Zaryadye under the “dome”

An information pavilion dome opened on the territory of the future Zaryadye Park, in which all sorts of information about this unique project is encoded. The Zaryadye Park project is being developed by a consortium led by Diller Scofidio + Renfro who won a contest for the concept design.

Info-pavilion — an innovative observation deck, inside which you can literally watch the project’s implementation, which promises four climatic zones with artificially supported microclimates in Zaryadye. When the park opens (and it should happen in time for City Day in 2017), it will be convenient to observe it from the glass roundabout of the gallery pavilion, where the reverse side offers a magnificent view of St. Basil’s Cathedral. But for now since the site is hidden behind a construction fence, you can see the park with the help of the QR-codes in the central chamber of the dome.

This chamber is an elegant hemisphere, a kind of technological “Pantheon” with an oculus and caissons-codes, in addition to possessing excellent proportions and acoustics. The project was developed in 2012 by a team that consisted of Sergey Kuznetsov, Sergei Tchoban, Grigory Revzin, Konstantin Chernozatonskii, Alexei Ilyin, Marina Kuznetskaya, Agniya Sterligova and Valeriya Kashirina for the Russian pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale XIII and received a special award for the exhibition and had resounding success with the public.

QR-codes are perforated square “signs” of anodized magnesium applied on LED-panels — a unique technological idea, arranged on the plastic language of architectural forms. The theme, that emerged in the Skolkovo pavilion (the pavilion was about the innovation center at the Biennale), turned out to exactly fall within the trend in modern architecture, where building substance becomes less and there is more of the intangible manner of execution. In the info-pavilion, information itself literally forms a shell, the codes are transformed into translucent preforated decorations, and the space seemingly is formed by electronic signals.

The decorative surface of QR-codes is broken up by a sequential switching on of panel groups with the same set of signs that light up brighter than the rest. In total there are 15 such combinations — in accordance with the 15 informational blocks. The text and pictures can be deciphered from the code by using a tablet obtained at the entrance; or you can use your own, by installing a special application on it.

All of this looks very elegant and simple, but the technology to make such panels was a challenging task. The panels, as well as the structure of the outer hemispherical transparent dome covering the core, were produced in Italy.

The codes are a universal medium on which you can encrypt any type of information: yesterday it was about Skolkovo, today about Zaryadye, and in the future there may be interesting information for tourists, such as current cultural events of the city. That is why Sergey Kuznetsov believes that the pavilion, which was planned to be temporary, will not necessarily need to be disassembled when the park will be created. It could very well be yet another attraction — especially since in this part of the site only landscapingis planned.

Installatin of the pavilion, wedged into the border of the park looks quite symbolic: in fact this is the first faciltity on Zaryadye’s territority, something like laying the first stone, saying that construction is about to begin. As Deputy Mayor of Moscow Marat Khusnullin told Mayor Sergei Sobyanin at the opening of the pavilion, construction work is scheduled to begin next year. Meanwhile, the comprehensive objective is to level the area — “bring to zero” to get an even base for the park. Doing this will not be easy, given that the foundations of the Rossiya hotel and its vast underground space (about 60 thousand square meters) are still not dismantled.

However, thanks to the pavilion, to look beyond the fence to see what is going to happen in the next few years and to be transported to the park can already be done virtually. The pavilion will be open year round — from 11:00 to 20:00 on weekdays and from 10:00 to 19:00 on weekends. At night time, the glass walls of this extraordinary repository of information will glow, attracting tourists.