Since its opening in 2012 Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center has an active exhibition and education activity. Due to its rapid developement the museum had quickly ran out of its areas. The situation gets more difficult because the museum’s building — the architectural monument and masterpiece of Konstantin Melnikov — can not be rebuilt or distorted with any additions.
Elegant project of Melnikov grew out of the utilitarian task: to optimize the circuit of new English busses in a garage. Our project is based on the special system of tasks and restrictions.
– Precise interaction with Melnikov’s architecture;
– Independent and vast exhibition hall;
– Maximum flexibility of the underground floor;
– Architectural monument’s safety;
– Uninterrupted functioning of the museum during the construction works.
New part is divided into three blocks: underground floor, foyer and exhibition hall.
Foyer is the space triangular in plan that is framed by historic brick wall and new partitions. It serves as the communication core of the project.
New partitions frame the exhibition hall like a stage and hide the main stairs to the underground floor, lifts, offices of museum’s exhibition department and service rooms.
Walking down the stairs to the underground floor hidden in the thick of partition, the visitors find themselves in a big regular space. It is symmetrical and divided into three parts: the cinema hall, educational centre and a foyer between them. On special occasions they all transform into one.
