ATOM ag: “Provocative, Innovative, Beautiful”

Recently, a strong team of designers from Studio N22 of AO “Mosproject”, headed by Mikhail Alekseev, went over to AM PROEKTUS Architectural Office. Practically at the same time – this summer – Rustam Kerimov of A-GA architectural firm, together with his old friend Mark Safronov from PROEKTUS, organized an architectural company called “ATOM”. AM PROEKTUS will take on large-scale projects (implementation and working documents stages), while its affiliate ATOM will generate ideas and concepts, as well as take on competitions, exhibitions, trade shows, and many other things, representing the creative part of the team. As a result, the architects are getting a full-cycle company that is capable of keeping the projects from ideas to their implementation, without losing, as the architects hope, what value the project has in it along the way. Below we are going to try to make sense of it all, and find out more what the context of such transformation.

zooming — Yury Safronov, Mark Safronov, Rustam Kerimov. Photo: ATOM ag

Yuri Safronov

Yury Safronov worked in Studio N22 of AO “Mosproject”, more known as the “Meerson Studio”, until 2000, after which he left it to found his own firm AM PROEKTUS, but he was still able to keep friendly ties with Andrey Meerson, who continued to work in the studio until 2006. Yury also worked for ABD architects headed by Boris Levyant; later on, he worked on many projects together with Pavel Andreev. Currently, Yury heads AM PROEKTUS and teaches at the Moscow Institute of Architecture.

Mark Safronov

The son of Yury Safronov, Mark went to EDAS school founded by Vladislav Kirpichev. In his graduation thesis, Mark researched the methods of transforming the “intuitive” parametric field into form, including the methods of applying specialized medical software.

Mark is also interested in urban planning, new technologies, nonlinear and parametric design, and software development. He regularly visits hack days of computer programmers (also known as “hackathones”), considering their format to be equally applicable and productive for architectural discussion. Mark works in AM PROEKTUS, where he introduced the ideas of collaborating with LAP Landscape & Urban design headed by Sander Lap, did a number of competition projects and came forward with a number of educational initiatives.

Rustam Kerimov

Rustam us known for his participation in “Arkhstoyanie” festival. He is the founder of the architectural firm A-GA, whose portfolio includes projects ranging from individual art objects to large-scale housing complexes and public buildings. He and his team also worked for Studio 22 of “Mosproject” on competition projects, complementing its predominantly classical architecture with modernist proposals. The project of the building of Krasnodar Nongovernmental Expertise got shortlisted for the “Primety Gorodov” (“Signs of the Cities”) prize.

Rustam and Mark went to the university together. Both warm up to the subject of their internship in Japan, where the work of the interns was supervised from the side of the Moscow Institute of Architecture by Vasily Aurov, and from the Japanese side – by the pupil of Eisenmann, deconstructionist Hiromi Fujii. In the early 2000’s, Mark and Rustam worked together for a while on a number of projects, including the projects of reorganizing the restaurant chain of the Gorky Park.

Polycentricity

ATOM is not an acronym but rather a sign that is meant to accentuate the wide range of tasks spinning around one single common center, i.e. the project: “We see ATOM as a group of interdisciplinary experts, which will not limit itself to designing buildings alone and taking part in architectural competitions; the range of its activities will be significantly wider – landscaping, expo design, and museum projects. ATOM’s circle of interests will also include educational cases connected to urban development. We are also interested in developing new façade construction and decoration materials. We are planning to go global; in fact, we are already working with numerous colleagues from abroad” – the architects say.

Competitions

Currently, Atom is planning to take part in twelve contests a year. The idea was sparked by Junya Ishigami, who takes part in twenty competitions a year with a high victory ratio – Mark Safronov worked a lot with Ishigami when both worked on adapting his project for reconstructing the Polytechnic Museum; at the time, AM PROEKTUS was a subcontractor designer of “Mosproject-2” headed by Pavel Andreev.

The company does have experience in taking part in competitions, including large ones – the 2012 competition for renovating the territory of “Dorkhimzavod” on the Berezhkovskaya Embankment and the 2015 contest for the Rosatom pavilion. In collaboration with LAP Landscape & Urban design, they took part in the competition for the reconstruction of the Danilovsky Market where they came forward with a proposition to clear it from whatever later layers were there, organize inside an exciting spiral-like space, and accentuate the dolls created by Nodar Kancheli by mounting light boxes on the walls. In the same collaboration (also in 2015), they took part in the competition for organizing the territory of the “Crystal” factory, where their project, the chief part of which was the Forum – an open, yet awning-protected square – got the third prize.

