For Strength Tests

2024 Author: David Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 02:26

We have already talked about the project for the building of the Scientific and Technical Center of the Pipe Metallurgical Company in Skolkovo. In 2015, ABD architects won a closed competition held by the customer, beating such serious competitors as Stefano Boeri, Eller & Eller and the notorious NBBJ. The building has now been completed and officially opened; Boris Levyant's company completed the stages of the conceptual concept and PP; RD and designer supervision were carried out by Aurora Group. At the end of November, the company's management and architects held a press preview of TMK's new headquarters and research center in Skolkovo.

Pipe metallurgical company TMK, founded in Russia in 2001, specializes primarily in the production of steel pipes for the oil and gas industry. It is one of the three world leaders in its industry, unites about 20 companies on two continents, has an office in Houston, and supplies products to 80 countries.

TMK's new representative building, combined with its research stands and laboratories, is located not far from Minsk highway, in the northern part of the Skolkovo D4 research district, the territory of which is still underdeveloped. A research center for Sibur Innovations, which deals with polymers, has been built across the street from TMK, and the building of the international robotics company FANUC is being built on the adjacent site. On the opposite side, at the entrance, a parking lot began to function; the rest of the territory of D4 is still empty, so TMK is one of its first "settlers".

“The key feature of the building is its versatility. It combines a workshop with large-scale equipment for testing rolled metal products, research laboratories, office and representative parts, and a conference room. We had to coordinate and pass the examination many times. In general, we are satisfied with the result, in my opinion, the project is quite successful."

The building occupies a narrow long section between Bolshoy Boulevard and Wilhelm Roentgen Street, which separates the territory of the innovation city from the newly built residential complex "Slavyanka", a fairly typical example of Zamadovo construction, whose presence as a stage backdrop brings the observer back from transcendental thoughts about innovation to reality. However, one can ignore the neighborhood. So, the new R&D center consists of two parts: a long rectangle of the testing ground and a small, almost cubic volume of the office-representative part.

Научно-технический центр в Сколково Фотограф © Даниил Анненков/предоставлено ABD architects

The first, the technical building is intended for experimental research and is a hangar with an integral internal space about 15 m high. The stands for testing metal pipes for strength are partly buried in the ground; a mechanism for covering them with large slabs has been thought out. Since the two hulls are docked with each other, it is possible to observe the pipe tests and their results through the glass wall of the representative part of the complex, having a spectacular view of the entire hangar from above. But the two buildings are separated by an expansion joint, and the foundations are also separate, since the tests are carried out primarily to exclude pipe breaks and the loads are impressive.

Внутреннее пространство технического корпуса через окно в представительском здании. Научно-технический центр ТМК в Сколково Фотография: Ю. Тарабарина, Архи.ру

Испытательный стенд в техническом корпусе. Научно-технический центр ТМК в Сколково Фотография: Ю. Тарабарина, Архи.ру

The facades of the technical building are decorated with panels of light gray slotted metal, which, on the one hand, emphasize its engineering and research purpose, if only because its supporting structures and the dark underside of the inner walls are clearly visible behind the openwork screen. On the other hand, the horizontal slits from a distance look like ribbon windows, which made it possible to visually structure the volume, avoiding excessive technicalism in perception. In other words, from a distance, an industrial hangar looks like a building with windows. However, there are no real windows on the facades of the test building - its space receives natural light from above through many small openings evenly distributed on a flat roof: they were planned to be round, but turned out to be square.

Научно-технический центр в Сколково. Общий вид со стороны бульвара © ABD architects

The circles, however, have survived in the landscaping also designed by ABD architects. Circular lawns with and without trees are scattered strictly on the grid, but the difference in diameters makes them picturesque peas. If the windows of the test building remained round, when viewed from above, from a copter or "from space", the effect of a smooth "dissolution" of the building in space would appear.

The representative volume of the headquarters is facing the Grand Boulevard. It is three stories higher and looks like a glass “head” in front of a metal “tail” - the effect is especially felt thanks to the bay window ledge, which houses the VIP management suite, with access to the exploited roof terraces from both sides. The northwest corner of the headquarters, facing the entrance, is widened upward and slightly sharpened, the glass surface of the boulevard-facing west facade is delicately but noticeably curved. The second corner, south-west, on the contrary, is rounded - the glass volume in this part is continued in depth along the technical building. The docking of two differently functional buildings, thus, endows it with two "faces": at the entrance, where an acute angle shades the neighborhood of a test hangar, technogenicity is accentuated, and a faceted bend appears from the side of the innovation city, whose appearance is more urban than industrial.

An important component of the imagery of the representative part is the shading of the illumination of the strips of interfloor floors, similar to another office project by ABD architects,

Business Center Principal Plaza on 60th Anniversary of October Avenue. The pattern of the luminous stripes is based on a uniform alternation, similar to the weaving of a fabric: three elements glow, one does not - it folds into large zigzags and serves as a kind of light skeleton, organizing the uneven glow of transparent facades in the evenings.

The same zigzag rhythm is inscribed with ventilation slots, covered with a small metal grill. It was planned to cover some of the windows with a golden lattice, following the same zigzag logic. But in the final version, the gratings were replaced by silk-screen printing with the image of clouds: from the inside, the drawing is visible upon close examination, and from the outside it creates, rather, the effect of multi-tone glasses.

The interior of the executive part is united around a high, narrow atrium with a staircase divided by a bright orange partition: the company's corporate colors are black and red-orange. Soon in the space of the atrium it is planned to hang an art object depicting a giant drop of incandescent metal, but, of course, made of lightweight material. Another piece of art - and TMK representatives emphasize its interest in supporting art and artists - an enlarged painting by the artist of the first half of the 20th century, Ivan Slyusarev, reproduced on the glass of the lobby with a view of the Zlatoust plant, one of the oldest metallurgical industries in the Urals.

The interiors are neutral and technical. The research laboratories open onto the corridor with glass walls - this illustrates the openness of the process in the spirit of the modern concept of live and, in addition, allows excursions without interrupting the work of specialists. The building is technologically advanced in many respects: at the press show it was announced that 40% of the building's budget, which totaled 5 billion rubles, was spent on the construction itself, another 40% was spent on research equipment for test benches and laboratories, 5% on furniture and interiors, and 15% for multimedia equipment, including video conferencing, as the company unites many representative offices and industries in different parts of the world. The interior in the office part - which, like the media equipment, was handled by Pridex - is designed as a modified open space: the workplaces are built like a "snake" that provides employees with a certain degree of privacy. The solution of the ceiling is also hybrid: it is not sewn up and not fully revealed - structures and communications are covered with a multitude of petal panels, which, on the one hand, reflect light and work on the feeling of a certain degree of comfort, but, on the other hand, do not "cut" the height, leaving the real ceiling visible.

According to the Skolkovo rules, the building must receive an energy efficiency certificate, which was provided for by the ABD architects project and supported by subsequent designers. Maxim Neretin, a representative of the Aurora Group, which performed the function of general designer and developer of the RD, says: “An agreement was signed to support the project by a certified company that calculated points for obtaining the LEED certificate. She also advised on the design and implementation of the project in order to obtain a certificate. At the moment, when the building is completed, the contract with this consultant is still valid. The final scoring is in progress. In the first half of next year, the Aurora Group plans to achieve a targeted LEED Silver certification.