Gold Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2022
Entry Building to Sberbank Entrance to Headquarters
- A' Design Award 2022 Gold Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2022
- CLIENT: Sberbank
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 33,071
- Verification code E2ABCE5723 · Verify this award
About Entry Building to Sberbank Entrance to Headquarters
Entry Building to Sberbank is an entrance building for two adjoining high-rise office towers in Moscow. The building encloses the space between the towers with a hyperbolic paraboloid form, built from 29 steel arches and covered by a glazed triangulated roof. The shape brings daylight inside while limiting sunlight obstruction to the lower office floors. Three floors hold reception areas, restaurants, coffee shops, a conference centre and an event space shaped as a stepped amphitheatre. Both ends are crowned with champagne-coloured stainless steel panels.
This striking architectural composition, which might be titled Threshold of Welcome or Portal of Convergence, represents a compelling example of contemporary parametric architecture that synthesizes advanced computational design methodologies with enduring principles of monumental gateway architecture. The entry pavilion demonstrates how twenty-first-century design practice can honor the archetypal significance of the threshold, that liminal space between public realm and institutional interior, while deploying innovative material systems and geometric languages unavailable to previous generations. The parabolic arch form references classical triumphal architecture and the great arched entries of historical civic buildings, yet its execution through tessellated triangular panels creates a distinctly contemporary expression that speaks to digital fabrication possibilities and parametric surface articulation. The chromatic choice of warm golden tones for the arch skin establishes an immediate psychological warmth and sense of invitation, counterbalancing the cool technological precision of the flanking glass towers and creating what might be understood as a humanizing gesture within an otherwise corporate architectural vocabulary. The sophisticated interplay between the curved organic geometry of the central pavilion and the rectilinear grid of the surrounding towers suggests a deliberate compositional strategy that positions the entrance as a moment of exception, a special condition that marks passage from the ordinary urban fabric into a distinct institutional realm. The visible interior dome structure, with its delicate lattice of intersecting members, adds spatial complexity and promises an enriched spatial experience beyond the threshold. The viewer might contemplate how architecture communicates institutional values through form, how the balance of welcome and monumentality shapes our expectations of the spaces we are about to enter, and how contemporary design continues the ancient human practice of marking significant passages with architectural elaboration.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Both entrances at either end of the building are crowned in a series of champagne-coloured triangulated panels in stainless steel that incline outwards over the squares, like delicate tiaras. These warm-coloured crowns create playful reflections of pedestrians arriving and leaving the towers and glow up in different shades depending on the daylight. Internally, the fully glazed dynamic shape creates interiors with an al fresco vibe that merges indoor and outdoor spaces seamlessly.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The building consists of three floors with the total floor area of 4000 square meters or 43055 square foot and 40000 cubic meters of built volume. The building is 83 meters long, 43 meters wide, with steel arches reaching 24 meters at the highest point and 20 meters at the lowest point.
- Tags
- Sberbank City, entrance building, Moscow, hyperbolic parabolic, Evolution Design, Tanya Ruegg
- Production Technology
- The hyperbolic parabolic form is achieved with the construction of 29 steel arches that increase the height towards either end of the building. The column free space is covered by a glazed roof that consists of an intricate triangulated structure. The first and second floors are made of concrete slabs, with the middle level designed as a dynamic curved shape that delivers two restaurant terraces facing the front entrance. An oval opening in the core of the building also connects all floors.
- Design Challenge
- The primary project challenge was creating a building volume large enough to accommodate all the required functions under one roof, without compromising daylight into the lower levels of the towers. The dynamic saddle form that the architects devised solves both challenges. A representative, spacious and daylight-flooded space has been created that accommodates all the necessary functions, while minimising sunlight obstruction to the offices in the towers.
- Project Duration
- Project construction started in July 2020 and was finished in June 2021 in Moscow.
- Operation Flow
- Spread over 3 floors, the building accommodates entrance facilities for people who work in the towers, central reception, several restaurants and coffee shops, a conference centre and a large event space styled as a stepped amphitheatre. The building is not only frequented by 10000 employees who work in the two towers as an entry, meeting and socialising place, but is also a popular choice to meet for lunch among workers from other buildings on the campus, and is also open to the general public.
- Research
- As the primary function of the building is as a covered entrance space into the two towers, particular attention was paid to finding the best solution for an efficient and comfortable flow of 10000 people who work in the towers. The solution was spreading the badge scanner areas over two floors, in order to split the flow, and strategically placing the main canteen restaurant on the first floor, leaving the ground floor for event and conference areas that can be accessed by the general public.
- Inspiration
- Sberbank commissioned Evolution Design to create a representative entrance to two adjoining high-rise towers that are part of Sberbank City, the new campus of Sberbank. The intervention should link the two towers and create a strong design statement within the narrow space, without compromising daylight into the lower levels of the towers. The architects responded to the ambitious brief with a hyperbolic parabolic form that rises up at either end enclosing the space between the towers.
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer Peter Wuermli, 2022. Image #2: Photographer Peter Wuermli, 2022. Image #3: Photographer Peter Wuermli, 2022. Image #4: Photographer Peter Wuermli, 2022. Image #5: Photographer Ilya Ivanov, 2022.
- Patents
- Copyrights belong to Evolution Design, 2022
Colors of Entry Building to Sberbank Entrance to Headquarters
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