A birch woodland on a slab, evoking a transposed nature

On Bolotny Island in the center of Moscow, architect Renzo Piano has transformed the former GES 2 power plant into a contemporary arts center for the V-A-C Foundation. The elegance and lightness of the building inform the surrounding landscape composition. The garden features an expansive, level lawn and a thick forest of birch trees: the lawn, like a museum plaza, runs right up to the museum building; just beyond, the forest rises before the building. Though the forest appears to be a naturally formed, wooded hill, it is, in fact, an entirely engineered landscape. Beneath the trees, the ground is divided into multiple constructed layers. The underground museum annexes are covered with a thin, concave slab of concrete. This slab is overlaid with a shallow layer comprising a web of bags tied together and suspended above the beams. 605 birch trees inhabit the space above, underplanted with a blanket of groundcover. A sunken path, lined with richly planted embankments, winds throughout this constructed hillside.