The permanent exhibition of the Moscow Transport Museum will be located in Konstantin Melnikov’s garage, which is called an architectural masterpiece of the avant-garde era. And the new museum and exhibition center “Collection” was built from scratch. Both options are not unusual in Moscow
Since 2011, 13 new museum sites have opened in Moscow and 13 expositions have been completely renovated, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin recently said in his blog.
We will not look so far into the past, but, for example, in 2023, the Atom pavilion at VDNH became the winner of the Moscow Architectural Award in the nomination “The Best architectural and urban planning solution for a cultural object”, in which the museum function is one of the key ones. And in the list of nominations for the just—awarded 2024 prize, there is even a special one – “The best architectural and urban planning solution of the museum.” The winner was the new museum of the history of the Novodevichy Monastery, among the architectural features of which all highlight the voluminous ceramic panels on the facades.
As Elizaveta Likhacheva, director of the Pushkin Museum, noted in the first part of the material, museums (especially those that are built mainly or only at public expense) happen in different ways: some appear very quickly, some hang for years. There is no need to go far for examples confirming the expert’s words: professionals usually put the Polytechnic Museum and the new building of the Moscow Kremlin Museums at the top of the list of long-term museums in the capital, which, according to general opinion, should have opened so long ago that now no one understands the real deadlines.
But whether the fairy tale of the new museum construction is long or short, in any case, the museum is an object a priori atypical. And each museum building is unique in its own way, said Sergey Kuznetsov, chief architect of Moscow, in an interview with Business FM.
Sergey Kuznetsov, chief architect of Moscow, “There are options in the capital when a historical building is adapted for a museum. For example, the Zotov Center is not exactly a museum, but, let’s say, a kind of cultural function. As part of the HES-2 House of Culture, there is also new construction, but, in principle, it is still a reconstruction of a historical building. There is also the construction of some completely new buildings from scratch. Is it even easy to build a new museum in Moscow? Everything is relative and depends on the task. In principle, the museum function, I would say, is not very complicated expositionally. On the other hand, there are requirements, of course, that must be respected. But experts are coping with this. Of the new museums that are currently being built, the museum on ZIL is one of the nearest projects that are already on the way. The reconstruction of the Pushkin Museum is still underway. And everyone already knows about the new building of the Tretyakov Gallery — it opened this year.”
Answering the question at whose expense this banquet is, the chief architect of Moscow emphasizes: there are private initiatives for the construction of a museum facility, there are cases when federal museums receive funds for their development. “The most architecturally interesting museum acquisition in Moscow in recent years is the GES—2 House of Culture, I would say. I think this is a great event for the city, and the architect there is serious — Renzo Piano, winner of the Pritzker Prize and generally a star of modern architecture. Although what is currently being produced on ZIL is also a cool project — it is probably worth highlighting it from the objects under construction,” Sergey Kuznetsov believes.
The Museum of Transport in Moscow. Photo: press service of the Moscow Museum of Transport
Among the metropolitan museum stories being written right now related to the reconstruction and adaptation of historical buildings, the story about Konstantin Melnikov’s garage at 27 Novoryazanskaya Street, which will soon house the permanent exhibition of the Moscow Transport Museum, deserves special attention. “This initiative belongs to the city, all work is carried out on behalf of the mayor of Moscow. In the 1980s, the automotive community already assumed that a transport museum could appear in the garage. The famous automotive historian Lev Shugurov even suggested specific sites in an article in the Za Rulem magazine in 1989. There were three proposals: a departmental garage in the Carriage Row, former Food warehouses on the Garden Ring and just our garage. Today, many people really expect the completion of the restoration and adaptation of the building to a modern museum complex,” emphasizes Oksana Bondarenko, director of the Moscow Museum of Transport.
Oksana Bondarenko, Director of the Moscow Museum of Transport, “The avant-garde garage, designed and built in 1926-1929 for trucks of the Moscow Municipal Housing and Communal Services, is an architectural monument of regional significance. History and geography have determined the unusual shape of the garage construction site: a triangle sandwiched between Chichkin Lane, which does not exist today, and Novo-Ryazanskaya Street (the street finally received its modern name in 1955). Therefore, Melnikov could not design an arena with a direct-flow system at this place. But the architect found a way out of the situation and planned the building in the form of a semicircle. At first, trucks “lived” in the garage, and in the autumn of 1948, the 4th bus fleet was created here, which existed in Melnikov’s garage until 2015. As you understand, the building, which many call an architectural masterpiece of the avant—garde era, has always had large-sized transport, and placing museum transport exhibits within these walls is the most logical and correct decision.”
The Moscow architectural bureau “Project Meganom” and the Moscow architectural restoration workshop “Faros” were engaged in the restoration project of Melnikov’s garage. The Planet 9 Architectural Bureau, the Pitch Museum Design Bureau, and the Solarsense Museum Bureau are working on the design and creation of the permanent exhibition. And among the consultants of the project are art historian, specialist in ancient Russian architecture Andrey Batalov and head of the Department of Cultural Heritage Alexey Yemelyanov. “Thanks to them, this building at one time received the status of a cultural heritage site and was preserved,” Oksana Bondarenko emphasizes.
