The Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron has unveiled plans to redevelop a six-hectares old factory area in the heart of Moscow. Located at the former Badaevskiy Brewery that sits along the river, the project will renovate and repurpose the remaining clusters given the site's cultural heritage status. In addition, the firm will also raise two residential blocks above the site.
The result is a "horizontal skyscraper"—described as a "piece of city lifted up in the air,"—that sits on many slender stilts. According to the firm, the choice to elevate the additional buildings 35 meters in the air brings three key advantages: "first, the new green area, an urban park, emerges in the vacated land under the hovering structures, between the heritage buildings and the river front; second, despite the substantial densification of the site, the historical buildings retain their direct connection to the river and their clear visibility and access to the city; and third, all the flats in the hovering structure are top floors with prime views to the Brewery, Kutuzovskiy Prospekt, Ukraina Hotel, the State Duma, Moscow City, and beyond to greater Moscow."
The elevated buildings comprise approximately 1.1 million square feet of apartments featuring glazed facades and private balconies. Eight “sky villas” on the upper level will also have private roof access. On the ground, the restored heritage buildings will be reserved for public uses, hosting amenities such as a food market, a local brewery, co-working space, an arts centre, childcare facilities and a large gym.
"Moscow is a city with a rich and controversial cultural and political heritage, with architectures reflecting avant-garde as well as conservative trends in the course of history" said Jacques Herzog, one of the firm's founders. "Our project for the redevelopment of Badaevskiy factory inserts itself in this very history and tradition of Moscow urbanism – it respects and re-uses existing industrial buildings while adding and overlaying them with radically contemporary structures."
5 Comments
Getting closer to the city on top of a city... from Deus Ex
Brilliant! A design that completely avoids any potential problems with structure, access / egress, landscape, etc.
I designed something like this in school. nice to see the Illuminati catching up.
Everybody designed something like that in school ;)
“horizonatal skyscraper” aka regular building without bottom floors.
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