In 2013-2014, the concept of renovating the “Serp i Molot” (“Sickle and Hammer”) factory, developed by AM PROEKTUS in a consortium with MVRDV and LAP Landscape & Urban design, got the first place in the contest for the redevelopment of the factory building, according to the opinion of the judging panel. The experts’ attention was attracted by the architects’ tactful treatment of the industrial buildings and the “genius loci”: “We saw our task in demonstrating that an industrial park is not some “omission” in the city fabric but a territory in its own right, with a structure, a character, ways and even monuments of its own. Any such place will offer something that you will find worth saving; we also saved some of the structures. As for the parceling of the newly-built urban blocks, we also inscribed them into the blueprints of the former factory buildings. In addition, the project was good from the economic standpoint; we arranged it all in such a way that our client did not ultimately have to build everything at the same time but could work with individual buildings as he progressed along”. Still, the client picked a different project for implementation, and since then nobody spoke about saving the charm of industrial parks.

One of the contest proposals submitted for “Mosproject-1” for the 2015 competition for the building of the Parliamentary Center in the Mnevnikovskaya Poima was designed by A-GA in collaboration with Stepan Lipgart: an imposing edifice with large inside yards in the spirit of the giant power plants of the early Soviet days. The project had two versions of image design solutions based on one planning structure: one in the vein of architecture of the 1930’s that Stepan likes so much, and the other, proposed by us – totally modernist. A year ago, A-GA took part in the contest for the second stage of construction of “Zolotoy Ostrov – 2”, competing with such companies as SPEECH, Sergey Skuratov architects, and Tsimailo, Lyashenko, and Partners.

Urban planning and design

Most of the projects covered above are essentially urbanist ones: the road winding through the Danilovsky Market, the Crystal Forum, and the conservation of the industrial aura of “Serp i Molot”. Yet another contest project, also designed in collaboration with LAP, is an urban block in the city of Belgorod, where the main theme was “further development” and making the existing construction denser, as well as separating the private and public spaces. In the center of the urban block, there is a large green square with geo-plastics.

Today, after ATOM group has been formed, the architects are working on the project of developing the territory of seaside hotels in Anapa. The principles, with which ATOM approaches its urban planning tasks, are equally applicable here: the feeling of safety and cohesiveness of all the parts must be inherent not only to the closed space of the building but to the open city space as well. As for the fact that the urban environment becomes denser, the architects consider it to be a positive trend – they are sure that high-technology production facilities, instead of being ousted, must be integrated into the urban environment.

New façade materials

One of the interests of Rustam Kerimov is bringing together architectural design and the technological creative activities dedicated to inventing new materials and breathing a new life into old ones. “The economic situation in Russia pushes us to come up with solutions of our own instead of buying the western materials, which are good but prohibitively expensive, these new solutions being innovative and technology-friendly. Our principles are: provocative, innovative, beautiful”.

For example, for the office of “Krasnodar Expertise” A-GA developed a special kind of cassettes: they bent pieces of steel, perforated them, and backlit them from the inside. The same company that actually manufactured these cassettes had them officially certified along with the façade coating system – and the architects got a product that had a certain value and could be used on other buildings. Incidentally, the script for the perforation pattern was written by Maxim Malein.

Currently, the architects continue working for Krasnodar, designing there the façades of an office building and using on it lamellae with parametric properties, which will change the picture on the building depending on the angle of vision.

“In the city of Yaroslavl, we are building a housing complex next to the Yakovlevsky Forest – Rustam Kerimov shares – for this project, we came up with profiled sheets and panels that are used in combination with Klinker brick. This brought out the best in both materials, while using the metallic cassettes on 50% of the surfaces made the economics of the building really efficient”.

What is being built now

The housing project near the Yakovlevsky Forest is being cast in concrete. In Voronezh, a building is almost complete on the Grodnenskaya Street, currently it is one of the tallest buildings in the city, 28 floors. Also, a house is being built on the Dmitrovskoe Highway.

In collaboration with Pavel Andreev, PROEKTUS is building the housing complex “Dostoyanie” for GALS developers; currently, the company Donstroy is starting to actively develop the district of Ramenki, the town planning concept of which belongs to the British LDA, while PROEKTUS does the in-service control of the project.

