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.

Written by:
Julia Tarabarina
Translated by:
Anton Mizonov

09 June 2023

Contest Results

The competition for the reconstruction of the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theater named after Khvorostovsky was conducted in early 2023. The prize fund was 3 million rubles: 1.5 million for first place, 1 million for the second, and 500 thousand rubles for third. The results were announced in April; the winner was the Wowhaus project, second place went to Studio 44, and third place went to a consortium of Krasnoyarsk bureau A2 and Moscow NVP. However, a working group is being formed, which should summarize the ideas of “not only the winning company, but also other participants in the competition”. The projects are published on the website of the contest and on the website of its operator, the Institute of Urban Development in Krasnoyarsk. We plan to showcase the winning projects one by one because it was a major competition for a significant public building in the city center, and moreover, providing for the reconstruction of a modernist theater.

The theater was built in 1966-1978 upon the project by Ivan Mikhalev, and, curiously, he designed it specifically as a music theater before it was ever completed, it was turned into an “opera and ballet theater”, which, according to its current director Svetlana Guziy, presupposes a staff twice as large. This effectively means that the troupe would have found themselves in close quarters by default. Over the recent decades, as the requirements for the theatrical art grew stricter, the space became even more cramped. Accordingly, the reconstruction, designed and supported by the Nornickel company, provides for a considerable expansion, but the brief specifically stipulated the necessity for keeping up the image of the old theater and the square in front of it: “The theater square must come to our descendants in the state it was devised 45 years ago”.

zooming — Concept of reconstruction of the Krasnoyarsk State Opera and Ballet Theater named after D.A. Khvorostovsky

Copyright: © WOWHAUS

The concept by Wowhaus includes demolition and new construction: on the plan, the building is expanded 11 meters length-wise and 10 meters width-wise. The height remains the same, but the building gets underground floors – below the zero elevation, the architects are placing a restaurant, a foyer, and a museum, about which – the authors emphasize – the theater has long since dreamed. The new theater building will have a total of 8 levels, which will make it possible to include everything you need, including dressing rooms on all the three floors, rehearsal halls, a duplicate stage for dress rehearsals and small-stage performances, and a hall for the children’s theater studio.

Despite the fact that the new building is built from scratch [UPD 21.06.223: in the project, the architects retain the grand auditorium, the stage, and its pockets], the architects liken it to the old one as part of the image retention. For example, in the project the volume is also composed of two parallelepipeds with the upper projection of the columns; the architects reproduce the star-cross-shaped “cosmic” pattern of the concrete lattice of the stained glass window, the horseshoe-shaped volume of the hall, sculpturally protruding from outside, and even the colonnades on the sides – only with increasing scale the columns lose their solidity and turn into a series of thin supports; the pauses between them and the center increase. Even the inscription on the frieze is similar, although, obeying the new scale, it too has become smaller and thinner. Everything is similar, but different, and, executed in modern materials, looks recognizably unrecognizable. Maybe this approach even better embodies the idea, which was in the 1960s limited by the material base, even though you never can tell. A similar experiment to turn a 1950s building into a larger one was carried out by UNK architects in their work on the Palace of Water Sports, which replaced the Luzhniki swimming pool. What we are seeing is an enlarged paraphrase, but not a copy.

The architects save – in the original material – two sculptural groups of the “Muses”, carrying them over from the central location to the sides of the main entrance, i.e. to the side ends of the galleries.

Concept of reconstruction of the Krasnoyarsk State Opera and Ballet Theater named after D.A. Khvorostovsky. The identity

Copyright: © WOWHAUS
Concept of reconstruction of the Krasnoyarsk State Opera and Ballet Theater named after D.A. Khvorostovsky. The basic principles

Copyright: © WOWHAUS

Concept of reconstruction of the Krasnoyarsk State Opera and Ballet Theater named after D.A. Khvorostovsky

Copyright: © WOWHAUS
Concept of reconstruction of the Krasnoyarsk State Opera and Ballet Theater named after D.A. Khvorostovsky

Copyright: © WOWHAUS

It’s a rather curious experience watching how one turns into the other. In the new project, the following happens: the entrance group disappears or becomes all but invisible (how does it look on the 3D renders, I wonder?); and this entrance group cuts significantly into the starry stained-glass window of the original building. [UPD 21.06.2023: according to the architects, the entrance group was rebuilt many times, and the one that exists now does not refer to the original project]. At the same time, what appears behind the glass is a whirl of the spectator area and balconies, from which one will be able to get to different stage levels – looks a bit like Wright’s Guggenheim – it continues the “horseshoe” volume of the amphitheater, situated higher up: now, the parallelepiped has not just one volume inserted into it, but two.

