Dome to let Muscovites escape winter at home

MOSCOW - An entire Moscow suburb is to be built within a space-age glass cone conceived by architect Lord Norman Foster to shield its residents from the Russian winter.

Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has approved the £1.6 billion ($4.7 billion) project, and excited officials believe it could emulate the global status of the Foster-designed Swiss Re "Gherkin" tower in the City of London.

The cone will be situated in southern Moscow on a spit of land near the Moscow River and will be topped by an imposing 150m-high spire. Those inside it will be able to see out through its transparent skin.

But by far the best thing about it from a Russian point of view is that people inside will be protected from the elements in a city where the mercury can fall to a bone-tingling minus 30C in the depths of winter.

The exact design of the cone is being kept under wraps by the architect, who is famously protective of his creations until the last moment, and no artist's impressions have yet been released. But Moscow officials have seen it and described it with enthusiasm. According to Aleksander Kuzmin, Moscow's chief architect, the lower part of the cone has been designed to look like an upturned flower with 12 giant petals radiating from its centre.

Inside, the cone itself will be a 20ha area split into six different levels, each one with several floors.

Foster has designed a 1ha observation point close to the cone's apex from where residents and visitors will be able to gaze over the Moscow skyline. The area will be surrounded by large swathes of greenery. The design is grandiose. Beneath its main cupola will be a public space that can be used as a sports stadium, a concert hall, a circus or an ice-rink. The cone's "guts" will look a bit like a see-through wedding cake; different levels will be stacked with apartment developments, shops, bars, restaurants and all the facilities you would expect to find in a small town.

Foster has pencilled in underground parking for up to 70,000 cars. Luzhkov has said that a new metro station will be built nearby. He has estimated that the development will be frequented by up to one million people every day.

The cone will be Lord Foster's third major project in Moscow and his fourth in Russia. In each case he has been commissioned by 56-year-old oligarch Shalva Chigirinsky, one of Russia's richest and most powerful property developers. His firm, ST Development, is strongly connected to Moscow's Mayor Luzhkov.

- INDEPENDENT