On December 4, a new public space will open in Moscow — the House of Culture “HES-2″. AD exclusively talks about the architectural concept of the first Renzo Piano Building Workshop project in Russia and explains why this is a completely unique space both for Moscow and for Renzo Piano himself. 

Sofia Rauf

Gleb Leonov

We are talking about the architectural concept HPP-2 and we show the first exclusive shots of interior spaces, our colleagues from Blueprint — about how the House of Culture is organized, “Afisha — about the program for the next three years, RBC and Artgid — about the exhibition projects of the first season.

Most likely, the snow-white facade of HPP-2 on Bolotnaya Embankment has already flashed in your Instagram feed more than once. The townspeople have already fallen in love with this view, and the steps going down to the water have become a pleasant place to relax and a new open-air art platform. The HPP-2 project is perhaps the most anticipated opening of 2021 and Renzo Piano’s first project in Russia. 

Photo: Yuri Palmin

The HPP-2 building appeared on Bolotnaya Embankment in 1907. The abbreviation HPP traditionally refers to hydroelectric power plants, but HPP-2 (City Power Plant No. 2) was an exception — steam turbines generated energy on it. Over time, the building became obsolete, overgrown with “parasitic” extensions and fell into disrepair. The slender facades, into which the architect Vasily Bashkirov put his soul, were closed with inconspicuous fences, and all the attention of the townspeople switched to the active club life that unfolded at the other end of the peninsula.

Archive photo of HPP-2. 

Photo: Mosenergo archive. 

In 2009, the building was awarded the status of an architectural monument, and in 2014 it was acquired by the V–A–C Foundation for Contemporary Art, and a completely new story began. The Foundation approached Renzo Piano’s studio with a proposal to make a new cultural space out of a power plant that had been supplying energy to Moscow’s urban infrastructure for almost a hundred years, and Renzo Piano gladly agreed.

HPP-2, 2007. 

Before that, Renzo Piano’s bureau had no reconstruction projects of this scale, so the HPP-2 project became a completely new exciting journey. The architects had to provide for the preservation of the historical details of the building and at the same time endow the space with new functions. According to the architect of Renzo Piano Building Workshop Anna Prokudina, work on the project began with the study of historical materials, which were not so many, so we can say that the architects mainly worked with archival photographs. “The photographs in this case were even more valuable help, because they could be used to trace how the realized building looked right at that moment — the drawings and the embodied project can be very different from each other.” The main partner of RBPW in Moscow was the APEX design bureau – they, as the general designer, made measurements, inspection and 3D scanning of the entire building, as a result of which a three-dimensional model of the existing position of the object was created.

The western facade of HPP-2 in Moscow. Photo: Yuri Palmin. 

An important decision made by the architects is not to recreate the facade of HPP—2 as it was in 1907 (with decorative elements). The building has undergone many changes, and the architects wanted to pay tribute to each era, and thus take into account the historical value of the object. “It was the most important and difficult process — to distinguish the main and secondary, we analyzed a lot before making this decision — what we want to get from the building and what is important for us as architects to preserve,” Anna shares.

The facade of HPP-2 from the embankment side. Photo: Gleb Leonov

The same is true with the facade glazing of the building: the architects rethought the industrial past of the building and installed panoramic windows with large-pitch imposts and frequent thin bindings. And the glass roof is the main conceptual solution that allows you to let light into the building and make it the main hero of the project. The ribbon part was already glazed, while the architects made the rest of the roof glass, leaving only the roofs of the risalites in zinc. Photovoltaic panels generating solar energy are also located there — they are capable of providing up to 10% of the building’s electricity. 

The central nave of HPP-2. Photo: Gleb Leonov. 

Renzo Piano and his team approached the choice of the shade of the facades with special care. The black-and-white photographs, which have become the main source of information for the team, do not display the real color, so the key point in choosing the shade was how the building would fit into the Moscow context — loaded, colored, heterogeneous. As a result, the choice was made in favor of a deep light gray, turning into white, color. It looks different in different lighting conditions: if the day is sunny, then the hydroelectric power plant becomes almost snow-white and glows, and on a gloomy day it slightly turns blue. So the building managed to fit perfectly into the urban landscape, and, of course, thanks to this effect, it has already become one of the most photogenic Moscow buildings.

Photo: Gleb Leonov. 

