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Invited to the Ice Are…

Seven ice arenas with a capacity from 500 to 14,000 spectators and with a geography spreading from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to Tashkent – all designed by ARENA Project Institute. In this article, we show how a complex function is combined with an expressive architectural image.

09 June 2023
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In Russia, sports are a “normal way of life”, and hockey and figure skating are hardly any less popular than soccer is. ARENA’s portfolio includes more than ten ice arenas and indoor skating rinks; we selected seven most flashy ones, in which designing an already sophisticated project was made even more difficult by having to solve some location-specific task. In Sochi, for example, the architects had to calculate the “post-Olympics” use of the complex; in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, they had to inscribe the project into the already existing downtown scenery, and in Nizhny Novgorod they had to augment the architectural ensemble of the Spit of Nizhny Novgorod, at the same time preserving the dominant role of the cathedral.

An ice arena is a complex object that has to meet a multitude of requirements that are posed by federations of various sports, television that broadcasts live, as well by the regular fire safety agencies and other institutions. On top of it all, there is a specific task of ensuring high-quality ice in any season, which adds to the project a cooling plate with refrigerators, a whole complex of ventilation measures, units for water treatment and premises for ice filling machines. 

Since ice arenas are designed for practice sessions and competitions in hockey, sledge hockey, short track, figure skating, and curling, you need to include team locker rooms, rooms for drying tracksuits and sharpening skates, doping control facilities, rooms for the judging panels, as well as press and support teams. You also need to provide the spectators with sound and lighting systems that will ensure excellent performance regardless of the sector the ticket was bought for.

(No, we’re not finished yet!) Further on, such a grand-scale building cannot be single-functional – it must become a public center that includes sports clubs for children, fitness centers, cafes, exhibition spaces, and even offices. This makes the logistics component even more complicated because you need to separate not just the fan sectors, but also the athletes, spectators, press, service personnel, and, ultimately, boys and girls. Not the least issue is the profitability of a sports facility, which is often ensured by its ability to quickly transform into a concert venue.

We suggest checking out how the architects managed to link all these points in one object, while giving it a memorable look.

Designing large sports facilities is a traditional specialization of the Arena Design Institute, which dates back to Mosproject-4, from which we are descendants. The selection presented today reflects an individual approach to the design of such facilities, because, as a rule, they become the “visiting card” of the region. Also, arranged in chronological order, the constructions and current projects clearly show the trend of the last decades of transformation of ice arenas from exclusively professional mono-objects to publicly accessible multifunctional complexes.

Megasport Ice Palace

Architect
Studio
Mosproekt-4
Author collective
architects: Bokov A., Bush D., Chuklov S., Valuiskih V., Romanova L., Gak O., Burchuladze Z., Zolotova A., Timohov A.; architect-technologist: Shabaidash A.; engineers: Livshin M., Kelman M., Eremeev P., Bekmuhamedov E., Starikov O., Naumocheva A., Subbotina E., Starikova N.
Where
Russia, Moscow
Date
2004 — / — 2006
Function
Sport / Sports complex
The arena has a capacity for 14,000 spectators; it was built for the World Hockey Championship 2006, when the territory around the Khodynskoe Field started taking the mottled and pretty sci-fi look the way we know it today. Even today, “Megasport” successfully holds its own against a whole galaxy of high-profile projects: towers, shopping malls, grand-scale housing complexes, and cathedrals. The arena is shaped somewhat like a spinning propeller – as Grigory Revzin notes, this is homage to the former airfield, upon which this ice arena has been built. In the center of the composition, there is a white cylindrical volume with a diameter of 120 meters and a height of almost 50 meters, with a purposefully sagging membrane of the roof. The cylinder belts the spirals of the ramps with awnings: the red ramp leads to the spectator seats of the red sector; the blue one predictably to the blue. As you go higher up, the width of the ramp shrinks from 30 meters to five, making the flow of spectators thinner. Thanks to the heating system, ice does not form on the ramps in the wintertime. The arena hosts more than 100 events a year: both sports ones, including boxing matches and gymnastics competitions, and concerts. Also, a few movie scenes were shot inside the arena.
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“Iceberg” Palace of Winter Sports

