new garage

As also mentioned before, one of the reasons for the Gorky Park make-over is investment by Roman Abramovich. This includes a planned conversion of a derelict 1960s modernist restaurant (for his partner Dasha Zhukova) into a new Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture, now that the old one that she created has been closed down. Architects Rem Koolhaas  and local firm Form Bureau have been given the job - with Koolhaas saying at the press conference, “Neglect is quite picturesque and offers insights into the beauty of decay,” pointing out that he planned to keep the original tiles, decoration and other “traces of Russia's recent history.” Amazingly we got to look around the building site, I think just because the security guard was bored. The basic two storey concrete shell and main staircases are tatty but still intact, and it already feels like a perfect art gallery. 


To see the Koolhaas/OMA proposals, click here.
To see the planned temporary pavilion by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, click here.