The theater now:

Now in the existing building the columns line the sides of the eastern volume of the foyer, while the western “stage” volume is designed laconically, like a crate. In the project, the foyer’s colonnades become, as we remember, more delicate and thin, and in the western part they also receive a continuation – in the form of tie rods inserted into the ledges of large grooves; the wall receives a meaningful relief, which was not present in the original building, it brings a note of Art Deco in the context of its basically modernist project (which quite suddenly echoes the Palace of Water Sports, where, however, the Art Deco component is original). At the junction of the two volumes evacuation stairs are situated – here there is a narrow transverse “layer”, sandwiched between the walls.

The sidewall now:

The new scale, the new fragility and thinness of the building, which inherits the ideas of the modernist theater, but not its proportions, receives a contrasting response in the image of the main hall: it is clearly inspired by the memory of one of the main landmarks of the region, the extinct volcano “Black Mountain” – the audience, figuratively of course, but judging by the pictures, still quite tangibly, is placed “inside” a black volcano with a rounded, rough and dark wall surface: the image rhymes well with the acoustic panels. The glowing circle of the main chandelier is likened to the vent of the volcano, at which we are looking, therefore, from within. On the whole, it is obvious that the blackness of the new hall, convenient for performances, becomes a contrast to the light whiteness of the facades and foyer.

The minor hall and the duplicating halls will be designed in a slightly simpler way because you can’t peddle the idea of the “core” everywhere, and the rehearsal halls will be even lighter.

The main stage is equipped with mechanisms and is designed to be transformed. It is planned in a cross shape, like an Egyptian “Ankh” symbol, with the auditorium “loop” at the base. In the center; there are 35 sliding cubic podiums; from the rear stage at the top of the cross, the turntable can be moved out, and when it moves out it creates the possibility to build an additional “rear” amphitheater behind the rear stage, seating the audience on both sides of the stage. Several more mobile platforms are parked in the side wings, and the orchestra pit can be elevated to three different levels.

An additional stage is located in the northern part, to the right, and occupies the -1 and -2 floors. Its rectangular space is transformable thanks to a collapsible amphitheater. The other multi-purpose hall is semi-circular, situated directly under the main stage; here the multi-functionality is ensured by different variants of furniture arrangement.

One of the important features of the project is the highly developed system of public spaces, both around the theater and on the roof of the auditorium. Additional performances and film screenings are also possible on the roof, and in front of the entrance to the foyer under a large canopy.

The architects completely revise the square in front of the theater: it is already big as it is, 140 meters long; it has three fountains on it, a sculpture of Apollo, a couple of lions at the entrance, a certain quantity of trees on the perimeter, but otherwise the square is empty.

This square gets a lot of attention in the project. The square is multilevel: first, already now in its southern part, to the left and closer to the Yenisei river, where the height difference is from 4 to 5 meters, there is a four-level cascading staircase – the architects use it, preserving the fountain in the middle. Second, the area in front of the entrance is deepened and is accessed by a green city amphitheater with a zigzag-shaped ramp – Wowhaus already designed and built a similar one at the eastern entrance to Moscow’s Gorky Park; as a matter of fact, the amphitheater will make it possible to organize open-air performances.

Finally, on the sides of the square closer to Weinbaum Street, the architects propose two pavilions with terraced roofs, which also descend by steps toward the theater – so it turns out that all the surfaces consistently build up toward the city and descend to the entrance of the theater.

In addition, quite a lot of water is provided, a dry fountain, a cascade, ponds, as well as a winter scenario of using the square as an ice rink.

The pavilions are united with a canopy on thin metal supports – this peculiar standing portico marks the border of the square and somewhat levels the protrusions of the ends; besides, it reminds of the same entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospekt in Moscow.

As we can see, the project has the trademark Wowhaus style, and it is made according to the rules of modern theater buildings: grand-scale, transformable, and multifunctional. The task of turning the space around the theater and inside of it into a point of attraction for the urban community has been solved here at different levels and with the expectation for different audiences.

Some doubt is caused by the fact that the building becomes an elegant but still replica of the former theater, that is, it sort of freezes halfway, provoking the question: what do you ultimately need, the old building or the new one?

