Moscow’s metro sheds some of its Soviet look with bold new subway stations

Moscow’s metro system is famed for its Stalin-era stations with glittering chandeliers and mosaics, but architects are taking a radical new approach as the network undergoes a massive expansion.

While the original stations were conceived as “palaces for the people”, the new designs are less formal with light boxes for seats and laser-printed glass patterns.

In a major break with tradition, the Moscow city government has allowed outside architects to submit designs for several new stations in competitions that included a public vote on a phone app.

It has paved the way for “truly interesting and original stations that are outside any tradition,” says architecture journalist Nina Frolova.

The first of these to open is in the high-rise suburb of Solntsevo, once notorious for its local mafia.

Moscow’s Nefa Architects won with a design inspired by the sun, the Russian word for which forms the root of the suburb’s name.

“We wanted to let the sun inside,” said Nefa’s lead architect Dmitry Ovcharov, surveying the newly opened station on a recent afternoon.