Moscow Fashion Palace

International Architecture Competition
honorable mention

The project strives to create a lean and slender building that reflects the classical concept of beauty based on proportions and relationships between the elements. We have worked on the proportion of width to height to find consistency in a relationship of 14.
Inspired by the typical buildings of the area (e.g. the Cathedral of St. Basil), the tower consists of four asymmetric prisms intertwined to form a single volume that symbolizes the union of culture, strength, vitality and growth recognized in the city of Moscow.
The asymmetric prisms (three in steel and glass, one in reinforced concrete) gradually emerge from the ground, innit the pylon in reinforced concrete supports the weight of the building by reducing the use of steel.
The whole is supported by a composite structural system that not only is capable of withstanding the high velocity of the winds, but also to enable a significant saving of time and construction materials.
Outside, the result is a dynamic facade where the path (the time) always produces different images of the building, like a faceted diamond.
Another peculiarity of the building is the volume of the Runway that protrudes from the barycentric point to the Red Square, so as to be immediately recognized from the viewer’s eye.
At ground level, the building is positioned centrally respect to the pedestrian area, its have rectangular shape and a cross distribution system; the latter was conceived as a place of welcome easily accessible and at the same time exclusive and safety place with walls and ponds that recall the enclosure of the Kremlin.
The internal space of the building is divided into 24 floors (one underground), of which the ground floor Reception, the first floor for Administration, the central floors for the Runway, the top floor for the Skybar and the remainder shared equally for surface for the Permanent Exhibition Rooms.
Each Exhibition Room is divided into two or three floors featuring inside double height (to allow for future installation of escalators), storages, gardens and balconies that overlook the internal vacuum (ventilation stack).
The latter was conceived as a huge garden that will ensure at the fashion tower an ideal microclimate as well as a large energetic saving.