But the new museum and exhibition center “Collection” as part of the ZILART project is a fundamentally different story, because, firstly, everything is created from scratch here, and secondly, at the expense of the project developer. As they confessed BFM.ru In the LSR Group, the construction of a museum and exhibition center (IEC) is a very expensive process. “Significant expenses are spent on specialized equipment such as a rare fire extinguishing system or microclimatic installations. In addition, such construction requires the involvement of rare specialists or suppliers. For example, the facade of the building we built is lined with large sheets of natural copper. These plates were made by special order of the LSR Group at the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Combine – only here a unique production of large—format rolled copper sheets has been established. The doors leading to the viewing rooms turned out to be very expensive and difficult to manufacture. Firstly, because of the material: they, like the facade, are made of copper. Secondly, because of the size: each of them reaches five meters in height. Thirdly, because of automation: all doors are equipped with special drives that open as soon as a visitor enters the field of view of their sensors,” the company’s press service shares details.
Of course, the name of the architect creating the museum building is important: the Atom at VDNH is the UNK project, the new museum of the Novodevichy Monastery is the TPO Reserve, and the professional reputation of these bureaus is the initial guarantee that the project will be non—ordinary, worthy of attention and discussion. The “Collection” turned out to be quite interesting, the press service of the LSR Group recalls: the idea to create an IEC within the framework of a residential complex turned out to be so original that the architects themselves were interested in working on it.
“It was, without exaggeration, a unique chance to write your name into the history of Moscow. Therefore, several eminent architects responded to our proposal at once, but in the end, the version of Sergei Choban from the SPEECH bureau was taken into work. In our case, a museum is a unique option when you can combine both reputational, commercial, and social history. At the same time, the preservation of cultural heritage is one of the priorities of the social policy of the LSR Group. So the creation of the museum is a logical development of this particular direction, because “ZILART” was closely connected with the traditions of the Russian avant—garde from the very beginning. Even the street names here bear the names of famous avant-gardists: Tatlin, Lentulov, Lisitsky, Melnikov, Rodchenko, the Vesnin brothers, Kandinsky and, of course, Marc Chagall. And one of the main trends of the avant-garde was constructivism, and it was this style that inspired us to create the Collection museum and exhibition center with its bizarre shapes and trapezoid patterns,” the LSR Group says.
However, as emphasized in her press service, the process of issuing permits for the construction of a museum and exhibition center is no different from the same process for residential buildings: it is required to protect architectural and urban planning solutions, and then obtain a construction permit. Although, of course, there are special security requirements in the IEC related to places of mass stay of people and the storage of museum valuables.
In addition, there are also international conditions for the exhibition of art objects that require maintaining a constant temperature and humidity regime in the viewing halls. Also, a fire extinguishing system with thinly sprayed water is installed in the IEC: in case of a possible fire, water mist quickly fills the space — this method not only extinguishes an open fire faster than usual, but also leaves practically no water.
In general, the subsequent operation of the museum building is a separate and very serious topic. “The main difference between the operation of museum buildings from others is that they need to maintain a special microclimate and comply with enhanced security measures. Each room must have a high level of technical equipment so that the set temperature regime, requirements for lighting, ventilation, fire protection systems, security, alarm systems are constantly maintained in it,” Boris Mezentsev, operational director of MD Facility Management, confirms the words of the LSR Group experts. And he notes that this is due to two nuances in operation:
Boris Mezentsev, Chief Operating Officer of MD Facility Management, “The first: engineering systems in museums are complex and high—tech. For example, ventilation and air conditioning systems create their own microclimate. Maintenance of such systems requires a higher level of staff qualifications than in shopping or business centers. Secondly, planned and other repairs of engineering infrastructure should be carried out so that climatic and lighting conditions are maintained without interruption. If, for example, for a commercial facility, even at night, it is the norm to temporarily turn off part of the equipment for preventive or repair work, then this will become critical for especially valuable museum exhibits. There should be no daily fluctuations in air humidity in storages, restoration laboratories, and special chambers, and temperature differences are allowed within 5 degrees. The work must be carried out in such a way that in rooms for exhibits with the highest requirements for storage conditions, “engineering” shutdowns are completely avoided, and with high and medium — to minimize them. Professional cleaning work is also carried out with greater care — this is due to the objective risk of damaging any exhibit during sloppy work.”
Then a reasonable question arises: are there strong financial differences between the maintenance of a museum and an office or shopping center? “The differences are significant, and they are related not only to the increased manufacturability of engineering systems in the areas where the exhibits are located. Additional engineering solutions and maintenance of their operability increase the cost of operation. These are dust removal systems, sealed display cases for especially valuable exhibits, special fire extinguishing systems and so on. Also, the response time in case of emergency situations in the museum should be minimal. As a result, all this leads to the fact that the cost of providing services at such facilities in terms of square meter is higher by 30% or more,” says Boris Mezentsev.
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I wonder if it is more expensive to design a museum than a shopping center or a business center? What features do architects have to take into account? And with all the diversity of museums, are there any common architectural and design approaches to creating museum objects? This is discussed in the final part of the material.
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