The Irina Viner-Usmanova Rhythmic Gymnastics Center in Luzhniki is one of the notable buildings built in Moscow over the past few years. It won several awards, for example, it reached the final of MIPIM, often appears in the news and is well remembered due to its large iconic form - a voluminous golden "wave" over the stained-glass window of the main facade.
We have already talked about the design and implementation of the building and the use of OPEN BIM in this process. The interiors of the center are a completely separate subject, also repeatedly noticed and discussed. After the opening of the building, they attracted, without exaggeration, a lot of attention: in some way they contradict the laconic facade, in some way they have something in common.
The head of the center, Irina Viner-Usmanova, personally led and coordinated the interior design. It was her initiative to saturate her with Palekh paintings, Zhostovo and Khokhloma ornaments, vertical rods covered with black strokes of inscriptions clearly reminiscent of birch trunks. According to her
In the words: “Our palace is a tribute to the history of a wonderful sport that dates back to the days of Isadora Duncan. Here in the entourage of the Russian spirit, here it smells of Russia."
In terms of the density of patterns that “carpet” cover many surfaces, and also due to the bright combination of scarlet, black and gold, the interior, especially the main lobby, is truly immersed in the context of one of the popular varieties of the “national” genre. These parts are easily readable and recognizable - we seem to find ourselves in a box, or rather in its version “turned inside out”, since the traditionally bright shell in this case has become the leitmotif of the interior decoration.
However, it must be admitted that the persistent and noticeable elements of the "Russian style" do not at all turn the interior into a pseudo-Russian stylization. And walls, and ceiling slats, and linear lamps are quite relevant. The basis is modern.
The "golden sky" ceiling, echoing the idea of a wave of the roof, is assembled from 3d panels made of
Sevalcon aluminum from the LUX collection, distinguished by a special sheen of the coating; and the wall panels, ceiling slats, as well as door leafs and trims are made of Sevalcon aluminum from the GOLD collection in the color TEMPLE GOLD, with a more matte finish.
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zooming 1/3 Irina Viner-Usmanova Rhythmic Gymnastics Center in Luzhniki. Sevalcon aluminum wall panels, GOLD collection TEMPLE GOLD color Photo courtesy of Sevalcon
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zooming 2/3 Irina Viner-Usmanova Rhythmic Gymnastics Center in Luzhniki. Sevalcon aluminum door leaf and trims, GOLD collection, color TEMPLE GOLD Photo courtesy of Sevalcon
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zooming 3/3 Irina Viner-Usmanova Rhythmic Gymnastics Center in Luzhniki. Information counter cladding in Sevalcon aluminum, LUX collection, color WINNER GOLD Photo courtesy of Sevalcon
Quite often, parts that appeal to, relatively speaking, tradition meet with sharply-modern furniture of flexible outlines. For example, the turquoise spiral of the seats on the mosaic carpet of the floor with its golden colors may seem like an experiment akin to the jokes of Philippe Starck.
Or ring-shaped seats, a hit of public spaces of our time, are arranged at the base of columns covered with mosaics of Khokhloma ornament.
Thus, a building that is modern on the outside is much the same on the inside. Two themes, conventionally futuristic and conventionally conservative, are intertwined - they collide and distance themselves.
And there is one element where these themes intersect and “grow together”. This is the ceiling of the foyer, the inside of the roof, the form-building part of the interior. As well as outside, inside it forms a wave, and the wave looks like a semblance of the firmament, in oriental tales is often compared to a carpet.
This is definitely a fabulous image, it builds its expressiveness on the richness of gold, brilliance and "waving" ornament, which changes shape from report to report and seems to move along a giant wave like a pattern of water ripples, thickening and thinning. It is difficult not to recall both Gustav Klimt and the golden mosaic backgrounds of the Byzantine Middle Ages - it is obvious that the gymnastics center is not St. Sophia of Constantinople, but there is just a wavy golden ceiling in the narthex, in the space in front of the entrance to the main temple, on the broken vaults of the cross. One must think that the golden sky, whose flickering is enhanced by spotlights, represents the center as a temple of the arts. Although the rays of warm light in the pattern of golden triangles can recall a simpler and more lyrical image - in combination with white columns, interpreted as birch trunks, the ceiling will seem like a yellow crown of a birch grove on a sunny autumn day; albeit taken at hyperscale.
So, the golden wave of the ceiling touches the “Russian folk” component through the ornament, as well as through the well-known “birch” theme.
But the pattern of golden plates that form such a rich image is strictly geometric and modern, since it is made up of triangles that form rhombuses. It is quite abstract, and the waveform itself allows you to "let" the key recognizable theme of the building into the interior. This form, like the stained-glass window of the main façade, maintains the connection between the interior and the exterior, maintaining - again - the modernity of the architecture of the center, balancing on the verge of an ornamental identity. Definitely, the authors were faced with a difficult task, and I must say that it turned out impressively: a golden veil supported by ornamental straps of ribbons creates an image permeated with a wow effect, albeit quite specific.
The golden pattern of the wave of the roof from the inside is clad with 3d ceiling panels made of glossy aluminum from the collection
LUX in WINNER GOLD with 98% gloss index, suitable for installation on curved surfaces. The pattern, as already mentioned, changes, the holes of the rhombuses gradually increase and, conversely, grow together, emphasizing the dynamics of the wave. It is made up of large triangles, wide indents between them form a pattern that is readable at high altitudes. But each triangle, in turn, is made up of elements of a smaller scale - the latter are already joined together by thin seams, forming a light "cobweb-like" pattern on the surface, which makes perception more complex and nuanced.
The advantages of aluminum are well known: resistance to corrosion and climatic influences, light weight, excellent ductility. One of the main advantages of Sevalcon aluminum, which has been produced in Serbia for over 35 years, is the durability of the paint layer applied using the coil coating (CCL) technology. The product is certified and has a certificate of conformity to the NG incombustibility group. In the Center for Rhythmic Gymnastics, the material that is more commonly seen in outdoor decoration reveals its decorative potential in the best possible way.
