of course, the digitality originally laid down by the customer. But perhaps the most interesting thing about it is the underlying philosophy of continuity: from the depths of the earth to the atmosphere, from practice to fantasy, from the past to the future. By the way, this is a very relevant idea for the main exhibition site of the country, aimed today at restoring its historical appearance and filling it with new, future-oriented content.
