Zaha Hadid Architects to design Sberbank Technopark in “Russia's Silicon Valley”

It goes without saying that Zaha Hadid Architects, which is now under the leadership of Patrik Schumacher, will continue to push forward and bring their A-Game in design competitions. In Zaha Hadid's first posthumous win, her practice was selected to design the new Sberbank Technopark proposed for Moscow's Skolkovo Innovation Centre. Dubbed as “Russia's Silicon Valley”, Skolkovo is transforming into a booming hotspot for the country's rapidly developing technology and science industries. Sberbank is Russia's leading banking and economic circulatory system, with over 70 percent of the country's population relying on Sberbank's services. The other high-profile firms who competed for the Technopark commission included Speech, Foster + Partners, Eric Owen Moss Architects, and Fuksas.

At 131,000 square meters, the new office park complex will accommodate 10,000-12,000 employees from Sberbank's IT and marketing departments, described by Sberbank President German Gref as the core substance of the bank. According to Gref, the project could possibly begin construction in 18 months' time, and is currently expected to take another two years to complete.

Following Zaha Hadid Architects’ analysis of the varied work processes and arrangements of Sberbank's technology and marketing departments, the proposal will enable employees to develop new innovations and prototypes that deliver high-quality solutions and applications.

“The necessity to innovate and collaborate is fundamental to Sberbank’s operations. Our research into interconnected, multi-function environments has driven the Sberbank Technopark design,” stated Christos Passas, Project Director at Zaha Hadid Architects. ”It responds to the bank’s requirements for enhanced communication, interaction and diversification. The design reconfigures working relationships and adopts a holistic approach to creating an engaging environment that offers a diversified range of facilities both internally and externally.”

“The incredible belief in the power of invention attracted Zaha Hadid to the Russian avant-garde,” Passas said. ZHA's Technopark proposal integrates Hadid's principles of how space itself can enhance dynamism, complexity, coherence and continuity.