SNKH studio from Yerevan has been selected to design the Garage Screen summer cinema for the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, Russia. The museum invited promising architecture firms to present their vision of temporary architecture and expanded the geographical reach of the competition to include Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kirgizstan.
This year, 136 applications were received, from which the jury shortlisted six finalists. All submitted works were reviewed by a technical commission based on several parameters, including their ecological sensibility and spatial, function, construction, and engineering solutions. As last year, Strelka KB organised the competition. Garage director Anton Belov said that, “The team from SNKH came up with an unusual idea of turning the pavilion inside out. Such innovation is the very purpose for which the competition was organized.”
The project, featuring a light frame and drapery on the inside, is rooted in the architectural traditions of nomadic peoples. As studio director Ashot Snkhchyan explained in his presentation, influences behind the project span from "Bedouin architecture to Shigeru Ban and Ivan Leonidov.” CEO of Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design and Strelka KB partner Varvara Melnikova said that “We chose a project that will open a new chapter in the history of Garage’s summer cinema. With its external supporting structure, the project by SNKH studio from Armenia is radically different from the projects presented by other participants for any past pavilions. The architects were able to create an expressive, realistic project."
The competition winner was chosen by an expert jury, which included Garage co-founder Dasha Zhukova and director Anton Belov; Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design CEO and Strelka KB partner Varvara Melnikova; Garage Screen curator Evgeny Gusyatinsky; the head of Garage Technical Support and Construction Dmitry Konyakhin; as well as invited experts: co-founder of the FAS(t) architecture studio Alexander Ryabsky; architect and partner at the FORM bureau Olga Treyvas; and representatives of last year’s winner—SYNDICATE bureau.
SNKH's project will be built in Garage Square in spring 2020.
