Athletes, parades and the spirit of festivity: how architects created the 800 th anniversary of Moscow panels at Yakhromskaya metro station

The Moscow Metro is a real museum; interweaving of architecture, monumental and decorative arts became its hallmark as early as the 1930 s, rendering almost every station unique and inimitable.

Architects continue to follow the tradition even today. The Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya metro line will soon get its northern extension with three more stations, including Yakhromskaya where passengers leaving the train will plunge into the capital of 1947, its design focusing the 800 th anniversary of Moscow. The theme is chosen intentionally because the station is being built next to the same name street.

Yakhromskaya’s floors, columns, walls and ceilings will mirror the city’s main colors — white and red, but the most eye-catching thing is a tremendous set of panels depicting the Moscow of those days. Recently, engineers have installed the 22-motif set of panels with athletes, city streets, parades, the famous Worker and Collective Farm Woman sculpture alongside with the Yuri Dolgoruky monument amid the festive fireworks on the wall along the inbound tracks.

Find out on mos.ru about how they were creating and installing the panels, what parts they consist of, and why Yakhromskaya is to become one of the most beautiful Moscow metro stations.

Continuing the traditions of Kaganovich and Lanceray

The year of 1947 is a milestone for Moscow, still continuing to echo the joyful message of Great Victory, with the soon-to-come eight Stalinist skyscrapers, a monument to Yuri Dolgoruky, and the grandiose celebrations of the city’s 800 th anniversary. The architects and designers involved in perfecting the station were tasked to convey the festive mood.

“At Yakhromskaya, we, let’s say, have returned to the origins, that is, to the pillars that were laid down by the ‘founding father’ of the Moscow metro, Lazar Kaganovich, in the 1930 s. Then, the metro was thought to be a palace for people and anyone who descends into it should enjoy aesthetic pleasure. Vast light spaces and expensive materials, such as marble, casting, gold, bronze, and granite — this is how the metro was built in those years. At the Komsomolskaya station of the metro’s first line, artist Eugene Lanceray created a majolica piece dedicated to the metro builders,” says Nikolay Shumakov, Yakhromskaya Chief Architect and President of the Union of Architects of Russia.

Inspired by photographs of 1947, he was creating the station’s core highlight — an enormous set of panels along its track wall, together with People’s Artist of Russia Alexander Rukavishnikov and architect Alexander Nekrasov.

Having studied archival photographs, Alexander Rukavishnikov painted some designs, including athletes breaking off the start at the Dynamo stadium, pioneers wearing red scarves, busy streets with passers-by hurrying about their business and lines of cars, noisy parades, cheerful clown known as Karandash (“Pencil”), a grandiose construction site, the monument to Yuri Dolgoruky next to dancing couples, and multi-colored fireworks on the City Day — how, in brief, the post-war capital lived in 1947.

“We had to convey the spirit of festivity. In my opinion, we have succeeded,” says Nikolay Shumakov.

These were not separate paintings, but they were merged into one 160 x 5 m set with one motif seguing into the next.

Making such a large-scale mural is not an easy task. Earlier it would have taken years to create such an artwork, but today’s techniques help to speed up the process, Nikolay Shumakov explains.

Alexander Rukavishnikov’s designs were placed on metal panels in 1: 10 scale, printed in full size using a special scanner and delivered to the workshop, where the artist manually brought the drawings to perfection.

“Our panels are painted aluminum in fact. The material is non-combustible, which is crucial for the metro. After the finishing, it was coated with varnish and protective film and was then taken to the installation,” says Nikolay Shumakov.

Installing 111 panels in three weeks

The mural includes 22 fragments, each assembled from five panels.

“All 111 panels are made at the factory. Each is one and a half meter wide and five meters high. The subsystem and the very structure of the panels make it possible to avoid deformations both during installation and during usage, despite the impressive dimensions. At the factory, they apply an image on them, and the ready-made element is then brought to the construction site,” Roman Romashevsky, Deputy Project Director, Metro Construction Division, Mosinzhproekt JSC, explained.

The installation took three weeks. The first to install were athletes bearing panels, with paintings dedicated to the celebration of the City Day as the copestone.

The builders attached a frame of steel beams to Yakhromskaya concrete walls, with an aluminum subsystem consisting of brackets and profiles hung on it to make the structure rigid and reduce potential deformation of the panels, which are honeycomb aluminum sheets. The material can be used to manufacture large-size panels that remain perfectly flat and also minimizes butt joints, and it is also tolerable to temperature swings and high humidity. With the technologies like this, the quality of paintings and the brightness of colors will be preserved for many years.

According to Roman Romashevsky, panel transportation from the plant to the station must be as careful as possible; otherwise, there is a risk of damage.

Station made of Sayan marble, Siberian and Karelian granite

Yakhromskaya is a shallow station, which began to be built in 2019. It is to be part of the new section of the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya metro line along with the Lianozovo and Fiztekh stations.

In addition to the unrivalled panels, it also features other design high points. The floor of Yakhromskaya will be surfaced with slabs of light gray Siberian granite and red granite, which is mined on the island of Syuskyuyansaari in the north of Ladoga Lake. About 1,800 m² of the stone to be laid on the platform and to cover the façade bases of the entrance pavilions.

White slabs of Sayan marble have already been mounted on the walls of the southern lobby, and frames for cladding with red and white metal panels are ready on the track walls and the ceiling. Two-thirds of the ceiling, one of the track walls and the nearby columns on the platform will be cladded in red, while the remaining third and the second column row to come in white.

Now workers are doing finishing, installing engineering systems and building stairways at Yakhromskaya, with escalators having already been installed in one of the lobbies.

The station launch will indeed improve transport services to the Dmitrovsky, Severny, Vostochnoye Degunino, Beskudnikovsky and Lianozovo districts. Thus locals will save up to 20 minutes when traveling around the city.

Sergei Sobyanin told about the design of the Yakhromskaya station of the light green metro line