A concept note of F. M. Dostoevsky Literary-Memorial Museum extension

The concept of F. M. Dostoevsky Literary-Memorial Museum development proposes a reconstruction of the existing building and a construction of a new public and cultural center at a nearby site, which is free of buildings.

The new public and cultural center is to provide for a more convenient operation of the museum that would meet modern requirements. The center shall house multifunctional lecture and audience halls, an exhibition space, a café and a museum shop. An open terrace will appear on the walkable roof, where it will be possible to arrange literary soirees and film shows. Two stone buildings (the historical one, housing the memorial apartment, and the new one) shall be linked with an open space of a modern style lobby.

The material (natural stone), height, and scale of the building comply with the surroundings. Its look is linked to the historical buildings metaphorically rather than literally. The natural stone facing of the facades is a symbol of classicality, while the minimalism of the external decoration – of the significance of the writer’s works for the new generation of readers. The atrium vertical space refers to the famous Petersburg “well courtyards”. It is here that the entrance into the museum complex is situated, linking the old and the new building, just as Dostoevsky used to link realism and innovation in his writing.

The architects’ intention was to make with the whole look of the new Dostoevsky Museum building refer to the intense multidimensional atmosphere of the writer’s best works and to the paradoxical inner life world of his heroes. The architectural concept lays upon an opposition between various elements of modern and traditional architecture, a contrast between a main street and a “well-courtyard”, the shift from the sunlight in the lobby to the gloomy space of the auditorium.