The proposal is a counter-project – selected at the final invitational stage – that contradicts the specifications of the competition announcement by refusing to propose a new covering for the entrance to the Stalinist hotel to replace the existing one. Due to the rigid environmental conditions, architecture in Moscow has always found space for commercial functions, the social dimension and urban identity inside large covered spaces that reinterpret the settlement rules of the streets in a warm and sheltered context, as in GUM, the Petrovky Passage or the People’s Cathedrals of the Moscow metro stations. The decision to avoid a new roof, to solve the problem of accommodating guests in winter under the square and to redefine the space in front of it as a green square makes it possible to remove the existing incongruous structure and to recover the historical building, returning it to its original configuration. The project aims to establish an architectural and visual relationship between the two banks of the Moskva, connecting the hotel to the riverfront and its new services, creating a new underground shopping gallery, recovering the underground levels of the existing structure and excavating the space between the Ukraina hotel and the car park along the entire distance separating it from the river. The project is therefore shaped by the integration of the various levels of mobility and accessibility, which make it possible to imagine that the area over the gallery in front of the hotel becomes a linear green square at the city level that stretches out to a large urban terrace on the river, at the pier. The proposal was an unexpected response to the call for tenders. It offers the unforeseen possibility of regenerating the open-air context and bringing the unused floors of the hotel, the conference centre and the recently built shops above the car parks indoors through the new shopping arcade.
Strelka Istitut
Moscow, 2013-2014
