Archi.ru:
How was the work on the project going? What factors influenced it?
Julius Borisov:
– While working on the project, we faced two problems. The first is context-based urban planning tasks. That is, on the one hand, the historical heritage is such a special environment as the VDNKh ensemble, on the other hand, the desire of the client, the state corporation Rosatom, to create a pavilion that will delight industry workers and the general public. Some conflict immediately arose between them.
At the first stage of the competition, we turned exclusively to the context, using an approach through the cultural component. But the inconsistency of such an approach quickly emerged, and the representatives of the Moscow City Architecture Committee and the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments understood this.
Finding a solution to the conflict became the task of the second stage. We followed the path of our favorite directions - purism and minimalism in the interpretation of the building and "art gesture", but at the same time we tried not to miss the semantic load of the project.
We decided to compete with our colleagues not at the level of forms, but at the level of ideas. Our team was the first to set the task of visualizing the field of nuclear energy not through formal symbols familiar to all of us (atom, atomic bomb), not through architectural elements and archetypes (cornices of neighboring pavilions, streamlined, “futuristic” forms symbolizing the innovation of nuclear energy), but through sensation - to offer a space where the visitor can not so much know, but feel this energy, feel what is happening inside the atom. In our project, we tried to convey this state at a sensory level.
Based on these principles, we have developed an architectural concept that creates an illusory effect on the visitor: a huge console hangs over a person and it is unclear how it holds - just like the internal connection between an atom and a neutron is incomprehensible to a person. This is not a visual demonstration of the atomic model, but an attempt to convey the power of nuclear energy through sensations.
What determined the architectural design of the pavilion?
- Due to the client's desire to receive an innovative building, as I mentioned, when developing the project, we took into account all the features associated with the architecture of exhibition spaces and pavilions. We tried to offer our interpretation of both the VDNKh ensemble and exhibition spaces in general.
There are repetitive techniques in the VDNKh complex, which we decided to use. The first is the large number of arcades that create open-air public spaces. This technique is found both in the earliest pavilions of VDNKh and in the buildings of the 1970s. These are transitional spaces for the public between the street and the pavilion itself: thanks to them, a person is not immediately "drawn" from the outside into a closed exhibition hall, but gets there through a still open, but already decorated area.
In our project, half of the territory is allocated for the transitional space. The glass triangle is warm, it is not an outdoor space, but it does not serve as the main exposition.
The second technique is a high-raised console. This is a typical technique for the architecture of exhibition pavilions (take at least
Milanese pavilion of Sergei Tchoban or some structures of VDNKh), and this is a rather complicated structure from the point of view of construction technologies.
The third technique is that all our projects are carefully thought out not only at the level of the general concept, but also at the level of details - texture, windows, door handles, etc. In this project, a complex parabolic shape is carefully worked out from the point of view of texture and texture: it is special, memorable, it has small protrusions-steps, the rhythm and size of which is comparable to the design of other VDNKh pavilions. It is not always common for people to perceive the general concept of a building, more often they only feel it, without realizing it - while the elaboration of the texture is understandable and noticeable to everyone.
We decided that it is also important to show how rationally we use an irreplaceable resource - the earth's surface: on the roof, we have equipped a green public area and a cafe. During the summer, lectures and other events will be held there. The idea of using the roof for landscaping is perfectly superimposed on the principles of "green" energy of "Rosatom" and economical construction.
It is interesting that in the course of the evolution of the project, preparing countless options, we considered almost all the ideas that we saw in the final from our colleagues (with the exception, perhaps, of the concept of Evgeny Gerasimov). Flying saucers, shapes of atoms - we went through all these options, a huge number of versions, but in the end we moved a little further in our project.
Will it be difficult to implement your project - especially in a crisis?
- Yes, of course, you shouldn't hide the fact that this is a very complex project. I would call it a challenge, it occupies high positions in the complexity of engineering tasks and aspects of construction, not only from a domestic but also from an international point of view. But our customer, Rosatom, is still one of the largest Russian state corporations; it has sufficient resources to implement this project. Although I should note that most of the problems are to be solved in engineering and design, there are not so many unique materials as there are issues related to their combination.
In turn, the client wants to use the pavilion both for exhibitions aimed at the general public and his employees, and for his own business tasks: to hold presentations there, to invite significant people from all over the world to sell them services and products. Such a space must exist for at least 20-30 years. Therefore, the phrase “we are not rich enough to buy cheap things” describes our pavilion very well. After all, the customer will need it for a long time: unlike many other methods of energy production, nuclear energy is now actively developing and will exist for a very long time.