Branding

Naming as the constituent part of a project design is also included in the circle of themes that ATOM is going to explore. In this area, ATOM will make use of the design studio Pixies – it is also developing the new updated version of AM PROEKTUS website.

Smaller forms

The productive hobby of Rustam Kerimov, supported by Mark and Yury Safronovs: “working with smaller forms is a must – it helps you to keep up your professional level and your sense of responsibility”. The “smaller forms” are understood in a broad context and range from interior design of private residences to art objects displayed at festivals.

The growing house: a low-rise wooden house executed in the paradigm of open development. Initially, the summer kitchen was added to the old timber framework of a bath made of century-old cedar; then the architects gradually added guest rooms, and a yoga room, connecting all of the rooms with an overpass, the timber bath ultimately finding itself inside of the house.

Recently, a villa near the city of Kazan was finished – a wooden modernist parallelepiped; two more villas are in construction in Sochi.

A “stack of firewood” house: a temporary home for the villa construction workers on the site, a miniature house, the façade of which is designed as a stack of firewood. The firewood comes and goes, the house constantly changes, it “breathes”. The main villa never was actually built but the “stack of firewood” got its share of fame being awarded the prize at ArchiWOOD exhibition.

“The wagon”: “a house on wheels for the troupe of actors directed by Yuri Muravitsky, who made a presentation at “Arkhstoyanie”. This was a total theater, and they were the exhibits because they lived behind the glass, one wall being actually glass, while the house itself was a theater stage. It was even more interesting than the theater performance itself. The whole thing was built on the basis of a small bus PAZ 32053. The bus had to be reinforced, a steel framework was made, and then only lightweight materials were used in order to make sure that the suspension does not go underground. It ultimately was a success – meaning, you can ride it and live in the Wagon like you would in a hotel. When Polissky’s “Gothic” was being burned down, it was a true art cinema shot – a deejay sat in it, playing records”.

Educational activities

Mark Safronov educational project that is due to be launched next year will be done in collaboration with Svetlana Serebryakova: “She already did some projects for the city of Perm and All-Russia exhibition center, she also is one of the cofounders of the Urban Forum, and she has a tremendous experience in the field of town planning. The course is designed for industry specialists of the “head of the studio” level; it consists of five-six modules three days each, with full immersion – a boot camp format similar to hackathone. The goal is to widen the range of competences of the students so that the architect could also function as a competent client for land survey services. Today it is often the case that the land site is simply “dumped” on an architect with already given parameters, functions and square meters – and what we want to do is help the architects take a more active part in the process while still in the stage of forming the idea”.

Recently, an interior design project was finished for the children’s technology park “Naukograd” on the Profsoyuznaya Street, which was designed by Rustam Kerimov in collaboration with the graphic designer Anna Zernova, the artist Lilia Bores, and Svetlana Zabelina: “in this place, they teach high school and college students modern technologies; there are classes of robotic science, architecture, graphic design, and 3D modeling. The place has 3D printers in it, there are lecture spaces, a cinema lecture hall, a technology museum, and a coworking spaces”.

Rustam and Mark were also invited to work in Naukograd; there are also plans for creating a string of seminars called “City of the Future” – which must lead to creating a prototype for the “house of the future”, which will be installed on the territory of the technology park.

Exhibitions

The colleague of Rustam and Mark, Natalia Zaichenko, who took part in the earlier projects of A-GA – specifically, she contributed to designing an economy-class, yet still upbeat, house called “Patriot” with triangular balconies on brick walls, and to the project of reconstructing the “Ostankino” TV center, which was realized as painting it the colors of the color bar test pattern – now, since 2013, has been actively exploring the field of expo design.

“I always wanted to do something that would require my interdisciplinary skills, something exciting – especially after five years of working with project documents. In 2014 I graduated from “Strelka” institute, which ended in a performance and my personal exhibition – this was the first exposition that I designed myself. I really enjoy creating conceptual and elegant background for various kinds of content of different scales because the modern human being needs a comfortable atmosphere that enhances the quality of one’s perception of visual information. This is something that I call “expo urbanism”.

