03_Diploma

MOSCOW / 2017

“In the psychology of creativity and creative thinking, reflection is interpreted as a process of comprehension and reinterpretation by the subject of stereotypes of experience, which is a necessary prerequisite for the emergence of innovation. “(c)

In the process of reflecting on the topic of the graduation project, I decided to pay attention to the abandoned or unused territories. The place of research was Moscow. In the course of the research, I found a large number of unused sites both in the center of Moscow and on the outskirts. With a sufficient number of options for design, I concluded that the culmination of my research is the now lost Kitay-gorod wall, which ran along the perimeter of the Kitai-gorod in the area from the remaining Tretyakov Gate to Zaryadye. Thus, the theme of the diploma project became the restoration of the memory and contour of the Kitay-gorod wall as the city-forming element of the center of Moscow.
In my project, I tried to return this place to the boiling of life, creating new points of attraction for people, to return the city the territories that have become zones of alienation for administrative reasons, to change the scale of the city’s functioning.

HISTORICAL REFERENCE.

Kitai-gorod has always been the center of craft-trade, industrial life.
Kitai-gorod wall was built by the architect Petrok Maly in 1535-1538.
There were 14 towers on the perimeter of Kitai-gorod wall.
The thickness of the wall was 3 m, sometimes reached 6 m.
The height was 7-9 m.
In antiquity, before the wall was a ditch.
Throughout the history of the wall, the wall has been restored many times, most recently in the 1930s under the leadership of N.D. Vinogradov, but in 1934 was demolished.
The most ancient part of the monument in 1950 was buried 2.5 m below the ground level.
In the course of the research I found out that (most likely) the foundation of the wall has been preserved all along. The exact depth of its occurrence is unknown, but it was found that in some areas it can be 1-3 m.

The projected site is located in the heart of Moscow. The outline of the lost Kitai-gorod wall passes from the preserved Tretyakov Gate through the Theater Proyezd, along the Lubyanka Square, along the Novaya Square, then along the Old Square, Kitaygorodsky Proyezd, Moskvoretskaya embankment.
In my project, I developed a reduction in the number of car lanes on the Lubyanka Square and their narrowing, the elimination of spontaneous parking along the entire perimeter, which allows the new building to be located on a territory free from cars and create a new pedestrian environment on the Kitai-gorod border.

Before

only active roadway and adjacent facades

unobvious ways to the center,
there are no places of attraction

After

all territory becomes active

a dominant, fixing the compositional axis of the street

Main theses in favor of the project:

1. Prevent further breakdown / destruction of the center of Moscow.
2. Identify and recreate the historical line of the Kitai-gorod border.
3. The perimeter of the wall will become saturated with social life
4. Connection between the center of the city and the city.

In the process of discussion and analysis of the situation it was revealed that there is practically no housing in the center of Moscow, there are basically only very expensive luxury hotels, most of the buildings are occupied by offices, the pedestrian flow and the intensity of the use of the territory are unstable. In response, it was decided to place the necessary public spaces in the new Kitai-gorod wall, such as shops, cafes, gardens, museum spaces and auditoriums, libraries, and museums of artifacts found in excavation; however, in most of the wall place hostels and apartments.

As a key principle of organizing the space of the new building, the inversion principle was chosen, which in this case means that the body of the lost wall remains empty and becomes a corridor that runs through the entire contour of the building and connects all its parts.

Towers - former dominants and landmarks, holders of composite axes of streets, should be taken into account in the new project. Where there is a need should appear new dominants.

The main focus of the project - the corridor - the emptiness of the site of the lost wall. The new walls of the new building play the role of corridor walls; spaces in the way of a person walking along the corridor - rooms.

The height of the new building was decided to be within 10 meters, so as not to overlap completely the view of the building line and to create the most comfortable pedestrian street with a ratio of 1:1 (building height : width of the street). The new building should maintain transparency, but at the same time create the feeling of a monumental sculpture that fixes the form of the Kitai-gorod wall as a formwork.