Postindustrial Attraction

In the Russian Railway Museum, the architects of “Studio 44” were able to create a powerful and impressive space for a collection of more than a hundred of vintage steam engines and locomotives.

Written by:
Elena Petukhova
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

06 February 2018

Object

The technical need

In a paradoxical way, this postindustrial epoch is leaving its mark on the urban construction and the mentality of the urban people. The industrial parks are falling into oblivion together with all of their infrastructural attributes to be replaced by the new market “leaders” – housing projects and public complexes that are in an acute need of locations close to the downtown area. And, while the city is ever more actively ousting its industrial facilities, its people start feeling a little bit nostalgic for their material and technical artifacts. The modern technologies and the ergonomic minimalist devices lack the rough, yet, at the same time, luxurious and even “arty and crafty” perfection of their predecessors created in those days when conquering yet another frontier of knowledge and inventing a new device was almost a miracle, and the use of their benefits gave people hope for the bright future for mankind. Around the world, technology museums enjoy great popularity, drawing crowds of children and adults alike by giving them an opportunity to take a few hours’ trip in time from the epoch of the first cast-iron tools to the future when they will be replaced by their polymer analogs. In Russia, this trend is only beginning to gain momentum. For seven years already, there has been going on the reconstruction of the Polytechnic Museum, which is meant to incorporate all of the latest museum techniques for showcasing machines and technologies. The VDNKH is soon opening the Space Museum. These are but some of the large-scale projects that are meant to satisfy Russians’ yearning for the technical heritage of the industrial era.

zooming — The Central Museum of the Oktyabrskaya Railway © Studio 44

The project of the “Russian Railway Museum” is a vivid example of both trends: one of reforming industrial parks and the other of demand for educational formats for technical expositions. From the moment it was opened in November of 2017, the museum has been demonstrating a world-record turnout: it significantly exceeds the anticipated figures, thanks to which the exposition underwent an express test of being vandal-proof (not all of the exhibits came out unscathed, by the way). The record-breaking waiting lines of 10 thousand people a day only shrank when the museum announced the payable entry during the winter break.

And as for the implementation of the museum project, it became possible thanks to a deal between the Russian Railways which own huge city territories occupied by railroad lines and railroad infrastructure projects all across the nation, and the developer company “Etalon Group”. The contract provided for handing a part of the land behind the Baltiysky Terminal over to the developer for the construction of “Galactica” housing complex, while in return Etalon Group would finance the construction of the railroad museum. Such a system of mutually beneficial exchange is rather common and has its pros and cons. Among the latter is the minimization of costs allotted by commercial companies for implementation of such “encumbrances” of their projects. To do “Etalon Group” justice, it must be said that the company, although it did not throw its money around, still did not take the mission of building this social and cultural project as some form of a tithe that you cannot avoid but you don’t have to pour your soul into.

Between the tracks

We already gave a detailed coverage of the Russian Railway Museum, which gives us an opportunity to limit ourselves to but a brief description of the main project solutions. The railroad museum has existed in Saint Petersburg since 1978, and over the last few years it has changed several locations, following the changes of the town planning and market policies. At the last turn in its history, which happened in 2012, the Russian Railways collection (which consists of a whopping hundred-plus locomotives and train cars of the XIX-XX centuries) was allotted a part of the territory of the former locomotive depot next to the Baltiysky railway station. When it was invited to design the museum, “Studio 44” proposed to keep intact the authentic depot, making it a part of the new exhibition complex.

The structure of the old building – a hoof with a turntable in its center, equally suitable for the older functions and for solving the exhibition tasks – was repeated on a greater scale, where now most of the steam engine collection stands. As for the old building, it incorporates the service functions, such as a lobby, a café, a souvenir shop, a conference hall, a management section, and a few exhibition halls devoted to Russia's first railroads (Tsarskoselskaya, Warsaw-Wien, Saint Petersburg-Moscow, etc). And, as for the first floor of the depot, they will showcase the oldest exhibits, including the Stephenson steam engines.

The two buildings are linked by a glass overpass running at the level of the second floor. The railroad tracks running between these two buildings also serve to demonstrate part of the collection that is impenetrable to the vagaries of the Saint Petersburg weather.