Natalia has already designed five exhibitions of contemporary art “Cosmoscow” (Moscow, Gostiny Dvor), the Qatar grand reception in Moscow Manezh, and a few conventions of the Forum of Strategic Initiatives. Natalia also works in a more “intimate” format – for example, with the design of the exposition of the Museum of Russian Impressionism and the Polytechnic Museum. She also has plans for developing her own modular system for building exhibition booths. Natalia Zaichenko will head the expo division of ATOM.

“Provocative, Innovative, Beautiful”

When asked about their creative principles, Mark Safronov and Rustam Kerimov give the answer that you have already seen above – no further comment is necessary.

01 October 2018

Interviewed by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

Headlines now

Object

The Secret Briton

The house is called “Little France”. Its composition follows the classical St. Petersburg style, with a palace-like courtyard. The decor is on the brink of Egyptian lotuses, neo-Greek acroteria, and classic 1930s “gears”; the recessed piers are Gothic, while the silhouette of the central part of the house is British. It’s quite interesting to examine all these details, attempting to understand which architectural direction they belong to. At the same time, however, the house fits like a glove in the context of the 20th line of St. Petersburg’s Vasilievsky Island; its elongated wings hold up the façade quite well.

The Wrap-Up

The competition project proposed by Treivas for the first 2021 competition for the Russian pavilion at EXPO 2025 concludes our series of publications on pavilion projects that will not be implemented. This particular proposal stands out for its detailed explanations and the idea of ecological responsibility: both the facades and the exhibition inside were intended to utilize recycled materials.

Birds and Streams

For the competition to design the Omsk airport, DNK ag formed a consortium, inviting VOX architects and Sila Sveta. Their project focuses on intersections, journeys, and flights – both of people and birds – as Omsk is known as a “transfer point” for bird migrations. The educational component is also carefully considered, and the building itself is filled with light, which seems to deconstruct the copper circle of the central entrance portal, spreading it into fantastic hyper-spatial “slices”.

Faraday Grid

The project of the Omsk airport by ASADOV Architects is another concept among the 14 finalists of a recent competition. It is called “The Bridge” and is inspired by both the West Siberian Exhibition of 1911 and the Trans-Siberian Railway bridge over the Irtysh River, built in 1896. On one hand, it carries a steampunk vibe, while on the other, there’s almost a sense of nostalgia for the heyday of 1913. However, the concept offers two variants, the second one devoid of nostalgia but featuring a parabola.

Review

Midway upon the Journey of Our Life

Recently, Tatlin Publishing House released a book entitled “Architect Sergey Oreshkin. Selected Projects”. This book is not just a traditional book of the architectural company’s achievements, but rather a monograph of a more personal nature. The book includes 43 buildings as well as a section with architectural drawings. In this article, we reflect on the book as a way to take stock of an architect’s accomplishments.

Inverted Fortress

This year, there has been no shortage of intriguing architectural ideas around the Omsk airport. The project developed by the architectural company KPLN appeals to Omsk’s history as a wooden fortress that it was back in the day, but transforms the concept of a fortress beyond recognition: it “shaves off” the conical ends of “wooden logs”, then enlarges them, and then flips them over. The result is a hypostyle – a forest of conical columns on point supports, with skylights on top.

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Transformation of Annenkirche

For Annenkirche (St. Anna Lutheran Church in St. Petersburg), Sergey Kuznetsov and the Kamen bureau have prepared a project that relies on the principles of the Venice Charter: the building is not restored to a specific date, historical layers are preserved, and modern elements do not mimic the authentic ones. Let’s delve into the details of these solutions.

The Paradox of the Temporary

The concept of the Russian pavilion for EXPO 2025 in Osaka, proposed by the Wowhaus architects, is the last of the six projects we gathered from the 2022 competition. It is again worth noting that the results of this competition were not finalized due to the cancellation of Russia’s participation in World Expo 2025. It should be mentioned that Wowhaus created three versions for this competition, but only one is being presented, and it can’t be said that this version is thoroughly developed – rather, it is done in the spirit of a “student assignment”. Nevertheless, the project is interesting in its paradoxical nature: the architects emphasized the temporary character of the pavilion, and in its bubble-like forms sought to reflect the paradoxes of space and time.

The Forum of Time

The competition project for the Russian Pavilion at EXPO 2025 in Osaka designed by Aleksey Orlov and Arena Project Institute consists of cones and conical funnels connected into a non-trivial composition, where one can feel the hand of architects who have worked extensively with stadiums and other sports facilities. It’s very interesting to delve into its logic, structurally built on the theme of clocks, hourglasses and even sundials. Additionally, the architects have turned the exhibition pavilion into a series of interconnected amphitheaters, which is also highly relevant for world exhibitions. We are reminding you that the competition results were never announced.

