Taste And Color: Aluminum In The Moscow Metro

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

Modern technologies make it possible to achieve

many colors of aluminum SEVALCON

and realize any fantasies of the architect

Aluminum, element number 13 in the periodic system of D. I. Mendeleev, almost irreplaceable in modern construction, began to be used in the decoration of the interiors of the Moscow metro relatively late. At first, in the subway of the Land of the Soviets, immediately conceived as a palace, they used traditional bronze - for example, at Revolution Square, or aviation steel at Mayakovskaya.

The advanced and quickly acquiring the properties of an effective and economical material, aluminum appeared in the Moscow metro during the "thaw" - in the 1960s and 1970s. One of the brightest solutions is the golden anodized vault of the station Aviamotornaya on the "yellow" line number 8.

Nowadays, aluminum, a material that is inexpensive, diverse and durable, is often used in new stations of the Moscow metro

Forty years later, a neighboring Soviet station with a golden ceiling appeared, new Aviamotornaya- its lobby was opened in the presence of the mayor of Moscow quite recently, in March 2020, the day before the quarantine. Now the station operates as part of the "pink" Nekrasovskaya line, but later it should become part of the Big Circle Line - BKL. The authors of the lobby and entrance pavilion project are architects JSC "Metrogiprotrans" under the leadership of Leonid Borzenkov - in the figurative solution, they started from the "aviation" name of the station, so the overall tonality is formed by gray metal: steel and aluminum. The faceted columns are reminiscent of "steel arms-wings", and the stripes of various shades of gray on the walls indicate air currents, although they are also in tune with the movement of trains. A somewhat harsh dark gray tone is emphasized by bright white illumination: above the columns, it is grouped in spots, and between them, as well as above the stairs and above the escalators, it folds into flexible ribbons, vividly reminiscent of the search for Zaha Hadid. The project was recently awarded the Golden Trezzini 2020 award.

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  1/7 Interior of Aviamotornaya metro station, opened in 2020 Photo courtesy of SEVALCON

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  2/7 Interior of Aviamotornaya metro station, opened in 2020 Photo courtesy of SEVALCON

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  3/7 Interior of Aviamotornaya metro station, opened in 2020 Photo courtesy of SEVALCON

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  4/7 Interior of Aviamotornaya metro station, opened in 2020 Photo courtesy of SEVALCON

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  5/7 Interior of Aviamotornaya metro station, opened in 2020 Photo courtesy of SEVALCON

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  6/7 Entrance pavilion of Aviamotornaya metro station, opened in 2020 Photo courtesy of SEVALCON

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  7/7 Collection Joy (Shagreen) | STARDUST, STARDUST DARK SILVER ≈ RAL 9007, shade gray © SEVALСON

Next on the "pink" Nekrasovskaya line No. 15 after Aviamotornaya - station Nizhegorodskaya. It is part of TPU Ryazanskaya (see diagram), named after the Ryazansky Avenue passing here. Author of the project, chief architect of the Moscow Central Circle Timur Bashkaev, emphasizes that now it is the only TPU in Moscow, into which it was possible to truly integrate the shopping center. For our part, we would like to emphasize that the complex, judging by both the already completed parts and the project as a whole, has a beautiful author's architecture. The entrance lobby opened at the same time, in the spring of 2020, is especially good: with a far-out canopy, white columns outside and inside, with a gigantic and light interior space, expressive thanks to the ceiling with a large wave of perforated metal ribbons.

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  1/7 Station Nizhegorodskaya, TPU Ryazanskaya Photo courtesy of SEVALCON

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  2/7 Station Nizhegorodskaya, TPU Ryazanskaya Photo courtesy of SEVALCON

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  3/7 Station Nizhegorodskaya, TPU Ryazanskaya Photo courtesy of SEVALCON

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  4/7 Station Nizhegorodskaya, TPU Ryazanskaya Photo courtesy of SEVALCON

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  5/7 Station Nizhegorodskaya, TPU Ryazanskaya Photo courtesy of SEVALCON

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  6/7 Station Nizhegorodskaya, TPU Ryazanskaya Photo courtesy of SEVALCON

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  7/7 Collection RAL, RAL 9003 PVDF P02G 9003A S © SEVALСON

One station after TPU Ryazanskaya we find the station Okskaya, also opened by the mayor of Moscow in March. The initial project was developed in workshop No. 15 of the Mosinzhproekt company under the direction of Alexandra Vigdorova, like the aforementioned new Aviamotornaya station, and was finalized by the Spanish company Bustren. (Customers and architects: OJSC "Mosinzhproekt", workshop No. 15 of the Mosinzhproekt company under the direction of Alexander Vigdorov (both old and new architectural projects were created by a team of authors under the direction of S. V. Karetnikov); "LENMETROGIPROTRANS", chief architect Potekhin Artem)

A shallow station with one row of columns and two platforms on the sides is solved with large spots and signs. The main and most noticeable of them is the ceiling, covered with bright blue aluminum with a small stripe print. It can be understood as water and as the sky, or as a "heavenly river" overhead, which is consonant with the name of the Okskaya station.

