Skolkovo is a new urban community of five districts, with a new tech campus, proposed by the russian government, located in Moscow, 17 kilometers west of the Kremlin. Herzog & de Meuron has completed the hub of District 3, the first building, which began construction in 2013, the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), University East Wing Building.
Skolkovo, designed by the Swiss firm, intended to be a new benchmark in research and technology outside the Russian capital. The new 134,000-square-meter building takes the form of a massive partially-filled ring with a 280-meter diameter.

The project uses a circular design, already experienced in other works, the outer ring and two smaller inner rings house academic facilities, shared spaces, and an auditorium, while staggered bars stretch across the building to house workshops and laboratories. A large basement floor runs across the structure’s footprint to accommodate support and technical facilities. A jigsaw roofline cuts across the bars and rings to unite the structure.
 

Description of project by Herzog & de Meuron

Skolkovo is the Russian government initiative for a new urban community at the 3rd ring of Moscow, 17 km west from the Kremlin. Built ex nihilo, the aim of Skolkovo is to create a globally reputed centre for innovative 21st century technology, embracing research and production, with administrative headquarters for both established and emerging companies, schools, institutes, and a new university. The Skoltech University, as a newly founded institution, rises together with the rest of Skolkovo, and aims to be a distinguished educational and research centre for Moscow, Russia and the whole world.

The original master plan for Skolkovo aims to create urban quality through a vibrant mix of civic activities – living, studying, working, journeying, shopping, relaxing. Unlike the Soviet-era closed satellite towns, Skolkovo forms a distinct epicentre within the radial grid of Moscow, integrated with its infrastructure, included in its cultural life, and visually connected with the State University tower.

The urban scheme develops around the idea of five individual Districts, like urban islands, inserted in the picturesque landscape. Each of the five Districts has a singular shape, a specific program mix and is designed by a different architect, giving it a specific character and atmosphere.

Herzog & de Meuron designed the conceptual master plan of District 3 with the University as its centrepiece. Comprised of three circular shapes and phases – the East Ring, the Agora and the West Ring – the emerging Skoltech University is envisioned as a nucleus, a distinctive core of the District, and a founding stone of Skolkovo.

Program and typology
The University East Ring has a simple form and organization of interlocked circular rings and rectangular blocks, which directly reflect its programmatic content and diversity.

An outer ring of 280 metres diameter and two smaller inner rings host all the shared academic facilities and public spaces. The curved shapes connect all zones in a single loop. The outer ring accommodates the faculty offices, administration and meeting spaces, while the inner rings house the teaching and learning spaces, with the main auditorium at the central crossing point.

A rational grid of rectangular and repetitive blocks is laid out in a checkerboard pattern to house laboratories and workshops related to the academic research activities. To optimize daylight the blocks are oriented east-west. The lab blocks are based on a 7 by 7 metre planning and structural grid, and have uniform widths of 21 or 28 metres, with varying lengths. These repetitive orthogonal shapes offer the efficiency and simplicity of rational modular layouts, combined with the flexibility and adaptability generally required for laboratory and workshop spaces. Additional research facilities, loading, logistics, and technical areas are located in the continuous basement floor beneath the entire building. The laboratories and workshops complete the University’s academic area, forming a platform for interconnected departments and shared facilities.

The overlay and interaction between the blocks and rings create an interesting architectural quality. The three rings circumscribe and penetrate the blocks and connect the compound together into a distinctive sculptural form, which shapes the Boulevard at the outside and creates a network of connected courtyards inside. Despite its monolithic appearance, the building is porous at street level and all its courtyards are open and accessible to the public. The largest of the courtyards – the Central Yard – is visible from all the rings and most of the blocks, and is a main destination for formal ceremonies and everyday relaxation. The courtyards have diverse sizes and are connected via similarly varied passages, which either pass under the rings or carve through the corners of the blocks, offering a multitude of paths through the University, and accommodating all public entrances into the building. The uniform planting of the courtyards and around the East Ring, will become an essential element of the experience of Skoltech as it matures, and will integrate the University landscape with the natural forests around Moscow.

Materiality
The University rings and blocks are clad with fins that control the daylight and unify the facades, giving them overall texture and depth. Finish materials distinguish the rings and blocks on the inside and outside. The rings have natural oak floor and wall systems in the interior, and Siberian larch fins on the exterior, while the blocks have industrial vinyl floor and aluminum wall systems in the labs, and white aluminum fins on the exterior. The building envelope is unified by a continuous concrete bench at the base and by connected sloping roofs at the top which, along with the overall façade, bring together all the elements into one integrated whole and set the University apart from the other buildings in the master plan. The scheme nonetheless remains fully integrated with its surroundings.

Skoltech is integrated, permeable and monumental at the same time, by virtue of its low-rise architecture, numerous openings, and views on the interior, the series of publically accessible courtyards, and traditional materials, Herzog & de Meuron 2017.