Mirrors Everywhere

The project by Sergey Nebotov, Anastasia Gritskova, and the architectural company “Novoe” was created for the Russian pavilion at EXPO 2025, but within the framework of another competition, which, as we learned, took place even earlier, in 2021. At that time, the competition theme was “digital twins”, and there was minimal time for work, so the project, according to the architect himself, was more of a “student assignment”. Nevertheless, this project is interesting for its plan bordering on similarity with Baroque projects and the emblem of the exhibition, as well as its diverse and comprehensive reflectiveness.

Report

The Steppe Is Full of Beauty and Freedom

The goal of the exhibition “Dikoe Pole” (“Wild Field”) at the State Historical Museum was to move away from the archaeological listing of valuable items and to create an image of the steppe and nomads that was multidirectional and emotional – in other words, artistic. To achieve this goal, it was important to include works of contemporary art. One such work is the scenography of the exhibition space developed by CHART studio.

The Snowstorm Fish

The next project from the unfinished competition for the Russian Pavilion at EXPO 2025, which will be held in Osaka, Japan, is by Dashi Namdakov and Parsec Architects. The pavilion describes itself as an “architectural/sculptural” one, with its shape clearly reminiscent of abstract sculpture of the 1970s. It complements its program with a meditative hall named “Mendeleev’s Dreams”, and offers its visitors to slide from its roof at the end of the tour.

The Mirror of Your Soul

We continue to publish projects from the competition for the design of the Russian Pavilion at EXPO in Osaka 2025. We are reminding you that the results of the competition have not been announced, and hardly will ever be. The pavilion designed by ASADOV Architects combines a forest log cabin, the image of a hyper transition, and sculptures made of glowing threads – it focuses primarily on the scenography of the exhibition, which the pavilion builds sequentially like a string of impressions, dedicating it to the paradoxes of the Russian soul.

Part of the Ideal

In 2025, another World Expo will take place in Osaka, Japan, in which Russia will not participate. However, a competition for the Russian pavilion was indeed held, with six projects participating. The results were never announced as Russia’s participation was canceled; the competition has no winners. Nevertheless, Expo pavilion projects are typically designed for a bold and interesting architectural statement, so we’ve gathered all the six projects and will be publishing articles about them in random order. The first one is the project by Vladimir Plotkin and Reserve Union, which is distinguished by the clarity of its stereometric shape, the boldness of its structure, and the multiplicity of possible interpretations.

Object

The Fortress by the River

ASADOV Architects have developed a concept for a new residential district in the center of Kemerovo. To combat the harsh climate and monotonous everyday life, the architects proposed a block type of development with dominant towers, good insolation, facades detailed at eye level, and event programming.

Object

In the Rhombus Grid

Construction has begun on the building of the OMK (United Metallurgical Company) Corporate University in Nizhny Novgorod’s town of Vyksa, designed by Ostozhenka Architects. The most interesting aspect of the project is how the architects immersed it in the context: “extracting” a diagonal motif from the planning grid of Vyksa, they aligned the building, the square, and the park to match it. A truly masterful work with urban planning context on several different levels of perception has long since become the signature technique of Ostozhenka.

Object

Generational Connection

Another modern estate, designed by Roman Leonidov, is located in the Moscow region and brings together three generations of one family under one roof. To fit on a narrow plot without depriving anyone of personal space, the architects opted for a zigzag plan. The main volume in the house structure is accentuated by mezzanines with a reverse-sloped roof and ceilings featuring exposed beams.

Object

Three Dimensions of the City

We began to delve into the project by Sergey Skuratov, the residential complex “Depo” in Minsk, located at Victory Square, and it fascinated us completely. The project has at least several dimensions to it: historical – at some point, the developer decided to discontinue further collaboration with Sergey Skuratov Architects, but the concept was approved, and its implementation continues, mostly in accordance with the proposed ideas. The spatial and urban planning dimension – the architects both argue with the city and play along with it, deciphering nuances, and finding axes. And, finally, the tactile dimension – the constructed buildings also have their own intriguing features. Thus, this article also has two parts: it dwells on what has been built and what was conceived

Object

New “Flight”

Architects from “Mezonproject” have developed a project for the reconstruction of the regional youth center “Polyot”(“Flight”) in the city of Oryol. The summer youth center, built back in the late 1970s, will now become year-round and acquire many additional functions.

