We have already talked more than once about the results of the competition for the project of the Radisson Blue hotel, and about its winners, and about some other competition projects that were not included in the top three. Many architectural firms took part in the competition, and many bids deserve a separate story. In addition, the proposed construction site is located in one of the most beautiful places in Moscow, at the confluence of the Moskva River with Skhodnya and overlooking the Stroginskaya floodplain. Now the Moscow Building Materials Plant is located here, and it is it that the hotel should replace it. The task of the participants of the competition was to create a high-rise dominant, visible both from the Volokolamskoe highway and from the Moscow Ring Road, and to comfortably equip the embankments, providing access to the water - and all this without competing with the natural environment.
The Fourth Dimension architects almost literally based their concept on the operator's logo. The elongated area of slightly less than three hectares, which originates from the arrow, allowed the word 'Radisson' to be freely, large and symbolically inscribed within its borders, without losing even the underscore. The contours became the basis for the general layout and functional zoning. On the plan of the buildings of the main building, as if laid out from three large coastal stones, the capital letter 'R' is guessed. The villas' cubes lined up along the Gangway resemble lowercase letters. The terraced embankment became the bottom line. The drawing of the plan was decorated with smooth curves of access roads, ramps and walking trails.
However, the authors attached no less importance to the perception of the complex in the river and plant panorama of these places. The tallest eighteen-storey building with long-term stay rooms is located closest to the water, on the arrow. Its long facades look one at the Moskva River, the other at the Skhodnya, so that most of the guests are provided with good river views.
The second twelve-storey hotel block, which accommodates short-stay rooms, is also open to the river, but not with three, but two facades. Its long northern wall looks out onto the mainland: both panoramas and insolation are not very successful there, so the architects turned all the windows of the guests to the river, and technical rooms, lobbies and elevator nodes were assembled along this rear wall. The third low volume of the administrative building is attributed to the interior of the site.
Of the many associations that arise when looking at the Radisson version proposed by the architects of the "Fourth Dimension", the main ones must be recognized as southern and resort ones. Glass walls, surrounded by wide bands of snow-white terraces, resemble a parked cruise ship - or a mountain with a giant seabird flying around. It is no coincidence that even a lighthouse completes the composition of the embankment.
One of the most important tasks performed in this project, the architects say, is the creation of an open, permeable and comfortable space at ground level for pedestrians. And although it is difficult even to call it urban in the natural zone, such oases, when implemented, as a rule, become the embryos of a comfortable city. The project has carefully thought out all internal and external relations on several levels. The entrances from the side of the highway are divorced: one leads to the main building, the other to the villas. The main entrance to the complex is located on the second floor level, where a gently sloping flyover climbs. From here, from the spacious lobby you can get into both residential blocks, which, being spatially divided into two volumes, are firmly connected by a system of passages and bridges. At the ground level, in the stylobate part, many gaps, arches, courtyards have been left, cafes and restaurants with autonomous entrances are planned, which is intended to make the public environment of the complex active, and evening walks around - no matter whether for a business conversation or just like that - pleasant.
Along the Skhodnya, the authors of the project stretched a multi-level terraced embankment with an extensive system of walking trails. Cafes and mini-squares alternate with orchards and parks. There is a small beach with a boat station and sports grounds. So the image of a “cruise liner” is not accidental: a hotel in a river environment could really help its guests to plunge into the atmosphere of peace or celebration, forgetting for a while about the frantic rhythm that Moscow lives.
