По-русски

The Patriarch’s Crown

In late December, the new museum complex of “New Jerusalem” opened a permanent exposition designed by Sergey Tchoban and Agnia Sterligova. It is devoted to the history of the monastery.

Lara Kopylova

Written by:
Lara Kopylova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

09 February 2018
Object
mainImg

The permanent historical exposition of the “New Jerusalem” museum is situated in a building that was built upon the project by “City-Arch” in 2013. Sergey Tchoban and Agnia Sterligova opened it in December 2017. As is known, this is not the first time they worked on an exhibition project together – it is enough to recall the Museum of Rural Labor in Nikola-Lenivets, “ProYavlenie” in the Tretyakov Gallery, and many others.

The permanent exposition of the Moscow area museum complex "New Jerusalem". Photograph © Ilia Ivanov
The permanent exposition of the Moscow area museum complex "New Jerusalem". Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


The XVII and XX centuries were chosen as the most dramatic ones in the Russian history. During the Second World War, the monastery held the fort and was eventually blown up by the occupants. The XVII century is, of course, the most important because of the Patriarch Nikon, whose longsuffering personality (that also caused suffering to many others) is in the center of the exposition. The life of Nikon is still full of blank spots up to this day. The church dissent that he initiated is a hot piece of history that is still incomplete. Was Nikon right in starting his reforms and bringing the Russian and the Greek spiritual books to one common denominator? What was the patriarch’s end game? Theological? Political? Why did he accurse those who disobeyed him on such a trifle? Making the sign of the cross with three or two fingers does not make that much difference for the Evangelistic standpoint! Whom should we consider to be the Old Believers that were burned alive – martyrs of faith or dangerous heretics? Nikon was tried, disfrocked from the patriarch’s status and they even left him devoid of a priest’s status when he fell from grace; many years later he was pardoned and they gave him a permission to get back to the New Jerusalem monastery that he had founded. He died on the way there but around his relic healings were happening. Indeed, a Shakespeare character! Nobody can tell what he really wanted. What was his true motivation – absolute power or quest for the ultimate truth? We will never know. The New Jerusalem monastery is just as mysterious as its founder. The very name of “New Jerusalem” (for which they also gave Nikon a hard time back in the day) has something symbolically eternal about it, the architecture of the main temple trying to replicate the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Its main message is absolutely clear: we are building Heaven on Earth.

The New Jerusalem museum complex that recently appeared next to the monastery is also an unusual edifice, huge in territory and alien in architecture. The building looks as if it was dug into the landscape but it steel gives you a feeling that, like the Maya pyramids, it is turned upwards into space. This is a hill with a crater, whose bottom is the central square. Possibly, this design solution came not without a dialogue with the vortex of the Guggenheim museum in New York. What it ended up being is a temple turned upside down. The monastery temple reaches for the sky, and here we see a downward movement, as if cutting through the tectonic planes. Inside the museum, the space is very large and sophisticated. Its rooms display the collection of paintings from Rokotov to Isaac Brodsky, and various exhibitions are organized.
***

The museum moved from the monastery into the new building in 2013, and part of its permanent exposition from its collection – the halls of Russian art of the XVII-XIX centuries and church art – has been open for a while already. The considerable area – 28 000 square meters – also hosts conventions, conferences; there is also a lecture hall. After it got its new building, the museum increased its activity even more. However, the exposition “New Jerusalem – a monument of history and culture of the XVII-XX centuries”, devoted to the history of the monastery, stayed in the frater longer than all the others. It occupies but 5% of the total area of the 1500 square meters but its meaning is nonetheless the most important of all. Accordingly, it got the key place in the center of the lower tier, underneath the platform of the museum yard, next to the symbolic “root” of the museum building. It also comes as no surprise that for this venue a special competition was organized, which was won by Sergey Tchoban and Agnia Sterligova, who then implemented their project at a really short notice, within four months.

The nucleus and the starting point of the composition is a multimedia installation in an amphitheater with a pitch-black floor and walls meant to enhance the central role of this space. But then again, the broad screen that plays a short video on the monastery’s history arrests one’s attention at once. In front of it, there is a white model of the monastery architectural ensemble, livened up by colorfully video mapping that is synchronized with the video on the screen: color spots keep highlighting this or that fragment of the model, which presents an exciting and informative spectacle. On the sides, there are backlighted explanatory diagrams, and for those who want to know even more, there is an impressive size touchscreen installed in the balcony.