Object

The Yauza Towers

In Moscow, there aren’t that many buildings or projects designed by Nikita Yavein and Studio 44. In this article, we present to you the concept of a large multifunctional complex on the Yauza River, located between two parks, featuring a promenade, a crossroads of two pedestrian streets, a highly developed public space, and an original architectural solution. This solution combines a sophisticated, asymmetric façade grid, reminiscent of a game of fifteen puzzle, and bold protrusions of the upper parts of the buildings, completely masking the technical floors and sculpting the complex’s silhouette.

News

Arch, Pearl, Wing, Wind

In the social media of the governor of the Omsk region, voting was conducted for the best project for the city’s new airport. We asked the finalists to send over their projects and are now showcasing them. The projects are quite interesting: the client requested that the building be visually permeable throughout, and the images that the architects are working with include arches, wings, gusts of wind, and even the “Pearl” painting by Vrubel, who was actually born in Omsk.

Object

Architecture and Leisure Park

For the suburban hotel complex, which envisages various formats of leisure, the architectural company T+T Architects proposed several types of accommodation, ranging from the classic “standard” in a common building to a “cave in the hill” and a “house in a tree”. An additional challenge consisted in integrating a few classic-style residences already existing on this territory into the “architectural forest park”.

Overview

The U-House

The Jois complex combines height with terraces, bringing the most expensive apartments from penthouses down to the bottom floors. The powerful iconic image of the U-shaped building is the result of the creative search for a new standard of living in high-rise buildings by the architects of “Genpro”.

Object

Black and White

In this article, we specifically discuss the interiors of the ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh. Interior design is a crucial component of the overall concept in this case, and precision and meticulous execution were highly important for the architects. Julia Tryaskina, head of UNK interiors, shares some of the developments.

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The “Snake” Mountain

The competition project for the seaside resort complex “Serpentine” combines several typologies: apartments of different classes, villas, and hotel rooms. For each of these typologies, the KPLN architects employ one of the images that are drawn from the natural environment – a serpentine road, a mountain stream, and rolling waves.

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Opal from Anna Mons’ Ring

The project of a small business center located near Tupolev Plaza and Radio Street proclaims the necessity of modern architecture in a specific area of Moscow commonly known as “Nemetskaya Sloboda” or “German settlement”. It substantiates its thesis with the thoroughness of details, a multitude of proposed and rejected form variants, and even a detailed description of the surrounding area. The project is interesting indeed, and it is even more interesting to see what will come of it.

Object

Feed ’Em All

A “House of Russian Cuisine” was designed and built by KROST Group at VDNKh for the “Rossiya” exhibition in record-breaking time. The pavilion is masterfully constructed in terms of the standards of modern public catering industry multiplied by the bustling cultural program of the exhibition, and it interprets the stylistically diverse character of VDNKh just as successfully. At the same time, much of its interior design can be traced back to the prototypes of the 1960s – so much so that even scenes from iconic Soviet movies of those years persistently come to mind.

Object

The Ensemble at the Mosque

OSA prepared a master plan for a district in the southern part of Derbent. The main task of the master plan is to initiate the formation of a modern comfortable environment in this city. The organization of residential areas is subordinated to the city’s spiritual center: depending on the location relative to the cathedral mosque, the houses are distinguished by façade and plastique solutions. The program also includes a “hospitality center”, administrative buildings, an educational cluster, and even an air bridge.

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Pargolovo Protestantism

A Protestant church is being built in St. Petersburg by the project of SLOI architects. One of the main features of the building is a wooden roof with 25-meter spans, which, among other things, forms the interior of the prayer hall. Also, there are other interesting details – we are telling you more about them.

Object

The Shape of the Inconceivable

The ATOM Pavilion at VDNKh brings to mind a famous maxim of all architects and critics: “You’ve come up with it? Now build it!” You rarely see such a selfless immersion in implementation of the project, and the formidable structural and engineering tasks set by UNK architects to themselves are presented here as an integral and important part of the architectural idea. The challenge matches the obliging status of the place – after all, it is an “exhibition of achievements”, and the pavilion is dedicated to the nuclear energy industry. Let’s take a closer look: from the outside, from the inside, and from the underside too.