Open Space Manifesto

The Swiss Architecture Museum has recently closed the exhibition named “Forum Basel” devoted to open city spaces. Its co-curators were the Russian/Swiss company COSMOS and the Chilean architectural company Plan Comun.

Written by:
Natalya Muradova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

24 July 2017

Overview

For almost two months, in May and June 2017, the entrance to the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel was free. Its halls, otherwise quiet and pristine, turned into an almost-outdoor space open to everyone: the exhibition Forum Basel opened its doors.

“This was an exhibition devoted to the public territories and the city of Basel as a testing ground where we can test new technologies and ideas. Its final part coincided with the fair “Art-Basel”. To a certain extent, the subject of the exhibition and the idea to make the museum entrance free came around as a response to hyper-commercialization of the city during Art-Basel” – shares Leonid Slonimsky, a partner of the firm COSMOS.

So, while Art-Basel is about the modern art as we knew it in the XX century, Forum Basel is more like a postcard from the future in which there are no national borders, the artists exhibit their paintings on Instagram, and paper money is replaced by Bitcoin.

So, the new director of SAM Andreas Ruby invited to revise the traditional public spaces of the city not some high-profile Swiss architectural firm but two young companies – the Chilean Plan Comun and the Russian COSMOS. These two companies might be considered as foreign but the Berliner Andreas Ruby defined the co-curators as “temporary locals”. In addition, Leonid Slonimsky and Artem Kitaev have lived and worked in Basel for more than four years – enough to understand the city context and take in the details. Incidentally, the Russian/American/Swiss company COSMOS was found by the director of the museum on social media websites.

The architects of COSMOS, together with co-curators and the museum management proposed, as Leonid Slonimsky put it, “to give the museum to people”. All the four halls of SAM were turned into public spaces: in one of them, the visitors played table tennis, another was a co-working space, still another was a newsroom, where one could rest on a podium made of old newspapers and magazines (these were collected on Facebook), and the third hall featured video interviews with urbanist architects on how today’s cities can be improved. In order to breathe still more street life into the museum halls, the organizers invited street gypsy musicians to play at the inauguration ceremony.

The visitors were numerous, and a casual observer could mistake what was going on in SAM for a staged performance. However, the “street culture” part was only a form of the discussion about rethinking the city spaces that otherwise would have become just boring enough to cause the experts’ interest and scare away those that these spaces are actually meant for.

COSMOS did a survey of Basel’s urban life, its public rituals, and a few buildings, on the basis of which they created their concepts of public territories that were exhibited alongside the projects of the invited Swiss architectural firms Vécsey&Schmidt, Caesar Zumthor, Manuel Herz, Focketyn del Rio Studio, Rahbaran Hürzeler, and Scheibler & Villard.

The drafts and axonometric drawings that hung on the walls around the tennis table, at which the game never stopped for a second, placed the accents in the name of the exhibition: in “Forum Basel”, the word “forum” stands not for an event but for a space, very much like the Forum Romanum, open and alive.

“According to our design, the museum’s roof was to get a terrace with tables and chairs, for the people to go outside to get a breath of fresh air, talk to one another, and chill out in the shade cast by the trees. We even built a stairway for the people to climb and go out on the roof – Leonid Slonimsky shares – But this seemingly humble idea of bringing the tables and chairs out on the roof and make it accessible to people ran into a lot of bureaucratic obstacles, and ultimately, because of some obscure rules and regulations was prohibited altogether”. As for the tables and chairs, the architects left them on the roof, and turned the terrace, unimplemented but still attractive to visitors, into an installation named “Access Forbidden”.

***

COSMOS: Six Projects for Basel

Hidden Garden
A project of an underground park

The architects proposed to turn the old tunnel (the one through which the Birsig River flows) into an underground botanical garden. It could serve as a place for romantic walks, as well as a transient route especially handy during the rain. The microclimate inside of it is supported with special lamps, hydroponics, and heaters.

Art Drop
A project of an art gallery on the water

This concept unites the two most important tourist attractions of Basel – the Rhein River and the exhibition Art Basel. The floating platform will become a place for exhibitions, lectures, and celebrations. It will move around the river solely because of the flow, just like the traditional Basel ferries.

Thermae Urbano
A concept of a city spa

COSMOS proposed to heat up the water in the fountain next to the cathedral on the Muensterplatz in the cold seasons in order to turn it into a public spa: a mix of antiquity, Christian tradition, and the famous Basel fountains.

Triangle Unbound
A manifesto project for the territory around Dreiländereck

A concept that “does not require architectural intrusion”. The territory around Dreiländereck (a monument that marks the tripoint where the borders of France, Germany and Switzerland meet) gets an extraterritorial status and is no longer subject to any effective state laws - with all the ensuing consequences.

