Krymsky Val 9/45

In 2018 the book Krymsky Val 9/45, a Hidden Monument of Gorky Park was published. It is a joint project accomplished by FORM, historians Marianna Evstratova and Sergey Koluzakov, the publishing group ABC design, Kuchkovo Pole publishing house and the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art.

The story goes back to 2012. The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art was to be relocated to Gorky park and it needed a headquarters. The park administration suggested to house it in the left half of the building next to the Krymsky Bridge. Anton Belov, the museum director, contracted FORM bureau to design the building.

Making a start on the three-storey building, which had accommodated a large plumbing supplies shop, the architects uncovered rich history behind the 2000 redecoration. These discoveries provided a foundation for the book.

The project and the book were tackled simultaneously. It turned out that the small building near the Krymsky Bridge that everyone had seen but almost no one could recall was a true architectural palimpsest.

It dates back to the late 19th century, to the building of Nikolai Bromley’s shipyard on the Moskva river, a red brick industrial construction with a roofed passage leading to the river. The modern house still conserves the brick arches of the shipyard.

The building had several major makeovers and at different times housed a pavilion for the first All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, the GOZNAK workers’ club, one of the first sound motion cinemas, public baths, a warehouse and a plumbing supplies shop.

Despite the fact that the office building is quite integral from the outside, it has existed for over half a century as two separate blocks with the cinema ruin in its centre, caused by a German air raid. The ruin can only be seen from the inside as it is divided by two blind facades.

The building was reinvented many times and quite a few prominent architects worked on its design, including Sergey Sherwood, Alexey Shchusev, El Lissitzky, Vasily Voinov and Rodrigo da Costa, the Stenberg brothers and Alexander Deineka. In order to illustrate its transformations the architects of FORM bureau created several graphic reconstructions based on plans, drawings and sectional views of each historical stage.

Team

FORM: Olga Treivas, Vera Odyn, Polina Patimova, Polina Litvinenko, Alina Yaroshenko, Kristina Timchyk, Idrees Suliman, Svetlana Dudina, Konstantin Kim, Mikhail Mikadze
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art: Anton Belov, Olga Dubitskaya
Graphic design and layout — ABCdesign: Dmitry Mordvintsev, Daniil Bondarenko, Tatyana Borisova
Svyaz Epoch Foundation: Anastasya Evdokimova, Ekaterina Schepalova, Eugeniya Yakimova
Historians: Marianna Evstratova, Boris Pasternak, Sergey Koluzakov

Photo of the book: ABCdesign
Photo of the building: Yuri Palmin
Photo of the model: Expo Park
The book also features Ilya Lokshin’s photographs

Publisher: Svyaz Epoch Foundation
The year of publishing: 2018

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  • Making a start on the three-storey building, which had accommodated a large plumbing supplies shop, the architects uncovered rich history behind the 2000 redecoration

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  • Just like Gorky park itself is perceived as a display of both Soviet and Russian life in its time, this small office building reflects dramatic transformations of epochs and values

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  • The research dedicated to the office building near the Krymsky Bridge was part of the curatorial project New Voices in the ARCH Moscow exhibition of 2017. The FORM bureau team spoke about the historical finds, the project of the Garage Museum headquarters and the book to be published

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  • A large scale research undertaken by the authors of the book enables the architects to complete their work with an insight into historical context and the place of this unique building within

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