Upway / Vertical City

Contrary to the actual planning of the new suburban business district “Moscow City”, we propose our building to be located in the centre of Moscow. The program differentiates between cultural program (e.g. artist studios, football stadium, church, dormitory…) and economic program (e.g. stock exchange, office blocks, commercial facilities…). The lack of space resulted in a vertical arrangement of the program within the perimeter of the Hotel Rossija. The stacking of entire program typologies resembles a Vertical City rather than a conventional high-rise building. The primary infrastructure system (UPWAY) works on an urban scale to accomodate the 80,000 people circulating through the Vertical City. Plugged into the Moscow metro system, the UPWAY opens a new district in the heart of Moscow. Furthermore, horizontal layers – comparable to squares or marketplaces in the traditional city – function as nodes to distribute the people by means of elevators and escalators to their final destination.

Institution: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)
Year: 2004
Location: Moscow, Russia
Program: various (offices, residential, hotel, sport venues, cultural venues)
Status: proposal
Team: with Martin Henn (HENN)