CLOSE

ATOMIC PAVILION

Located in the historic zone of Moscow World's Fair, this exhibition pavilion attempts to create a near-figure out of the most legible, yet difficult, architectural form: the sphere. Throughout history, the sphere has intrigued architects as an autonomous form due to its lack of orientation to ground and context. The proposal features two components—the near-sphere and the ground-object—which are incongruent, yet affiliated.

Read More
 

The near-sphere delicately balances atop the nest-like ground object as if it might roll away at any moment. Along its perimeter, several low-resolution nested figures press out and produce adjacent cavities, altering its spherical shape.

Scale Ambiguity
The envelope of the near-sphere features meandering metaseams and patchy materiality, suppressing legibility of conventional panelization. This produces strange scale effects in the building, one of the most powerful things architecture can do. In this case, the project appears simultaneously as a monument and a toy.

LOCATION
Moscow, Russia
TYPE
Exhibition Space
YEAR
2015
FLOOR AREA
14,000 SM
CLIENT
Rosatom
DESIGN TEAM
Principal: Tom Wiscombe, AIA
Designers: Dylan Weiser, Xavier Ramirez
PROJECT TEAM
Design Architect: TWA, Los Angeles





The near-sphere delicately balances atop the nest-like ground object as if it might roll away at any moment.



The patchy composite materiallity of the envelope produces strange scale effects in the building, making it appear toylike.