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One of the more underrated landmarks of 20th-century geopolitics has undergone a complete transformation into a mirrored elevation of the surrounding community thanks to the latest in a global series of innovative redesign projects from Landini Associates for McDonald’s. To mark its 30th... View full entry
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... View full entry
A row is developing in Russia after renowned designer Hani Rashid was rather abrasively let go from a contemporary expansion of the State Hermitage Museum in Moscow. The Art Newspaper is reporting that the 63-year-old architect was “unceremoniously” dropped from the museum’s satellite... View full entry
In 1977, the movie house, Novorossiysk, was constructed. During the 80's cinema clubs, lectures, and film festivals used the site to meet and showcase film. Here Muscovites (Moscow residents) had the opportunity to watch the films of Takeshi Kitano, Michael Haneke, Lars von Trier, and other... View full entry
The Moscow-based Strelka Institute has announced a new research program geared toward exploring the issues of planetary urbanism, global energy infrastructure, “geotechnology,” and speculative design, among other topics. Directed by professor and theorist Benjamin Bratton, the three-year... View full entry
Which is the world's most vertical city?
You might think of Hong Kong, given its famous skyscraper skyline, but by different measures of verticality other cities come out on top
— The Guardian
"According to building data research company Emporis," writes Matthew Keegan for the Guardian Cities series, "Seoul in South Korea has more high-rise buildings, with 16,359. Emporis defines a high-rise as a building at least 35m, or 12 storeys tall. In second place is Moscow, Russia, with... View full entry
Russian firm Syndicate Architecture Bureau won an architectural competition organized by the Garage Museum and Strelka KB to design a temporary summer movie theater space in Moscow's Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure. Aerial view of Garage Screen summer movie theater. Photo by Iwan... View full entry
Two Moscow-based architectural heritage activists have renovated a Soviet avant-garde apartment and are now renting it on Airbnb. In the property listing, Alexander Dudnev and Konstantin Gudkov describe the apartment as a “time machine” to the Stalin era: “Located in a historical constructivist building, carefully restored and fully equipped with authentic and reconstructed furniture, lights and tableware, it will transfer you to 1930s utopia.” — The Art Newspaper
We have done stories about beautifully designed rentals in the past, but given its rarity, this recent listing for an immaculately-preserved Moscow apartment from the 1930's stands on its own. It is likely that many of its patrons will miss plenty of its subtle modernist details, but they will be... View full entry
A series of apartment buildings in Moscow have been covered with iconic Japanese artwork. Part of the Etalon City apartment complex, the architects had the 6 towers placed along the highway painted with a replica of The Great Wave off Kanagawa—Katsushika Hokusai’s famed woodblock... View full entry
Russian officials have abandoned a flagship project to build of a new State Center for Contemporary Arts in Moscow.
[...] the head of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts (ROSIZO-NCCA), Sergey Perov, revealed to the Art Newspaper Russia earlier this month that the project had been officially scrapped due to a lack of funding.
He said the government had been unable to find the 16 billion rubles ($240 million) needed to back the project.
— Calvert Journal
Irish firm Heneghan Peng Architects had originally emerged as the final winner of the international competition for Moscow’s new National Center for Contemporary Arts (NCCA) back in 2013. Image/Visualization by LuxigonImage/Visualization by LuxigonImage/Visualization by Luxigon View full entry
As Moscow’s Zaryadye Park approaches its first birthday next month, the city’s chief architect, Sergei Kuznetsov, is defending the Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed green space for an unexpected feature: its aphrodisiacal properties. Just a stone’s throw from the Kremlin, the firm’s carefully crafted experiment in “wild urbanism” has lived up to its billing, apparently, becoming something of a hotbed for outdoor lovemaking. — news.artnet.com
Moscow's one year old $245 million public park by Diller Scofidio + Renfro was meant to bring freedom of exploration and a feeling of comfort within the urban setting. The space provides visitors with an amphitheater, flora-covered terraces, green spaces with views of the city, and a 230 foot... View full entry
A row has broken out between former RMJM international group design director Tony Kettle and a Russian architect over who designed Europe’s new tallest building – an 87-storey skyscraper near St Petersburg. Staff at Moscow-based firm Gorproject have accused Scottish practice The Kettle Collective of trying to claim ‘authorship’ over energy giant Gazprom’s mammoth tower, currently nearing completion on the Gulf of Finland. — architectsjournal.co.uk
As Europe's tallest skyscraper nears completion, a dispute has erupted over the authorship of the completed project. The Moscow-based firm Gorproject claims design authorship over the Lakhta Center, while Tony Kettle claims the delivered design is his concept while working at RMJM... View full entry
In some places, the tower block has never faded from view. The history of mass housing in eastern Europe is complex and uncomfortable. Yet what’s striking is how prominently the tower block features in the work of contemporary photographers from that territory. These artists have every reason to turn their backs on such buildings. They’re ugly and overbearing, not to say reminiscent of an authoritarian past. But the mass housing block is a recurring presence in their work. — Calvert Journal
Writer and critic Ekow Eshun provides a beautiful overview of the tower block as a recurring architectural, social, and aesthetic theme in the works of post-Soviet-era photographers in Russia, Serbia, the Baltic states, and throughout Eastern Europe. "However ugly and monolithic such buildings... View full entry
A new Moscow apartment building has unveiled a fully-functioning facial recognition system designed to replace residents’ keys. [...]
As well as allowing homeowners to enter the building without a key, the system automatically selects each resident’s floor when they enter the lift, and keeps tabs on cars and pedestrians leaving the complex.
— Calvert Journal
Capital Hill Residence is the only private residence designed by Zaha Hadid that was built in her lifetime. Vladislav Doronin, the owner of the house, speaks on working with Hadid to build his unique residence in Moscow. Zaha Hadid Architect's Patrik Schumacher, who worked on this project... View full entry
