A new center of gravity for the district has emerged next to the Vernadsky Prospect metro station on a site abandoned back in the 1990s, which was empty for a long time: three unfinished floors fenced off with a fence created a depressive zone a stone's throw from the metro exits and caused justly discontent among local residents. The spatial “hole” did not please the eye of motorists either: when driving along Vernadsky Avenue from the center, the rhythmic order formed by the towers designed by the architect Yevgeny Rozanov (the 1975 project included three towers, construction was not completed) was replaced by monotonous buildings that did not correspond to the status of the district.
At the same time, according to the wishes of the customer, who held a closed competition for the project of a business center, a high-rise building with sufficiently high TEPs was to appear on this site. Obviously, the simplest solution would be to create an elongated parallelepiped, a kind of chest that occupies the entire spot of the area. But the architects of the UNK project came up with an elegant solution to meet the client's interests and at the same time maintain a balance with the surroundings: a 14-story lens rises on a four-story base.
Taking into account the need to create a city-planning accent, the architects saw their task in ensuring that the future structure as delicately as possible correlated with the surrounding modernist buildings. In particular, on the eastern side of the land tenure, there is the building of Tsentrosoyuz and the Ministry of Vostokstroy (project of 1968, under the leadership of Evgeny Stamo, construction of 1986) - a long plate with a characteristic curvilinear entrance group.
“It was important for us to create a kind of mental stop on Vernadsky Avenue. The linear structure of the street with changing views and accent points - a circus, graceful towers after them, was not supported by anything from the Prospekt Vernadsky metro station to Yugo-Zapadnaya. We wanted the building to “play” not only in terms of town planning, but also in meaning. Hence the idea of a portrait of Vernadsky on the facade of the building arose."
The shape found for the building and the decoration of its facade with lamellas dematerialize the volume, which, with all its sculpturality and scale, becomes a dynamic object that is constantly changing when perceived by both pedestrians and motorists. Moreover, the facade slats, giving the building an ephemerality, also help to reveal the semantic component of the place: they "painted" a portrait of a Russian scientist, after whom the metro station and the avenue are named.
And, indeed, even at the stage of construction, when there were fences around the construction site, the district acquired a new dominant that attracts attention not only by its form, but also arousing curiosity - whose portrait appears and dissolves on the facade, and even then the building became a real place of attraction.
Today, after the completion of the landscaping of the adjacent territory and the opening of the pedestrian route, bright red glasses standing by the sidewalk, a signboard and illumination of facades, visible even in the daytime, have enhanced this effect, noting that the building belongs to the place, the city and its inhabitants.
Without using the pure architectural vocabulary of the architects of the 1970s and 1980s, the UNK project created a thing that is modern and, moreover, surprisingly consonant with the surrounding late Soviet modernism: the sculptural form, color and plastic solution of the facades - everything reminds of the best examples of modernism, but without the dusty touch of nostalgia.
From unfinished to lens
The history of the creation of the business center project and its implementation is in many ways unique in modern times. At one architectural discussion held this spring, the chief architect of the UNK project, Yuliy Borisov, talking about the project of the Akademik business center, which by that time had already entered the final phase of construction, noted that it had taken two years to design. This insignificant remark has become the envy of many colleagues, since in today's conditions, design, having barely begun, often proceeds simultaneously with construction. Perhaps concurrent design will someday become commonplace, but now this situation raises many questions and does not affect the results in the best way.
Moreover, project renders (
see the publication of the project) differ little from the photographs of the already completed business center, while the object is completely non-standard - both in configuration and in technical solutions.
The first problem was the foundation laid in the implementation of the predecessor project. The metro line runs under it. The dismantling of the foundation was discussed and various design engineers proposed their solutions. Already at this stage, the customer joined the discussion process, demonstrating his readiness for careful collaboration with the designers.
“The customer did not rush us, giving us the opportunity to work out the details at the design stage and prevent possible problems during construction. The mockups created in the process helped us in motivated explanations that stimulated decision-making, - says Yuliy Borisov. - This concerned both constructive and finishing details."
So, in order to avoid beams, the appearance of which would inevitably entail difficulties with the wiring of communications and noise insulation in the subsequent decoration of the office, the architects used a technology for pouring a large-span ceiling that is unique for Moscow: plastic balls were placed inside the monolithic concrete for relief - void-formers, similar to a soccer ball …
Vernadsky's face
Today we, walking down the street, hardly think about where its name came from. And in Moscow, the loss of connection between the name and the place itself is especially acute. And, if everyone understands why Red Square or Varvarka got their names, then the abundance of surnames in the toponymy of the city has not aroused any interest in the personalities after whom the streets and squares are named for a long time. Hardly anyone will now remember why Vernadsky Avenue is so named, but with the appearance of the Akademik business center, or rather the portrait of Russian scientist Vladimir Vernadsky on its facade, the meaning of the place and the perception of the name of the avenue and the area around the station of the same name changed.
The architecture of the building of the business center, striving to dissolve in space and at the same time materializing the identity of the place, strangely rhymes the ideas of Vladimir Vernadsky himself, who foresaw the information society and developed the ideas of the noosphere - an imaginary shell of the planet created by the human mind.
The technical solution of the portrait of the scientist - trimming in certain places of the facade lamellas widely used in modern architecture - required long calculations and the use of several modeling programs from the architects. Not only the view from different points was taken into account, but also the lighting options, in order for the image to maintain the rhythm of the object itself and “work” with neighboring buildings.
The sign of the business center became an homage to modernism: the name “Akademik” was drawn in one stroke: according to the legend that exists in the workshop, its author is Yuliy Borisov himself, who wrote the name of the object on a piece of paper so that a calligrapher would draw it, but the customer decided to leave everything as it is. The inscription is also effectively illuminated in the evening.
The architects "diluted" the modernistic seriousness by installing sculptures in the immediate vicinity of the building - the glasses of the "Akademik" on the red line of the avenue "work" at street level and can even be understood as part of the improvement.
The scale to pedestrians is also created by the glass facades of a 4-storey rectangular stylobate, on which a 14-storey lens is placed. Thanks to large windows, the building is closely connected with the urban space, and soon it will house shops, cafes and entrance areas.
Inside "Akademik"
The interiors of the building are also related to the academic theme. “If the image of the building was born easily - the sketch was created in just one day, then I had to work on the interiors of the entrance area and public spaces for a long time and choose from several options, as I wanted to find a simple and obvious solution related to the facades,” Yuliy comments on the search. Borisov.
The first thing you notice when entering the building is three giant sculptural chairs, made in the shape of the head of Vladimir Vernadsky, each two and a half meters high. Thus, everyone who gets inside the "Academician" has the opportunity to stay in the head of the professor. They are made according to the sketches of architects from stainless steel.
Comprehending the interior from the point of view of ideology and philosophy, the architects also proposed to decorate it with the scientist's quotes, which are not only projected onto the wall, but also whispered to those who come in public areas.
By the way, the public areas on the floors are separated from the elevator hall by glass, which allows you to admire the views in all directions from the panoramic elevators. This fundamental solution - glass partitions that must comply with fire safety standards - turned out to be an expensive pleasure, but the architects were able to convince them not to skimp on the effects and to do everything in accordance with the project.
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