“Quantum OMK” in Vyksa is the country’s first children’s technopark with a metallurgical focus. It opened recently, in October, alongside the relocated Shukhov water tower. Enrollment for the children’s groups began in September.

Children’s technoparks – “Quantoriums” – were built under a federal program. Here, “technopark” means a center for supplementary after-school education, equipped with solid state-of-the-art technical facilities. There are already hundreds of such parks across the country; the state financed 50% of the program, with regions and local enterprises covering the rest. In this case, however, the United Metallurgical Company (OMK) built the facility entirely with its own funds. OMK invested around 720 million rubles in the construction of the Vyksa Quantorium, and the Nizhny Novgorod Region contributed another 120 million – regional funds were used to purchase classroom equipment. I must say that in my experience as a Russian architectural journalist, it is rare for the amount of investment to be stated openly rather than coyly concealed… This attitude on the part of the client – OMK and its head, Anatoly Sedykh – commands respect.

And one more thing! The building charmed me far more when I saw it live than it did when I first saw it in renderings. There, the imagery seemed somewhat limited, and questions arose about the deliberately asymmetrical placement of the windows and the combination of dark brick with black metal – a pairing that felt somewhat overused. In reality, it turns out that every window is exactly where it should be, justified both functionally and practically; the metal and brick are of good quality; and most importantly, the Vyksa Quantorium “little house” is compact and human-scaled. It is neither large nor small; contemporary, but not excessively high-tech – and the sunset reflects perfectly evenly in the quality glazing of its curtain wall.



Somehow it proves unexpectedly fitting within the uneven context of the emerging Shukhov Park. A neat, unobtrusive, yet self-assured insertion. If only all industrial parks could emerge like that – in a calm and gradual fashion.

Andrey Gnezdilov, Ostozhenka Bureau

We were offered a design code based on industrial materials: black steel and brick. So from the very start we put together two volumes – literally two pieces of foam on the model, two halves. And we added a diagonal. Why? Because the building is very small; without a diagonal, its interior would begin and end almost immediately. And even with the diagonal, it needed some kind of device, because the two halves sat next to each other unconvincingly, as if they were “slipping apart”. Once the jagged corridor was conceived, everything fell into place.

I’m very pleased with how it was built; the impression on site turned out to be much better than I expected. What’s more, we never once traveled to Vyksa for site supervision – everything was done remotely. The stained-glass window came out well, exactly as we intended: the mullions are arranged not in a regular grid but in a free pattern. Initially we planned that with the reflection of the trees in mind. Now the trees are gone, but perhaps it’s just as well – the vegetation was kind of redundant in this instance, and instead the glass reflects the sunset, for which the asymmetrical grid is also more appropriate.

Or take the ceiling of the coworking space and the exterior canopy – they align visually, and I know how difficult it is to achieve such precision from the builders. All in all, I think we managed to realize it with high quality.