The blue pipes that have become the trademark of HPP-2 are the result of the same strategy — not to restore what was irretrievably lost. In the original project of the hydroelectric power plant, as we can see from archival photographs, the pipes were brick. They were destroyed in 1942 during an air raid by the German army — the pipes served as a reference point for them. After that, when the building switched to a new form of power supply, the pipes became metal and were located in other places — quite chaotically. In this form, the building was received by RBPW architects. After analyzing and realizing that these elements no longer carry historical value, the architects decided that they would not restore them, but instead they would rethink the received heritage and create something new. This is how blue metal pipes appeared, which became the compositional cores of the project. They are installed closer to the center of the building and penetrate it through, getting into the shafts in which engineering systems are located, taking air at a height of 70 m (there is no longer car smog) and distributing it throughout all spaces.

Pipes of HPP-2. Photo: Gleb Leonov. 

One of the pipes in the space of HPP-2. Photo: Gleb Leonov. 

The only exception to the architects’ concept is the restored tower, which was part of the ensemble in the first “version» of the building. It was demolished in 1931, when the House on the embankment was built — it was believed that it blocked the view and did not combine with the neighboring architecture. The tower itself will now have a library with recreation areas and a spiral staircase leading to a small viewing platform-a reading room.

The main feature of HPP-2 is that it is not only a unique architectural object, but also a public space of a completely new format, previously unseen by Moscow. It cannot be called just a cultural object, because it is part of the urban environment and it is impossible to divide it into the classic “interior” and “exterior”. According to Anna Prokudina, the most important thing in the transformation of HPP-2 is the established dialogue between the building and the city, both compositional and ideological.

«Big clay» by Urs Fischer and benches designed by Harry Nureyev on the steps of HPP-2. Photo: Gleb Leonov. 

Historically, the central nave of HPP-2 was free of cars and boilers. This fact was taken into account when developing the concept of the project, leaving the central space free. The extra internal partitions were demolished, and the supporting columns and openwork trusses were carefully restored by the architects. The main task was to maximize the use of the multi-light space and the central nave. “Farms were reinforced to meet modern standards and loads. They were worked with directly at a height of 20 m, and some were removed and reinforced at the bottom, and then installed in the design position. In the small hall, the roof trusses were replaced in the 1960s, and there was no point in preserving them. That’s why we designed new farms there in the style of historical ones,” says architect Anna Prokudina.

Photo: Yuri Palmin. 

Photo: Yuri Palmin. 

The main space of HPP-2 is a huge hall with a multi—light nave, getting into which you feel that you are still on the street, namely on the “Avenue” — so the architects called this part of HPP-2. And here it becomes clear why Renzo considers light to be one of the main architectural materials in this project. The sun’s rays passing through the panoramic glazing and openwork structures are scattered throughout the space, and thanks to this, an absolute feeling of flight and weightlessness of heavy architectural elements is created.

Prospect HES-2. Photo: Gleb Leonov. 

A central platform — a platform for concerts, theatrical productions and performances — hovers above the Avenue. And a wide grandstand departs from it-a staircase to the third floor, which simultaneously performs the function of an amphitheater. An interesting detail: an acoustic dome is built above the platform, which will allow you to arrange concerts and at the same time not interfere with visitors to HPP-2 located in other parts of the building. Kahle Acoustics studio worked on acoustics, whose portfolio includes, among other projects, the new Paris Philharmonic designed by Jean Nouvel.

Platform-ladder. Photo: Yuri Palmin. 

On both sides of the “Avenue» there will be different functional spaces. In the left risalit there is a three—level restaurant with a view of the Moskva River, and the right risalit is the territory of the V-A—C residence program. The foundation will invite artists, musicians, writers and other representatives of creative professions who have received grants there. Residences are small apartments of different sizes with full kitchens. The lower floor of the risalit will be occupied by a public living room with a coworking, and the third floor is given over to the offices of the V–A–C administration.

Prospect v HPP-2. 

Photo: Gleb Leonov. 

There is also a completely new architectural volume in HPP-2: from the side of the northern facade, the architects built a cube with an assembly hall facing directly into a birch grove. In the volume of concrete and glass there is a descending cinema screen, a stage with ten configurations and an auditorium that can appear and disappear at the touch of a few buttons — in this way any spatial scenario can be realized. Just like in the main building, the boundaries between the exterior and interior are erased here, and the assembly hall continues on the street with a wooden stage and a small amphitheater with stone steps.