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Architects
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Herzog & de Meuron. Partners.- Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Stefan Marbach (Partner in Charge). Design Consultant.- Herzog & de Meuron
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Associates
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Project Directors.- Tomislav Dushanov, Tobias Winkelmann. Associate, Project Manager.- Olga Bolshanina
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Project Team
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Alexandria Algard, Florian Becker, Marcelo Bernardi, Mathieu Bujnowskyj, Ignacio Cabezas, Delphine Camus, Sergio Cobos Alvarez, Blazej Piotr Czuba, Inga Federe, Diogo Figueiredo, Argel Padilla Figueroa, Stefan Goeddertz (Associate), Beatriz Pérez Pérez de Iriarte, Volker Jacob, Artem Kitaev, Petr Khraptovich, Osma Lindroos, Frank Loer, Maria Vega Lopez, Udayan Mazumdar, David Goncalves Monteiro, Martina Palocci, Svetlin Peev, Pedro Polónia, Martin Raub, Mònica Ors Romagosa, Elias Sanez, Harald Schmidt, Leonid Slonimskiy, Jan Skuratowski, Alexander Stern, Ida Sze, Raha Talebi, Miruna Tutoveanu, Toru Wada, Liang Wang, Jean-Paul Willemse, Zeng Zhibin,Farhad Ahmad (Visualisations), Massimo Corradi (Digital Technologies), Vasilis Kalisperakis (Visualisations), Christina Liao (Digital Technologies), Áron Lőrincz (Visualisations), Raúl Torres Martín (Visualisations), Bruno de Ameida Martins (Visualisations), Felipe Pecegueiro (Digital Technologies), Kai Strehlke (Digital Technologies). Ilia Tsachev (Project Manager)
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Collaborators
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Executive Architect.- Ove Arup & Partners International. General Designer.- Ove Arup & Partners International. Landscape Design.- Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten. General Contractor, AO Putevi Uzice, Moscow, Russia
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Client
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LLC UDPC Skolkovo, Moscow, Russia. Client Representative.- Alexey Savchenko
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Area
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133,979.0 m²
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Venue
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Ulitsa Nobelya, 3, Moscow Oblast, Russia
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Dates
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Completed.- 2018
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Herzog & de Meuron Architekten is a Swiss architecture firm, founded and headquartered in Basel, Switzerland in 1978. The careers of founders and senior partners Jacques Herzog (born 1950), and Pierre de Meuron (born 1950), closely paralleled one another, with both attending the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich. They are perhaps best known for their conversion of the giant Bankside Power Station in London to the new home of the Tate Museum of Modern Art (2000). Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have been visiting professors at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design since 1994 (and in 1989) and professors at ETH Zürich since 1999. They are co-founders of the ETH Studio Basel – Contemporary City Institute, which started a research programme on processes of transformation in the urban domain.

Herzog & de Meuron is a partnership led by five Senior Partners – Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Christine Binswanger, Ascan Mergenthaler and Stefan Marbach. An international team of 38 Associates and about 362 collaborators.

Herzog & de Meuron received international attention very early in their career with the Blue House in Oberwil, Switzerland (1980); the Stone House in Tavole, Italy (1988); and the Apartment Building along a Party Wall in Basel (1988).  The firm’s breakthrough project was the Ricola Storage Building in Laufen, Switzerland (1987).  Renown in the United States came with Dominus Winery in Yountville, California (1998). The Goetz Collection, a Gallery for a Private Collection of Modern Art in Munich (1992), stands at the beginning of a series of internationally acclaimed museum buildings such as the Küppersmühle Museum for the Grothe Collection in Duisburg, Germany (1999). Their most recognized buildings include Prada Aoyama in Tokyo, Japan (2003); Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany (2005); the new Cottbus Library for the BTU Cottbus, Germany (2005); the National Stadium Beijing, the Main Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China; VitraHaus, a building to present Vitra’s “Home Collection“, Weil am Rhein, Germany (2010); and 1111 Lincoln Road, a multi-storey mixed-use structure for parking, retail, a restaurant and a private residence in Miami Beach, Florida, USA (2010), the Actelion Business Center in Allschwil/Basel, Switzerland (2010). In recent years, Herzog & de Meuron have also completed projects such as the New Hall for Messe Basel Switzerland (2013), the Ricola Kräuterzentrum in Laufen (2014), which is the seventh building in a series of collaborations with Ricola, with whom Herzog & de Meuron began to work in the 1980s; and the Naturbad Riehen (2014), a public natural swimming pool. In April 2014, the practice completed its first project in Brazil: the Arena do Morro in the neighbourhood of Mãe Luiza, Natal, is the pioneering project within the wider urban proposal “A Vision for Mãe Luiza”.

Herzog & de Meuron have completed 6 projects since the beginning of 2015: a new mountain station including a restaurant on top of the Chäserrugg (2262 metres above sea level) in Toggenburg, Switzerland; Helsinki Dreispitz, a residential development and archive in Münchenstein/Basel, Switzerland; Asklepios 8 – an office building on the Novartis Campus in Basel, Switzerland; the Slow Food Pavilion for Expo 2015 in Milan, Italy; the new Bordeaux stadium, a 42’000 seat multifunctional stadium for Bordeaux, France; Miu Miu Aoyama, a 720 m² boutique for the Prada-owned brand located on Miyuki Street, across the road from Prada Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan.

In many projects the architects have worked together with artists, an eminent example of that practice being the collaboration with Rémy Zaugg, Thomas Ruff and with Michael Craig-Martin.

Professionally, the Herzog & de Meuron partnership has grown to become an office with over 120 people worldwide. In addition to their headquarters in Basel, they have offices in London, Munich and San Francisco. Herzog has explained, “We work in teams, but the teams are not permanent. We rearrange them as new projects begin. All of the work results from discussions between Pierre and me, as well as our other partners, Harry Gugger and Christine Binswanger. The work by various teams may involve many different talents to achieve the best results which is a final product called architecture by Herzog & de Meuron.”

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Published on: November 28, 2018
Cite: "Completed, the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology by Herzog & de Meuron" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/completed-skolkovo-institute-science-and-technology-herzog-de-meuron> ISSN 1139-6415
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