The Mnevnikovskaya Floodplain remained one of Moscow’s largest undeveloped areas for a long time, despite its relative proximity to the city center. A new urban district is now taking shape here: housing is under construction, the riverfront is being upgraded, and new public buildings are emerging. A large-scale sports campus will be one of the defining features of this urban cluster, comprising Alexander Ovechkin’s hockey academy, a training center for the Russian national soccer team, a multifunctional curling facility, and an ice arena for figure skating – Navka Arena, located in close proximity to the Ostrov residential development and Terekhovo metro station.
Navka Arena Ice Palace
Photo © Dmitry Chebanenko / Courtesy of UNK
The four-story building has a total area of 20,600 square meters. Inside, there are two ice rinks: the main 60 × 26-meter arena, with seating for 2,025 spectators, and a 60 × 30-meter training rink. During shows, the main arena can accommodate up to 2,300 people.
The complex’s distinctive character, however, is determined neither by its size nor even by the presence of two rinks, which is basically a fairly common arrangement. Most ice arenas are designed primarily for hockey, with figure skating and theatrical performances treated as secondary uses. Navka Arena, by contrast, however, was conceived from the outset in collaboration with Tatiana Navka as a dedicated home for figure skating and ice theater.
Navka Arena Ice Palace
Photo © Dmitry Chebanenko / Courtesy of UNK
In addition to the two arenas, the complex includes choreography and general physical training studios, a fitness room and a multipurpose sports hall, facilities for martial arts and padel tennis, a shooting area for hockey players, and a recovery zone. The complex also houses a hotel, fitness center, and café. It is home to the Nashi “Nadezhdy” Figure Skating Academy and an ice theater studio.
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1 / 4Navka Arena Ice PalacePhoto: Courtesy of the Moscow City Planning Complex press service
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2 / 4Navka Arena Ice PalacePhoto: Courtesy of the Moscow City Planning Complex press service
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3 / 4Navka Arena Ice PalacePhoto: Courtesy of the Moscow City Planning Complex press service
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4 / 4Navka Arena Ice PalacePhoto: Courtesy of the Moscow City Planning Complex press service
Thus, the ice serves simultaneously as a training ground, competition venue, and theatrical stage, while the building brings together functions that are typically kept separate: sports school, training facility, hotel, and performance venue.
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1 / 3Navka Arena Ice PalacePhoto: Courtesy of the Moscow City Planning Complex press service
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2 / 3Navka Arena Ice PalacePhoto: Courtesy of the Moscow City Planning Complex press service
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3 / 3Navka Arena Ice PalacePhoto: Courtesy of the Moscow City Planning Complex press service
The idea for Navka Arena dates back to 2018. The concept by UNK subsequently won an invitation-only competition organized by the Moscow Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning. Construction itself took about two and a half years, and the complex was commissioned in January 2025.
The Box as a Given
The internal organization of the ice arena is strictly dictated by its functional requirements. The building is structured around two large halls, flanked by spectator stands, locker rooms, administrative and support spaces, and training facilities. Since the rinks require very little natural light, the building inevitably takes on the appearance of a long, windowless volume from the outside.
“Such facilities worldwide are typologically close to warehouses”, explains Yuliy Borisov, head of UNK. “In terms of interior ergonomics and construction costs, this is the most efficient solution”.
The architects’ task, essentially, was to give this utilitarian shell a memorable identity. “We decided to use the budget rationally and concentrate the visual impact in one place”, Borisov says.
That focal point became the main entrance, facing the metro station. This is where the project’s key formal and conceptual elements are concentrated.
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1 / 4Navka Arena Ice PalacePhoto: Courtesy of the Moscow City Planning Complex press service
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2 / 4Navka Arena Ice PalacePhoto: Courtesy of the Moscow City Planning Complex press service
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3 / 4Navka Arena Ice PalacePhoto: Courtesy of the Moscow City Planning Complex press service
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4 / 4Navka Arena Ice PalacePhoto: Courtesy of the Moscow City Planning Complex press service
The building is set slightly back from the boulevard leading to it. To make the entrance more prominent and bring it closer to the main flow of visitors, the architects shifted the entrance doors to the right of center and aligned them with the axis leading toward the metro.
The main façade is an intricate three-dimensional structure composed of two overlapping layers. The first, lower layer is a vertical wall articulated by alternating narrow strips of glazing and solid metal panels. Viewed from above, the wall curves gently into a broad arc facing inward, as if drawing the plaza inside the building.
Navka Arena Ice Palace
Photo © Dmitry Chebanenko / Courtesy of UNK
A giant metal stage curtain is “draped” over the curved wall above. It is tilted at approximately 35 degrees relative to the lower part of the façade. Intersecting with the sequence of glass and metal strips, the “canopy” descends almost to the ground, also forming a gentle curve. The metal “curtain” itself, however, remains flat. It is only the line where it intersects the curved wall that takes on a bend. Yuliy Borisov explains the effect using the example of a cylinder cut at an angle: the cutting plane remains straight, but on the curved surface it leaves an oval cross-section.
