Berlin Moskau Moscow Berlin

This Aedes East exhibition documents Tchoban’s links to both Berlin and Moscow in the most enthralling manner. Rising in the heart of the Russian capital is the Federation Tower, Europe’s tallest office and hotel skyscraper. In Berlin’s two hearts, Sergei Tchoban is currently revitalizing the Berolina Building at Alexanderplatz, expanding the Europa Center with a new construction, and transforming the Bikini Building with a spectacular hotel concept.

All three buildings are icons of Berlin’s architectural history, and each originated in a different era. The presentation is rounded out by an office building in St. Petersburg and a representative villa project set on the Gulf of Finland. As these projects show, Sergei Tchoban is fully conversant with activity on various scales in an urbane context.

Born in St. Petersburg in 1962, the architect Sergei Tchoban has lived and worked in Berlin for ten years, and has also headed an architectural office in Moscow for the past year. As an exponent of a contemporary form of classical Modernism and an exceptional draftsman and illustrator, he has made a name for himself far beyond the confines of the German capital. His best-known buildings in Berlin are the Cubix Cinema at Alexanderplatz, the Dom Aquaree, the Radisson SAS Hotel, and an office and loft residence on Reinhardtstraße.

The exhibition vividly illustrates contemporary trends in both metropolises. Berlin is currently occupied with reconstructions and conversions of precious architectural substance, in particular those dating from the classical Modernism of the prewar and postwar periods. This energetic mood of upheaval, amounting to a boom, has now migrated east.

Moscow, in the meantime, is now reminiscent of the early years of reunification in Berlin: grandiose plans, large-scale new constructions, ambitious visions exemplifying every imaginable tendency, each seeming to outstrip the last in the process of realization.

This work presentation, which uses plans and models, is an impressive stocktaking of this architect’s oeuvre that demonstrates how the oft-mentioned architectural export presents itself in praxis.

The individual projects are: Revitalization of the Berolina Building / Berlin After standing empty for many years, the Berolina Building at Berlin’s Alexanderplatz, built in 1929-31 by Peter Behrens, a precursor of Classical Modernism, will soon be presented again in commensurate substance and design. A section of the structure is being gutted and renovated in keeping with contemporary demands for individual retail spaces. The building’s characteristic façade will be painstakingly restored. In conformity with the urban planning paradigm shift affecting Alexanderplatz, the northwestern end wall of the Berolina Building, actually a firewall in the original plans, now receives an independent new face which accentuates the building’s new degree of relatedness to its setting. Department store at the Europa Center / Berlin The Europa Center, designed by Hentrich and Petschnigg — with its high-rise in the spirit of classical Modernism — now acquires a dynamical curving, totally transparent architectural volume that clarifies the functionality of both interior and exterior. This independent and contemporary pendant avoids interfering with the harmony of the individual cubatures composing the center’s overall composition.

To begin with, and without interrupting the center’s continuous operation, the preexisting structure will be cautiously cleared away down to the floor slab. Subsequently, and in the briefest possible construction period, Berlin’s most famous shopping locale will be developed into an independent architectural volume for retail use with of six retail levels containing 12,000 sq meters for flagship stores.

Competition design, Wild life Hotel Bikini Building / Berlin The six-storied Bikini Building, a protected historical monument, is a component of a postwar Modernist architectural ensemble dating from 1957 - 1959. Also belonging to the ensemble of the ZooBogen (built by architects Schwebes and Schoszberger) are the large high-rise at Hardenbergplatz, the Zoopalast Cinema with its adjoining buildings, a little high-rise, the “blaue Kugel” (blue sphere), and a parking garage. Built for production and administration functions for enterprises in the apparel industry, the Bikini Building defines one edge of a square called Breitscheidplatz.

The Zoological Garden lies along its rear. In the framework of the development of the overall ensemble, the conversion, refurbishment, and structural replenishment of the Bikini Building will be envisioned. The competition design will show the planned uses like retail and gastronomy, with a theme hotel in the upper stories enjoying a connection between city life and the Zoological Garden.

Highrise Building FederationTower / Moscow With a height of 340 meters (430 including its antennae structure), the Federation Complex will be the highest building in Europe to date. Alongside additional high-rises containing offices, hotels, retail spaces and recreation facilities, as well as a central shopping center, the Federation Complex will be completed by 2008 on the ca. 100 hectare site of the future international center “Moscow City,” set on the Krasno Presnenskaja Banks of Moskwa River. Conceived for the basement and lower levels is a lifestyle center with sophisticated entertainment, shopping, and gastronomical units, as well as a conference and events center.

Attained via the distributor hall in the basement level are the two towers, within which office spaces with exceptionally high-quality furnishings, a five star hotel, as well as a large number of luxury apartments, all grouped around multi-story atriums. The panorama elevators arranged between the towers serve as accesses to public lookout platforms featuring restaurants, bars and lounges below the cupola, and offering views across the expanse of the city.

Private Residence / Moscow This villa is set near the Baltic Sea in an undisturbed landscape characterized by pine forests and tranquil lakes. The design theme alludes to the classical type of palace architecture. Its spatial program corresponds to the typical repertoire of the upper bourgeoisie lifestyle, and consists of representative rooms alternating with private areas, including, as a matter of course, a private art gallery, indoor swimming pool, and servant’s quarters. The individual areas of the spatial program are delimited by various cubic units. Arranged somewhat like an enfilade and connected to one another by a glazed gallery, the varying interspace situations, with their views onto the landscape, coalesce to form a variegated composition.