Oktyabrsky Island in Kaliningrad is becoming a cultural center. In the middle of the island there will be a park between two urban squares: a museum square in the north-west and a theatre square in the south-east.

The main theatre square will consist of an opera and an art school. The museum square on the other side of the park will be the ground floor of a new branch of the Tretyakov Gallery.

An aluminium body of the museum is an anonymous container for art. The reinforcing ribs will be concrete I-beams, one meter thick and nine metres high. An all-metal roof of 90 by 140 metres will be perforated with windows.

Exhibition spaces are lifted off one floor high to make room for the urban square below the building. At ground level will be the museum’s public spaces, accessible without an entrance ticket: the foyer, cafes and shops.

On the first floor of the museum, there will be an endless enfilade of rooms. Eight exhibition halls, a permanent and temporary exhibition, research and educational spaces. The degree of darkness of the windows in halls will be adjustable for each exhibition.

Top floors of the museum — an invisible box on a metal plate — are intended for the administration and creative residences.

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LOCATION Oktyabrsky island, Kaliningrad

CLIENT «National Cultural Heritage» Foundation / Tretyakov Gallery

STATUS under construction

AREA 17,600 sq. m.

PROJECT TEAM

Y. Grigoryan

Architects: S. Grigoryan, D. Gutyrchik, A. Khrekina, A. Salko

BIM: S. Dzhibrailov

Technical director: S. Pominov

Head engineer: T. Gulich, I. Kalinin

Engineer: V. Orlova