Key Events of the Kaliningrad Cultural and Educational Complex Construction (October 2022)

New important construction stages have started at all facilities of STG-Zapad LLC. The Higher School of Arts and the Opera and Ballet Theatre are growing in the blink of an eye! And the Tretyakov Gallery branch begins to gain a finished look. Final finishing of the facade on the main building of the museum complex has commenced.

A rapid pace has been set at the construction site of the Baltic Higher School of Arts. The future building of RSIPA branch already has monolithic structures of the ground floor have completed, including the slab between the ground and first floors. Here, on the ground floor of the future building, preparations are made for the installation of enclosing structures, i.e. for the laying of external walls.  In parallel, concreting of vertical reinforced concrete structure and reinforcement of the first floor ceiling are in progress. The plan is to keep up the pace and complete the monolithic box of the entire building in January 2023.

The Higher School is a five-storey building. The architectural concept involves a stepped shape symmetrically tapering towards the top. The project includes: training studios and lecture halls, a sports hall/stage movement hall, a multifunctional concert hall with a stage, warehouses, workshops, and laboratories. The facade will be decorated with hanging cassettes made of weathering steel.

The future walls of the cultural institution appear at the construction site of the Bolshoi Theatre branch as well. Currently, the main work at the facility is the installation of a foundation slab and the erection of walls and columns. According to the project, the volume of the entire theatre foundation is 13,700 cubic metres. Concrete laying is in progress now. More than 8,000 cubic metres of concrete mix have been laid by the beginning of the month. The slab is more than 50% complete.

Where the foundation is already ready, vertical structures are being erected. Concrete pouring of the future wall frames of a small concert hall designed for 300 seats is being actively carried out. According to the plan, the monolithic box of the small hall must be completed by the end of the month.

“Currently, the construction of all facilities of the cultural and educational complex is progressing on a directive schedule. More than 400 people are engaged in work at the Bolshoi Theatre branch. In order to maintain the pace of constructing the theatre, the number of workers will be increased to 800 people within a short time,”– said Dmitry Rzhannikov, General Director of STG-Zapad LLC.

When shaping the theatre building, the architects were inspired by a ballerina performing rotations with her leg raised to her knee. In choreography, this position is called “sur le cou-de-pied.” This is how the idea of the shape of the main facade appeared – a hyperboloid of revolution with an overhanging console having a reach of 86 metres. Such an architectural concept makes the theatre building unique.

At the Tretyakov Gallery branch, the builders have begun final finishing of the museum’s facade. From the first days of the month, aluminium cassettes are being installed. These panels will cover the entire building. Inside the main building of the museum complex, the installation of ventilation ducts and rough plastering of the premises have been completed. The concrete floor screed is nearing completion, it is 95% complete. Installation of the exhibition hall walls will start in October.

Work is ongoing on the fifty-metre administrative tower. The mineral wool insulation of the facade is nearing completion here. This work is 85% complete.

Thanks to the protruding console, the gallery building visually floats in the air. The landmark of the facility is a fifty-metre administrative tower accommodating a design centre. The gallery has 8 exhibition halls with a total area of 2,565 square metres. In addition to the exhibition space, there will be public areas for creative and educational programmes.

On the Eastern site, service housing for employees of the cultural cluster and a dormitory for the RSIPA branch students are 100% ready. The buildings have been completed and are equipped with the necessary furniture and household appliances. Documents are being prepared to hand over the facilities to the construction project owner National Cultural Heritage Foundation.

The construction sites of STG-Zapad LLC actively implement the principles of the Stroytransgaz Production System. Thus, in order to streamline a huge amount of information, a “process mapping” tool has been introduced. For project teams not to miss any important details in numerous work schedules, an information flow map is created.

“The information flow map represents a set of top-level key events. It indicates which are the processes associated with key events, who is participating. Often, in order to explain why the work schedule is built this way and not otherwise, you need to trace which events are clinging to each other. For example, we can’t start assembling steel structures of the theatre roof until concrete is poured up to the 31 mark,” − said Vyacheslav Ognev, Deputy General Director of STG-Zapad LLC.

The information flow map shows the most simple and accessible designations. The targeted results are highlighted in green, the current position is in yellow, and the red colour indicates issues. Separate boxes indicate what needs to be done to succeed. For better understanding of the key construction stages, 3D models of the facilities are used.

“The creation of the information flow map deserves special attention. This is a pretty entertaining event. Never before has scheduling been so lively and inspiring. Having gathered together by the whole team, we move cards with key events. That is, in real time, through discussions, disputes, and proposals, we play real processes that will take place in the future,”− noted Vyacheslav Ognev, Deputy General Director of STG-Zapad LLC.

Background:
The task to create four new cultural centres (Vladivostok, Kemerovo, South Russia, Kaliningrad) was set by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in his Address to the Federal Assembly in 2018 and detailed in the Executive Order on the National Goals and Strategic Objectives of Development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2024. Facilities in Kaliningrad are built on two sites, Eastern and Western, located on both sides of Kaliningrad Stadium erected on the Oktyabrsky Island for the FIFA World Cup 2018.

According to the President, creation of the cultural, educational and museum complexes will allow the regions to reveal their cultural and educational opportunities, arrange modern cultural space in the entire territory of Russia, change life quality of the residents through art introduction and, at the same time, make these cities particularly attractive for tourists.

Construction of the Cultural and Educational Complex in Kaliningrad is carried out by the Stroytransgaz Group as commissioned by National Cultural Heritage Foundation for Social and Cultural Projects. The designer is the GORKA Group.