Bright blue aluminum is the pride of SEVALCON: the new color "Oka Blue" was developed and produced specifically for the Okskaya metro station … Coated aluminum in shades from azure blue to deep blue has decorated the checkout area, lobbies and platform for the station.

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  1/4 Station "Okskaya" Photo courtesy of SEVALCON

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  2/4 Station "Okskaya" Photo courtesy of SEVALCON

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  3/4 Station "Okskaya" Photo courtesy of SEVALCON

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  4/4 Collection Ocean. Nefeli, OKA BLUE, shade of blue © SEVALСON

But back to the "yellow" line. Solntsevskaya line 8A was conceived as the second, western part of line number 8: according to the plan, the eastern and western parts were supposed to dock in the city center by the Volkhonka-Plyushchikha-Dorogomilovskaya stations, and not later than in 2020. But the idea was postponed indefinitely, the Solntsevskaya yellow line 8A turned to the north, where it merged with the "turquoise" segment of the BCL ring that passed through Moscow City with the Delovoy Tsentr station, Khodynka with the CSKA station to Savelovskaya. In the diagrams, this part is now indicated by the number 11, then the number 13, borrowed from the monorail that stopped its work. Which is consonant with the fact that the construction of line 8A has begun the thirteenth in a row in the Moscow metro projects.

But it is curious that it was as part of the first yellow line, Kalininskaya, that the station mentioned above was opened in 1979 Aviamotornaya, the first large-scale experiment of the Moscow metro with aluminum trim

(aluminum from the STARDUST collection, color DARK SILVER) … So it is not surprising that with the popularity of aluminum in the decoration of modern metro stations, this material has become a key material in the design of stations. Solntsevskaya line, fully erected in the 2010s. More than half of them are decorated with SEVALCON aluminum.

The design of the two most interesting stations of the line - Novoperedelkino and Solntsevo - was determined as a result of a competition held in 2014 and implemented by the winning teams: Novoperedelkino - Riga bureau URA architects Evgeny Leonov and Alexandra Dembo, Solntsevo - Moscow Nefa architects Dmitry Ovcharov. We have already talked in some detail about projects and about implementations of both.

For the facing of the ceilings and columns of the lobby of the Solntsevo station, SEVALCON aluminum from the Joy collection in FROSTING ICE color was usedmanufactured at the Impol Seval plant in Serbia. With its name, which can be translated as "frost" or "frosty pattern", this type of facing aluminum owes to the similarity of its surface with a snow crust. It is this - bright, snowy and at the same time matte, without shine - whiteness was required to realize the "sunny" idea of Nefa architects: it seems that the ceiling and columns absorb and exude uniform light.

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  1/8 Metro station "Solntsevo" © Nefa Architects

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  2/8 Solntsevo metro station © Nefa Architects

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  3/8 Solntsevo metro station © Nefa Architects

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  4/8 Metro station "Solntsevo" © Nefa Architects

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  5/8 Metro station "Solntsevo" © Nefa Architects

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  6/8 Solntsevo metro station © Nefa Architects

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  7/8 Metro station "Solntsevo" © Nefa Architects

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  8/8 Collection Joy (Shagreen), FROSTING ICE © SEVALСON

Panels cover round columns and rounded pylons, as well as a ceiling cut through with "cheese holes" of milky white lamps. They create an even background, helping the authors to create an integral and harmonious "sunny" image that avoids the frontal designations - "rays", but conveys the idea of the sun through white light, which, as you know, is the sum of all rays known to optics. However, one significant element is present here - a large yellow "sun" circle recessed in whiteness, made with painted SEVALCON aluminum.

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  1/4 Metro station "Solntsevo" © Nefa Architects

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  2/4 Metro station "Solntsevo" © Nefa Architects

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  3/4 Solntsevo metro station © Nefa Architects

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  4/4 Metro station "Solntsevo" © Nefa Architects

In a sense, these games with artificial and natural light, rays and spots, which so well reveal the name "Solntsevo", were the answer to the sparkling ceiling of "Aviamotornaya" on the eastern part of the "yellow" line. The roll call is perfectly caught, architects, whose works are about 40 years old, emphasize to us that on one side of the city it is dawn, on the other it is sunset, capturing the "solar" component of this transversely crossing the city, but so far not connected metro line.

We have already talked about the Khoroshevskaya station of the BKL / line 8A: the concept was developed by the architects of the Metrogiprotrans company, Nikita and Vsevolod Medvedev took part in its implementation as artists; a bright multicolored station entirely dedicated to the memories of the avant-garde.

