The total area of the museum complex  - 1420 m²

Old school building - 253 m²

New building - 1077 m²

Bone carving workshop - 90 m²

Mikhaylo Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711-1765) was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to chemistry, physics, mineralogy, education, and literature. Among his discoveries were the atmosphere of Venus and the law of conservation of mass in chemical reactions.

Today, the Lomonosov Museum occupies the building of a former rural school (standing on the site of the Lomonosov family home) and two extremely poorly built one-story buildings of the early 2000s. Next to them is an old barn with an exposition of peasant life.

New museum appears in the bowels of the Arkhangelsk land. Preserving the existing volume of the rural school, a hill with main museum halls appears behind it.

The concept of the new museum building involves the preservation of architecturally valuable objects on the site. School building and barn are preserved and restored. Barn should be moved closer to the pond. The new, exceptionally poorly built exhibition buildings (2001 and 2009) are being dismantled.

1. The museum territory is flooded with water from the fields, which becomes a big problem every year.

2. The new exposition building of the museum blocks water from entering the site, leaving the most undeveloped view from the site.

3. The school and the new museum building are connected by a covered walkway with a green roof.

4. The new two-story building houses a cafe, a library, a hall for temporary exhibitions and a mini-hotel. A number of art objects and landscaping objects are located  on the hill.

The facades and unused roofs of the museum are lined with planks in the tradition of northern Russian wooden architecture.This decorative technique, as well as the scale of the building, allow the new museum complex to fit into the architectural ensemble of the surrounding village.

From the northern part, which borders on the fields surrounding the Lomonosov Museum complex, the premises of the central exposition hall reveal a clear rectangular shape, dissected by line of windows that gives access to sunlight into the hall. The boiler room pipe, which marks the right corner of the museum, complements the façade ensemble.

The inhabited hillside, which also serves as a roof for the central exhibition hall, is terraced and adapted for various activities that can be organized here all year round. This is an amphitheater for concerts, nightly film screenings or open-air astronomy lectures, a picnic area, an observation deck and a children's playground. On the museum territory, interactive models of various devices and mechanisms developed by M.V. Lomonosov are placed. Here are just a few of the scientist's inventions.

1. Marine Astronomical Observatory. Training apparatus
Observatory for the production of many marine observations on land. It is made of ropes and can be moved with them like a ship.

2. Spyglass
Increases the angle of view, increasing the ability to distinguish between objects in different lighting conditions.

3. Tower for carrying out optical experiments

4. Large pendulum
A device made by Lomonosov to measure changes in gravity and tidal force. This centroscopic pendulum, responding to variations in gravity due to the influence of the Moon and the Sun, he installed in his home.

5. Lomonosov's anemometer

For the first time in the history of meteorology, this instrument uses an impeller to measure wind speed, so often used for the same purpose today.

6. Lomonosov's aerodynamic machine

Designed for the study of atmospheric phenomena, the model has risen two dozen meters. This was the world's first documented test of a heavier-than-air aircraft.

Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov is probably the first fundamental Russian scientist who excelled in many areas of scientific knowledge: from physics and optics to chemistry and meteorology. He assumed the existence of Antarctica before it was discovered and invented a new telescope scheme, now known as the Haeckel-Lomonosov scheme. His corpuscular theory anticipated the emergence of the theory of molecular interactions accepted in modern science. What can we say about the ode to the northern lights, the alphabet and grammar? At the same time, his knowledge – advanced for the 18th century – now roughly corresponds to the knowledge of the current diligent high school student, and fundamental science has gone a long way in three centuries, such that Lomonosov's theories have exclusively historical value within its framework. Involuntarily, the question arises – how to actualize what Lomonosov did, how to build a historical exposition so that it meets the modern level of scientific knowledge of theories that are interesting and interesting to think about? In our concept, Lomonosov is the prime mover of the expanding universe of scientific knowledge.

Image: the first monument to M.V. Lomonosov, erected by P.I. Chelishchev
on Kurostrov in 1791

Entering the main hall of the museum "Lomonosov's head", the viewer faces material artifacts associated with the scientific and practical activities of the scientist. These are scientific instruments – a telescope, a horizonoscope, a density meter, and his inventions – a spring helicopter, and artifacts – a stone from the foundation of the first chemical laboratory, and documents – a statute on the founding of Moscow University, and works of art – a copy of a mosaic made of smalt welded by Lomonosov. Each of these material items is equipped with an interactive activation mechanism. Upon contact with a visitor or a group of visitors, a script is activated, demonstrating the story of the history of this invention and its place in the historical scientific context.

The script contains a certain perspective of scientific knowledge, which makes it possible to understand the path that science has traveled from the 18th century to the present day. This part of the exhibition is located inside the semicircular chapels surrounding each of the artifacts. Between the chapels or through them, you can get into the outer space of the hall and see a completely different exposition here. This is a full-scale picture of modern scientific knowledge, containing the latest facts and theories. Thus, from three plans – artifacts associated with the scientific activities of Lomonosov, diagrams of the development of scientific knowledge from the 18th to the 21st centuries and an exposition about modern science – the constantly expanding scientific space of Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov is formed.

For the design of the chapels, it is proposed to use a synthetic material of variable transparency, which can be controlled using electrical pulses.
In an opaque state, the chapel walls will serve to project visual information describing the path that scientific thought traveled from the 18th to the 21st centuries. In transparent state – the whole perspective of the scientific Universe will be opened through them.

1. Vertical take-off apparatus
2. A device for determining the midday line
3. Rain gauge
4. Hardness tester
5. Instrument for measuring viscosity

The organization of the space of the chapels is built on the gradient of dematerialization of objects presented to the viewer's attention. It is a physical metaphor for the workings of thought, denoting the movement of a person from "experience" to "understanding."

When looking at the complex from the side of the memorial pond, the viewer sees a barn moved to the pond, behind it – a school and a guest block with a cafe on the ground floor. The inhabited hill only slightly shows its back in the central courtyard of the complex.

The barn is a place for a bone-cutting workshop. On the second floor the workshop is combined with a pantry of materials and finished products (with the possible organization of a souvenir shop). On the ground floor, the workspace includes an exhibition hall and a table for collaboration, where, in the format of a of bone-cutting coworking at master classes, visitors will be able to adopt the skills of professionals.

Ground floor area – 45m²
Second floor area – 45m²
The total area of the bone carving workshop – 90m²