Winning design announced for new Leningrad Siege museum

Local authorities in St Petersburg have announced the winning design for a new museum about the wartime blockade of the city, according to local news website Fontanka.ru.

Russian architectural bureau Studio44 came up with the plans for the building, which was reportedly selected from a shortlist by survivors of the siege.

The museum, on a site by the River Neva, will be based around three towers — the “famine tower”, the “mourning tower” and the “fire tower”, according to sketches on Studio44’s website.

Studio44 is the bureau of Nikita Yavein, a prominent St Petersburg architect who has also worked on the Boris Eifman Dance Academy and the General Staff building renovation in the city.

The siege of Leningrad, the name used for St Petersburg in the Soviet Union, lasted almost 900 days and saw the people who remained in the city reduced to starvation. About 2 million soldiers and civilians perished.

The current Defense and Siege of Leningrad Museum will move from its existing premises in the city centre when the new building is finished. Construction work at the new site is due to end in 2019.

Source: Fontanka.ru