Italian architect Renzo Piano has transformed a former power station in Moscow into a contemporary arts centre for the V-A-C Foundation named GES-2 House of Culture
Renzo Piano Building Workshop's revamp of the power plant, which was designed in 1907 in the Russian Revival style by architect Vasili Bashkirov to power the city's tram system, is the studio's first project in Russia.
Renzo Piano Building Workshop transformed a power plant into the GES-2 House of Culture
The studio stripped away more recent additions to the historic structure in the Red October arts district and aimed to restore as many of the plant's original features as possible.
One exception to this was replacing the original brick chimney stacks with four 70-metre-high, blue steel chimneys that give the building a presence in the city. They nod to the colourful pipework of the studio's previous high-tech buildings including the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The studio restored the existing structure
Informed by the community role of the Soviet Union's historic system of Houses of Culture, at the centre of GES-2 House of Culture is a 1,200-square-metre atrium that is cut through by an indoor pedestrian walkway that crosses the building.
Conceived as a "cathedral of light", this bright atrium is illuminated by the large windows and a new glass roof covered with solar panels.
"Contemporary art is more democratic than classical art, and complex, multifunctional cultural buildings have partly tak...