Moscow


Pattern 01: Paradox
The city, the site and the human activities concerned by the project are environments in mutation. Building a project is dropping a mark in the city which will be a photo of the human landscape we are in today. The Moscow City Administrative Complex is driven by this paradox. We need to freeze something that can not be frozen. This paradox will appear in every aspect of the project. The complex breaks physical links with immediate surrounding, but grows from Moscow's mother, the Moskva river.


Pattern 02: Simplicity


The incertitude of the future, human as well as physical leads to think the structure and space as flexible, to host activities of today and tomorrow. 3 blocks in free-floor plan, supported by a logical array of columns and beams. Each block has its services and circulation strip in the centre. Spaces are open and any configuration is possible, being horizontal, vertical or even diagonal.


Pattern 03: Complexity


The Moscow City Administrative Complex is a mini-city, which auto-organizes. Activities change, departments move, building extents, connections open and close. The blood inputs of this growing organism are variated, can be closed, moved, bridged. There is no front, no back. All sides are the main facade. The visitor, helped by color-coded movable signalization, orient himself by constantly being able to understand his tridimensional coordinates in the complex, as the open spaces and facades permit large views of the structure.


Pattern 04: Organism


The building behaves as a living being, using the construction as marine life develops on coralian structure. High-density working zones follow open greenhouses and decompression spaces. Views from one part on another, on the city, are numerous and always different. The communication, the people, the technics flow. Open green spaces distribute air and light to inner spaces. Seasons rule the life of the project and the people inside, as the sun angle changes, plants cycle, water freezes...


Pattern 05: Technics


The complex is a northern organism and therefore centralized on sunlight. Its outer skin is almost completely made of glass. “Crystals” inserted into the concrete structure diffuse light in deeper parts and gather used air. A natural circulation occurs. Technics, fluids and human circulations use the center strips as a radiator, and glass spaces to communicate with other parts of the complex. The open space on the expocentre side gives an opening in the density of a busy part of the city and is ready to support future extensions of the complex.


Pattern 06: Rendering