De-fence!
A plan for transforming an office territory

The members-only campus of the global healthcare company Novartis will be partially turned into a public territory open to city people in the non-working hours and on Sundays. During that time, the massive fence running around the territory will turn into an awning.

Discharge Schedule
How to spend your day in the city

By analogy with the official Swiss Abfuhrplan – a brochure that gives a detailed description of collecting and processing the city waste – the architects came up with an alternative version of their own: they gathered all the information and described how one can spend his or her day in the city – with adventures or misadventures, as the case might be.

24 July 2017

Written by:

Natalya Muradova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

Headlines now

Object

Daring Brilliance

In this article, we are exploring “New Vision”, the first school built in the past 25 years in Moscow’s Khamovniki. The building has three main features: it is designed in accordance with the universal principles of modern education, fostering learning through interaction and more; second, the façades combine structural molded glass and metallic glazed ceramics – expensive and technologically advanced materials. Third, this is the school of Garden Quarters, the latest addition to Moscow’s iconic Khamovniki district. Both a costly and, in its way, audacious acquisition, it carries a youthful boldness in its statement. Let’s explore how the school is designed and where the contrasts lie.

Object

A Twist of the Core

A clever and concise sculptural solution – rotating each floor by N degrees – has created an ensemble of “dancing” towers: similar yet different, simple yet complex. The designers meticulously refined a single structural node and spent considerable effort on the column construction – after that, “everything else was easy”. The architects also rotated the core walls on each floor to maximize the efficiency of the office spaces.

Object

The Sculpting of Spring Forest Matter

We’ve been observing this building for a couple of years now: seemingly simple, perhaps even unassuming, it fits in remarkably well with the micro-district context shaped by the Moscow MCD road junctions. This building sticks in the memory of everyone who drives along the highway, even occasionally. In our opinion, Sergey Nikeshkin, by blending popular architectural techniques and approaches of the 2010s, managed to turn a seemingly simple structure into a statement “on the theme of a house as such”. Let’s figure out how this happened.

Object

Water and Wind Whet the Stone

The Arisha Terraces residential complex, designed by Asadov Architects, will be built in a district of Dubai dedicated to film and television production. To create shaded spaces and an intriguing silhouette, the architects opted for a funnel-shaped composition and nature-inspired forms of erosion and weathering. The roofs, podium, and underground spaces extend leisure opportunities within the boundaries of a man-made “oasis”.

Object

Elevation 5642

The Genplan Institute of Moscow has developed a comprehensive development project for three ski resorts in the Caucasus, which have been designated as special economic zones of the tourism and recreation type. The first of these zones is Elbrus. The project includes the construction of new ski runs, cable cars, and hotels, as well as the modernization of stations and improvements to the Azau tourist meadow. To expand the audience and enhance year-round appeal, a network of eco-trails is also being developed. In this article, we provide a detailed breakdown of each stage.

Object

The IT Town

Taking the example of the first completed phase of the “U” district, we examine how the new neighborhood in Innopolis will be organized. T+T Architects and HADAA formed a well-balanced and ingenious master plan with different types of housing, a green artery, a system of squares, and a park in the town’s central part.

Object

The Heart Lies Within

The second-phase building of the Evgeny Primakov School already won multiple awards while still in the design stage. Now that it’s completed, some unfinished nuances remain – most notably, the exposed ceiling structures, which ideally should have been concealed. However, given the priority placed on the building’s volumetric composition, this does not seem critical. What matters more is the “Wow!” effect created by the space itself.

Object

Magnetic Forces

“Krylatskaya 33” is the first large-scale residential complex to appear amidst the 1980s “micro-districts” that harmoniously coexist with the forests, the river, the slopes, and the sports infrastructure. Despite its imposing scale, the architects of Ostozhenka managed to turn the complex into something that can be best described as a “graceful dominant”. First, they designed the complex with consideration for the style and height of the surrounding micro-districts. Second, by introducing a pause in its tallest section, they created compositional tension – right along the urban planning axis of the area.

Object

Orion’s Belt

The Stone Khodynka 2 office complex, designed by Kleinewelt Architekten for the company Stone, is built with an ergonomic layout following “healthy building” principles: natural light, ventilation, and all the necessary features for an efficient office environment. On the outside, it resembles – like many contemporary buildings – an iPhone: sleek, glowing, glass-and-metal, edges elegantly rounded. Yet, it responds sensitively to the Khodynka context, where the main theme is the contrast between vertical and horizontal lines. The key intrigue lies in the design of the “stylobate” as a suspended passage, leaving the space beneath it open for free pedestrian movement.

