Moscow Metro Lobbies Of Soviet Modernism

2024 Author: David Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-09 00:51

Denis Romodin, architecture historian:

“The lobbies of the Moscow metro in the late 1950s and late 1970s, for some reason, often find themselves out of sight of researchers of the architecture of underground structures of the metro, although some of these lobbies are very interesting objects. If in the mid-1930s, interesting and varied forms prevailed in the architecture of Moscow ground-based lobbies - from the avant-garde portal of the Red Gate to the simplified neoclassical Park Kultury, then the post-war architecture was sustained in the mainstream of monumental, heavy eclecticism - in contrast to the more graceful lobbies of the Leningrad metro in the mid-1950s. True, the Moscow lobbies had an accent only on the main facade, because in most cases had to be built into larger buildings. The struggle against architectural excesses in 1955 led to the fact that all these structures turned into buildings of the pavilion type, but retained their monumental composition and some motives of simplified neoclassicism. Such examples can be seen at the Universitet, Sportivnaya, Rizhskaya, Shcherbakovskaya (now Alekseevskaya) and VDNKh metro stations. At that moment it became clear that the architecture of these buildings should be different - more economical and at the same time more modern.

The change in the architectural concept was clearly manifested in the lobbies of the metro stations of the first stage of the Filevskaya line - "Studencheskaya", "Kutuzovskaya" and "Fili", built in 1958-1959. The architecture of the lobbies no longer developed the monumental forms of the first half of the 1950s. The project, developed by architects Yu. Zenkevich and R. Pogrebny, included both prefabricated prefabricated elements - reinforced concrete products, metal beams and slate - and monolithic reinforced concrete with panoramic light glazing in aluminum frames. The appearance of these structures partially inherited the Soviet avant-garde of the 1920s – 1930s and European interwar functionalism. The interiors of the lobbies are quite simple but graceful - patterned metal tiles, tiled staircase walls and very elegant curvilinear decoration of the walls of the checkout areas with white laminated plastic with a combination of pink or blue stripes enclosed in an aluminum profile. At the same time, soft hidden lighting was used, which effectively illuminated the entire lobby in the evening. The solution of the canopies over the doors, which served as lighting structures for the site in front of the entrance, was also interesting. A completely different, utilitarian solution was chosen when designing the second stage of the Filevskaya line from the Bagrationovskaya metro station to the Kuntsevskaya station (architects Yu. Zenkevich and R. Pogrebnoy), as well as at the Izmailovskaya station (architects I. Taranov and N. Bykov).

A striking exception in the rather modest "Khrushchev" era of the Moscow metro in the early 1960s was the lobbies of the Oktyabrskaya and Leninsky Prospekt metro stations of the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya line. The Oktyabrskaya station, opened in 1962, was designed in the early 1950s. The station's design was substantially revised by architects A. Strelkov and Y. Vdovin in the late 1950s. At the same time, it was necessary to develop a project for a separate lobby, since the future Oktyabrskaya Square was planned to be completely reconstructed in the spirit of new architecture with large-scale modernist buildings and a newly-built cinema, next to which the snow-white lobby of the metro station was supposed to be located. The authors skillfully combined a light curved visor, which turns out to be a dome inside the lobby with built-in spotlights - with rectangular box-shaped concrete blocks, in which the glazing of the office premises and ventilation chambers were hidden.

The same blocks were used by the same group of architects for the vestibule of the Leninsky Prospekt metro station, placing them above a wide outrigger canopy with built-in lamps in concave hemispheres. The simple and elegant solution was effective for its time, but did not find further application in the architecture of the lobbies of the early 1960s. By that time, very simple typical lobbies made of prefabricated elements for shallow metro stations appeared, and many stations did have exits built into the galleries of underground passages.

Only in the early 1970s, during the construction of the second stage of the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya line, three new lobbies appeared - Kuznetsky Most, Barrikadnaya and Ulitsa 1905 Goda. Opened in 1972, the Barrikadnaya lobby (designed by architects A. Strelkov and V. Polikarpova) stands out for its brutal forms inscribed on the slope. The stone cladding with a bas-relief smoothly passes into the retaining walls, and the vestibule itself was supposed to become a kind of stone grotto in a large park, which was never fully implemented.

The vestibule of the Ulitsa 1905 Goda station, built in 1972 by the project of the architect R. Pogrebnoy, was decided in a completely different way. He was assigned the role of dominant on the new vast pedestrian square. The author returned to the idea of rotunda lobbies of the 1950s, rethinking the architecture in the spirit of modern times: the wide glazing of the escalator hall is covered with a massive faceted "washer".

A similar solution was applied in 1978 by the architects N. Demchinsky and Yu. Kolesnikova, who designed the ground entrance hall of the Botanichesky Sad station, which, according to the architects' plan, was supposed to face a vast park. It was for this purpose that light glazing of the rotunda was made, designed to provide a visual connection with nature, and a winter garden was designed inside the lobby.

The lobby, built in 1978 for the Medvedkovo metro station, designed by the architect N. Aleshina in the form of a six-column portico with a powerful entablature, is completely different. This solution was very close to the Leningrad metro lobbies of the same time, which are distinguished by their monumentality and spaciousness.

In this spirit, the architecture of the lobby of the Shabolovskaya metro station, built in 1980 according to the project of the architect N. Demchinsky, was also decided. The station was laid down and built back in 1962, but due to difficult geological conditions, the implementation was suspended. The original lobby was planned by architects A. Strelkov and Y. Vdovin and resembled in style the lobbies of Leninsky Prospekt and Oktyabrskaya stations, but in the late 1970s, the station design project and the architectural concept of the ground lobby were radically redesigned towards monumentality. According to the new concept, the massive structure became the architectural dominant of the square in front of Shabolovka Street. The first project included skylights in the roof, which were eventually replaced by hemispheres with artificial lighting."

"Student"

Architects: Yu. P. Zenkevich, R. I. Cellar

Design engineer: M. V. Golovinova

1958