The permanent exposition of the Moscow area museum complex "New Jerusalem". Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


The permanent exposition of the Moscow area museum complex "New Jerusalem". Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


The contrastive multimedia nucleus is surrounded by broad recessions, separated by two-meter-deep partitions. These contain showcases that display the main exhibits of the monastery’s history: Nikon’s personal belongings, things from the из vestries of the New Jerusalem and the Valdai Iviron monastery – Nikon’s second most important project. There are also icons, authentic glazed tiles, books and paintings on display here.

The permanent exposition of the Moscow area museum complex "New Jerusalem". Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


The permanent exposition of the Moscow area museum complex "New Jerusalem". Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


The permanent exposition of the Moscow area museum complex "New Jerusalem". Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


These recessions, which the authors of the project call “portals”, became their response to the necessity to artistically fracture the extended and single-piece space of the hall. “In a large hall, it is difficult to maintain the necessary permanent temperature and moisture mode, and create the correct lighting – shares Sergey Tchoban – You cannot exhibit anything in its center, and at the same time you don’t have too many walls to hang your exhibits upon. It is hard to combine, within the framework of a single project, a video installation, mapping, and artifacts”. The recessions also created an intimate atmosphere, and helped to draw the visitors’ attention to the exhibits, these being chiefly not too large.

The permanent exposition of the Moscow area museum complex "New Jerusalem". Photograph © Ilia Ivanov


“We were required to arrange about 450 artifacts, different in their volume and character – says the founder of the company Planet 9, Agnia Sterligova – We measured all the objects, thought out all the podiums that they would rest upon, and the schedule of changing the exposition. Considering the fact that ninety percent of complaints coming from museum visitors usually have to do with the labels, we carefully designed the information tablets at the bottom of the showcases. As a result, the exhibits and their labels can be replaced without the use of any special equipment. A lot of school trips come here, and it was also important to create entertaining exhibits, such as the holographic image of Nikon’s horse-drawn carriage, thanks to which, hopefully, the children will ultimately pay attention to more serious things”.

The corners of the “portals” are rounded, their walls painted a rich cherry color. “In our color design solutions, we proceeded from the collection. The hot trend of today is colorful walls used for hanging pictures. The dramatic colors are a great background for paintings and drawings alike, for the exception of modern painting school, which looks great against white” – Sergey Tchoban says.

The permanent exposition of the Moscow area museum complex "New Jerusalem". Photograph © Ilia Ivanov




Unlike the color that you would normally expect to see in a modern museum – terra cotta, like in the Russian Museum or in Wien’s Kunsthistorisches – the color here is slightly brighter and colder, closer to the purple of the Jacquard walls of the Palazzo Pitti, and, quite possibly, it hints at the patriarch’s ambitions, who is ascribed the famous phrase “priesthood above kingdom”, just as the scenario of the repentance of the Czar Aleksey Mikhailovich at the coffin of Philip, metropolitan of Moscow, for the sins of Ivan the Terrible. In other words, the recessions around the central installation form a semblance of the “patriarch’s crown”. In addition, the purple color also echoes the color of the walls of the “cup of the yard” of the museum building designed by Valery Lukomsky, which also goes a long way to develop the volumetric and conceptual narrative.

The exhibits are caught out in the spotlights, there is darkness around them, which helps one to focus on specific things and allows the visitors’ peripheral vision to take a rest; up above, it is darker still, which visually expands the space. At the joint of the walls and the floor, there is a stripe of bright-white backlight - something like the Ariadne’s thread that helps the visitors to easily find their bearings in the museum space.

The second and third parts of the exposition, dedicated to XVII and XX centuries respectively, are situated in arc-shaped enfilades around the center. “What we got to work with was a large arc-shaped space with slanted walls, not really fit for placing exhibits on them – Sergey Tchoban shares – This is why we fractured the space into individual halls, proposing a concept of “eternal museum” with an enfilade – this is how Rastrelli’s baroque palaces were built. The exposition starts off with a central nucleus, from where, without having to get back, the visitors can keep on moving through the circular enfilade”.