Interview

Grigory Revzin: “It Was a Bold Statement Made on the Sly. Something Won”

In this article, we discuss the debates surrounding the circus competition and the demolition of the CMEA building with the most renowned architectural critic of our time. A paradox emerges in the process: while nostalgia for the Brezhnev era seems to be in vogue in Russia, a landmark building – the “axis” of the Warsaw Pact – has been sentenced to demolition. Isn’t that strange? We also find out that wow-architecture has made a comeback as a post-COVID trend. However, to make a truly powerful statement, professionals still remain indispensable.

Object

Exposed Concrete

One of the stages of improving a small square in the town of Lermontov was the construction of a skatepark. Entrusting this part of the project to the XSA team, the city gained a 250-meter trick track whose features resemble those of land art objects – unparalleled in Russia in both scale and design. Here’s a look at how the experimental snake run in the foothills of the Caucasus was built.

Object

One Step Closer To the Dream

The challenges of getting all the mandatory approvals, an insufficient budget, and construction site difficulties did not prevent ASADOV Bureau from achieving its main goal in the realization of the school project in the town of Troitsk – taking another step away from outdated notions of educational spaces toward creating a fundamentally new academic environment.

Object

Chalet on the Rock

An Accor hotel in Arkhyz, designed by A.Len, will be situated at the gateway to the resort’s main tourist hubs. The architects reinterpreted the widely popular chalet style while adding an unexpected twist – an unfinished structure preserved on the site. The design team transformed this remnant into an exciting space featuring an open-air pool and a restaurant with panoramic views of the region’s highest mountain ridges.

Interview

Sergey Skuratov: “By and large, the project has been realized in line with the original ideas”

In this issue, we talk to the chief architect of Garden Quarters, looking back at the history and key moments of a project that took 18 years to develop and has now finally been completed. What interests us most are the transformations that the project underwent during construction, and the way the “necessary void” of public space was formed, which turned this remarkable complex into a fragment of a whole new type of urban fabric – not just at the horizontal “street” level but in its vertical structure as well.

Object

A Unique Representative

The recently concluded year 2024 can be considered the year of completion for the “Garden Quarters” residential complex in Moscow’s Khamovniki. This project is well-known and, in many ways, iconic. Rarely does one manage to preserve such a number of original ideas, achieving in the end a kind of urban planning Gesamtkunstwerk. Here is a subjective view from an architecture journalist, with an interview with Sergey Skuratov soon to follow.

Object

Field of Life

The new project by the architectural company PNKB (an acronym for “Design, Research, and Advisory Bureau”), led by Sergey Gnedovsky and Anton Lyubimkin, for the Kulikovo Field Museum is dedicated to the field as a concept in its own right. The field has long been a focus of the museum’s thorough and successful research. Accordingly, the exterior of the new museum building is gentler than that of its predecessor, which was also designed by PNKB and dedicated specifically to the historic battle. Inside, however, the building confidently guides the visitor from a luminous atrium along a spiral path to the field – interpreted here as a field of life.

Object

A Paper Clip above the River

In this article, we talk with Vitaly Lutz from the Genplan Institute of Moscow about the design and unique features of the pedestrian bridge that now links the two banks of the Yauza River in the new cluster of Bauman Moscow State Technical University (MSTU). The bridge’s form and functionality – particularly the inclusion of an amphitheater suspended over the river – were conceived during the planning phase of the territory’s development. Typically, this approach is not standard practice, but the architects advocate for it, referring to this intermediate project phase as the “pre-AGR” stage (AGR stands for Architectural and Urban Planning Approval). Such a practice, they argue, helps define key parameters of future projects and bridge the gap between urban planning and architectural design.

Review

Living in the Architecture of One’s Own Making

Do architects design houses for themselves? You bet! In this article, we are examining a new book by TATLIN publishing house. This book – unprecedented for Russia – features 52 private homes designed and built by contemporary architects for themselves. It includes houses that are famous, even iconic, as well as lesser-known ones; large and small, stylish and eccentric. To some extent, the book reflects the history of Russian architecture over the past 30 years.

Object

A City Block Isoline

Another competition project for a residential complex on the banks of the Volga in Nizhny Novgorod has been prepared by Studio 44. A team of architects led by Ivan Kozhin concluded that using a regular block layout in such a location would be inappropriate and developed a “custom design” approach: a chain of parceled multi-section buildings stretching along the entire embankment. Let’s explore the features and advantages of this unconventional method.

Report

Competition: The Price of Creativity?

