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Y-Generation Culture Center

The architects of Wowhaus have finished the construction of the Innovation and Culture Center in the city of Kaluga. In spite of the fact that in the course of the design process the functional program of the building kept changing as fast as innovations grow obsolete these days, the architects were still able to cope with the situation turning the project into a closely-knit hub of various cultural and sports scenarios with a flexible set of features.

29 June 2017
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The recent narrative of creating innovation centers in Russia looks pretty controversial. Initially, they were called DNK (standing for “dom novoy kultury”, translated as “house of new culture”) and were supposed to become part of a single network with the central hub in Skolkovo in order to expose regional youth to modern technology and art of today. Then the program was curtailed down to three centers: in Kaluga, Pervouralsk, and Vladivostok. And then, in 2015, the deputies of the State Duma proposed to turn these centers into patriotic ones that would foster patriotic feelings without any obscure “innovations”.

The afore-mentioned political metamorphoses were taking place when Wowhaus already got down to designing the center. However, the architects were still able to design a building that had a diverse set of functions and was easily transformable. From one end, it starts with a modern dance hall followed by a foyer, a lecture and a conference hall, and laboratories, while at the other end it ends in a muffle furnace. In other words, the very structure of the center inadvertently repeats the trajectory of the development of the idea of Innovation and Culture Centers over the last few years.

The land site on which the Innovation and Culture center is situated adjoins the Tsiolkovsky Park – the territory of the Museum of the History of Cosmonautics, a landmark built in the 1960’s by the architect Boris Barkhin; in 1961, Yuri Gagarin, the world’s first cosmonaut, laid a five-kopeck coin into its foundation stone at the construction inauguration ceremony. Built by the architects of Wowhaus, the culture center adjoins the southwest border of the “lawn” square in front of the Cosmonautics Museum but its land site is situated lower in terms of terrain and is partially obscured from the museum by the slope.

The west slope of the center’s land site that descends down to the Yachenskoe Reservoir turned out to be potentially dangerous with landslides. The authors of the project opted out of fortifying it but solved the problem by relocating the construction load: closer to the slope, the terrain holds single-story volumes of the education part of the building. The potentially eventful parts of the building – the multifunctional hall, the rehearsal halls, and the exhibition hall – were designed in the southeast part of the territory that faces the city. The space between the light northwest wing and the large southeast one includes the avenue of lime trees that the architects decided to keep – it made an excellent green courtyard opened in the direction of the Oka River.

“The architectural idea of the building consisted in creating a knot of two intertwined space “bands”. One of them would include the educational functions, the other – the public ones. Between the bands, we inserted the outdoor areas – a yard with an amphitheater and an inner green courtyard” – says Anastasia Rychkova.

Different functions and different motion routes are indeed gathered in one “knot”. The architects designed two accesses to the building that lead to this place from two public transportation stops at the Oktyabrskaya Street. From one of them, one needs to walk diagonally through the Tsiolkovsky Park. The park is connected to the building by a ramp that is then morphed into a light concrete bridge – walking over this bridge, we find ourselves at the level of the second floor of the complex. On the right, there is a sightseeing platform that commands a “postcard” view of the Cosmonautics Museum. Further on, the yard is graced by a large wooden amphitheater. Up ahead, there is an entrance to the second level of the complex and an entrance to a cafe. On the left, there is an exhibition hall; behind it, there are ziggurat-like sloping steps of elongated stained glass windows that lighten up the foyer – a peculiar kind of saw-tooth skylights. The glass cantilever of the cafe practically hovers above the ground resting solely on a V-shaped support.

This part of the building is a public space that can be used in many ways. The Wowhaus architects are really expert at creating interesting public territories, and in this specific case they literally surrounded the entire complex with them. In addition to the major amphitheater, the architects designed three minor ones: one is inscribed into the slope left of the ramp, another separates the center from a spacious children’s playground on the city side, and still another, the smallest one, only two steps high, is situated inside the foyer with a view of the yard – it can be used as a co-working space. In addition, still lower on the slope, on the side of the Oka River, the architects organized a 200-square meter parkour spot – the only one in Russia of such kind. Thus, the territory around the building is designed for various emotional responses and kinds of activities: parkour, recreation, contemplation, and open-air theater performances. One’s impressions are constantly changing as one moves around the building.

The second access to the building is routed from the city and down the alley – the architects are planning to turn it into a new city axis. It is straight, “disciplined”, and leads to a square in front of the large parallelepiped with a wooden pylonnade “drawn” on the dark-gray façade. Here, the architects placed a multifunctional theater hall – a modern transformable theater area. It was required to this rather tall, stating at the same time, within the height restrictions – so, for this hall, which us the central nucleus of the Center, the architects chose the territory lying in the lower part of the terrain.

