A high-tech centre for research and development just outside of Moscow looks set to propel Russia forward in energy, IT, telecommunications, biomedicine and nuclear technologies.
Skolkovo Innovation Centre, dubbed the “Russian Silicon Valley” is a high-tech hub to be built in Skolkovo, Russia.
This new business hub will initially be a centre of research and innovation in five areas that carry top priority for Russia — energy, IT, telecommunications, biomedicine and nuclear technologies. It will concentrate international intellectual capital and stimulate the development of breakthrough projects and technologies just outside the nation’s capital, Moscow.
The site, which Moscow-based architects Arch Group have transformed into an ecological wonderland, also encompasses residential buildings designed for temporary accommodation of the scientific elite.
“The architectural solution should not only provide comfortable accommodation for the residents but also form a creative environment that encourages people to communicate, exchange experiences, and help in the creative process,” explains Arch Group founder Alexey Goryainov.
“We want to avoid the feeling of a dense urban development. This is why the buildings are shaped as the natural landscape and green hills. Between them there is a lot of air and space.
“The slopes of the hills are green terraces, so even the buildings themselves are a part of the natural recreational space. Facades and windows of the apartments are slightly turned towards the forest.”
Pedestrian paths on the second level between the lobbies form the project’s single communicative space, connecting all the houses. The principles of its organisation are similar to those of the medieval cities of Europe, where over centuries a complex, three-dimensional urban environment was formed. Each house has its own character and its own history.
Working in-house, Arch Group conceptualised the project in sketches and simple AutoCAD drawings to check the building’s main parametres before being transporting it into 3ds Max. The resulting 3D model was rendered using V-Ray with final images processed in Photoshop.