***
The judging panel of the competition:

Konstantin Shumov, Honorary Architect of the Russian Federation, Head of the Krasnoyarsk Krai Urban Planning Control Service; Chief Architect of the Krasnoyarsk Krai, Chairman of the Judging Panel

Arkady Zinov, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, Minister of Culture of the Krasnoyarsk region, Deputy Chairman of the Judging Panel

Dmitry Bertman, General Director; Artistic Director of the Moscow Musical Theater Helikon Opera

Andrey Bokov, People’s Architect of the Russian Federation, Honorary President of the Union of Architects of Russia, Vice-President of the International Academy of Architecture, President of the Moscow branch of the International Academy of Architecture, Member of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Building Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts

Andrey Borisov, Director of the Moscow Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Academic Musical Theater

Sergey Geraschenko, Honorary Architect of the Russian Federation, Professor of the Department of Urban Planning at the Institute of Architecture and Design of Siberian Federal University

Sergey Gnedovsky, People’s Architect of the Russian Federation, Vice-President of the Union of Architects of Russia, Academician of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Building Sciences

Elena Grigorieva, honored architect of the Russian Federation, vice president of the Union of Architects of Russia, member of the International Academy of Architecture, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences, editor-in-chief of Project Baikal

Svetlana Guziy, Director of the D.A. Khvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk State Theater of Opera and Ballet

Georgy Isaakyan, Artistic Director of the Natalia Satz Moscow State Academic Children’s Musical Theater, Laureate of the State Prizes of the Russian Federation, Laureate of the President Prize of the Russian Federation, Honored Art Worker of the Russian Federation, Professor

Irina Korobina, professor of the Moscow Architectural Institute (State Academy), PhD in architecture, member of the International Academy of Architecture, member of the National Academy of Design, honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts

Vladislav Loginov, Head of Krasnoyarsk

Yuri Oleynikov, Advisor to the Vice President of MMC Norilsk Nickel

Mikhail Rabushko, Minister of Construction of the Krasnoyarsk Territory

09 June 2023

Headlines now

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

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.

Object

Gold in the Sands

A new office for a transcontinental company specializing in resource extraction and processing has opened in Dubai. Designed by T+T Architects, masters of creating spaces that are contemporary, diverse, flexible, and original, this project exemplifies their expertise. On the executive floor, a massive brass-clad partition dominates, while layered textures of compressed earth create a contextually resonant backdrop.

Object

Layers and Levels of Flight

This project goes way back – Reserve Union won this architectural competition at the end of 2011, and the building was completed in 2018, so it’s practically “archival”. However, despite being relatively unknown, the building can hardly be considered “dated” and remains a prime example of architectural expression, particularly in the headquarters genre. And it’s especially fitting for an aviation company office. In some ways, it resembles the Aeroflot headquarters at Sheremetyevo but with its own unique identity, following the signature style of Vladimir Plotkin. In this article, we take an in-depth look at the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) headquarters in the Moscow agglomeration town of Zhukovsky, supplemented by recent photographs from Alexey Naroditsky – a shoot that became only recently possible due to the fact that improvements were finally made in the surrounding area.

Object

Light and Shadow

In this article, we delve into the architectural design of the “Chaika” house by DNK ag architects, which was recently completed in 2023 as part of the collection of signature designs at ZILArt. As is well-known, all the buildings in this complex follow a design code, yet each one is distinct. This particular building stands out not only for its whiteness and minimalism but also for the refined use of a limited number of techniques that, together, create what can confidently be called synergy.

View

Casus Novae

A master plan was developed for a large residential area with a name of “DNS City”, but now that its implementation began, the plan has been arbitrarily reformatted and replaced with something that, while similar on the surface, is actually quite different. This is not the first time such a thing happens, but it’s always frustrating. With permission from the author, we are sharing Maria Elkina’s post.

Report

Treasure Hunting

The GAFA bureau, in collaboration with Tegola and Arkhitail, organized an expedition to the island of Kilpola in Karelia as part of Moskomarkhitektura’s “Open City” festival. There, amidst moss and rocks, the students sought answers to questions like: what is the sacred, where does it dwell, and what sustains it? Assisting the participants in this quest were landscape engineer Evgeny Levin, artist Nicholas Roerich, a moose, and the lack of cellular connection. Here’s how the story unfolded.

Object

Depths of the Earth, Streams of Water

In the Malaya Okhta district, the Akzent building, designed by Stepan Liphart, was constructed. It follows a classic tripartite structure, yet it’s what you might call “hand-drawn”: each façade is unique in its form and details, some of which aren’t immediately noticeable. In this article, we explore the context and, together with the architect, delve into how the form was developed.

Object

Fir Tree Dynamics

The “Airports of Region” holding is planning to build an airport in Karachay-Cherkessia, aiming to make the Arkhyz and Dombay resorts more accessible to travelers. The project that won in an invitation-only competition, submitted by Sergey Nikeshkin’s KPLN, blends natural imagery inspired by the shape of a conifer seed, open-air waiting spaces, majestic large trees, and a green roof elevated on needle-like columns. The result is both nature-inspired and WOW.

Object

A Brick Shell

In the process of designing a clubhouse situated among pine trees in a prestigious suburban area near Moscow, the architectural firm “A.Len” did the façade design part. The combination of different types of brick and masonry correlates with the volumetric and plastique solutions, further enhanced by the inclusion of wood-painted fragments and metal “glazing”.