After the multifunctional hall, the second imposing indoor space is the foyer, part of which is occupied by a system of black metal staircases lit by steps of the saw-tooth skylights – the kind that visually continue the steps of the main amphitheater on the outside. According to the architects, the structures of the skylights are as thin as can be: the authors were able to diminish their usual half-meter thickness down to 30 centimeters. Besides the staircase, yet another thing that draws one’s attention is the oval “cocoon” of the cloakroom, clad in wooden panels.

It is easy to see that the building of the Kaluga Innovation and Culture center is by no means iconic. At some places it even gets dissolved in nature, not to mention the fact that it is quite unobtrusive of the local terrain; it looks as if it flows over the landscape. It is obvious that its newness consists in lightness, subtlety, transparency, and maybe even the already mentioned unobtrusiveness with which the building’s scenarios lead the visitor along the suggested route. This kind of newness is hard to formalize because of the absence of any definite outer shell but it is full of interesting adaptive scenarios and possibilities of changing the backdrop of the action, probably resonant with the Generation Z’s mosaic thinking or Generation Y’s desire for communication. There is little struggle and impulse about this whole idea – but lots of ways for moving and staying.
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Location plan © WOWHAUS
Museum of Cosmonautics in Kaluga. Architects: B.Barkhin, E.Kireev, N.Orlova, V.Strogy, K.Fomin, 1960-1967. Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
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Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga © WOWHAUS
View from the Center towards southeast, in the direction of the Oka River. Mansions. Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga.
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
View from the yard to the amphitheater and the sightseeing platform on the roof. Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
Fragment of the main yard. Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
Skylights above the amphitheater. Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
Skylights above the amphitheater. Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
Corner of the exhibition hall and the skylights. Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Amphitheater above the bridge. Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Julia Tarabarina
Yard with a lime tree avenue turned towards the Oka. On the left: educational work shops. On the right: the foyer. Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
Yard with a lime tree avenue turned towards the Oka. Behind the trees one can see the northwest wall of the main hall. Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
The main entrance; reserved and diverse in textures. Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Julia Tarabarina, Archi.ru
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Plan of the first floor © WOWHAUS
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. The first floor © WOWHAUS
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Plan of the second floor © WOWHAUS
Innovation and Culture Center in Kaluga. Facades © WOWHAUS
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29 June 2017