Studio
Mosproekt-4
Andrey Bokov Studio
Where
Russia, Adler
Date
2009 — / — 2013
Function
Sport / Sports complex
The arena’s capacity is 12,000 spectators; it was built for the Olympics 2014. This is Sochi’s only indoor skating rink that allows you to conduct practice sessions, mass skating events, and figure skating / short track competitions all year round. Ice is another aggregate state of water, so in a southern city it seemed appropriate to interpret a wave on the facade, referring to the proximity of the Black Sea and echoing the silhouettes of the mountains. In the lower part of the building, the volumetric facade is raised, revealing the stained glass windows of the foyer and main entrances. The cladding uses transparent and colored glass of several shades of blue, which overlap each other like tiles, creating visions of ripples, sun glares on the water, or foam on the waves. In total, more than 600 tons of double-glazed windows are used on the facades of the Iceberg. Inside, the color helps spectators navigate between tiers and sectors. The problem of post-Olympic use was solved in a revolutionary way: the prefabricated type of construction allows the building to be dismantled and then moved to another city. This, however, was never required.
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Ссылки

The multifunctional ice complex “Humo Arena”

Studio
Heerim Architects & Planners
Arena Projwect Institute
Where
Uzbekistan, Tashkent
Date
2017 — / — 2019
Function
Sport / Ice Arena
The arena’s capacity is 12,500 people. It is situated in the central part of Tashkent, and is the biggest ice palace in Central Asia, and a home of four hockey clubs. The concept was developed by the Korean company Heerim Architects. The arena is named in honor of the mythical bird Humo, the harbinger of happiness. The main volume of the building resembles the folded wing of the bird, while the fan of the buildings, ramps and paths of the adjacent park resembles the flapping and spreading feathers of the bird. The halls lined with dark marble are decorated with round panels created by artists Bobur Ismailov based on the poem “The Language of Birds” by Turkic poet Alisher Navoi. The central piece is a golden composition with a stone that was laid when the complex was built. The arena can host more than a dozen sports, but its “specialty” is still hockey. The cooled slab allows to place a hockey court of three different sizes depending on the requirements of different hockey federations, and the main arena is supplemented by a training arena. 
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The multifunctional ice arena in Novosibirsk

Studio
Arena Projwect Institute
Where
Russia, Novosibirsk
Date
2018 — 2019 / 2021 —
Function
Sport / Ice Arena
The arena’s capacity is 12,500 people. It is situated in the central part of Tashkent, and is the biggest ice palace in Central Asia, and a home of four hockey clubs. The concept was developed by the Korean company Heerim Architects. The arena is named in honor of the mythical bird Humo, the harbinger of happiness. The main volume of the building resembles the folded wing of the bird, while the fan of the buildings, ramps and paths of the adjacent park resembles the flapping and spreading feathers of the bird. The halls lined with dark marble are decorated with round panels created by artists Bobur Ismailov based on the poem “The Language of Birds” by Turkic poet Alisher Navoi. The central piece is a golden composition with a stone that was laid when the complex was built. The arena can host more than a dozen sports, but its “specialty” is still hockey. The cooled slab allows to place a hockey court of three different sizes depending on the requirements of different hockey federations, and the main arena is supplemented by a training arena. 
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The ice palace on the territory of the Spit of Nizhny Novgorod

Studio
Where
Russia, Nizhny Novgorod
Date
2018 — /
Function
Sport / Ice Arena
The arena’s capacity is 12,500 spectators. It will complement the architectural ensemble of the Spit of Nizhny Novgorod, which already includes a soccer stadium, restored warehouses, and the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. In order to minimize its contrastive influence on the latter, the arena was moved as much as possible towards the Samarkandskaya Street, its height from the city towards the water lowering from 38 to 14.5 meters. The streamlined “pebble” shape and the very position of the building allowed the architects to avoid obscuring the views of the cathedral from the water. The arena faces the city with a media façade and an entrance gallery with an amphitheater on the upper level. The arena is separated from the cathedral by a multi-level landscape composition, in which a cascade of stairs to the second tier is hidden. The area on the shore side will be landscaped and filled with outdoor sports fields. With the help of the stairs, landscaping, gallery and other elements, the “sprawl” of a rather large-scale building is overcome and its integration into the context is achieved. The arena will be the home arena for the Torpedo club, while the lower part of the arena will house a training arena, a four-lane curling hall and two more multipurpose halls. The construction is planned to be completed in 2025.
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The Crystal Ice Palace