Report

Word Forms

ATRIUM architects love ambitious challenges, and for the firm’s thirtieth anniversary, they boldly play a game of words with an exhibition that dives deep into a self-created vocabulary. They immerse their projects – especially art installations – into this glossary, as if plunging into a current of their own. You feel as if you’re flowing through the veins of pure art, immersed in a universe of vertical cities, educational spaces – of which the architects are true masters – and the cultural codes of various locations. But what truly captivates is the bold statement that Vera Butko and Anton Nadtochy make, both through their work and this exhibition: architecture, above all, is art – the art of working with form and space.

Object

Flexibility and Acuteness of Modernity

Luxurious, fluid, large “kokoshniks” and spiral barrel columns, as if made from colorful chewing gum: there seem to be no other mansion like this in Moscow, designed in the “Neo-Russian-Modern” style. And the “Teremok” on Malaya Kaluzhskaya, previously somewhat obscure, has “come alive with new colors” and gained visibility after its restoration for the office of the “architectural ecosystem” as the architects love to call themselves. It’s evident that Julius Borisov and the architects at UNK put their hearts into finding this new office and bringing it up to date. Let’s delve into the paradoxes of this mansion’s history and its plasticity. Spoiler: two versions of modernity meet here, both balancing on the razor’s edge of “what’s current”.

Interview

Yuri Vissarionov: “A modular house does not belong to the land”

It belongs to space, or to the air... It turns out that 3D printing is more effective when combined with a modular approach: the house is built in a workshop and then adapted to the site, including on uneven terrain. Yuri Vissarionov shares his latest experience in designing tourist complexes, both in central Russia and in the south. These include houseboats, homes printed from lightweight concrete using a 3D printer, and, of course, frame houses.

Object

Moscow’s First

“The quality of education largely depends on the quality of the educational environment”. This principle of the last decade has been realized by Sergey Skuratov in the project for the First Moscow Gymnasium on Rostovskaya Embankment in the Khamovniki district. The building seamlessly integrates into the complex urban landscape, responding both to the pedestrian flow of the city and the quiet alleyways. It skillfully takes advantage of the height differences and aligns with modern trends in educational space design. Let’s take a closer look.

Object

Looking at the Water

The site of Villa Sonata stretches from the road to the water’s edge, offering its own shoreline, pier, and a picturesque river panorama. To reveal these sweeping views, Roman Leonidov “cut” the façade diagonally parallel to the river, thus getting two main axes for the house and, consequently, “two heads”. The internal core – two double-height spaces, a living room and a conservatory, with a “bridge” above them – makes the house both “transparent” and filled with light.

Object

The White Wing

Well, it’s not exactly white. It’s more of a beige, white-stone structure that plays with the color of limestone – smoother surfaces are lighter, while rougher ones are darker. This wing unites various elements: it absorbs and interprets the surrounding themes. It responds to everything, yet maintains a cohesive expression – a challenging task! – while also incorporating recognizable features of its own, such as the dynamic cuts at the bottom, top, and middle.

Object

Urban Dunes

The XSA Ramps team designed and built a three-part sports hub for a park in Rostov-on-Don, welcoming people of all ages and fitness levels. The skate plaza, pump track, and playground are all meticulously crafted with details that attract a diverse range of visitors. The technical execution of the shapes and slopes transforms this space into a kind of sculptural composition.

Object

Proportional Growth

The project for the fourth phase of the ÁLIA residential area has been announced. The buildings are situated on an elongated plot – almost a “ray” that shoots out from the center of the area towards the river. Their layout reflects both a response to Moscow’s architectural preferences over the past 15 years, shifting “from blocks to towers”, and an interpretation of the neighboring business park designed by SOM. Additionally, the best apartments here are not located at the very top but closer to the middle, forming a glowing “waistline”.

Object

The “Staircase” Building

In designing the “Details” residential complex in New Moscow, Rais Baishev spiced up the now-popular Moscow theme of a “courtyard” building with an idea drawn from the surrealist drawings by Maurits Escher. He envisioned the stepped silhouettes and descending slopes as a metaphysical mega-staircase, creating a key void within the courtyard that gave the project an internal “spine”. This concept is felt both in the building’s silhouette and on its façades.

Object

Projection of the Quarter

No one doubted that the building that Vladimir Plotkin designed as part of the “Garden Quarters” would be the most modernist of all. And it turned out just that way: while adhering to the common design code, the building successfully combines brick and white stone, rhythmically responding to the neighboring building designed by Ostozhenka, yet tactfully and persistently making a few statements of its own. This includes the projection of the ideal urban development composition “14–9–6”, which can be found right next door, mathematical calculations, including those for various types of terraces (and perhaps the only reminder of the Soviet past of the Kauchuk rubber factory!), and the white “cross-stitch” pattern of the façade grid.