Headlines now
Layers and Levels of Flight
This project goes way back – Reserve Union won this architectural competition at the end of 2011, and the building was completed in 2018, so it’s practically “archival”. However, despite being relatively unknown, the building can hardly be considered “dated” and remains a prime example of architectural expression, particularly in the headquarters genre. And it’s especially fitting for an aviation company office. In some ways, it resembles the Aeroflot headquarters at Sheremetyevo but with its own unique identity, following the signature style of Vladimir Plotkin. In this article, we take an in-depth look at the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) headquarters in the Moscow agglomeration town of Zhukovsky, supplemented by recent photographs from Alexey Naroditsky – a shoot that became only recently possible due to the fact that improvements were finally made in the surrounding area.
Light and Shadow
In this article, we delve into the architectural design of the “Chaika” house by DNK ag architects, which was recently completed in 2023 as part of the collection of signature designs at ZILArt. As is well-known, all the buildings in this complex follow a design code, yet each one is distinct. This particular building stands out not only for its whiteness and minimalism but also for the refined use of a limited number of techniques that, together, create what can confidently be called synergy.
Casus Novae
A master plan was developed for a large residential area with a name of “DNS City”, but now that its implementation began, the plan has been arbitrarily reformatted and replaced with something that, while similar on the surface, is actually quite different. This is not the first time such a thing happens, but it’s always frustrating. With permission from the author, we are sharing Maria Elkina’s post.
Treasure Hunting
The GAFA bureau, in collaboration with Tegola and Arkhitail, organized an expedition to the island of Kilpola in Karelia as part of Moskomarkhitektura’s “Open City” festival. There, amidst moss and rocks, the students sought answers to questions like: what is the sacred, where does it dwell, and what sustains it? Assisting the participants in this quest were landscape engineer Evgeny Levin, artist Nicholas Roerich, a moose, and the lack of cellular connection. Here’s how the story unfolded.
Depths of the Earth, Streams of Water
In the Malaya Okhta district, the Akzent building, designed by Stepan Liphart, was constructed. It follows a classic tripartite structure, yet it’s what you might call “hand-drawn”: each façade is unique in its form and details, some of which aren’t immediately noticeable. In this article, we explore the context and, together with the architect, delve into how the form was developed.
Fir Tree Dynamics
The “Airports of Region” holding is planning to build an airport in Karachay-Cherkessia, aiming to make the Arkhyz and Dombay resorts more accessible to travelers. The project that won in an invitation-only competition, submitted by Sergey Nikeshkin’s KPLN, blends natural imagery inspired by the shape of a conifer seed, open-air waiting spaces, majestic large trees, and a green roof elevated on needle-like columns. The result is both nature-inspired and WOW.
​A Brick Shell
In the process of designing a clubhouse situated among pine trees in a prestigious suburban area near Moscow, the architectural firm “A.Len” did the façade design part. The combination of different types of brick and masonry correlates with the volumetric and plastique solutions, further enhanced by the inclusion of wood-painted fragments and metal “glazing”.
Word Forms
ATRIUM architects love ambitious challenges, and for the firm’s thirtieth anniversary, they boldly play a game of words with an exhibition that dives deep into a self-created vocabulary. They immerse their projects – especially art installations – into this glossary, as if plunging into a current of their own. You feel as if you’re flowing through the veins of pure art, immersed in a universe of vertical cities, educational spaces – of which the architects are true masters – and the cultural codes of various locations. But what truly captivates is the bold statement that Vera Butko and Anton Nadtochy make, both through their work and this exhibition: architecture, above all, is art – the art of working with form and space.
Flexibility and Acuteness of Modernity
Luxurious, fluid, large “kokoshniks” and spiral barrel columns, as if made from colorful chewing gum: there seem to be no other mansion like this in Moscow, designed in the “Neo-Russian-Modern” style. And the “Teremok” on Malaya Kaluzhskaya, previously somewhat obscure, has “come alive with new colors” and gained visibility after its restoration for the office of the “architectural ecosystem” as the architects love to call themselves. It’s evident that Julius Borisov and the architects at UNK put their hearts into finding this new office and bringing it up to date. Let’s delve into the paradoxes of this mansion’s history and its plasticity. Spoiler: two versions of modernity meet here, both balancing on the razor’s edge of “what’s current”.
Yuri Vissarionov: “A modular house does not belong to the land”
It belongs to space, or to the air... It turns out that 3D printing is more effective when combined with a modular approach: the house is built in a workshop and then adapted to the site, including on uneven terrain. Yuri Vissarionov shares his latest experience in designing tourist complexes, both in central Russia and in the south. These include houseboats, homes printed from lightweight concrete using a 3D printer, and, of course, frame houses.
​Moscow’s First
“The quality of education largely depends on the quality of the educational environment”. This principle of the last decade has been realized by Sergey Skuratov in the project for the First Moscow Gymnasium on Rostovskaya Embankment in the Khamovniki district. The building seamlessly integrates into the complex urban landscape, responding both to the pedestrian flow of the city and the quiet alleyways. It skillfully takes advantage of the height differences and aligns with modern trends in educational space design. Let’s take a closer look.
Looking at the Water
The site of Villa Sonata stretches from the road to the water’s edge, offering its own shoreline, pier, and a picturesque river panorama. To reveal these sweeping views, Roman Leonidov “cut” the façade diagonally parallel to the river, thus getting two main axes for the house and, consequently, “two heads”. The internal core – two double-height spaces, a living room and a conservatory, with a “bridge” above them – makes the house both “transparent” and filled with light.
The White Wing
Well, it’s not exactly white. It’s more of a beige, white-stone structure that plays with the color of limestone – smoother surfaces are lighter, while rougher ones are darker. This wing unites various elements: it absorbs and interprets the surrounding themes. It responds to everything, yet maintains a cohesive expression – a challenging task! – while also incorporating recognizable features of its own, such as the dynamic cuts at the bottom, top, and middle.
Urban Dunes
The XSA Ramps team designed and built a three-part sports hub for a park in Rostov-on-Don, welcoming people of all ages and fitness levels. The skate plaza, pump track, and playground are all meticulously crafted with details that attract a diverse range of visitors. The technical execution of the shapes and slopes transforms this space into a kind of sculptural composition.
Proportional Growth
