Museum for Zoya

Схема генплана

Place: Moscow oblast, Petrishchevo village.
Status: architecture concept (idea).
For: —
When: 2020.
Architect: Ivan Tolstikov.

This sketch of the Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya museum in Petrishchevo is my answer to a recently completed project by another bureau. I wrote an article on this topic, where I state my position in detail, it can be found here.

The image and symbolic structure of the museum

• Old hut.
  • The smell of the past summer (the smell of the grass of the hayloft and the old tree of the hut) — youth has just been here.
  • The path from adolescence to a sudden growing up: adolescence, Komsomol, courses, front.
  • Light breaks through the small windows of the hut, through the cracks in the roof. The cabin gets more and more deformed towards the end of the exhibition — a premonition of the end and the last day – life, concentrated in one day. Ascent to Calvary and execution.
  • Zoey’s Bench goes throughout the last days section.
• The end of the exposition — an exit from the dark room of the hut into the light — a view of the Zoya monument, to the field. A strong contrast between the calmness of Zoya, standing in the field, and the deformed hut of the museum, with silent windows looking at the place of execution: to emphasize the feat of the girl — overcoming the destructive force of war.

Main floor plan scheme — main view vectors

Development of the exposition in two directions

The image of the museum is built on the construction of the Russian hut, the cycle of its life — this emphasizes Zoya’s connection with the Russian people, with her land.
Photoes by artist Olga Tolstikova.

Main version of facades

Longitudinal section of the main exhibition

Exterior — deformation of the hut

Interior — light from a window in a dark hut, deformation of the interior space of the hut

Interior — Zoe’s bench

Going out into the light — option 1

Going out into the light — option 2 (main)