combine two objects chief architect library

They have achieved a great deal over the past 12 years: sponsoring the lead project at the Venice Biennale, putting on exhibitions of Russian artists in Russian and European museums, bringing all sorts of Western art to Moscow, opening an exhibition space for the foundation in Venice and, finally, tracking down this incredible site for the foundation in Moscow. During a meeting with him during the Venice Biennale in 2009, she suggested they set up an art foundation together.

Born and raised in Italy, Mavica came to Russia more than 30 years ago and met Mikhelson in the early 2000s. 'We always wanted to take Russian culture to the rest of the world and decided to create this building for the making of art,' says Teresa Mavica, Director of the V-A-C Foundation. Renzo PIano was chosen as the chief architect and commissioned to redesign the building and the surrounding grounds, which in recent years had fallen into a state of decay and looked like an abandoned industrial site. This is when Mikhelson acquired the building to use as the new site for his V-A-C Foundation and its projects, which for almost a decade had been held at different venues in Moscow and around the world. For almost a century, the power station provided electricity for city trams and nearby buildings, but in 2006 it was decommissioned for good. The facade was designed in the Russian Revival style, which was in vogue at the time, but included elements of Medieval architecture while also giving a nod to modernism in the form of enormous windows that cover the entire length of the building. At the heart of the design is a giant glass and metal parallelepiped with a triangular sloping glass roof. The GES-2 power station was built in 1904-1907 by architect Vasily Bashkirov and engineer Mikhail Polivanov in the industrial style that was popular throughout Europe at the time. In remodeling the former GES-2 power station in Moscow, the building itself helped the architect to achieve this effect.

Anyone who has seen the work of Piano and the Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) or heard him discussing his projects, knows that his main passion is natural light.

Combine two objects chief architect library