The National Center for Contemporary Art, or NCCA, on Monday announced the long-awaited selection of the final plan for their new building at Khodynskoye Polye in Moscow, which will be designed by the Irish architectural firm Heneghan Peng Architects.
"The NCCA will be a vertical element in the center of Khodynskoye Polye, towering above the space where the airport once was," writes Heneghan Peng in their concept statement. The plan calls for a tall structure made up of oddly sized layers that will jut out from a central column.
Each level of the structure will hold a different exhibition space, devoted to different exhibits. "This will allow one to visit one specific gallery, or to view the whole collection as a whole," Heneghan Peng writes. The oddly sized layers will also create a number of open terraces, which will be used as green spaces.
Heneghan Peng won the final selection in a six-month-long contest that saw more than 900 applications.
The NCCA was founded in 1992 and has been located since that time on Zoologicheskaya Ulitsa in Moscow. In 2009, plans were announced to expand the museum on its current location, though it was later decided to construct a wholly new structure on Baumanskaya Ulitsa. For reasons that were not disclosed, the location was later switched to Khodynskoye Polye, and the international contest for the museum's design was announced by the Culture Ministry in 2012.
The new structure contain about 46,000 square meters, including about 10,000 square meters of permanent exhibition space and 5,000 meters for temporary exhibitions. Plans also call for a large hall capable of holding 800 people and two smaller auditoriums. The building is expected to be completed in 2018.
Contact the author at g.golubock@imedia.ru
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