House with Pigeons, ZILART
The House with Pigeons as part of the large-scale ZILART project is being prepared for commissioning. The project was implemented in accordance with the original concept - 23 birds have already been installed on the roof. The idea belongs to Alexander Brodsky, an architect and author of the world-famous art objects. The general designer and curator of the lot is Meganom bureau.
The edifice consists of two buildings: the first is designed as a single 16-storey section, the second has five eight-storey sections. The signature feature of the house is the attic apartments on the roof: some have solid fuel fireplaces. The building has 335 apartments with a total area of about 32,000 square meters.
“ZILART is the flagship project of LSR Group in Moscow. Its idea is to bring together leading architects and give them maximum creative freedom. That is why there are no similar buildings here. Each of them is a work of art. The building, on the roof of which we are now, was invented by professionals from Meganom bureau with the participation of Alexander Brodsky. They have such a beautiful story with protruding masonry, French balconies and wide cornices. And they also came up with the idea oflanding these pigeons on the roof. Why pigeons? Probably because they are the most urban birds you can think of. And our pigeons were also dressed in headdresses - this is how the author of these sculptures signed his autograph,” says Vladislav Sandursky, Construction Director of LSR Group.
Why pigeons?
“This is an amazing bird that never migrates to warmer areas, and in general never migrates anywhere. Pigeons stay at home. Why do they do this? The fact is that the pigeon is not only a bird, but also an object of urban design, such as an urn, a bench, a lantern, a trash can, a trolleybus stop. It is an adornment of streets, courtyards, squares, city monuments, etc. They sit in a puddle near the Bolshoi Theatre, on the ledge of a high school, on the head of Karl Marx, and many other places. And, being an object of urban design, this wonderful pigeon feels its responsibility to the city, and therefore cannot fly away. Or maybe they just don’t like it anywhere else,” says Alexander Brodsky, the author of the sculptures.
The size of the sculptured birds is comparable to the size of a person: the sculpture is 185 cm high, the length from chest to tail is 1.5 meters (156.6 cm), but they weigh more than 200 kg each. In addition to 23 large pigeons, which are now waiting for being placed and painted, 10 smaller ones will be installed.
How the sculptures were created
Artyom Morozov, CEO and the owner of Morozoff group of companies, spoke in more detail about the process of making birds: “For the project, we made and installed sculptures of 23 fiberglass pigeons. This is a durable plastic material, which is primarily used for finishing facades, but also allows you to implement a variety of small architectural forms, including those of such an unusual shape – pigeons.
Each pigeon is made of two parts. Inside there is a frame, designed for all types of loads, including wind and snow. The sculptures were delivered to the roof already assembled and installed using a fastening system designed specifically for this project.
Before starting the production, we modeled the figure on a reduced scale from plasticine. On its basis, with the help of a 3D scanner, a life-size master model was created and a combined fiberglass mold with a polyurethane insert was made.
The reduced scale figure was modeled from plasticine by a sculptor. Further, the master model was coordinated and finalized according to the wishes of the customer. As soon as the customer agreed, we copied the model for the 3D plastic printer machine with a 3D scanner. This way we received a plastic master model"
According to the expert, the service life of fiber-reinforced concrete, and thus, the pigeons, will be at least 50 years.
