On a trendy island within the city of Moscow, Renzo Piano Building Workshop has transformed a magnificent historic power station built between 1904 and 1908 into GES-2 House of Culture, a civic free space dedicated to visual arts, performing arts, music, science, and sustainability.
Named ‘Red October,’ the island neighbourhood is intended for a young urban crowd with the area including a former chocolate factory that now houses start-ups, cafes, and restaurants. Also located nearby is the historic Udarnik Theatre, an important piece of Russian architecture.
With a floor area of nearly 20,000m2, the GES-2 building is arranged into four ‘poles’ being the Civic pole, Welcoming pole, Exhibition pole, and Education pole.
The Civic pole comprises free access spaces and activities and is connected to an outdoor public space that draws in surrounding street life. At the centre of this pole, an ‘indoor-piazza’ forms an entrance experience that connects onward to the Library and media hub to the north and a free art installation space and restaurant to the South.
The Welcoming pole is accessible from the ‘indoor piazza.’ This space includes informal program elements such as ticketing, information, orientation, and shops at the ground floor level. An open performance with a seating area is situated above with a seating deck along with an enclosed auditorium located nearby in a separate area. This pole also includes a café and snack bar at the mezzanine level.
The Exhibition pole combines spaces of different sizes and heights ensuring it is able to welcome exhibitions and artworks of many different types. The Exhibition pole has a strong visual connection to the Education pole, which houses the School of Art, along with classrooms and workshops intended for the public. This pole also includes some artists’ residences and workshops.
Sustainability concepts form a key component of the project. Four existing brick chimneys have been transformed into more sustainable steel chimneys that capture cleaner air at a 70-meter altitude, further activating natural ventilation and reducing energy consumption. Additional green elements include a ‘forest of birches’ planted inside the building and hundreds of trees planted to the west of the site.
