Near-sphericality
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. 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
Floor Area: 14,000 SM.
Program: Exhibition Space
Client: Rosatom