The assembly hall of HPP-2. Photo: Gleb Leonov. 

Another important concept in the architectural system of HPP-2 is “Piazza” (again a reference to Italy), or in Russian “Square». If you look at the building in the plan, then the entire area of 2 hectares forms a square in which the building of HPP-2 is inscribed. “The history of this project began with Renzo’s sketch on a napkin. He depicted a square — the future territory of HPP-2, which is 142 x 142 m. In historical drawings and photographs we saw that the area in front of HPP-2 was free. Once there was a courtyard, perhaps with plantings, but we can only guess about that. Analyzing the initial data, we decided that it was necessary to return such a ratio of free and built—up areas. So the clearing of the territory around the building began and an amazing discovery was made — “Vaults”, — says architect Anna Prokudina.

Sketch of the “Piazza” by Renzo Piano. 

Photo: RPBW. 

“Vaults” is a free-standing brick building connected to HPP-2 by an underground passage. Discovered by chance, the building of the second half of the XIX century belonged to industrialist Ivan Smirnov and served as a warehouse of his vodka factory. In Soviet times, these vaults were enclosed in a “box” of a new building and forgotten, and only now they have been restored to their historical appearance and endowed with new functions. On two levels of fourteen “Vaults” there are workshops (each with an area of 60 m2) equipped with modern machines — from a locksmith to a 3D printer. RPBW architects have opened the street facades and added panoramic glazing to the sailing arches of the first floor, thanks to which visitors to HPP-2 will be able to observe the work of artists. On the underground floor, a photo lab, a recording studio and a rehearsal hall are located in cylindrical vaults.

Vaults. Photo: Gleb Leonov. 

Photo: Gleb Leonov. 

Photo: Gleb Leonov. 

To explain the drama and uniqueness of the HPP-2 space, let’s return to the concept of “Square” (Renzo Piano uses this technique in almost all his projects) — this is the idea of an Italian square, warm and open to everyone, where you can sit right on the floor and where the boundaries between the street and the interior environment are erased.

Photo: Gleb Leonov. 

The journey through the territory of the House of Culture begins from the embankment — from the steps, which also became part of the project, continues through the central arched entrances of HPP-2, and then the visitor moves along the “Avenue” and goes out into the birch grove, designed jointly with Michel Devin — the author of landscape design for this project. Then we move through a dense birch grove (here the feeling is absolutely magical, as if you are transported from the center of Moscow to a wild forest), which leads to the “Belvedere” — a platform above the “Arches” overlooking the Drainage Channel of the Moskva River and the building of HPP-2. A textbook Russian landscape has been recreated here, for which landscape designers had to find perfectly smooth, equally sized trees. The roots of the trees were placed in interconnected bags with volcanic rock, which provides stability and prevents the growth of roots. For 620 seedlings and 80 thousand bushes, a drip irrigation system was created, which is controlled from a “control room” located underground.

The plan of the territory of HPP-2 from above. Photo: RPBW. 

Birch grove in HPP-2. Photo: Gleb Leonov. 

“I strongly advise you to visit the grove, it’s a real experience. These tall plants, trees, bushes grow around you, and you drown in them. Starting our way at the bottom, along an ornate path, passing through recreation areas with benches, we get to the top point — the very “Belvedere». There are amazing views of the city and HPP-2 from there,” says Anna.

“The Space of Light» (2008) by Giuseppe Penone in the yard of HPP-2. Photo: Gleb Leonov. 

View from the Belvedere. 

Photo: Yuri Palmin. 

Renzo Piano himself watches his project in real time from the Paris office, making adjustments at all stages of work. Now the HPP-2 project is at the finish line, almost everything is ready to launch, the public program “HPP-2 Descent” has started, and the whole city is just waiting for the building to open its doors to everyone. In the near future, V–A–C plans to launch a large—scale project “I’m taking the gondola motors apart. Carnival in Four Acts”, in which artists, choreographers, playwrights, musicians, composers and comedians will re-invent the carnival together to understand how it can be today, as well as the collective exhibition “To Moscow! To Moscow! To Moscow!”, which will feature works by Ragnar Kjartansson and artists from different countries, including those created specifically for HPP-2.

Visual video about the process of reconstruction of HPP-2

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And in the November issue of AD, read Renzo Piano’s exclusive conversation with Alexey Tarkhanov. 

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