The Hexagon was originally designed by Russian architects Ivan Zholtovsky, Viktor Kokorin and Mikhail Parusnikov to serve as the Machines and Tools Pavilion at the Agricultural and Handicraft Industries Exhibition in 1923.
The project was the only one constructed using a frame of reinforced concrete posts and beams and wooden trussed rafters, unlike others which were wooden and have not been preserved. The original design featured double-height central atriums and narrow single-height wings that join to create a low gallery all around the main structure opened towards an internal courtyard. Various changes have been made to these structures over the years, as the building has also served as a lemonade factory, a cafe, a cinema and a discotheque.
The museum moved into its first permanent home in 2015, a building designed by OMA, in 2012, after previously occupying the former Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage in Obraztsova Street and a pavilion designed by Shigeru Ban.
The building consists of a series of six identical halls, 9,500 square metre of functional space, organised around a circular courtyard and SANAA's design restores the original proportions of the internal layouts, allowing double-height gallery spaces to open directly out to the courtyard.
SANAA founders Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa said their aim is to retain the Hexagon's "particular charm".
The project was the only one constructed using a frame of reinforced concrete posts and beams and wooden trussed rafters, unlike others which were wooden and have not been preserved. The original design featured double-height central atriums and narrow single-height wings that join to create a low gallery all around the main structure opened towards an internal courtyard. Various changes have been made to these structures over the years, as the building has also served as a lemonade factory, a cafe, a cinema and a discotheque.
The museum moved into its first permanent home in 2015, a building designed by OMA, in 2012, after previously occupying the former Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage in Obraztsova Street and a pavilion designed by Shigeru Ban.
The building consists of a series of six identical halls, 9,500 square metre of functional space, organised around a circular courtyard and SANAA's design restores the original proportions of the internal layouts, allowing double-height gallery spaces to open directly out to the courtyard.
SANAA founders Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa said their aim is to retain the Hexagon's "particular charm".
"When we were invited to work on the Hexagon, we immediately began to think about whether we could somehow preserve the original layout and proportions. And whether we could create something that everyone would use. Garage has always had a strong focus on the architecture of public spaces and their history, and this is very much in line with our practice. The Hexagon has a particular charm and we have tried to retain that in our design."
Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA.
The structures will be stripped of any non-original decorative elements to highlight the building's neoclassical form.
SANAA's design based their design on six principles: Geometry + Proportion, preserving the original proportions; Connected Spaces, a visual and physical connection between the pavilions and internal courtyard; Daylight, maximizing natural light; Spatial Organization; Decorative/Interior Elements, facades will be free of decorative elements, restoring the neoclassical identity of the building; and Landscape.
HISTORY OF THE BUILDING
The building was constructed is 1923 as the Machines and Tools (Mechanization) Pavilion of the Machine-Building Section at the First All-Russian Agricultural and Handicraft Industries Exhibition. The Machines and Tools Pavilion was the only one constructed using reinforced concrete (the other pavilions were wooden and have not been preserved).
Its structural layout is formed by a frame of reinforced concrete posts and beams and wooden trussed rafters. The interior of each facet pavilion has a double-height central part and narrower single-height wings that join to form a low gallery enveloping the entire building on the outside. The structural frames of the single-height spaces consist of thin vertical supports for the outer walls covered with horizontal beams that form the rafter girder supporting the reinforced concrete roof beams with diagonal ribs. Originally, the six double-height spaces and the single-height galleries that connected them opened toward the internal courtyard and were not separated from it by walls.
When in 1928 the city government decided to transform the territory of the former Agricultural Exhibition into the Park of Culture and Leisure, the building was converted into its main canteen. Three of the six facet pavilions were separated from the internal courtyard with light walls and two of them became kitchens and had stoves installed. Toilets were built between the pavilions on the outside.
Initially, the canteen, like the park itself, was open only in the summer. In the late 1930s, when the Central Park of Culture and Leisure became the first in the country to feature a winter theme park and several ice rinks, the canteen was reconstructed once again. Its six pavilions were covered with brick walls and re-equipped to work all year round. In 1935 the canteen was renamed the Hexagon.
In the early 1960s, part of the building was repurposed for lemonade production.
In the past few decades, it served as a café, a restaurant, and a discotheque, among other things, until it was eventually abandoned. After a number of fires, the Hexagon was partially ruined.
In 1999, Moscow City Government declared it a protected monument of garden and park design. The Machines and Tools Pavilion (the Hexagon) became a listed building.
Its structural layout is formed by a frame of reinforced concrete posts and beams and wooden trussed rafters. The interior of each facet pavilion has a double-height central part and narrower single-height wings that join to form a low gallery enveloping the entire building on the outside. The structural frames of the single-height spaces consist of thin vertical supports for the outer walls covered with horizontal beams that form the rafter girder supporting the reinforced concrete roof beams with diagonal ribs. Originally, the six double-height spaces and the single-height galleries that connected them opened toward the internal courtyard and were not separated from it by walls.
When in 1928 the city government decided to transform the territory of the former Agricultural Exhibition into the Park of Culture and Leisure, the building was converted into its main canteen. Three of the six facet pavilions were separated from the internal courtyard with light walls and two of them became kitchens and had stoves installed. Toilets were built between the pavilions on the outside.
Initially, the canteen, like the park itself, was open only in the summer. In the late 1930s, when the Central Park of Culture and Leisure became the first in the country to feature a winter theme park and several ice rinks, the canteen was reconstructed once again. Its six pavilions were covered with brick walls and re-equipped to work all year round. In 1935 the canteen was renamed the Hexagon.
In the early 1960s, part of the building was repurposed for lemonade production.
In the past few decades, it served as a café, a restaurant, and a discotheque, among other things, until it was eventually abandoned. After a number of fires, the Hexagon was partially ruined.
In 1999, Moscow City Government declared it a protected monument of garden and park design. The Machines and Tools Pavilion (the Hexagon) became a listed building.
