Water Tower Redevelopment Concept

By IND architects project Shcherbinka water tower will be transformed into the cultural center By the project of the Moscow architectural studio IND architects the water tower in Shcherbinka Novaya Moskva city district will be transformed into the modern cultural center. The IND architects project has been chosen as a result of the open competition organized by Erzia International Art Foundation with the support of the Moscow Architecture and Urban Development Committee and the Zaryadye Park administration. In the transformed water tower will be exhibitions, lectures, seminars held. The tower will become the art conductor, the place for communication and meetings. The project is designed to set a new cultural code of the developing territory. Social and cultural functions will become dominating in the altered object, and in order to carry out this transformation from engineering construction to museum complex, the IND architects project assumes a few changes. The second floor of the tower was expanded with a multifunctional complex. A light, soaring volume doesn't conflict with the tower form, doesn't burden the general image, but supplements it. Architects from IND architects have lifted the hall by one floor to create porosity of space, to emphasize contrast of the structure with surrounding buildings. We include the historical object in life of the modern city, filling it with some new functions. The authentic shape of the engineering construction will be completely saved and complemented with new elements. We have emphasized the building's advantages, using the contrast with modern elements. The dominant of the complex is a strict and harmonious volume of the tower, pointing up. The complex area will be expanded which is necessary measure for realization of new functions. However, this expansion is going to be made in most delicate way. A soaring volume keeps tower's proportions, makes its base opened. This space can be transformed for various tasks, for example, it's possible to give lectures and seminars here, conferences and presentations, master classes, drawing and dancing lessons. Also this place suits for co-working, small movie theater. An opaque material - u-glass - that covers the volume, allows to see silhouettes, movement from the outside. It might interest some strangers on the street and attract new visitors, this way starts the building a dialogue with environment. In the hall a perfect space for exhibiting of art works is created, and thanks to diffused light the paint won't get faded. The main exhibition will settle down in the tower shaft. Specialists from IND architects integrated an elevator in the complex, and due to the fact that there's no enough space inside, the decision was made to bring it outside. Inside the tower there is an architectural semicircular stairway. To look at the permanent exhibition, the group of people shall go up by the elevator, and comes back using the stairs, one floor after another getting acquainted with the exhibition. On the first floor of the tower a small cafe will be located. Height of the tower has been increased a little at the expense of the additional floor lined, just as the soaring volume on the second floor, with u-glass. Such solution harmonizes the complex proportions, making its architectural image complete. Metaphorically speaking, this small volume reflects the new direction of the tower, reminding the beacon as a reference point in Shcherbinka art and cultural life. We have thought through not only an architectural part of the project, but also its cultural content, so that the tower has been filled with life every day, with various activities. We believe that after the era of remote communication we will start to communicate in the real world with the real people again. Neighborliness, common interests and hobbies — the architecture purpose is to promote these values at people.