Coop Himmelb(l)au Wins Competition with Constructivist-Inspired Design

Coop Himmelb(l)au is keeping busy in Russia, with the firm also designing a Museum and Theatre Complex in Kemerovo. They are clearly looking to the country's modern artists for inspiration, having previously created a short film, "Summer in Kemerovo," that was inspired by Kazimir Malevich. The firm's design for the new ice hockey arena and year-round park in St. Petersburg clearly articulates El Lissitzky and Tatlin as other Russian influences of choice.

Illustrations accompanying the usual realistic renderings show how the architects took an image of El Lissitzky's The New Man — a ca. 1920 artwork based on a 1913 Russian opera called Victory over the Sun — and applied it to the site plan of the large park, interpreting the arms and legs of the figure as axes in the park. Another one shows the curving lines and structural supports of Tatlin's Monument to the Third International transferred to the expressive "filigree framework" of the arena's external structure. 

Visit Coop Himmelb(l)au's office profile to see more of their competition-winning design for the SCA Arena and Park in St. Petersburg.