OMA designs new building Garage Moscow

27/04/2012

REM KOOLHAAS’ OMA TO DESIGN
NEW HOME FOR GARAGE IN MOSCOW

Garage Gorky Park - due to be completed in 2013 - will be a renovation of the famous 1960s Vremena Goda (Seasons of the Year) restaurant, a prefabricated concrete structure that has been derelict for more than two decades. OMA’s design for the 5,400 square meter building includes exhibition galleries on two levels, creative center for children, shop, café, auditorium and offices. The design preserves original soviet-era elements – including a large mosaic, and decorative tiles and brick – while incorporating a range of innovative architectural and curatorial devices. OMA is collaborating on the project with the young Russian practice Form Bureau.

Dasha Zhukova said, “Our move to Gorky Park marks an exciting new phase in Garage’s development. I am delighted that we have one of the world’s leading architects, Rem Koolhaas’ OMA, working on the project, and I am sure their plans will attract a new generation of visitors to Garage.”

Rem Koolhaas commented, “We are very happy to work on turning the almost-ruin of Vermena Goda into the new house for Garage. We were able, with our client and her team, to explore the qualities of generosity, dimension, openness, and transparency of the Soviet wreckage and find new uses and interpretations for them.”

Garage, founded by Dasha Zhukova in 2008, is a major non-profit arts project based in Moscow, dedicated to exploring and developing contemporary culture. At the beginning of this year, Garage moved from its original home in the Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage to Gorky Park in Moscow. Garage aims to bring important international modern and contemporary art to Moscow, to raise the profile of Russian contemporary culture internationally and encourage a new generation of Russian artists. It also organizes and supports a wide range of cultural projects internationally.

The Stalin-era Gorky Park was planned in the 1920s by renowned soviet Constructivist architect Konstantin Melnikov, who also designed Garage’s previous home, the Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage. Opened in 1928, Gorky Park extends 300 acres along the Moskva River in the heart of Moscow. The park is undergoing a major renovation and regeneration project, of which Garage Gorky Park is a major part.

Co-founded by Rem Koolhaas in 1975, OMA is a leading international office practicing architecture, urbanism and cultural analysis. Dedicated for over thirty years to the design and realization of buildings and masterplans, OMA is led by seven partners – Rem Koolhaas, Ellen van Loon, Reinier de Graaf, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, David Gianotten and Managing Partner Victor van der Chijs - and sustains an international practice with offices in Rotterdam, New York, Beijing, Hong Kong and soon Doha. The work of Rem Koolhaas and OMA has won several international awards, including the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2000 and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2010 Venice Biennale.