The project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential area has been announced. The buildings are situated on an elongated plot – almost a “ray” that shoots out from the center of the area towards the river. Their layout reflects both a response to Moscow’s architectural preferences over the past 15 years, shifting “from blocks to towers”, and an interpretation of the neighboring business park designed by SOM. Additionally, the best apartments here are not located at the very top but closer to the middle, forming a glowing “waistline”.
The “Staircase” Building
In designing the “Details” residential complex in New Moscow, Rais Baishev spiced up the now-popular Moscow theme of a “courtyard” building with an idea drawn from the surrealist drawings by Maurits Escher. He envisioned the stepped silhouettes and descending slopes as a metaphysical mega-staircase, creating a key void within the courtyard that gave the project an internal “spine”. This concept is felt both in the building’s silhouette and on its façades.
Projection of the Quarter
No one doubted that the building that Vladimir Plotkin designed as part of the “Garden Quarters” would be the most modernist of all. And it turned out just that way: while adhering to the common design code, the building successfully combines brick and white stone, rhythmically responding to the neighboring building designed by Ostozhenka, yet tactfully and persistently making a few statements of its own. This includes the projection of the ideal urban development composition “14–9–6”, which can be found right next door, mathematical calculations, including those for various types of terraces (and perhaps the only reminder of the Soviet past of the Kauchuk rubber factory!), and the white “cross-stitch” pattern of the façade grid.
Domus Aurea
In this issue, we examine the “Tessinsky-1” house, designed by Sergey Skuratov and completed in 2023. Located in the middle of the Serebryanicheskaya Embankment district, at the intersection of its main streets, this house assumes a sort of “nodal” role: it not only responds to everything around it and preserves many memories of the former EMA factory within itself, but it weaves all this into a newly directed pattern, reconciling bright “gold” and dark-colored brick, largely with the help of the new, modern-yet-archaic Columba brick, which, come to think about it, is the most precious element here.
The Chimney of Nikola-Lenivets
In this issue, we are examining the “Obelisk House” designed by KATARSIS and built for the Arkhstoyanie 2023 festival. However, it was only finished later on, and this is why we are examining it now. It seems to us that after the “Obelisk House” appeared in Nikola-Lenivets, a dialogue and a few inner connections appeared between the temporary structures built here. These houses no longer look like “accidental neighbors”, more of which below.
​Periscope by the Bay
The jury awarded the second place in the competition for a public and cultural center in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the companies GORA (“Mountain”) and M4. In the consortium’s proposal, the building resembles a sperm whale with a calf swimming next to it or a periscope, whose lenses capture the most spectacular views from the surrounding landscape.
From Arcs to Dolmens
While working on the competition project for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, ASADOV Architects prioritized the value of the natural and urban environment, aiming to preserve the balance of the location while minimizing the resemblance of the volume that they designed to a “traditional building”. The task was challenging, and the architects created three versions, one of which having been developed after the competition, where their main proposal took third place. However, the point of interest here is not the competition result but the continuity of creative thinking.
Hide and Seek
The ID Moskovskiy house, designed by Stepan Liphart in St. Petersburg, in the courtyards near Moskovskiy Avenue beyond the Obvodny Canal and recently completed, is notable for several reasons. Firstly, it has been realized with considerable accuracy, which is particularly significant as this is the first building where the architect was responsible not only for the facades but also for the layouts, allowing for better integration between the two. On the other hand, this building is interesting as an example of the “germination” of new architecture in the city: it draws on the best examples from the neighborhood and becomes an improved and developed sum of ideas found by the architect in the surrounding context.
The Big Twelve
Yesterday, the winners of the Moscow Mayor’s Architecture Award were announced and honored. Let’s take a look at what was awarded and, in some cases, even critique this esteemed award. After all, there is always room for improvement, right?
Above the Golden Horn
The residential complex “Philosophy” designed by T+T architects in Vladivostok, is one of the new projects in the “Golubinaya Pad” area, changing its development philosophy (pun intended) from single houses to a comprehensive approach. The buildings are organized along public streets, varying in height and format, with one house even executed in gallery typology, featuring a cantilever leaning on an art object.
Nuanced Alternative
How can you rhyme a square and space? Easily! But to do so, you need to rhyme everything you can possibly think of: weave everything together, like in a tensegrity structure, and find your own optics too. The new exhibition at GES-2 does just that, offering its visitor a new perspective on the history of art spanning 150 years, infused with the hope for endless multiplicity of worlds and art histories. Read on to see how this is achieved and how the exhibition design by Evgeny Ace contributes to it.
Blinds for Ice
An ice arena has been constructed in Domodedovo based on a project by Yuri Vissarionov Architects. To prevent the long façade, a technical requirement for winter sports facilities, from appearing monotonous, the architects proposed the use of suspended structures with multidirectional slats. This design protects the ice from direct sunlight while giving the wall texture and detail.
Frozen Magma
A competition for the creation of a public and cultural center was held in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Three architectural companies made it to the final, and we consider it important to share about the work of each. Let’s start with the winner – the consortium led by Wowhaus.
Campus within a Day
In this article, we talk about what the participants of Genplan Institute of Moscow’s hackathon were doing at the MosComArchitecture booth at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition. We also discuss who won the prize and why, and what can be done with the territory of a small university on the outskirts of Moscow.
Vertical Civilization
Genpro considered the development of the vertical city concept and made it the theme of their pavilion at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition.
Marina Yegorova: “We think in terms of hectares, not square meters”
The career path of architect Marina Yegorova is quite impressive: MARHI, SPEECH, MosComArchitectura, the Genplan Institute of Moscow, and then her own architectural company. Its name Empate, which refers to the words “to draw” in Portuguese and “to empathize” in English, should not be misleading with its softness, as the firm freely works on different scales, including Integrated Territorial Development projects. We talked with Marina about various topics: urban planning experience, female leadership style, and even the love of architects for yachting.