Initially, the management of the museum was rather wary about the idea of breaking the space into individual halls, worrying about the transparency and fire safety issues. This is why the architects designed the floor plan in such a way that the museum attendant who sits in one hall can see the next attendant – thus minimizing the necessary number of employees. “Large spaces are generally required for large paintings, but what we have here is a lot of small-sized exhibits that invite people to come up closer – says Agnia Sterligova – There will be hardly be an onslaught of visitors at any time, that’s why the intimacy in displaying the exhibits, and the human-friendly scale are very important. What we got to work with was a huge “bagel” with a seven-meter distance from wall to wall. Now what we’ve got is portals two meters deep plus the passage between them. And the space became proportionate to the exhibits”. And for those, for whom examining the icons, books, and paintings is still not enough, and for those who has a habit of moving their finger over the screen, there are touch screens that provide more detailed information.

The resulting space is filled with data as much as with emotion, which is great because this space has been allotted the role of the symbolic “spring” that is meant to fill the museum exhibits with energy sufficient for studying such a prominent, and, at the same time, very controversial phenomenon of the Russian late Middle Ages, as Patriarch Nikon’s New Jerusalem. The monastery itself is an unalloyed masterpiece, a monument of culture and history that is both interesting and unique. But the ancient Russian history and art are controversial themes that require a special angle of vision and interest. For people who do not have special background, a visual impulse is sometimes required. The exposition looks rather “tightly knit” and deserves to be implemented. Because it will draw the interest of the visitors to other museum expositions that are placed around this central one in both conceptual and material “circles”.

09 February 2018

Lara Kopylova

Written by:

