Neo-futurism inspired by the Russian avant-garde movement of the 1920’s – the new Dominion Office Building (in south-east Moscow) designed by Zaha Hadid boasts 21,184 sq m of area. The volumetric scope is divided among the vertical stacks that are defined by the projecting white offsets that ‘sandwich’ the narrower glazed facades. However, beyond this leveled nature of the exterior, it is the unorthodox nature of the interior spaces that really makes this architectural specimen unique.
To that end, the overall mass of the Dominion Office Building pertains to a disparate volume that goes beyond the uniformity of the conventional office building. The divergent ambit is specified by the alternate white components with their cantilevered designs, while being complemented by long ribbon windows. These stacked volumes rises till seven floor levels, thus making up for a distinct structure bolstered by its essence of neo-futurism. As Christos Passas, the project head and associate director at Zaha Hadid Architects, said (to The Moscow Times) –
The Dominion Tower is a kind of critique of mass architecture, where each floor is the same as the other. We have tried to break this trend toward standardization, putting into the building’s exterior something more challenging and chaotic. In this case, the selected shape helps to hold a dialogue with the environment.
But as we mentioned before, where the Dominion Office Building truly (and literally) shines relates to the contrasting spatial arrangement of the ‘space-age’ interior. In visual terms, this translates to a specially conceived, light-inducting atrium with asymmetric black and white patterns (with the white parts allowing for more reflection of natural light). This central space is complemented by a bevy of dynamic zones and compartments, including angling balconies and zig-zag staircases – all of which maintain their black-and-white thematic scheme. And interestingly, in spite of these seeminly distinct zonal spaces, the common recreational areas and coffee shops are all located along the balconies – thus alluding to a collective eco-system of human work-space for different companies.
Via: DesignBoom