A “portal tower” being built for the VDNKh amusement park ropeway in Moscow, Russia. Image by Another City.
With the growth of urban gondolas in the cities, architects have naturally begun to experiment with more unique ropeway designs.
One particular element of a cable car which has received significant attention is the design of towers. For instance, decision-makers in cities such as Portland and London have built one-of-a-kind towers to add a touch of distinctiveness to their ropeway and surroundings.
Architects in recent proposals have continued this trend where even bolder designs are now becoming more common.
Above illustrations depict the final four conceptual styles that were chosen above as part of the design competition for the Gothenburg Cable Car. The design, second from the left, was ultimately chosen as the winner. Image from forlivochrorelse.se.
If you look closely above, the first rendering from the left, depicts a rare portal or lollipop tower concept. While this design did not win Gothenburg’s architectural competition, we personally thought that the portal tower could become a strong concept for future proposals.
As you can imagine, we were pleasantly surprised when we found out that a recreational ropeway in Moscow was already under construction with portal towers!
View of portal tower. Image by Another City.
There are currently three giant portal towers erected on site. Image by Another City.
Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot of information about the gondola itself.
However, what we do know is that the system is about 900m long and is being built at VDNKh, an amusement park/exhibition complex located ~10km north of Moscow’s city centre. VDNKh is also known as the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy and is one of the 50 largest exhibitions in the world.
The cable car will be constructed as part of a new 17.3ha theme park. A number of new attractions will be built which includes indoor pavilions, a 140m ferris wheel, and a roller coaster. An estimated 2 million people are expected to visit the park once it opens sometime in Fall 2018.
It’s uncertain when the ropeway will become operational, but hopefully once its complete, it can serve as another notable case study and a demonstration of the tower designs that are possible with urban gondolas.
A big thank you goes out to Irakli Z for sharing the photos/links with us!