Badaevsky Brewery Reconstruction Project Shortlisted for WAF Final

There is no point in participating in the competition if you are not determined to win, says Mikhail Khvesko, Executive Director of Capital Group.

– What does participation in architectural competitions mean for you personally?

– It goes without saying that we are proud of our projects which are nominated for architectural awards and competitions. Each of them is team work, and we do feel that we are these projects co-authors. We just dive deep into interaction with architects.

In my opinion, a transformation from pure architecture to project engineering is now underway. And I see this as our strong point. We often support the work of architects both in terms of engineering and project implementation. For us, just like for architects, this is a kind of experience. We wonder what rating and reviews this work will receive.

– Why did you decide to apply for WAF?

– Our project is ambitious in everything - ideas, engineering solutions, architecture. WAF is one step to make these unique, innovative solutions known to public. It is also important for us that WAF has a category of promising projects where we can announce our project. There are large international competitions of architectural solutions that are held by customers and are autonomously made public due to the high profile of a particular customer, location or project. On the one hand, we understand that from the point of view of the location, the project to reconstruct the territory of the Badayevsky Brewery is not such a high-profile history that would be interesting at the international level. Nevertheless, the solution that our architects Herzog et de Meuron proposed may be very interesting internationally.

– Tell us about the unique features of your project, will you?

– We do pursue a certain goal, the idea of ​​the project. And we go this way even at the development stage. We have already passed certain stages, both in terms of design, and in terms of town-planning approvals and adjustments, and the transformation of all initial data. We have already invested a large amount of resources in realizing the project that has every reason for becoming a landmark of Moscow. This is one of the unique features of this project. In the information field, we often encounter hypothetical visualizations, ideas, and philosophical reflections on the cities of the future. Here we have a rather lively, definite project, which we are implementing systematically and very carefully.

If we talk about the unique solutions of the project itself, then first of all it is, of course, the idea to raise the building by 36 meters to preserve the identity of the place. There are a lot of engineering features, innovations. Raising the building globally not by 5-10, but by 36 meters is a significant step in order to preserve the territory, the history of the place and open it to the city. Additional significant positive aspects are the public park, premium view characteristics and the high quality of the product itself. We also link the entire permeability of the territory, make access to the embankment. This is a high-quality, thoughtful MixUsed – a well-balanced correct complex, suitable for many purposes. The project has functionality for both daytime and evening use, of public and private significance - for life, leisure, work.

A lot of human resource was invested in the project to be implemented, starting from the construct, preserving the architectural appearance, columns, engineering, which should work. The way we were able to place the functionality of a modern purpose in historical buildings is also a great achievement of the team. This is a very hard task - we work not just with the existing building, but with a monument of architecture, where there are many times more burdens. You cannot touch anything here, and taking into account this regulation, finding the opportunity to place functions that will be concise and in demand is a great merit in which our architects helped us.

– In it to win it?

– There is no point in participating in the competition if you are not determined to win. Even if you don’t win, you get the feedback why not. You look at the prize-winners, evaluate their decisions. A distinctive feature of WAF is the competition of completely different projects in different locations. Here, victory, on the one hand, is relative; comparing projects in different ecosystems is a subjective story which is difficult to measure. But we believe that our project has a lot of qualities and advantages with which it could compete in the international arena without location reference.