In this she is echoed by the station "CSKA", located on the Khodynskoye field and developed by the team of "Metrogiprotrans" under the leadership of Nikolai Shumakov. CSKA station also has something in common with Revolution Square - there are four bronze sculptures by Mikhail Pereyaslavets: a skier, a basketball player, a hockey player and a football player, and each of the figures has real sportsmen-prototypes.

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  1/5 CSKA Metro Station Courtesy of SEVALCON

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  2/5 CSKA Metro Station Courtesy of SEVALCON

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  3/5 CSKA Metro Station Courtesy of SEVALCON

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  4/5 CSKA Metro Station Courtesy of SEVALCON

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  5/5 CSKA Metro Station Courtesy of SEVALCON

Multicolor prints with flying athletes, balloons and hang gliders on the ceiling can remind us of Alexander Deineka's mosaics at Mayakovskaya. They were made according to sketches of monumental artists Ekaterina Bubnova and Yevgeny Shcheglov in technique of sublimation, or UV-printing on pre-painted aluminum surfaces. Painted surface of SEVALCON aluminum from the collection

RAL has demonstrated good adhesive properties and has served as a solid foundation for digital printing.

The projects of the stations "Ramenki", "Lomonosovskiy prospect" and "Minskaya" of the Solntsevskaya branch of the "yellow" line were built according to the standard design of "Metrogiprotrans". The chief architect of the company, Leonid Borzenkov, talks about the project:

The spatial composition common for several shallow stations is united by the predominance of SEVALCON of a metallic gray color, creating a very restrained and calm, technical backdrop for the brightly colored inserts of illuminated digitally printed glass on upwardly flaring columns lined up in a single row in the center of the lobby. Each station thus acquired its predominant color, easily distinguishable even from the corner of the eye from the carriage window, which allows passengers to easily orient themselves, despite the typical nature of the stations.

Lomonosovsky Prospect is highlighted in clear blue with white numbers that add up to the Fibonacci sequence. Mathematical symbols hint that from the station you can get to the main building of Moscow State University in a few minutes.

At the Ramenki station, joyful light green surfaces depicting stylized trees are intended to remind you of the once dense forests of this area.

Station "Minskaya" is dedicated to military equipment - due to the proximity of the Great Patriotic War Museum and the exhibition of military vehicles on Poklonnaya Gora.

In the same theme of bright prints on a neutral metallic background, Michurinsky Prospekt station, the first semi-underground type station in Moscow, is solved. Unlike the three above, it is lit with natural light, its lobby is more spacious and is divided by two rows of columns. Prints on glass - bright red-orange, decorated with drawings of flowering and fruiting apple trees in memory of the famous biologist - play here b about the most important role.

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  1/5 Michurinsky prospect metro station. Photo © JSC "Metrogiprotrans"

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  2/5 Michurinsky prospect metro station. Photo © JSC "Metrogiprotrans"

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  3/5 Collection RAL, RED LUX ≈ RAL 3001, shade red © SEVALСON

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  4/5 Collection RAL, BLACK GRAY P02G 7021 S © SEVALСON

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  5/5 Collection RAL, RAL 9005 PVDF P02G 9005 d S PVDF © SEVALСON

An important feature of the station is a developed and spectacular entrance group, which consists of two pavilions and includes a passage over the avenue. Here, as in the station lobby, we see drawings applied to the glass, as well as frequent shading of lamellas from the SEVALCON LUX collection in the color RED LUX - their shiny glossy surface is similar to colored glass and echoes with it reflections, but weighs much less, so that the lamellas provide the facade with a "glamorous shine" without sacrificing lightness of construction and without the need for massive fixtures.

In the design of the station "Michurinsky Prospect" used SEVALCON aluminum of different colors and collections: red

RED LUX from the LUX collection, black - RAL 9005 PVDF and dark gray - BLACK GRAY PVDF from the RAL collection.

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Aluminum SEVALCON, which made it possible to realize the author's ideas for the decoration of new stations of the Moscow metro, is made at a Serbian plant Impol sevalpainting metal by technology coilcoating (CCL).

Its main feature is that the paint is very evenly distributed over the web of the aluminum strip due to the high pressure between the rollers. Therefore, the surface is painted evenly, excluding fluctuations in shades, and the thickness of the coating does not exceed 40 microns, as defined by fire safety standards.

Aluminum SEVALCON has a variety of surface textures, from glassy-glossy to matte. The surface painted in this way is capable of adhesion with digital printing applied over the factory painting, which makes the range of patterns almost endless.

As you know, it is possible to veneer straight and curved surfaces with aluminum, it can be both minimalistic and futuristic, it can be a neutral background, or, on the contrary, it can take on the main visual load. It is inexpensive, lightweight, durable and flexible - significantly reducing the cost of fabricating the desired trim panels and on-site installation.