Yuri Avvakumov and Georgy Solopov project

New Holland Island Studios

New Holland Island Studios (NHIS) is envisaged in the manner of the Alexandria Mouseion , with the addition of artists in residence. Those artists, actors, architects, designers, writers, researchers, musicians, choreographers invited to NHIS will have the opportunity, as did Ptolemy’s scientists, to work creatively across the whole range of contemporary culture. This echoes the policy of the Institute of Artistic Culture in the 1920s.

The 150 former warehouse rooms will be organized as follows:
1. Creative spaces (studios), where studio space includes a living area.
2. Production spaces (workshops), for model-makers, joiners, plumbers, sound engineers, small-scale printing, film editing, and sewing.
3. Publishing spaces (media), for print and Internet publishers and TV studios.
4. Research spaces (laboratories), both scientific and technical.
5. Demonstration spaces (galleries), showrooms and cinemas.
6. Educational spaces (for classes), including lecture rooms, conference spaces, libraries and media spaces.
7. Storage spaces (museum collections), for artifacts made on New Holland Island
8. Administrative spaces (offices).

The Chevakinsky Building (Russian Hills): this performance and exhibition complex, named after the island’s first architect, Savva Ivanovich Chevakinsky, comprises a 1,100-seat theater (plus a 400-seat arena) and four exhibition halls of 5,000 square meters. The total area is 17,800 square meters.

The appearance of the complex is modeled on wooden dockyard constructions or the architect August de Montferrand’s design for the raising of the Alexandrovsky Column on Palace Square. In this way New Holland’s historical role as a storage space for ship mast wood is represented in the form of the contemporary building.

Text and video - by Yuri Avvakumov and Georgy Solopov. ©Yuri Avvakumov