New building for Perm State Art Gallery

Construction of the Perm Art Gallery building is part of the project for refurbishment of the Perm Remputmash Locomotive-Repair Factory. The project aims to create a coherent cultural and recreational space at the mouth of the River Egoshikha. The art gallery will preserve three buildings for which permission to demolish had already been given; the architects decided it would be better to integrate them into the new structure. The new building is thus a five-storey structure which unites the existing factory blocks to create a coherent ensemble. The façade of the art gallery facing the River Kama has been designed to be as transparent as possible: the large glazing panels will allow visitors to observe the panoramic view of the river from all floors of the building. In this way the river, an important part of Perm’s urban structure, symbolically becomes a part of the gallery’s exhibition. The windowless parts of the façade which protect the exhibition spaces and storage rooms from natural light (as is necessary if the building is to function as a museum) are clad with cassettes of patinated copper. The choice of finishing material derives from this site’s history as a place where copper was smelted. The gallery façades are divided into three tiers by horizontal bands with vertical pillars placed at intervals which diminish proportionally: the largest interval between façade elements (3 metres) is on the first floor; floors 2 and 3 have a medium interval (1.5 metres); and floors 4 and 5 have the smallest interval (0.75 metres). The plate-glass elements rhythmically organize the façade plane and indicate the building’s tectonic structure. The vertical elements of the façade construction (these are 50 millimetres wide and project 325 millimetres from the façade line) reflect the rays of the sun striking the building’s panoramic galleries from the east and west. In this way the glass pillars make this a passive energy-saving façade. The interior design is entirely in keeping with the façade: the wooden load-bearing façade pillars shape the image and rhythm of the gallery’s interior spaces. The artistic expressiveness of the building’s public and office zones also derives to a substantial extent from elements of the building’s load-bearing structure (metal columns, the wooden pillars of the plate-glass windows, and the wooden rafters and beams supporting the roof). The building’s public spaces are illuminated by natural light coming through skylights and the translucent structures of the exterior walls, but also by lighting fixtures mounted in the wooden and metal wall and ceiling panels at intervals matching the elements of the plate-glass glazing. The building’s first floor will contain public functions, including a café, a museum shop, and a cloakroom. Above, there will be exhibition spaces, a depository, and restoration workshops. The gallery’s main entrance will face the central square of the museum cluster which is being created on the site of this old factory.