Lara Kopylova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov
Headlines now
For All Times
The modular technology combined with the building material of glued wood allows the architectural company Rhizome to create quick-mount hotels (no less!) that are highly rated by the architectural community: last week, the new hotel “Vremena Goda. Igora” scored three awards. Below, we are examining the project in detail.
The Other Way Around
Few awards instead of many, the award ceremony conducted on the first day instead of last, projections instead of sketch boards, trees inside and art objects outside – the renewal of the Architecton festival seemingly took the sure-fire path of turning all the professional traditions upside down – or at least those that happened to be within the scope of the organizers’ attention. There’s certainly a lot to pick on, but the exhibition does feel fresh and improvisational. It looks that pretty soon these guys will set trends for Moscow as well. We shared with you about some elements of the festival in our Telegram channel, and now we are examining the whole thing.
ArchiWOOD-14: Building Bridges
This season, the festival’s jury decided not to award a grand prize: judging by the fact that the shortlist included several projects that had not reached the award in previous years, and the “best house” was pronounced to be an undoubtedly beautiful but mass-produced model, the “harvest” of wooden buildings in 2023 was not too abundant. However, there were many unusual typologies among the finalists, and restoration and revitalization projects received their share of recognition. Let’s take a look at all the finalists.
The Chinese Symphony
The construction of the Chinese center “Huaming Park” has been a long story that came to fruition relatively recently. The building is adjacent to a traditional Chinese garden, but it is very modern, laconic and technological, and the simple-in-form, yet spectacular, white lamellae promise to someday be incorporated as a media facade. This complex is also truly multifunctional: it contains different types of living spaces, offices, a large fitness center, conference halls and restaurants – all wrapped in one volume. You can comfortably hold international forums in it, having everything you may possibly need at your fingertips, and going outside only to take a walk. In this article, we are examining this complex in detail.
Ensemble of Individualities
Construction of the first phase of the INDY Towers multifunctional complex on Kuusinen Street, designed by Ostozhenka, has started. The project opens new angles of similarity between the column and the skyscraper, and we examine the nuances and parallels.
Black and Red
Kazakov Grand Loft received its name for a reason: responding to the client’s brief and proceeding from the historical industrial architecture of its immediate surroundings, Valery Kanyashin and Ostozhenka architects proposed a new version of a modern house designed in the fashionable “loft” style. What makes this building different is the fact that the bricks here are dark gray, and the facades of the romantic “fortress” towers blossom with magnificent glazing of the windows in the upper part. The main highlight of the complex, however, is the multiple open air terraces situated on different levels.
Icy Hospitality
Mezonproject has won the national architectural and town planning competition for designing a hotel and a water recreation center in the city of Irkutsk. The architects chose hummocks of Baikal ice as a visual image.
The Mastery of Counterpoint
In the sculpture of Classical Greece, counterpoint was first invented: the ability to position the human body as if it were about to take a step, imbuing it with a hint of the energy of future movement, and with hidden dynamics. For architecture, especially in the 20th century and now, this is also one of the main techniques, and the ATRIUM architects implement it diligently, consistently – and always slightly differently. The new residential complex “Richard” is a good example of such exploration, based on the understanding of contrasts in the urban environment, which was fused into the semblance of a living being.
Countryside Avant-Garde
The project of the museum of Aleksey Gastev, the ideologist of scientific organization of work, located in his hometown of Suzdal, is inscribed in multiple contexts: the contest of a small town, the context of avant-garde design, the context of “lean production”, and the context of the creative quest of Nikolai Lyzlov’s minimalist architecture – and it seems to us that this project even reveals a distant memory of the fact that Aleksey Gastev learned his craft in France.
On the Hills
In the project by Studio 44, the “distributed” IT campus of Nizhny Novgorod is based on well-balanced contracts. Sometimes it is hovering, sometimes undulating, sometimes towering over a rock. For every task, the architects found appropriate form and logic: the hotels are based on a square module, the academic buildings are based on a “flying” one, and so on. Modernist prototypes, specifically, Convent Sainte-Marie de La Tourette, stand next to references to the antique Forum and the tower of a medieval university – as well as next to contextual allusions that help inscribe the buildings of the future campus into the landscape of the city hills with their dominants, high slopes, breathtaking river views, the historical city center, and the Nizhny Novgorod University.
The Magic Carpet
The anniversary exhibition of Totan Kuzembaev’s drawings named “Event Horizons” shows both very old drawings made by the architect in the formative 1980’s, and now extracted from the Museum of Architecture, as well as quite a few pictures from the “Weightlessness” series that Totan Kuzembaev drew specifically for this exhibition in 2023. It seemed to us that the architect represented reality from the point of view of someone levitating in space, and sometimes even upside down, like a magic carpet with multiple layers.
​A Copper Step
Block 5, designed by ASADOV architects as part of the “Ostrov” (“Island”) housing complex, is at the same time grand-scale, conspicuous thanks to its central location – and contextual. It does not “outshout” the solutions used in the neighboring buildings, but rather gives a very balanced implementation of the design code: combining brick and metal in light and dark shades and large copper surfaces, orthogonal geometry on the outside and flexible lines in the courtyard.
The Light for the Island
For the first time around, we are examining a lighting project designed for a housing complex; but then again, the authors of the nighttime lighting of the Ostrov housing complex, UNK lighting, proudly admit that this project is not just the largest in their portfolio, but also the largest in this country. They describe their approach as a European one, its chief principles being smoothness of transitions, comfort to the eye, and the concentration of most of the light at the “bottom” level – meaning, it “works” first of all for pedestrians.
Spots of Light
A new housing complex in Tyumen designed by Aukett Swanke is a very eye-pleasing example of mid-rise construction: using simple means of architectural expression, such as stucco, pitched roofs, and height changes, the architects achieve a “human-friendly” environment, which becomes a significant addition to the nearby park and forest.
