Paleontological Museum named after Yu. A. Orlov
and the Paleontological Institute. A. A. Borisyaka
Russian Academy of Sciences
Architects: Yu. P. Platonov, V. M. Kogan, V. P. Nagikh, L. A. Yakovenko (GIPRONII AN USSR)
Artists: A. M. Belashov, V. A. Duvidov, M. P. Miturich-Khlebnikov, M. V. Shakhovskaya
Moscow, Profsoyuznaya street, 123
1972–1987
Nikita Tokarev, architect, director of the MARCH School:
“Paleontological stands apart in our architecture, in terms of the power of the image, I would compare it only with the Lenin Museum in Gorki or with the facade of the Moscow Art Theater on Tverskoy. Here it was possible with a minimum of funds to create an extremely intelligible and emotional statement. An extremely meager outwardly volume, without details, but with precisely adjusted proportions, circular stair towers, one impeccably planted entrance hole, huge planes of rough red brick, all this reminds of a fortress, a mystery, a somewhat gloomy underground of the very theme of the museum of fossils. Yuri Pavlovich Platonov here went beyond the bounds of style, created a non-style, "eternal" thing, so I don't even want to look for prototypes for it, compare and analyze. For example, in Baku there is the famous Maiden Tower, a strangely shaped structure of incomprehensible purpose (either an observatory or a donjon) and an indefinite age (either the fifth century, or the twelfth, in general, very old), something like that comes to mind, what kind of prototypes are there. The museum building is very silent, as are the bones of ancient monsters. It seems to be devoid of signs of the era, like its exhibits, passing from "biology" to "geology", and there are other scales of time, not comparable to human life. At the same time, a chill runs from the toothed head, which has long become a stone, runs down the back, it is somewhere in the subcortex, where a monkey is hiding in each of us. Here, too, there is something of the stillness and dumbness of the seventies, full of inner tension. I look at him and I remember the collection "From Under the Boulders", although there is no politics in Paleontological.
Inside, the beautifully conceived space is overloaded with narrative "decorative art", the Gzhel ceramics masters unfolded here in full force. This is especially felt in contrast to the external appearance. In some places, it can be difficult to distinguish decorative elements from genuine exhibits. Nevertheless, I am captivated by the desire to think over every detail, even if this is not always accompanied by a sense of proportion and taste. In Soviet architecture of those years, it was rarely possible to get to the smallest detail at the level of door handles. A complex program, a combination of a museum and a research institute, is ingeniously packaged in a simple volume, so that the office and laboratory part cannot be guessed until you walk around the building. Everything is in very good condition, fortunately, the museum somehow passed the European-style renovation.
And he stands correctly, in a forest, slightly off the highway, as there were various semi- and very secret houses on the outskirts of Moscow. A unique museum, in fact, with one of the richest collections in the world. Once every two or three years I come here to visit the dinosaurs."