Any day now, we’re expecting the results of a competition held by the “Samolet” development group for a plot in Kommunarka. In the meantime, we share the impressions of Editor-in-Chief Julia Tarabarina, who managed to conduct a public talk. Though technically focused on the interaction between developers and architects, the public talk turned into a discussion about the pros and cons of architectural competitions.

Object

Terraced Design

The “River Park” residential complex has confidently and securely shaped the Nagatinsky Backwater shoreline. Featuring a public embankment, elevated courtyards connected by pedestrian bridges, and brick façades, the development invites exploration of its nuanced response to the surrounding context, as well as hints of the architects’ megalithic design thinking.

A Kremlin’s Core and Meteorite Fragments

We continue our coverage of the competition projects for the residential district that the development company GloraX plans to build along the embankment of the Rowing Channel in Nizhny Novgorod. ASADOV Architects approached the concept through a deep dive into local identity, using storytelling to pinpoint a central idea for the design: the master plan and composition are imagined as if a meteorite had struck a “proto-Kremlin”. Sounds weird? Find more details below!

Contest Results

The Volga Regatta

GloraX plans to develop a residential complex spanning 14 hectares along the Volga River in Nizhny Novgorod. The winning design in a closed-door competition, created by GORA Architects, features housing typologies ranging from townhouses to terraced high-rise slabs, a balance of functions, diverse ways of engaging with the water, and even a dedicated island (no less!) for the city residents.

Object

Life Plans

The master plan for the residential district “Prityazheniye” (“Gravity”) in Naberezhnye Chelny was developed by the architectural company A.Len, taking into account the specific urban planning context and partially implemented solutions of the first phase. However, the master plan prioritized its own values: a green framework, a system of focal points, a hierarchy of spaces, and pedestrian priority. After this, the question of what residents will do in their neighborhood simply doesn’t arise.

Object

A New Track

We took a thorough look at D_Station, a railcar repair depot dating back to 1906, recently reconstructed while preserving its century-old industrial structure, upon the project by Sergey Trukhanov and T+T Architects. Though work on the interiors – set to house restaurants and public spaces – is still underway, the building’s exterior already offers plenty to see. Visitors can explore the blend of old and new brickwork, appreciate the architect’s unique interpretation of ruin aesthetics, and enjoy the newly built pedestrian route that connects the Citydel Business Center’s arches to Kazakova Street.

Report

Four Different Surveys

The “Explore the City” competition, organized this year by the Genplan Institute of Moscow, stands out as a pretty unconventional one for the architectural field but aligns perfectly well with the character of urban planning work. The winning project analyzed contemporary residential complexes, combining urban planning insights with a realtor’s perspective to propose a hybrid approach. Other entries explored public centers, motivations for car ownership, and housing vacancy rates. A fifth participant withdrew. Here’s a closer look at the four completed works.

Report

Scheduled Evolution

ASADOV Architects unveiled the EvyCenter pavilion, a microcultural hub for fostering personal growth, organizing workshops, and doing gymnastics. Additionally, this pavilion serves as a prototype for a scalable country house, drawing inspiration from the “Loskutok” project, and constructed from CLT panels in a factory. This marks the beginning of a developer project initiated by the architectural firm (sic!), which is seeking partners to expand both small Evy settlements and even larger Evy cities, which are, according to Andrey Asadov, aimed at fostering the “evolutionary” development of the people who will inhabit them.

Object

The Golden Crown

The concept for a dental clinic in Yekaterinburg, developed by CNTR Studio, revolves around the idea of a “mouth full of gold”: pristine white porcelain stoneware walls are complemented by matte brass details. To avoid an overly literal interpretation, the architects focused on the building’s proportions, skillfully navigating between sunlight requirements and fire safety regulations.

News

Flexibility and Integration

Not long ago, we covered the project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential complex, designed by APEX. Now, we’ve been shown different fence concepts they developed to enclose the complex’s private courtyards, incorporating a variety of public functions. We believe that the sheer fact that the complex’s architects were involved in such a detail as fencing speaks volumes.

Object

A Step Forward

The HIDE residential complex represents a major milestone for ADM architects and their leaders Andrey Romanov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova in their quest for a fresh high-rise aesthetic – one that is flexible and layered, capable of bringing vibrancy to mass and silhouette while shaping form. Over recent years, this approach has become ADM’s “signature style”, with the golden HIDE tower playing a pivotal role in its evolution. Here, we delve into the project’s story, explore the details of the complex’s design, and uncover its core essence.

​Open Space Manifesto

The Swiss Architecture Museum has recently closed the exhibition named “Forum Basel” devoted to open city spaces. Its co-curators were the Russian/Swiss company COSMOS and the Chilean architectural company Plan Comun.

Open Space Manifesto