RHIKE PARK – MUSIC THEATRE AND EXHIBITION HALL

Ilia Celiento

Two dynamic structures form a single complex for the city of Tbilisi, Georgia, bordering the Kura River. The Rhike Park project, by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, stretches over an area of 10,000 square meters, including an auditorium and an exhibition center.
Its snaking system conceals the architecture’s two different functional structures. On the site plan, the structures are oriented towards the river and are emblematic of the pursuit of formal innovation for the city’s historic center. The Exhibition Center covers 2,000 square meters and is anchored to the ground with a monumental staircase at the entrance, and it is the structure accessing the park with outdoor green spaces leading to it. The second curving structure houses the 900 square meters auditorium, the foyer, and the technical spaces and it joins the other building in its final part. The curved design of the sections, made with a steel grid structure, welcomes visitors within a dynamic, brightly-lit space.
The design decision to raise one of the structures to a higher level turns the architecture into an observational platform overlooking the urban landscape. The geometric and carved cladding of the steel and glass elevations is another key quality of the architecture, emerging from the surrounding built fabric with a modern vocabulary. Behind the structural rigidity of reinforced concrete, it has a sophisticated, consistent formal lightness. The relationship between form and function and the dualism between vertical and horizontal dimensions is the starting point for a project aiming to become a contemporary landmark.