Zaha Hadid Architects and ASADOV Win the Moscow Metro International Competition

Written by Christele Harrouk
Published on September 02, 2020

The winners have been announced for the International Competition for the Design of the Prospekt Marshala Zhukova and Klenoviy Bulvar 2 Metro Stations in Moscow, Russia. The judges awarded the first prize for designing the Klenovy Bulvar 2 station on the Biryulyovskaya line to a consortium headed by Zaha Hadid Architects, while the first prize for the Prospekt Marshala Zhukova station was granted to the Russian firm, ASADOV Architectural Bureau.

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The international competition gathered applications from all over the world. Held in 2 stages, first, the expert jury headed by Andrey Bochkarev, Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Urban Policy and Construction, selected 5 finalists for each metro station based on their portfolios, relevant experience, and two essays before choosing the winners based on their project.

Klenoviy Bulvar 2 Station

Zaha Hadid Architects with A-project, Krost; Arup Lighting and Systematica

As the Moscow Metro continues to expand to serve the city’s increasing population, the new Bolshaya Koltsevaya Line will become the city’s third orbital metro line, increasing significantly the capacity and connectivity of the network. At the heart of the Nagatinsky Zaton district in the city’s southeast, the new intervention will also offer access to the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve and park on the banks of the Moscow River.

The winning design defines innovative solutions for the next generation Metro system. In fact, the station integrates new technologies that adjust interior environment conditions to enhance passengers’ experience and provide clear, real-time information on the network. Developed as arrows, a series of columns on the platforms “are shaped to express instances of the same form being marginally distorted as it moves through space, with each column being a slight variation in the form to signify its distance from the center of the platform”. Directing people and integrating lighting elements, these arrows become functional and fundamental elements of the scheme.

Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects
ZHA Design Director: Christos Passas
ZHA Team: Anna Uborevic-Borovskaya, Mihai-Dragos Potra, Alex Turner, Liudmila Harrison-Jones
Consortium Members: Systematica, Krost, Metropolis Group, Rider Levett Bucknall
Lighting Design: ARUP Lighting (Giulio Antonutto, Pavlina Akritas)

Prospekt Marshala Zhukova Station

ASADOV Architectural Bureau

Inspired by the Great Patriotic War medal, the winning design for the Prospekt Marshala Zhukova station, imagined by ASADOV reinterprets ideas of courage, valor, and heroism. Using ruby-tinted light, golden accents, and sharp geometric patterns, the project puts in place a white-trimmed red star and its golden rays to evoke the image of a memorial stele. Moreover, dark sidewalls symbolizing the tragedy of war, make the station visually more spacious.

With underground spaces, lighting has always a huge role to play. In fact, threads of “golden light weave into a geometric pattern on the ceiling, […] and the ruby glow of the columns’ glass sections make the interior even more magnificent”. Shaped like giant red triangles, the entrance pavilions stand out, reinterpreting arrows on war maps, and making the station more visible.