Moscow planners have approved Lord Foster’s design for the world’s biggest building. The British architect’s £2bn “city within a city”, Crystal Island, will be built on the banks of the Moscow river, with a total floor area of 2.5 million square metres, making it the largest enclosed space ever to be constructed. This is approximately equal to twice the area of Herm Island, Guernsey!
Crystal Island’s steel mega frame is to feature a “smart skin” to buffer against extreme temperatures and is expected to contain 3,000 hotel rooms, 900 apartments, a school for 500 pupils, three theatres, an Imax cinema, offices, a museum, two observation decks and underground parking for 14,000 cars. Its 620m-wide base will taper to a spire 449.88 metres high, giving it the form of a vast transparent wigwam.
“Crystal Island is one of the world’s most ambitious building projects and it represents a milestone in the 40 year history of the practice. It is the largest single building in the world, creating a year-round destination for Moscow and a sustainable, dynamic new urban quarter. It is a paradigm of compact, mixed-use, sustainable city planning, with an innovative energy strategy and ‘smart’ skin which buffers against climate extremes.”
Norman Foster
Daylight is able to penetrate deep into the interior of the ‘tent’, with external panels opened in summer and closed to preserve heat in winter, when temperatures in Moscow can drop to minus 30°C. Terraced on the outside of the building will be a series of gardens, and the whole structure is to be set in a landscaped park.
1 response so far ↓
1 Chris // Jan 29, 2008 at 15:28
I want one
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