Renzo Piano's reworked GES-2 House of Culture makes its much-awaited debut in Moscow

2021-12-08T14:50:00-05:00

After over six years of planning and construction, Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s colorful GES-2 House of Culture has officially opened its doors in Moscow.

Situated on the edge of Bolotnaya Square, Piano’s latest museum, once a former power station, is a testament to the old Soviet concept of culture houses that serve as versatile communal gathering spaces to promote arts, performance, learning, and civic engagement.

Image courtesy GES-2/Facebook

Done over in a vivid arctic white and meant as the permanent home to the V-A-C Foundation, the noted cultural designer’s careful effort to restore the disused early 20th-century structure has yielded a light-filled cavernous space that houses a theater, a large nave-like exhibition hall, and performances areas that are all also inundated with clean air taken in by a pair of distinct 70-meter high blue steel chimneys.

Kjartansson's sketch for his "living sculpture" installation. Image courtesy GES-2 via Facebook.

The 20,000-square-meter (215...

Renzo Piano Building Workshop redesigns Moscow power station into art site

2015-10-15T14:21:00-04:00

Instead of belching oppressive fumes over Moscow's recently pedestrianized Red October District, the iconic smokestacks of the century-old GES2 power station will be transformed into conduits for ventilation as part of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop's sustainable redesign of the facility into an art site for the V-A-C Foundation.

Spearheaded by the Building Workshop's 46-year-old Paris-based partner Antonio Belvedere, the site will fit into a 150 meter by 150 meter square and feature three main "poles": Welcoming, Education, and Exhibitions.

The latter two poles are conceived of as interior spaces, and will incorporate classrooms, residency spaces, and a flexible gallery that can accommodate a variety of different artistic mediums.

The largely outdoor Welcoming pole will include a sculpture garden, restaurant/cafe, library, an indoor/outdoor piazza, and serve as host for live events and temporary art installations.

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Renzo Piano's reworked GES-2 House of Culture makes its much-awaited debut in Moscow

Renzo Piano Building Workshop redesigns Moscow power station into art site