Depository - noun [C] - a place, especially a large building, for storing things.
Cambridge Dictionary

A depositary in the museum world is a restoration and storage center (RSC), where stock items of one or several museums are located and being restored. In Russia, the most famous open storage depository located outside the walls of the museum is the RSC of the State Hermitage in Staraya Derevnya (St. Petersburg), the design of which began in 1996, and construction continues to this day. It was here that, for the first time in Russia, the spatial organization of the building's interiors was based on the visitor's route scheme, which made it possible to make available to the public in an excursion mode not only individual depositories and collections, but also the workshops of restorers, without interfering with the latter's work. The temperature and humidity regime remained unchanged due to the fact that most of the public routes passed through a system of sealed corridors that opened into rooms for storing and restoring museum items through internal display windows.

When designing the interior solutions for the depository located in the building on Elevatornaya Street, a similar layout was chosen for organizing the spaces available to the public. By its function, a depository is a place for storing museum items. Receiving the function of their demonstration, it becomes a distributed exhibition hall in which museum masterpieces and restoration processes are shown through the display windows.

The building's façade, viewed from the overpass, is a dynamic illustration of the restoration process – a strip of corten steel and stainless steel lamellas, located at an angle to each other, creates an optical illusion: when approached, the building turns from rusty into shining steel.

The building facades above the first floor are faced with triangular lamellas (hypotenuse 1650 mm). In the lower part of the building, the lamellas are displaced in a checkerboard pattern, forming a smaller scale of the facade. To distribute the load on the existing building, a frame spatial structure is mounted on the roof, on which a new cladding is hung. The parapet of the building rises three meters in order to block the view from the ground to technical structures, engineering equipment and exits to the roof.

The first floor and partly the second (along the E-Z axes) are faced with embossed panels made of glass fiber reinforced concrete with the texture "Malta". The width of the panels is 900-1200 mm. (depending on the specific situation); height – 3000 mm. The joints between the panels are minimal.

In front of the windows of the second, third and fourth floors, flush with the plane of the facade, vertical fixed blinds are installed, made in the same finish as the facade. Along the perimeter of the building, a flowerbed with automated drip irrigation is envisaged, in which maiden grapes grow, twisting the concrete walls of the first floor.

The area of ​​glass fiber concrete cladding of the building – 1350 m²

Corten steel area – 3700 m²

Stainless steel area – 3700 m²

Glazing area – 470 m²

The interior is characterized by an abundance of textures and decorative techniques that refer to different historical eras. The exhibits and collections seem to be reflected in the modern architecture of the building, as if in a mirror, transforming it to please. Active local colors that match the exhibits support and enhance their sound with a depth of resonance. Following the route, the viewer will know in advance in what historical era or area of ​​material culture he will be viewing. To match the architecture and the solution of meaningful graphics.

Navigation in the interior-casket is recognizably eclectic and artsy-modern at the same time. The color of the walls throughout the entire excursion route changes depending on which museum is presented to visitors. The restoration workshops are marked with black and white stripes. Graphics are applied to the walls with an oracle with letter-by-letter selection. All graphic design is lined up on a grid with a step of 300mm. Wall and ceiling paint Tikkurila Sympony, satin surface.