Architect Zaha Hadid’s latest project in Moscow was a seven-storey office building for the city’s growing IT and creative sectors. The award winning architect was challenged to design a structure that could integrate the IT groups housed in the space, and encourage network development and synergy.

Located on Moscow’s Sharikopodshipnikovskaya Street, next to tram and trolleybus stops and near Dubrovka Station on the Moscow Metro, the Dominion Office Building is among the first of the new projects to be built in this primarily industrial and residential area in the southeast of the city.

Zaha Hadid’s clever concept was to vertically stack plates off-set at each level with connecting curved elements, and a central atrium that rises through all levels to bring natural light into the center of the building and attract occupants.

Balconies at each level project into the atrium and correspond to the displacement of the outer envelope, and a series of staircases interconnect through this central space each acting as meeting points. The white floor slabs of the 36-metre-tall building on Sharikopodshipnikovskaya Street are unevenly stacked, creating irregular protrusions.

The atrium becomes a shared space over many levels that encourages interaction between the employees of the companies within the building.  This integration also encourages collaboration between companies of different services and disciplines. Many IT and creative industry start-up companies regard this collective research culture as vital for progress and development. And the design of the Dominion Office Building reinforces this concept with open connectivity throughout the building.

The office spaces are arranged within a system of standard rectilinear bays to offer many different possibilities for small, expanding, or large companies. Located on the periphery of the atrium and housing the lifts, fire-escapes, washrooms and service shafts, the service cores provide a degree of privacy to the separate office spaces, with gaps in-between these cores giving some transparency and allowing light to penetrate into the office areas from the central shared atrium space. And a ground floor restaurant links the atrium to the outdoor terrace and onto the Sharikopodshipnikovskaya Streets.