Maidan Museum / Freedom Museum in Kyiv. Terra Dignitas

LOCATION: Kyiv, Ukraine
AREA: Approx. 3000 m2
DATE: Design 2014-2015
PROGRAM: Freedom Museum / Maidan Museum
STATUS: Competition proposal

ARCHITECTURE: Dmytro Aranchii Architects
DESIGN: Dmytro Aranchii, Mariia Aranchii
PROJECT TEAM: Ihor Kishta, Ievheniia Kovalchuk, Tetiana Bashtova, Viacheslav Kyrpach

The main principle of Maidan Museum / Freedom Museum is the free space creation for people. Outside this concept expresses in saving of crucial part of the site unbuilt for public meetings or for thoughts to generate the place or void for free breath that is definitely missing in modern Kyiv. The place, which doesn’t make pressure of tragedy but invokes to think about feat of a nation and appreciate what was achieved applying high efforts with a clear mind and view full of strong will to the building of tomorrow right now.

From inside the exhibition deploys in a way that proves the continuity of events in time and space provoking a visitor to go with the flow trough the floors of contrast expressing tools.

In general inside/outside in the Museum is designed to be the solid unity. Geometry and logics of the Museum Yard seamlessly transforms into the building. The opposite statement has a true value as well. Thus Museum guests visit both, museum in ordinary meaning and become a part of a place saturated with a spirit of Heaven Hundred heroes.

Outside

Museum square(plaza), museum park, museum walking zone. Three basic parts of complex`s exterior function. The Square represents emptiness (void) as a place where is nothing (which is a rare phenomenon for Ukraine). The park is a symbol of nature – a place where people can walk, sit and rest. Both of them connected to the walking zone on the roof of the Museum.

Museum is flowing into the relief therefore the main ramp of the building is creating an easy way for the visitors to get to the roof from the side of crossroad of Instytutska and Olzhycha streets (from North West) and from there to any part of the Museum on any level.

The area is connected to the surroundings from both sides: Zhovtnevy Palace and Instlitutska str. This connection is highly used in the proposal – site is most integrated into pedestrian space and has a topographical continuity with its external perimeter.
The vehicles access is possible from the direction of Instytutska and Olzhycha streets. At the same time part of Instytutska str. along the museum site and Zhovtnevyi Palace is proposed to make fully pedestrian (vehicle access only by permission) up to Maidan Nezalezhnosti.

Inside

Underground level of the building contains rooms for exhibits’ storage and parking for museum’s staff and visitors providing a function of trucks (un)loading to deal with a museum collection. Ability to use mentioned parking is also being proposed to be given to visitors of Zhovtnevyi Palace, whose cars have been densely parked along the perimeter of the Freedom Museum site.

Ground floor includes foyer wtih 360 degree reception, that provides information to visitors, and conference-hall with is able to host up to 100 people. In the opposite from the conference-hall south wing of Museum there is a cafe that boarders with museum shop from one side and mini library from the other.
At the same time part of ground floor is dedicated to temporary exhibitions. The floor is combined with the second floor not only by lift core but also by the «stair-ramp» along the north facade binding conventional ergonomic stairs with giant ones on witch one can sit or line up a linear part of the exhibition, sit or conduct children excursions, lining up kids on large stairs around the exhibits.

First floor is an open space for «caps» of the media-exposition. Structures are growing down from the ceiling and have the configuration that implicates visitors of the Maidan Museum to dive into constantly changing images or video row. Trivial fixing of vault-screens enables place change of main attractors in the space of the floor and human flows control changing scenario of behavioral transits. On the first floor there are cabinets of Freedom Museum staff.
Second floor serpentine represents one continuous unified gallery.

Summarizing the planning it can be stated that the deployment of main visitors’ trajectory is happening by the route from temporary exhibition of the ground floor to media screens of the first floor through the ramp of giant stairs. In turn from the transformable (due to mobile media «caps») first floor the visitor can get to the last, second floor with linear exhibition evolution.

Geometrically the chain can be described as following: decentralized temporary exhibition, linear ramp, polycentric media exhibition and finally the linear finishing of permanent collection.

People consolidation based on mutual respect to history, memory and recovery through (inter)action. Outside or inside in the community still being yourself, being a worthful person.

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