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![zooming]( "Navka Arena Ice Palace Photo © Dmitry Chebanenko / Courtesy of UNK")
Navka Arena Ice PalacePhoto © Dmitry Chebanenko / Courtesy of UNK
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![zooming]( "Navka Arena Ice Palace Photo © Dmitry Chebanenko / Courtesy of UNK")
Navka Arena Ice PalacePhoto © Dmitry Chebanenko / Courtesy of UNK
The superimposition of two different geometries creates an almost illusionistic effect. At first glance, it is difficult to tell whether the metal “curtain” remains flat, bows outward, or dips inward. The vertical solid panels intensify the impression of a “visual trick”: following the curve of the glazed wall, they turn toward the viewer at different angles, so that as one moves along the façade, the wall seems to be constantly changing shape.
Navka Arena Ice Palace
Photo © Dmitry Chebanenko / Courtesy of UNK
As for the canopy, it brings associations with more than just a theatrical stage curtain – an apt image for a building where the ice arena serves simultaneously as a sports venue and a stage. Its dramatic descent to the ground, to the “final point”, also suggests the blade of a figure skate pressing into the ice. This point of contact is particularly important. The enormous canopy does not read as a heavy, cantilevered structure (which it effectively is): it seems to touch the ground on a sharp angle before shooting upward. The result is a sense of tension just before movement – like the instant when a figure skater pushes off the ice before a jump.
The Leading Lady
The key to the image of Navka Arena is the monumental sculpture of a figure skater in front of the main entrance. She performs a spiral position, balancing on one leg, and seems to freeze for a moment before the enormous metal curtain. The figure immediately signals the building’s purpose while also giving the otherwise impersonal volume of the ice arena a human scale – even though the sculpture itself stands approximately eight meters tall.
Navka Arena Ice Palace
Photo © Dmitry Chebanenko / Courtesy of UNK
It is not a portrait of Tatiana Navka, of course, but a generalized image of a young athlete. For the architects, however, it was important that the project had a specific person behind it, with her own biography and emotional connection to figure skating. “I like it when there isn’t just some department behind a project, but a real person whose emotions, whose story, you can understand”, says Yuliy Borisov.
Monumental sculpture is not often incorporated into contemporary architecture, but UNK has a particular fondness for it. At the Akademik business center, a giant profile of Vladimir Vernadsky became the defining element of the façade; at the Luzhniki Aquatics Palace, sculptures appear in both the façades and interiors, ranging from reconstructed 1950s reliefs to contemporary wire figures of swimmers. At Navka Arena, the firm has taken the idea even further, turning a monumental figure skater into the conceptual center of the entire composition.
Porcelain Instead of Metal
Achieving the desired image was far from easy. The architects wanted the enormous figure to appear light and fragile, while the sculptors proposed the more conventional solution of leaving it in bronze. At one point, that option had already been virtually approved.
Navka Arena Ice Palace
Photo © Dmitry Chebanenko / Courtesy of UNK
“We said, ‘This isn’t a monument at a gravesite; it’s the entrance to a sports arena!’” Yuliy Borisov recalls.
Ultimately, the sculpture was cast in brass and then coated with a special white enamel designed for outdoor use.
The light, matte surface visually dissolves its weight. The elongated proportions, slender arms, flowing skirt, and precarious pose heighten the impression of fragility: it seems as though a porcelain figurine had been placed in front of the arena and, by some miracle, enlarged to the scale of the building.
The Figure Skater and Her Shadow
The athlete’s image continues onto the façade. Behind her appears an enormous shadow, creating the impression that the sculpture is actually casting it onto the inclined metal canopy.
The architects initially planned to achieve this effect with directional lighting. However, a real shadow would have appeared only in the evening, and producing it would have required carefully orchestrating the entire exterior lighting system. Instead, the silhouette of the figure skater was perforated into the metal panels.
Navka Arena Ice Palace
Photo © Dmitry Chebanenko / Courtesy of UNK
It is now visible both day and night. The real figure skater stands in front of the building, while her enlarged double becomes part of the architecture itself. The metal curtain simultaneously transforms into a screen and a field of ice.
This motif is continued by dark strokes crossing the inclined plane. They resemble the marks left by skate blades on ice while also concealing the joints between the large cladding panels. The sculpture, its perforated shadow, and the skate-like lines come together to form a unified image.
Navka Arena Ice Palace
Photo © Dmitry Chebanenko / Courtesy of UNK
The relative positions of the figure and its shadow were tested on a large-scale physical model. A scaled-down version of the sculpture was placed inside the model and illuminated with a lamp while the architects adjusted the angle until they achieved the desired effect. The figure was positioned with equal care on the construction site: it was suspended from a crane and its placement relative to the façade was fine-tuned. According to Borisov, after the work was completed, the sculptor sent the architects a letter of thanks, admitting that only then did he understand why they had insisted on such precision.