Each of the elements of the museum ensemble and each fragment of its buildings is one way or another determined by the railroad specifics. At some places, you will see but a fleeting hint at the connection to the railroad theme, and you will have to look real hard in order unravel the mystery. For example, the design of the minor architectural forms of the museum uses railway sleepers, while the navigation posts are based on the rail profile. At some places, on the other hand, this interconnection is most direct, not to say strictly regulated. The museum is a structural subdivision of the Oktyabrskaya Railway, it formally belongs to the Russian Railways, and it is subject to the same system of rules and regulations, some of which have logical grounds, and some of which had to be taken as “givens”.

The former is represented by the problem of the railroad tracks direction. The thing is that the coordinate system of the preserved building and neighboring streets did not coincide with the direction of the railroad tracks, by which new “exhibits” would arrive to the museum. The difference was not that great – literally five degrees – but initially it looked insurmountable. Trains, just like chess pieces, can only move in a certain way, and the tracks can only make turns of one certain angle, namely, that of the railroad switch. “No "special technical conditions" reasoning or arguments that the new engines would arrive most frequently but once a year could solve this problem for us. We had two options to choose from. We either had to position the building diagonally – but then it would be unclear how to bring the locomotives to the old depot, turntables or special carts being of no help, or we could leave the complex standing within the coordinates of the street and the existing depot, and lay down the tracks at an angle, so that they would come to the corner of the new building. We chose the second option, and we ultimately came up with a very interesting "scheme"” – Nikita Yavein comments on one of the main challenges of the project and at the same time the main reason for the unusual design of the roof of the new building that became as much as the “visiting card” of the entire project.

The crest of the double-pitched roof at the straight sections of the hoof-shaped building runs at an angle, which yields slanted slopes, while in the rounded part the roof forms a bold crease, enhanced by a row of triangular pylons standing outside the stained-glass window and supporting the whole upper structure.

In order to distribute and arrange the “exhibits”, the architects had to install a transborder (also known as “traverser” or “transfer table”) in front of the new building that allows the locomotives and train cars to be moved sideways with the help of crosswise rails and special carts moving on them.

Such a dual system of coordinates and a slanted roof were necessary for creating, inside the new building, an extra viewing tier – a bridge-like structure running above the exhibits. The pedestrian bridges, together with the suspensions and trusses that fasten them to the large-span girders, are the indispensable part of the coverage structure that ensures its strength and rigidity. “These bridges do not just hang there – together with the girders, they are part of the bearing framework. If you take them out, the building will fall apart – Nikita Yavein explains – But what is still more important than their construction role is the fact that they make the coverage structure habitable”.

In the first case, wandering among the rows of locomotives, a person quickly stops feeling like the “apex of creation”, wondering about the triumph of technical thought over the humanitarian values. But once you climb a little bit higher and cast your eye over the entire space of the main exhibition hall, you immediately recall getting acquainted with your first toy railway as a child, in which tracks would meander between model stations, you being the master of a small toy engine and a couple of cars. It’s funny but among all the photos made by amateurs and professionals alike the top angles enjoy particular popularity.

In addition to the therapeutic effect, the top tier shows to the best advantage the ingeniously designed space of the museum, as well as the merits of architectural and engineering solutions.

The thorns of realization

The inner space of the museum is ruled by steam engines, locomotives and train cars. Their glossy multicolored bodies form a chaotic kaleidoscope-like picture, which, upon closer inspection, demonstrates a neatly organized sequence of the museum exposition (chronological as well as typological), filled with all the state-of-the-art tools for attracting and enchanting the young and grownup visitors.

One should do justice to the exposition designers: they got real fancy and provided for options capable of satisfying the most demanding taste. Here you can take a close look at the models of the first steam engines and even put them in motion. Or look into the eyes of the transportation minister and examine the papers on his table. Next to the models, there is a real-life engine, only it is sliced lengthwise, thanks to which the visitors can examine the engine’s insides where the steam pushes the plungers that make the wheels spin. Here one will also see other simple and interactive exhibits that will evoke in each visitor thoughts about changing his or her career and becoming an engineer or at least a conductor of a long-distance train.

