Russian Character

The Butovo Park Culture & Education Center will act as the gathering place of the new micro-district. It will have an important role in creating a sense of community and teaching residents of the history of the area. Even if relatively small in comparison to the residential towers surrounding it, the Center will be the one element giving the district its unique character.

The Center becomes an intriguing exception from the general scenery: a multifunctional playground, free for interpretations. It transcends traditional volumetric constraints becoming two ephemeral landscapes, the outside and the inside. The merging of the harsh reality of the outside world to an abstract game of geometry acts as an escape to the ideal world. The interior where the projections of light and shadows from the outside create yet another landscape, is the result of this intellectual exercise. Architecture is the configuring agent between the landscapes.

The interior spaces can be easily modified according to user needs. Daylight changes the atmosphere hour by hour as do the sounds the users create. The exterior changes in accordance with changes in vegetation: nature will gradually take over parts of the structure. The facades bear no indication of what the building holds inside. Two opposite entrances open the space like an envelope. The levitating roof structure adds to the mystery of the shadowy interior as box-like shapes rise upwards in a geometric composition that blurs the understanding of space, while skylights ensure a comfortable yet controlled amount of natural light.

The functions are combined into a laboratory for learning. A seamless network of services is spread over one fluid space. The auditoriums and the gym are set in voids cut into the sloping floor surface of the main floor. Visible from above, they are separated from the main area only by glass balconies. These sunken areas provide a wide range of opportunities for programming.

NAME: Butovo Park Culture and Education Center

TYPE: Competition, shortlisted

PROGRAM: 4,000 m2: 3 auditoriums, library, study area, café, daycare, store, exhibition space, gym, fitness center and dance studio

LOCATION: Drozhino, Moscow Oblast, Russia

CLIENT: The Morton Group

TEAM: Juho Grönholm, Anssi Nousjoki, Janne Teräsvirta and Samuli Woolston with Zuzana Hejtmánková, Tonny Jensen and Joan Kwong