The Solovetsky Museum-Reserve came under the target program "Culture of Russia" back in 2012, since then it has been under the close scrutiny of experts and the public. Then they decided that the complex needed a new building: in order to store and restore museum items in proper conditions, as well as to exhibit them on one site. For construction, a plot was allocated just 220 meters from the monastery, in the conditionally "camp" part of the complex: the nearest neighbors of the building were the town of USLON and the GULAG Museum.
In 2014, construction began according to the project of the ViPS bureau, despite the protests of experts: a three-story building more than ten meters high was too actively intruding into the historical panorama. There were also complaints about the architectural appearance. As then
wrote "Keepers of the Heritage", "something like the estate of a wealthy northern Viking, suitable for a hotel and recreation complex," came out. There were questions: why build a new building at all, if there are many old ones that are awaiting restoration and will definitely not disturb the existing landscape.
The construction was stopped only after a hearing in the Public Chamber,
an open letter to Vladimir Medinsky and examinations at the Ministry of Culture and UNESCO, which the project did not pass. It was decided to revise it, the tender was won by the Rozhdestvenka bureau, which from the very beginning of this story took part in the fate of the archipelago. The project was approved and supported by the Scientific and Methodological Council of the Ministry of Culture of Russia, as well as the UNESCO World Heritage Center.
First of all, the authors changed the concept of the building: they refused to place the exposition in it. Museum funds from the Brothers' building of the monastery will move to the former vegetable store and diesel substation - the largest buildings in the village. Rozhdestvenka also proposes to create an entire complex dedicated to the camps, which can include a Boulder Bath, a seaplane hangar, a radio station and other facilities.
In the new building, it is advisable to make a depository, restoration workshops, offices of scientific workers, as well as a hall for open funds and a conference hall.
The main task facing the architects was to negate the impact on the historical panorama of the Solovetsky Islands. For this, the walls and slabs remaining from the previous construction will be partially dismantled, reducing the building to one semi-underground floor. Its floors will turn into a green exploited roof. For "camouflage" from the side of the Holy Lake, the monastery and the territory of the GULAG museum, an artificial embankment of the main volume of the building will be made, which will become a continuation of the elevated part of the existing relief. The result will be a hill of local herbs and mosses, which will cover the structures and the roof of the depository.
The facades of the building will be visible only on the "inner street" and from the opposite sides from the Holy Lake and USLON. The “street” will divide the building into two parts: museum and public, each with its own entrances. The facades are faced with natural granite from Karelia, its texture imitates a natural rock split with depressions and vertical traces of drills. Granite, grass and austere lines give the building an appropriate memorial character.
Now that the proposal for adjusting the original design has been agreed by all authorities, the unfinished construction will begin to be dismantled, and the new building is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2019.
