New Center for Innovation and Startup promotion of Chernihiv
The city of Chernihiv, located northeast of Kyiv and only 50 km from the border with Belarus, has been a recurring point of attack by Russian troops. Due to its conflictive location, its citizens not only experience a psychological war, but are also recurring victims of Russian bombings on special dates and celebrations.
Although the battles have been carried out in the surrounding towns - see projects for the town of Yahidné and Ivanivka - the bombings of the city have caused damage both at the housing and monumental levels.
This is the case of the Old Victoria Cinema Building, a large building that is located one block from Chernihiv Polytechnic University. The destruction of this old cinema is postulated as an opportunity to be rehabilitated with a new proposal for interior architecture and to rethink the program.
Project Type: Public Infrastructure/Remodeling
Premisas Proyectuales
The Place
The current Victoria Cinema building consists of 3 main rooms intended for the projection of films and theater, a dark corridor that connects the rooms and a rough access to the building. It was built under the Russian command in 1945 as a milestone of the victory of the Allies over the Germans in the Second World War and is a tangible example of the strong imposingness of Soviet architecture on the city.
The internal darkness of the building is not only due to the little light required for movie theaters, but, as can be seen in its other spaces, it seems to obey an intention to generate a feeling of fear and subordination inside.
The remnants of this building after the last bombings of the city are mainly its rough brick walls of light gray concrete, which stand like Roman ruins without roofs, since they fell demolished.
Fundamentos del Proyecto
Opening the building
Hanging wooden structure
Filling with natural light
e proposal is to open this dark, closed building toward the exterior, especially facing the plaza in front of it.
The main structural walls will be preserved as ruins, supporting a new self-supporting wooden structure that will house the new program.
The project aims to fill the dark spaces with natural light to create freedom and spatial and programmatic continuity.
Propuesta de Arquitectura
Opening the building to the outside:
A second level has been created above the longitudinal corridor that connects the main halls, fully open towards the plaza. This establishes a direct link between the interior and exterior, conveying a sense of spatial freedom. Above the entrance volume sits a café, envisioned as a meeting point for students, professionals, and artists who converge in this building.
Self-supporting structure over the existing building:
One of the architectural challenges was how to inhabit and program the three large cinema halls without demolishing or structurally burdening the walls that remain as ruins. The solution was a system of self-supporting laminated wood frames, from which the new program spaces for the innovation center are suspended.
This independent structural system allows the creation of habitable levels free from the constraints of the original structure. To showcase its scale and acknowledge the vastness of the halls, a central triple-height space has been left open, visually connecting the various rooms. This results in spacious, light-filled, and airy interiors, enhancing freedom of use and spatial flexibility.
"Amid ruins and light, we build a new horizon where architectural freedom meets memory."
A dynamic program for the convergence of disciplines
The programmatic request from the municipality of Chernihiv required us to present within this space a FabLab - Manufacturing Laboratory - for Architecture students, rooms for students and for professionals from Startups, and finally a space for arts and culture in remembrance to the cinema that used to be in this building.
Based on this, we have distributed the program within the 3 large rooms of the building: the smallest will be dedicated to students, offering study rooms, computer rooms and leaving the first level as a FabLab. The mediated room will be used for the Starups, hosting meeting rooms and work rooms. Finally, in the large room, the main Theater will be kept on its lowest floor and to open this theater perseption, the rooms are organized in stages, housing a theatrical and artistic program, suitable for classes or exhibitions.
The corridor of all floors will be destined to be a point of convergence between all these disciplines promoting interdisciplinary enrichment. To do this, it is proposed to use this space as a center for conversations and discussions, with blackboards and a cafeteria.
Both this corridor and the third floor proposed for administrative program are fully glazed spaces that will have a direct view of the building's plaza, but also to the interior of the building.
Finally, the project is responsible for remodeling the exterior plaza of the building. As a special requirement, the Chernihiv municipality asked us that this space could serve as a defense for the building in case of a new attack. To meet this requirement we have thought of a flexible space of long, entrenched pits that functions with a double purpose: to function as a trench in the event that it is necessary to defend the building, but also as a railing to place the chairs from where you can see the functions of the outside theater, to enable spaces for rest and conversation there and finally to drain the snow that accumulates during the winter.
This layout of trenches leaves space in its voids to place games for children and a water pool that refreshes citizens during the summer, encouraging life and activity to be generated in that space.
The front Square
