Description

The Capital City is a multifunctional complex, including twin tower skyscrapers, located in the Moscow International Business Center in Moscow designed by Erick van Egeraat. The Capital City, symbolizing Moscow and St. Petersburg, was completed in 2009.

More than half of the top floors are taken up by an entertainment complex, office suites, and large apartments. The Capital City consists of two towers—the 76-level "Moscow Tower" and the 65-level "St. Petersburg Tower". Floors 17 and 18 of both towers are offices. The entire complex sits on a main lobby consisting of 6 underground floors and 4 aboveground floors of public space. The upper floors of the base structure contain shops, a fitness center, presentation halls, and restaurants.

Plan Shape

The shape of the plan takes as an inspiration from the “Counter-Corner” in 1914 by Vladimir Tatlin. Tatlin is often heralded as the father of Russian Constructivism. His experimental work in 20th century marked an attempt to redefine sculpture’s relationship to built space. His works are slung between two perpendicular walls. It breaches the orthogonal shape of a typical room in order to create a taut, an interstitial geometry.

This has a similar effect on the plan shape of the Capital City wherein the segments undergo an offset rotation which creates a dynamic departure from the stability of the square.

The plan showcases a slender, elegant massing that maximizes the floor area ratio enhancing the views and natural lighting. The setup of the rooms eliminated the usage of the corridors, thus, providing spacious units suitable for a luxury housing.

3D Form

The Architectural approach to the complex is rooted in 20th-century Russian Constructivism, with its clear and distinct geometric forms. The square towers are twisted on axis at the technical floor levels, adding motion to their silhouette. It creates a rotational effect to the building.

In contrast to the rectilinear tower segments, the podium has an inclined façade and curvilinear ground plan. It alludes the Moscow’s concentric ring roads.

Building Skin

Russian Constructivism can be seen not only in the proportion of the sizes of the podiums and the towers, but also in the design of the façade. Basing on the original design of Egeraat, the building envelope has vertical lines that are highlighted by a ‘mosaic’ made of dark and light terra cotta tablets. The tablets also emphasize the residential part of the building, where there is again a combination of smooth and rough surfaces on the podium façade.

However, basing on the outcomes of the project, the towers are enclosed in a unitized panel system with four-sided structural-silicone glazing. The panels are also shifting in plan. Others are protruding outward while some are slightly inset to accommodate LED lightings. The curtain wall also integrates electronically operated windows in all apartments.

The podium, on the other hand, uses two systems: a structural silicone and a point-supported planar glass system.

Bibbliography:o Binder, G. (2006). Tall Buildings of Europe, Middle East, & Africa. Images Publishing.o Starodubtsev, Y., Myers, J., & Goetz, L. (2011). Case Study: Capital City Towers, Moscow.

CTBUH Journal, (II).o Hernandez, J. M. (n.d.). Capital City Towers. Retrieved from

http://www.jmhdezhdez.com/2013/06/capital-city-towers-moscow-group.htmlo Russian Constructivism. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/constructivism/