Ukraina Hotel Entryway

TPO Lesosplav was organized by a group of graduated of the Academy of Art in the summer of 2011. The creators themselves stated that “the creative activities of the collective are teetering on the brink of architecture and art, which allows us to undertake projects of any level of complexity”. Among the project undertaken by Lesosplav are: Antakh Church (2012), Museum building project for the competition “New NCCA” (2013), Raketa Hostel in Museon Park, and others.
Lesosplav are taking part in the competition together with Malishev Wilson Engineers, a Ruso-British project bureau created in 2004 that has accumulated extensive experience in construction of both conventional steel and reinforced concrete structures; as well as glass load-bearing structures; through the use of Russian and European design standards.

Architectural concept
The proposed concept for the new entryway for the hotel solves several of the main tasks: it is independent in constructive and stylistic terms and yet it does not dissonant in its composition alongside the existing architectural monument.
The installation not only fulfills its practical function as a protective canopy, but at the same time it is a piece of modern design in its own right which works in contrast with the historical building. It creates a dialogue between the old and the new and on a variety of levels; including in terms of rhythm, scale and material. The design of the entryway for the Ukraina Hotel creates the visual effect of a light ribbon-like awning of snow-white glass, flowing around 250 meters and held up from the ground by thin chrome columns. The supports for the awning are placed at broken intervals of between three and six meters apart so that the newly-created rhythm ‘has its own melody’ and doesn’t violate
the established composition of the historical building. The linear structure of the awning,
soaring between Kutuzovsky Prospekt and Taras Schevchenko Embankment, transforms both the approach to the hotel and the descent to the embankment, in one single promenade. The awning is located along the main façade of the building, crossing the driveway in two places (in the area of thoroughfare at the North-West corner of the façade and at the embankment area). This allows the canopy not only to cover the rampant for accessing the hotel, but it creates conditions for the emergence of a new public space; a place for meetings and walks.