Awaiting reconstruction: model of the famous "Hexagon" presented at the exposition "The Birth of Scale"

Visitors to the exposition "The Birth of Scale" at the National Centre RUSSIA can see a model of the "Mechanical Engineering" pavilion from the All-Russian Agricultural and Handicraft-Industrial Exposition, which was held on the grounds of Gorky Park in Moscow in 1923. The pavilion was built by architect Ivan Zholtovsky and has survived to this day, but it is now in need of reconstruction.

"While designing the pavilions of the agricultural exposition, Zholtovsky considered it appropriate to widely use new structures in this temporary architecture and to leave them exposed. The layout of the pavilion is based on a frame of slender reinforced concrete columns, horizontal beams, and wooden rafter trusses," said Dmitry Lesnykh, tour guide at the National Centre RUSSIA and author of the guided tour of the exposition "The Birth of Scale."

After the decision was made in 1928 to establish a Park of Culture and Leisure on the grounds of the former agricultural exposition, the pavilion building was repurposed as the main dining hall.

In the early 1960s, part of the structure was converted into a lemonade production workshop. In the well-known 1963 film "Walking the Streets of Moscow," the main characters danced precisely in the "Hexagon."

In recent decades, the pavilion was gradually repurposed into a café, a restaurant, and a dance floor, before eventually being abandoned.

In 1999, the Government of Moscow placed the "Mechanical Engineering" pavilion under state protection as a monument of landscape park art, designating it as a cultural heritage site.

"It is important that the architect used concrete structures. There were several fires here, but thanks to them the core remained intact. A decision was made to restore the building, and soon we will see Zholtovsky’s revived 'Hexagon' in Gorky Park," said Natalia Zunneke, tour guide at the National Centre RUSSIA.

The pavilion is currently in critical condition and awaiting the start of reconstruction.

The exposition "The Birth of Scale" at the National Centre RUSSIA showcases completed architectural projects as well as ideas that remain only as concepts. The exposition consists of both the National Centre RUSSIA's own objects and those provided by museums and private collectors across the country.

Partners of the exposition "The Birth of Scale" include DOM.RF, the Ministry of Construction of Russia, Gazprom, the State Research Museum of Architecture named after A. V. Shchusev, the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, the Yakov Chernikhov Charitable Architectural Foundation, and the HSE School of Design.