Ledges and Swirls
The housing complex “Novaya Zarya” (“New Dawn”) designed by ASADOV Architects will become one of the examples of integrated land development in Vladivostok. The residential area will be characterized by various typologies of its housing sections, and a multitude of functions – in addition to the social infrastructure, the complex will include pedestrian promenades, shopping malls, office buildings, and recreational facilities. The complex is “inscribed” in a relief with a whopping 40-meter height difference, and overlooks the Amur Bay.
Agglomeration on an Island
Recently, an approval came for the master plan of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk agglomeration, which was developed by a consortium headed by the Genplan Institute of Moscow. The document provides for the creation of 12 clusters, the totality of which will give the region a qualitative leap in development and make the island more self-sufficient, more accessible, and less dependent on the mainland. We are inviting you to examine the details.
Ivan Grekov: “A client that wants to make a building that is “about architecture” is...
In this article, we are talking to Ivan Grekov, the leader of the architectural company KAMEN (translates as “stone”), the author of many high-profile projects that have been built in Moscow in the recent years, about the history of his company, about different approaches to form making, about different meanings of volume and facade, and about “layers” in working with the environment – at the example of two projects by Osnova Group. These are the MIRAPOLIS complex on the Mira Avenue in Rostokino, whose construction began at the end of last year, and the multifunctional complex in the 2nd Silikatny Proezd on the Zvenigorodsky Highway; recently, it received all the required approvals.
Grasping and Formulating
The special project “Tezisy” (“Abstracts”), showcased at Arch Moscow exhibition in Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor, brought together eight young “rock stars of architecture”, the headliner being Vladislav Kirpichev, founder of the EDAS school. In this article, we share our impressions of the installations and the perspectives of the new generation of architects.
The White Tulip
Currently, there are two relevant projects for the Great Cathedral Mosque in Kazan, which was transferred to a land site in Admiralteiskaya Sloboda in February. One of them, designed by TsLP, was recently showcased at Arch Moscow. In this article, we are covering another project, which was proposed during the same period for the same land site. Its author is Aleksey Ginzburg, the winner of the 2022 competition, but now the project is completely different. Today, it is a sculptural “flower” dome symbolizing a white tulip.
ATRIUM’s Metaverse
The architectural company ATRIUM opened a gallery of its own in a metaverse. Inside, one can examine the company’s approach and main achievements, as well as get some emotional experience. The gallery is already hosting cyberspace business meetings and corporate events.
​From Darkness to Light
Responding to a lengthy list of limitations and a lengthy – by the standards of a small building – list of functions, Vladimir Plotkin turned the project of the Novodevichy Monastery into a light, yet dynamic statement of modern interpretation of historical context, or, perhaps, even interpretation of light and darkness.
Modernism in Avant-Garde
The contest proposal that Studio 44 made for the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theater is bright in all senses, and in many ways even provocative – just like a modern theater performance should be. Being in context with modern culture, it even shocks you in some respects. At first, you are amazed at the red color that is present all around, and then you gradually make sense of the picturesque congregation of volumes that share a multitude of functions. And it’s only later that you realize that this conglomerate conceals a modernist building, most of which the architects save intact.
The Black Mountain
The project of reconstructing the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet theater developed by Wowhaus, which won the competition, proposed a total demolition and new construction, as well as considerable expansion (up to 8 floors) – and transformable multifunctional spaces. The new project, however, does retain the recognizable elements and the image of the old theater. As for the main spectator hall, it is turned – figuratively speaking, of course – into a semblance of a black volcano.
Garage-Garage
Recently, Moscow saw the presentation of a project by Yuri Grigoryan, devoted to turning the truck garage on Novoryazanskaya Street, designed by Konstantin Melnikov, into the Museum of Moscow Transport. The project involves restoring the monument of architecture, adding a new underground floor and a new entrance, as well as a whole park. The implementation is already underway.
Houses by the Lakeside
Approvals came for the project of a housing complex that DNK ag designed in Kazan. The complex is low-rise; its sections are designed as separate volumes united by a common podium. Everything is very much like DNK: delicate and sometimes even lyrical, especially where the yard meets the lakeshore.
Exemplary Adaptation
In Novosibirsk, the construction of a school has been completed, whose project is standing every chance to set a new standard for the nation’s educational institutions. SVESMI Architects and Brusnika company started by developing the brief that would answer the modern teaching practices, and then they proposed the optimum plan, versatile classrooms, and reserved, yet expressive, image in the spirit of this Amsterdam alliance.
Terra Incognita
An 800-room hotel complex, designed by Ginzburg Architects, offers the seaside city of Anapa a fragment of well-organized urban environment that keeps up the cultural spirit of the place. The architects break away from traditional white facades, turning to the antique and even archaic periods of the history of this land, and drawing inspiration in the color of red clay and simple, yet lightweight, shapes.
In Plumage Colors
Working on the facades of a mid-rise residential area in Odintsovsky district, GENPRO architects “adjusted” a number of features of the volumetric composition, which they received without the right to make any changes to, by purely “decorative” means, such as ornamental brickwork, including glazed bricks and the rhythm of the windows. Interestingly, the starting point in the search for the color code was the plumage of birds that are found in the Moscow region.
Julius Borisov: “The “Island” housing complex is a unique project – we took it on with...
One of the largest housing projects of today’s Moscow – the “Ostrov” (“Island”) housing complex built by Donstroy – is now being actively built in the Mnevniky Floodplain. They are planning to build about 1.5M square meters of housing on an area of almost 40 hectares. We are beginning to examine this project– first of all, we are talking to Julius Borisov, the head of the architectural company UNK, which works with most of the residential blocks in this grand-scale project, as well as with the landscaping part; the company even proposed a single design code for the entire territory.