Architecture is no match for such a powerful opponent, especially so if we are to consider the financing specifics of this project. Here’s how Nikita Yavein comments on the situation with the project implementation: “This museum is the first case in my practice when the implementation of the architectural and engineering part was financed almost in the same amount as the museum work itself. We had to work in the conditions of dire economic constraints in order to meet the budget of less than 1.5 B rubles, which, although this may sound like a lot of money, is not such a great amount for a 20 000 square meter project that also includes restoration of the historical building of the terminal”.

However, even in this situation one can easily see that a lion’s share of the exhibition's success belongs to the architects. The experience that “Studio 44” has in designing museum complexes and transport infrastructure projects helped the designers to address a lot of challenges while still in the concept stage, which allowed them to create an exposition of one of the best railway museums in Russia and the whole world. The thought-out planning, the two-tier system of viewing the exhibition, the optimum-style architectural and engineering solutions, which do not conflict with the brutalist exhibits but rather complement them - all of this was initially put into the project and then implemented with the best quality possible under these conditions.

Two in one

For an architectural firm, just as for any creative team, it is often difficult not to fall for the temptation of specialization. You do a successful project or two – and then you get a crowd of clients standing in line for getting a success guarantee, even if it comes at a price of sacrificing some of their identity. However, going beyond the framework of what’s offered is a risk that ultimately pays off in terms of greater creative freedom and new possibilities.

The whole history of “Studio 44” can serve as an example of resisting the “specialty” temptation. Today, it's practically impossible to tell just what exactly the firm's specialty is about. Its portfolio includes tens, if not hundreds, of projects, many of which refer to reconstruction projects in a historical environment, but the portfolio is not limited to this specific kind – there are also town-planning concepts, housing projects, transportation infrastructure projects, cultural centers, museums, and whatnot. Such a broad range gives the team an advantage, letting it use the accumulated knowledge and combine the typologies in order to break beyond the limits of stereotypes.

The latter is exactly the case with the museum built upon the project by “Studio 44” for the Russian Railways in Saint Petersburg. In this project, the architects were able to combine their experience of designing railway terminals (in Saint Petersburg, Sochi, Tuapse, Astana and other cities) with the practice of developing concepts for such top-class museums as the Hermitage (the Joint Staff), the Museum of the Defense and Siege of Leningrad, and the Museum of the History of Kazakhstan.

The railroad infrastructure is a special genre that paradoxically combines the brutalism of the powerful structures and total submission to the laws of the tracks laid down once and for all with the inevitable literary and romantic connotations. And, in order to create the museum of a railway network, you need to let inside all of its power and all of its poetry, and then come up, based on a thought-out museum exposition scenario, with a just as powerful and bright architectural casing, capable of existing on a par with its contents and even enhancing the visitors” museum experience by giving them an opportunity to see the seemingly familiar world from a whole different angle.

06 February 2018

Headlines now

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?

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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.

Report

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.

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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.

Report

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.

Overview

Vertical Civilization

Genpro considered the development of the vertical city concept and made it the theme of their pavilion at the “ArchMoscow” exhibition.

Interview

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.

Interview

Andrey Chuikov: “Optimum balance is achieved through economics”

The Yekaterinburg-based architectural company CNTR is in its mature stage: crystallization of principles, systematization, and standardization helped it make a qualitative leap, enhance competencies, and secure large contracts without sacrificing the aesthetic component. The head of the company, Andrey Chuikov, told us about building a business model and the bonuses that additional education in financial management provides for an architect.

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The Fulcrum

Ostozhenka Architects have designed two astonishing towers practically on the edge of a slope above the Oka River in Nizhny Novgorod. These towers stand on 10-meter-tall weathered steel “legs”, with each floor offering panoramic views of the river and the city; all public spaces, including corridors, receive plenty of natural light. Here, we see a multitude of solutions that are unconventional for the residential routine of our day and age. Meanwhile, although these towers hark back to the typological explorations of the seventies, they are completely reinvented in a contemporary key. We admire Veren Group as the client – this is exactly how a “unique product” should be made – and we tell you exactly how our towers are arranged.

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Crystal is Watching You

Right now, Museum Night has kicked off at the Museum of Architecture, featuring a fresh new addition – the “Crystal of Perception”, an installation by Sergey Kuznetsov, Ivan Grekov, and the KROST company, set up in the courtyard. It shimmers with light, it sings, it reacts to the approach of people, and who knows what else it can do.

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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.

send.project

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.