Administration building of the Ministry of Road Construction
The Administration Building of the Ministry of Road Construction is a building in Tbilisi , Georgia . It was built in 1975 based on designs by architects Giorgi Tschachawa and Zurab Dschalagonia . From 2010 to 2011, it was converted into the headquarters of the Bank of Georgia and has been used as this ever since. It is one of the most important buildings of socialist modernism in Georgia.
description
The property is located outside the city center on the Kura . It drops very steeply from west to east. The building is elevated, the landscape "flows" unhindered underneath, including a small stream. It is visible from afar; three arterial roads to the north lead past it; the opening takes place from both sides of the land.
The structure consists of five horizontal, two-storey building blocks . They look like they have been stacked on top of each other. Three run in an east-west direction, across the slope and two in a north-south direction, along the slope. They protrude far beyond the bars below. The building rests on three building cores, which lift the horizontal bars from the ground. They contain the vertical development . The tallest core has 18 storeys . The structure consists of steel and reinforced concrete and is based on solid rock .
The floor space - after the expansion in 2011/2012 - is 13,500 square meters . In addition to the office space, there is a cafeteria and a fitness studio.
history
At the time of the planning, Tschachawa was Minister of Road Construction and therefore the responsible representative of the client and chief architect in one person. He could choose the property himself. The contract was awarded directly by the state, without a previous architectural competition, making it one of the first individual architectural designs in Georgia during the time in the Soviet Union . The engineer Temur Tchilawa was involved in the planning . The cost of construction was six million rubles .
After the collapse of the Soviet Union , the ministry moved out around the turn of the millennium. In 2006 the building was bought by the Bank of Georgia. Due to the expected high renovation costs and the bad image (rejection of the socialist past and architectural modernism in general), the bank hesitated to start work on using it as its headquarters. Therefore it was empty until 2010.
In 2007, the building was as a national monument under monument protection provided.
In April 2010, the bank's board of directors - encouraged by current plans by OMA ( The Interlace , 2009) and international attention - decided to start the renovation work in summer 2010. In July 2010, the building hosted a summer academy entitled Frozen Moments: Architecture Speaks Back. Research & Leisure with artists, academics, architects, curators, economists and residents of Tbilisi.
The renovation work on the bank's headquarters was completed in 2011. After an extension by an 11 meter high glass cube, which serves as the main entrance, 16 departments with 600 employees are now housed.
architecture
The design is based on a pattern patented in Georgia, the so-called space city . The idea is to use less floor space through the elevation so that the space under the building can be given back to nature. According to the architect, the concept is based on the principle of the forest , the building cores correspond to the tree trunks , the bars to the tree tops. There are open, light spaces between the ground and the treetop. The application of this principle to the building should contribute to the mental well-being and the well-being of the users. Tschachawa later applied the principle to other designs, which, however, were never realized.
The idea that the landscape "flows through" under the building and remains relatively untouched was also pursued by other architects. Theoretically, Le Corbusier dealt with the “house on pillars / Pilotis” and implemented this, for example, at the Unité d'Habitation from 1947 onwards. In a unique way, Frank Lloyd Wright's idea was realized at Fallingwater in 1935. Glenn Murcutt put the saying “Touch This Earth Lightly” into practice in some of his designs. A contemporary example is the Musée du quai Branly by Jean Nouvel , which has a garden under the building.
The design takes up approaches of the Russian constructivists from the 1920s. With his Wolkenbügel from 1924, the architect El Lissitzky designed a formally similar structure in which the building core and office space are divided into vertical and horizontal components. The cloud bar was developed from an ideal approach, as an antithesis to the skyscraper .
Due to the use of exposed concrete and the clear, geometric bodies, the building can be classified as brutal . However, the concept of the space city shows close links to structuralism . In the context of these movements, similar buildings were built in other countries. Examples are the Yamanashi Communication Center in Kofu by Kenzō Tange or Habitat 67 by Moshe Safdie , both completed in 1967.
Formal references between architecture and use can also be established. Kultermann speaks of a construction form [..]. which was most in keeping with a content-based solution, meaning the formal association with bridges and roads.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Udo Kultermann: Contemporary architecture in Eastern Europe , p. 59f.
- ↑ a b c http://bankofgeorgia.ge/en/bank/hq/headquarters
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/arts/design/16cold.html?n=Top%2fNews%2fWorld%2fCountries%20and%20Territories%2fGeorgia
- ↑ http://www.archinect.com/features/article.php?id=91729_0_23_0_C Article about the project The Interlace
- ↑ http://www.theinterlace.com Homepage of the project
- ↑ http://ruinsofourtimes.wordpress.com/
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Georgian Patent Certificate No. 1538
- ↑ According to information from MD PhD Giorgi Tschachawa (Junior) and MD PhD Nino Kandelaki
- ↑ cf. Müller / Vogel: dtv Atlas Baukunst , Volume 2, p. 509
literature
- Josef Baulig, Maia Mania, Hans Mildenberger, Karl Ziegler: Architectural Guide Tbilisi (German / Georgian), Saarbrücken 2004; ISBN 3-936890-39-0
- Udo Kultermann: Contemporary architecture in Eastern Europe (DuMont documents) , Cologne, DuMont 1985, 254 pages, ISBN 978-3-7701-1554-9
- (EN) Cover story from Time Europe on March 8, 1976: It's a hard live for Ivan - Ultramodern office complex under construction in Tblisi
- (EN) Arthur Drexler: Transformations in modern architecture , paperback, 168 pages, publisher New York Graphic Society (1979), ISBN 978-0-87070-608-0
- (IT / EN): domus edition 577, Dec 1977, pages 36 and 37
Web links
Coordinates: 41 ° 44 ′ 8.7 ″ N , 44 ° 46 ′ 16.5 ″ E