EDUCATIONAL CENTER OF HUMANITIES IN THE MOSCOW REGION (GYMNASIUM NAMED AFTER EM PRIMAKOV, II QUEUE)

Team of authors: N.I. Yavein (leader), I.V. Kozhin (GAP), I.E. Grigoryev, K.O. Schastlivtseva, A.A. Patrikeev (visualization)

The proposed project suggests a middle ground between the existing large-scale school building and the small houses of Razdory Village scattered around it. This medium scale helps the architects to create a quiet, homely atmosphere in harmony with nature characteristic of the world’s best examples of suburban school campuses. Each subject area has its own building, and a glazed atrium space brings them all together. The atrium is the schoolyard, aka library reading room, aka auditorium, where the transparent all behind the stage opens up the view of the enfilade of small courtyards between the Gymnasium’s buildings.

In this space, transparency is more than visual access. This space is transparent because it is visible from everywhere and it opens up the view of the whole school. It is a place where people can meet, on purpose or by chance, a place where the gymnasium community takes shape. Transparency, both literal and figurative, helps build social skills, expand one’s intellectual horizons, and form a students’ professional and cultural identity.