Moscow’s metro system is famed for its Stalin-era stations with glittering chandeliers and mosaics, but architects are taking a radical, new approach as the network undergoes an expansion. While the original stations were conceived as “palaces for the people”, the new designs are less formal with light boxes for seats and laser-printed glass patterns.
In a major break with tradition, the Moscow city government has allowed outside architects to submit designs for several new stations in competitions that included a public vote on a phone app.
‘Truly interesting’
It has paved the way for “truly interesting and original stations that are outside any tradition”, says architecture journalist Nina Frolova.
The first of these to open is in the high-rise suburb of Solntsevo. Moscow’s Nefa Architects won with a design inspired by the sun, the Russian word for which forms the root of the suburb’s name. “We wanted to let the sun inside,” said Nefa’s lead architect Dmitry Ovcharov, surveying the newly opened station on a recent afternoon. They punched holes in the walls of the station entrances to “create light and shadow”, he said.
This year, the transport system, which dates back to 1935, opened 16 new stations and carried around two billion passengers.
Ms. Frolova, editorial director at the Archi.ru architecture website, said Solntsevo is a bright example of new metro trends. “There’s a concept that any passenger can see. It feels pleasant being in the station.”
But she said another design competition for the Novoperedelkino station ended less happily, with “significant changes” to the design. It featured dramatic patterned glass ceilings that ended broken up with ugly seams and “turned out much less interesting than was planned”, she said.
Another architect with a winning station design, Tatiana Leontyeva of Moscow’s Blank Architects, said the prestige of the commission was a draw. She was part of a team who designed a station called Rzhevskaya, which will have an “archway” theme in a nod to its location near a railway station.
Legacy of Stalin
The historic Moscow metro was a monumental construction in the 1930s, built as an example of quality and solidity, symbolising the grandeur of Stalin. The country’s history was told in the mosaics on the stations’ walls and the metro could serve as a bunker if needed.
Previously, the state company Metrogiprotrans had a monopoly on the transport system’s architecture, and it still designs the majority of new stations. But Metrogiprotrans is also modernising. The company’s latest station interiors feature laser-printed designs on glass or aluminium panels.