Reconstruction of the VDNKh Landscape Park | GORKA Group of Companies
The GORKA Group of Companies carried out a complex of works on the restoration of VDNH facilities — pavilions and landscape park, including: restoration work, design and BIM modeling, construction work and construction control.
The renovation of the landscape park (adaptation and implementation) was based on the concept of the architectural firm "Péna Paysages", headed by Michel Pena.
From the memoirs of the technical director of the GORKA group of companies Naumenkov E.A.:
"One of the most iconic objects for our company in its 15-year history has been the comprehensive restoration of VDNH. Here we have gained unique experience both in designing restoration facilities and in performing restoration work. The total number of people involved in the facilities reached 2,000. All the buildings at VDNKh, despite their pomp, are light frame structures standing on a sand cushion without a pile foundation. Competent constructive solutions betray their stability. What we saw during the survey surprised, pleased and left a lot of impressions. These buildings were built seventy years ago and are still in good condition! It was very interesting to work on the reconstruction of the Ostankino ponds cascade. We had an ilosos floating combine: we blocked 3 ponds, drained the water. The silt pump removed the silt deposits. During the reconstruction of the ponds, communications were shifted, roads and embankments were reconstructed. The shore was reinforced with moisture-resistant larch."
Project: Reconstruction of the VDNH Landscape Park Facility: VDNH Landscape Park (90 hectares)
The Landscape Park is a "buffer" zone between the eventful, people- and objects-rich part of VDNKh and the quiet, peaceful nature in the Botanical Garden.
The diverse environment in the landscape park acts as an "open-air exhibit" and, according to the development concept, is intended for secluded walks.
The restoration project of the park is aimed at preserving the most valuable elements of historical sites and their adaptation to modern use, expanding the recreational opportunities of the exhibition's park spaces.
Alternating areas of natural and artificial origin, including cultural heritage sites, are complemented, characterizing the achievements in modern landscape architecture. For the convenience of designing, the entire park territory is conditionally divided into several zones, in accordance with the technical specifications, it is 90.01 hectares.
In order to preserve the overall concept of VDNH's landscape diversity, a structure was chosen that unites all the facilities of the complex. As a result of the search, a 4.5-kilometer-long "Large Walking Alley" appeared in the project on the basis of an asphalt Ring Road that has existed since the 1950s and was intended for vehicles of technical services. It begins and ends at the Main Entrance, goes around the entire complex, skirting the cascade of ponds in the depths of the park, and is an alternative to the pompous and monumental Central Alley. A modern "Ariadne's Thread" connecting all objects and landscapes. The large alley is accessible to public transport, cyclists, rollerbladers, and pedestrians.
For a pedestrian, the route will take about 1.5 hours.
"We want to give people back a sense of harmony with the forest and nature. To inspire Muscovites, at least here, to start walking and cycling. The landscape park at VDNKH will help citizens to think more often about ecology and the cleanliness of the environment based on the pleasure that this cleanliness gives. It will now be possible to get such an experience and experience this pleasure by walking around VDNKh. This heterogeneous territory was created as a dream come true, and "dreams have taken root here." So VDNKH nowadays is a mock—up of utopia. And I would really like to hope that with our work we are now rediscovering it to people," Michel Pena
Observing various landscapes along the Large Walking Alley, a visitor can get off it to become an explorer of the treasures hidden in the park, then return to the familiar road at any point of the VDNKh.
"The new walking route will become more poetic and diverse. It is perfect for conversations and reflections. After all, since antiquity, philosophers have been walking, because walking with a good companion is the best condition for the birth of thought.
In this project, it was important to reveal the reverse, not the "front" side of the VDNH decor, to offer new views of the pavilions from unexpected angles. Their facades are oriented towards the Central Alley, and the organization of convenient viewing points from the side and behind them, from the pond area, opens up a different, rather chaotic, and therefore very poetic perspective," Michel Pena.
"It is necessary to always be in dialogue with nature in order to establish a compromise with it. These "negotiations" are the work of a landscape architect — to create a natural and beautiful place." — Michel Pena.
Plants
Every year, about 2,000,000 flowers and shrubs bloom on the territory of VDNH. 600,000 tulips bloom in May, 35,000 rose bushes and 2,500 peonies in June.
During the reconstruction of the Landscape Park, more than a thousand large-sized trees and shrubs and 160,000 perennial flowers were planted.
Among the trees were planted: Oak petiolate, European linden, Ornamental apple tree, hanging birch, Mountain ash, large-leaved linden, Holly maple.
Thousands of trees were planted in the Michurinsky garden — apple trees, cherries, pears and plums. To create a Maze in the forest, they used: Common lilac, Large-leaved hazel, Intermediate mountain ash, splayed plum, Red-leaved hazel, Hungarian lilac, Canadian Lamarck's willow, Ganala maple, Japanese lilac, Red maple, Amur velvet, single-petaled hawthorn, Jackman birch, White willow, Plum-leaved hawthorn, Common shrub.
The flower garden "Big Picture of fields" — 3,600 m2, according to architect Michel Pena, should resemble the vivid paintings of the Russian abstract artist Vasily Kandinsky.
50 species and 70 different varieties of perennial flowers were planted from the plants, including Novobelgian asters, Large-headed cornflowers, Hybrid geraniums, and Siberian irises. In addition, they were decorated with Cossack and Horizontal junipers. In total, 1,000 shrubs and more than 44,000 other plants were planted.
For example, the blue field is formed by the rare decorative Schizachyrium Prairiie blues, which means "blue prairie". In summer, its foliage has a bluish-bluish hue, and in autumn it turns yellow-brown. A perennial herbaceous plant called "Twig Millet" blooms in August with airy panicles of pink and red hues, in autumn its foliage turns red-maroon, forming red and purple fields. Lush Molinia brings yellow colors to the fields.
Visitors can admire the blue, purple, yellow, and red fields of flowers from early spring to late autumn. In autumn, about 258,000 bulbous plants are planted in the flower beds of the landscape park — they will delight the townspeople again next spring.
