Project Details
- Project Name
- GES2 Remodel in Moscow
- Architect
- Renzo Piano Building Workshop
- Client/Owner
- V-A-C Foundation
- Project Scope
- Renovation/Remodel
- Year Completed
- 2015
- Team
- Antonio Belvedere, Project Lead
- Project Status
- Concept Proposal
Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
V-A-C Foundation is delighted to announce plans to develop a new site
for contemporary arts and culture in Moscow. The main building to be revived
and redesigned is the GES2 power station, situated in the popular Red October
district of the city.
Built between 1904 and 1907, the GES2 power station, once a supplier of energy
to the city, will now be re-imagined to supply energy of a different kind; that
of ideas and creativity. GES2 will become an exciting cultural destination, offering new opportunities
for artists and audiences on a local, national and international level and the
first major venue in the city of Moscow for V-A-C.
The Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) have been commissioned to design the
new GES2 and surrounding area, with plans to recuperate the original structure
of the power station and to insert a fluid and visible, web-like building-scale
device into it. The entire site will be reconfigured into a legible and
well-defined square of 150 by 150 meters, framing a birch “Forest”, the main
building and a “Piazza” area in front of the Southeast entrance façade. The
site will be organised into three main poles: The Welcoming pole, the
Exhibitions pole and the Education pole.
The Welcoming pole will be an extensive free access area, featuring an outdoor
sculptural garden with a forest of birch trees and an outdoor/indoor piazza,
where visitors will be able to enjoy the surroundings and engage with art. The
area will include a library, bookshop, amenities such as a café, restaurant as
well as an auditorium and permanent and temporary art installations, with its
own specific programme of exhibitions and events happening all year round.
The main galleries situated in the Exhibitions pole will be of varied and
flexible dimensions, adaptable to accommodate multiple media forms and
installation designs, presenting small and large scale exhibitions of both a
challenging and experimental nature, as part of V-A-C’s main annual exhibitions
programme. This area will also include a 100 metres long and 23 metres high
Central Nave. The Education pole will permanently house V-A-C’s annual
Curatorial Summer School and will introduce new courses and workshops about
contemporary art for children and adults. As well as classrooms, an artist
residency block with project rooms will also be located in the area.
To make the experience as friendly as possible, RPBW aims to develop the entire
space in a clear and legible way so that the visitor can be guided purely by
his or her own intuition, without the need for a map or plan. The new GES2
structure will be surrounded by a natural amphitheatre created by a new
topography raised on three sides of the site, to be used as a seating area for
film screenings and events, especially during summer when the garden will
become an open-air cinema.
An important part of the project is to make the space as environmentally
friendly as possible, and the existing chimneys will not only remain part of
the city’s skyline, they will become indispensable sustainable devices for the
site’s natural ventilation and reduced energy consumption. The overall
sustainable strategy includes the use of solar cells and geothermal sources.
Antonio Belvedere, Partner-Director of the RPBW, will be in charge of the
project.
V-A-C aims to launch the new GES2 site at the end of 2018/beginning 2019.