Thousands of pieces of wood to save a building

And today I'll tell you all about a second life given to a building, but this time it's not a restoration but simply a rescue of a disused building from total abandonment and destruction. The "action" takes place in neighboring Russia and the main actor is Russian artist Nikolai Polisski.

The building is located in the village of Zvizzhi in the Ugra National Park, about 200 km from Moscow. Very close to the village is the Nikola-Lenivets artists' community, of which Polissky is a founding member. In Ugra Park there are 28 permanent sculptures by well-known contemporary Russian artists spread over the park's 650 hectares. The community, which also hosts some of the artists, organizes specific events and an annual architecture festival.

Here, Polisski created SELPO (the local acronym for the Rural Consumers' Association), transforming the 10-year-old abandoned building, the former village shop, into a space for exhibitions and events.

First the walls of the building were reinforced and the roof replaced. Then, a lightweight steel structure was attached to the concrete walls, onto which pieces of wood left over from the artist's other works were attached. The result was a work of art inside which people can live and events can be held.

Polisski says that in all his sculptures you can live, just as Gavroche from Hugo's Miserables lived in a sculpture of an elephant. He also says that through his sculptures he wants to draw attention to these buildings that have stood unused for years and can now be put to good use.

The solution for cladding the building was found with a group of architecture students from The Cass University of London. They paid a visit to the Nikola-Lenivets art camp, saw the building and came up with different proposals to bring it back to life, of which the wood cladding system was chosen.

The rejections form a non-uniform surface on all sides of the Soviet-type construction, sometimes resulting in bulging shapes emerging from the building, resembling castle ramparts.

The idea was to achieve an eastern, slightly Indian-looking building with towers, rounded and meterezoid. The round towers on the roof are reminiscent of the mounds built to house the remains of Buddhist monks. The towers can be climbed and visitors are invited to do so and admire the village and surroundings.

Even before it was finished, the building started hosting concerts and other high-profile events, and the artist says he doesn't want to stop. He's determined to keep the building in business as long as an event space is needed.

At the time of reporting the building was not yet finished. Polisski said it will continue until every piece of concrete is covered with wood. Eventually the building should look like this:

I hope it works out for him! 🙂

(source: dezeen.com)