The site on Prospekt Vernadsky, 41, next to the metro station of the same name, is quite difficult and unhappy, but at the same time interesting and promising. It is narrow and stretches along the avenue, sandwiched between the roadway and the building of the Moscow Regional Union of Consumer Cooperatives (MSPK). The terrain with a height difference of about 3 m further complicates the situation. In the mid-1990s, an attempt was made to build up the site, but things did not go beyond the construction of part of the structures. Since no one was engaged in their conservation, the structures lost their functionality, they were dismantled, only a significant part of the foundation was preserved from the unfinished predecessor building. The project of the new multifunctional complex "Akademik", which will be located on this foundation, was developed by the UNK project bureau. The architects tried to get into the context of a rather complex piece of urban fabric as accurately as possible.
The visible part of the building consists of a rectangular stylobate, 4 stories high, and a 14-story main volume, designed in the form of a lens. The vertical aluminum lamellas used to trim the upper volume run downwards to unite both parts. This solution allowed creating a spectacular street facade-picture, on which a schematic portrait of Academician Vladimir Vernadsky will be "drawn" with the help of lamellas of a different section. The shape of a thin lens with sharp edges, vividly reminiscent of the well-known corner of the General Staff building of Carlo Rossi, made it possible to preserve the views of the ISPK building standing in the depths and not to disturb its insolation. Moreover, the architects managed to establish a dialogue with the neighboring building. It was built in 1986 and is formed by an elongated rectangle of the main volume and a massive rounded entrance. Thus, a whole series of contrasts and parallels arises between neighboring buildings. Finally, the simplicity and clarity of the forms, the white color of the facades and aluminum in the decoration help to fit a modern and completely independent object into the context of late Soviet modernism, which is very important, if not decisive, for the south-west of Moscow. “The area of the Prospekt Vernadsky and Yugo-zapadnaya metro stations has a well-formed“face”, it is somewhat strange to put houses of 20-30 floors with pitched roofs and brick cladding here, just disrespectful,” says Yuliy Borisov, head of the UNK project bureau. “But after analyzing the situation in which the building would exist, we immediately realized that we would not try to copy any techniques (blind imitation generally rarely leads to a high-quality result), but we will try to remain extremely correct to the surrounding architecture of the 1960s – 1980s. For me, as not only a practicing architect, but also a teacher of the Department of Reconstruction and Restoration of the Moscow Architectural Institute, the topic of recreating the urban fabric and the relationship between the historical context and new objects is generally very important and interesting."
At the same time, the structure of the future building is complex and multi-layered. There are two underground floors, which will be fully occupied by the car park. The high ground floor, thanks to the large display windows, will be closely connected with the urban space, it will house shops, cafes and entrance areas of all functional areas. Despite the very close location of the roadway, the architects managed to create a quite comfortable public area and even place a remarkable sculptural object here - giant 12-meter glasses, repeating the recognizable shape of the frame of Academician Vernadsky. The bright red author's art object is conceived not only as another method of forming the building's identity, but also as a place to attract attention.
The second and third floors will be occupied by another parking lot with a separate entrance - otherwise all the necessary 520 spaces could not be accommodated. The fourth, upper floor of the stylobate part is given over to a restaurant and a small hotel. Well, the upper lens-like volume is completely intended for offices. Despite the unusual shape with sharp corners, the architects managed to minimize losses and achieve high efficiency in the use of space. An important role in this is played by the location of the core, which is pressed against the central, convex part of the rear facade. This made it possible to open all office floors towards the park and plan panoramic elevators and halls with natural light. Thanks to some non-standard solutions, for example, somewhat unexpected, but, as it turned out, quite possible from the point of view of building codes and regulations, combining lift halls and evacuation corridors, each of the working floors can be divided into four independent blocks. And the relatively shallow depth of the top plate will allow natural light to be delivered to absolutely all office areas.
It is obvious that such a multifunctional and extremely compact, similar to a puff cake, the structure required a very complex, perfectly calculated layout, attention to every detail and rather daring technological solutions. Due to the natural relief, it turned out to be possible to abandon the ramps on the floors given for parking and to make simply pitched ramps and exits. The premises of the first floor are also not located on the same level, but follow the relief, so that everywhere there is a convenient entrance directly from the street. The savings in space turned out to be significant, but the most complex calculations required time and additional efforts of designers and engineers. Another technological innovation is the use of special large-span structures. In order to achieve an impressive distance of almost 12 meters, the architects borrowed from commercial construction technology with a plastic void former embedded in the floors. As a result, we managed to significantly improve the efficiency of parking lots and create the most flexible office space.
“If the bureau had not used BIM technology in the design, we would hardly have been able to accurately calculate this whole multidimensional puzzle in the spirit of Maurits Escher, and even competently integrate engineering systems into it,” Yuliy Borisov is sure. "The correctness of the calculations was checked at once by two independent teams of specialists, and I am very grateful to the customers for their understanding, trust and patience."
Construction has begun and is scheduled to be completed by early 2020.
