Moscow Golden Island

On this uniquely important historical site we envision new housing as “Spatial Ribbons” shaping public and semipublic space. For good light and air these ribbons are all 15 meters wide but they contain a rich typological variety. Many of the apartments have two full exposures and all have natural light & good views. These “ribbons” are a special malleable architecture – a plastic composition of space shaping architecture between historical buildings. We propose a pedestrian bridge linking the project to a music pavilion floating in the Moscow River. This music pavilion connects to the history of the sites former Mariinsky School, where Sergei Rachmaninoff taught for many years.

The hybrid buildings for living, working and recreation have four seasons of activity. The pools at the central
public space are designed to freeze in winter offering ice skating.A historical link to Moscow polychromy – such as in the rainbow of colors in St. Basil’s– is developed in ceramicswhich line the sculptural openings in the white facades.

Roofs are verdigris green copper, with roof integrated photovoltaic power supplying 30% of the electrical needs. Among the state of the art ecology aspects are radiant heat and cooling is provided by a geothermal well system