Winners of Changing the Face 2011 - Pushkinsky Theater Competition

Winners have recently been announced of "Changing the Face – Moscow 2011," an international ideas competition aiming at redesigning the facade of the famous Pushkinsky movie theater in Moscow, Russia. The Pushkinsky is located at Pushkin Square, one of Moscow's most popular spots, and was built in 1961 to host the annual Moscow International Film Festival.

According to the jury, the three winning proposals combine imaginative aesthetical thinking with technical innovation to create solutions that give new life to an aging icon like the Pushkinsky Cinema. The winning proposals were selected from 512 entries submitted by 1002 architects from 62 different countries and exhibited earlier this June at the Central House of Architects in Moscow. The international ideas competition was hosted by DuPont together with Union of Architects of Russia, YEM, RIBA and Architizer.

Following are the three winners and three finalists.

1st Prize: Frozen in Time 
Design: J.A. Diaz Parra, C. Kentish, E. Sam Soom (Singapore)

"Frozen in Time” takes its inspiration from the poem “Winter Morning” by Alexander Pushkin, a poem that celebrates the way the bracing Russian winter can transfigure the landscape and create possibilities.

2nd Prize: Moving Lights Palace 
Design: F. Boettcher, J. Grossman, A. Reinbroth (Germany)

The light-curtain is not intended to feel closed but light, transparent and moving and reveals the glass front in between the wires to create a glowing and sparkling atmosphere (…) which emphasizes the role of the Pushkinsky Cinema as the "palace" of the Moscow International Film Festivals.

3rd Prize: THE Pushkinsky JEWEL 
Design: Joseph Sung (UK)

At the heart of the Pushkin Square is a glass ‘jewel’ box, specially designed to receive, preserve and display the cinema’s entire architecture.

Finalist - All the World’s a Stage 
Design: Cary D'Alo Place (US)

Shrouding the existing in a dual curtain wall system, an all DuPont™ Sentry Glas® wall coupled with a DuPont™ Corian® Curtain.

Finalist - RECONNECTION 
Design: Kamil Chmielewski (Poland)

Re-connecting the Pushkinsky Cinema and the square, to create one public space. With a new type of media facade using translucent characteristic of Corian® to give the building an opportunity to communicate with people.

Finalist - NESTING THEATERS 
Design: Natsuki Maeda (US)

Using DuPont™ Corian® allows to achieve the necessary flexibility to wrap the existing theater in a Red carpet surface that shapes new kinds of public space and re-imagines the movie cinema as a vibrant social and urban gathering place for the future.

 

Find a small selection of shortlisted projects in the image gallery below. For the complete list, click here.