Studio
Where
Russia, Moscow
Date
2015 / 2020 —
Function
Sport / Ice Arena
Capacity: 500 people. The arena will be situated on the territory of Luzhniki complex, instead of the skating rink, built back in the 1960s and now recognized to be in an emergency state. The building maintains not just the “posture” of its predecessor, but also the style characteristic for sports facilities of the mid-20th century. It is rather unusual for its typology: it has a rectangular plan, and the glass facades fill the halls with natural light. The ice is protected from direct sunlight by vertical metal lamellae, which like blinds can completely cover the stained glass windows. The main entrance is accented with a stained glass crystal structure. Inside there are two ice arenas with separate entrances for 250 seats each; a 25-meter swimming pool with a view of the park; office premises with windows overlooking the Moskva River; gyms and cafes. A parking lot for 130 cars is located in the underground level.
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Gasprom Arena

Studio
Where
Russia, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
Date
— 2022 /
Function
Sport / Ice Arena
The arena in fact includes two ice arenas: one is designed for competitions and has a capacity of 5,500 people, while the second is a training arena with a game and gymnasium and a shooting range. This will allow training and competitions of international level in hockey and other sports, including sport shooting. But the main purpose of the arena is to provide the city’s children with affordable sports clubs. The unified surface of the folded metal roof, passing into the facade, “envelops” the internal structure of the sports facility, manifesting its multifunctionality in the silhouette and opening up with a colonnade at the main entrance. The arena is planned to be built in the center of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, on the site of the bus park, which will be relocated to another place. The adjacent territory will be landscaped: landscaping, pedestrian and bicycle paths will be laid and parking for 183 cars will be organized. The construction is planned to be completed by 2025.
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09 June 2023

Headlines now
The Altai Ornament
The architectural company Empate has developed the concept for an eco-settlement located on a remote site in Altai. The master plan, which resembles a traditional ornament or even a utopian city, forms a clear system of public and private spaces. The architects also designed six types of houses for the settlement, drawing inspiration from the region’s culture, folklore, and vernacular building practices.
Pro Forma
Photos have emerged of the newly completed whisky distillery in Chernyakhovsk, designed by TOTEMENT / PAPER – a continuation of their earlier work on the nearby Cognac Museum. From what is, in essence, a merely technical and utilitarian volume and space, the architects have created a fully-fledged theatre of impressions. Let’s take a closer look. We highly recommend a visit to what may look like a factory, but is in fact an experiment in theatricalizing the process of strong spirit production – and not only that, but also of “pure art”, capable of evolving anywhere.
The Arch and the Triangle
The new Stone Mnevniki business center by Kleinewelt Architekten – designed for the same client as their projects in Khodynka – bears certain similarities to those earlier developments, but not entirely. In Mnevniki, there are more angular elements, and the architects themselves describe the project as being built on contrast. Indeed, while the first phase contains subtle references to classical architecture – light touches like arches, both upright and inverted, evoking the spirit of the 1980s – the second phase draws more distantly on the modernism of the 1970s. What unites them is a boldly expressive public space design, a kaleidoscope of rays and triangles.
Health Factory
While working on a wellness and tourist complex on the banks of the Yenisei River, the architects at Vissarionov Studio set out to create healing spaces that would amplify the benefits of nature and medical treatments for both body and soul. The spatial solutions are designed to encourage interaction between the guests and the landscape, as well as each other.
The Blooming Mechanics of a Glass Forest
The Savvinskaya 27 apartment complex built by Level Group, currently nearing completion on an elongated riverfront site next to the Novodevichy Convent, boasts a form that’s daring even by modern Moscow standards. Visually, it resembles the collaborative creation of a glassblower and a sculptor: a kind of glass-and-concrete jungle, rhythmically structured yet growing energetically and vividly. Bringing such an idea to life was by no means an easy task. In this article, we discuss the concept by ODA and the methods used by APEX architects to implement it, along with a look at the building’s main units and detailing.
Grace and Unity
Villa “Grace”, designed by Roman Leonidov’s studio and built in the Moscow suburbs, strikes a balance between elegant minimalism and the expansive gestures of the Russian soul. The main house is conceived as a sequence of four self-contained volumes – each could exist independently, yet it chooses to be part of a whole. Unity is achieved through color and a system of shared spaces, while the rich plasticity of the forms – refined throughout the construction process – compensates for the near-total absence of decorative elements.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.