The basic idea of the Corridor of Time permanent multimedia exhibition of the museum is to use the new forms of demonstration of the history of Russian architecture, which could on the one hand supplement the permanent exhibition while being its integral part on the other hand. ARCHIprojects of Russia have been selected from original works being crucial for the further development of architecture.
The visitors to the museum have the opportunity not only to pass along the Corridor of Time with a guide, but also to get acquainted with the history of Russian architecture independently in way of an individual or group presentation and learn about architectural styles. Then the multimedia complex provides the ability to connect directly to the virtual museum via touch screens, which presents detailed information and stock materials on several thousands of outstanding architectural buildings and projects. Visitors of the museum, as well as any Internet users from any city of Russia and the world can not only learn the basic stages of development of Russian architecture, but choose the way of acquaintance with the museum collection by sorting objects and pictures according to several parameters: style, time, architect (author), construction site, and learn the meaning of unfamiliar architectural terms.
The virtual museum of architecture is a project of the A.V. Shchusev State Museum of Architecture initiated and supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.
Architecture as a particular art form requires special and contemporary representation methods. Web portal and 3D excursions are the new, hi-tech and adequate form of presentation of the architecture. The history of the creation of selected buildings in drawings, layouts and models, as well as design documents of the nonbuilt constructions, photos and measurement plans of lost buildings let the audience to visualize the evolution of national architecture.
Besides that, the virtual mode of the existence of museum specimens (graphics, historical photos) and of modern architectural shootings of the extant buildings, may help the non-specialist audience to see and to estimate the main memorials and achievements of the Russian architecture. So, every web user, to whom the access to the unique collection of the Museum of architecture is difficult, be this user from a Russian city or from abroad, may not only get acquainted to the main stages of the Russian architecture evolution, but also to make his own selection of objects and pictures, sorting them by several parameters – style, time, architect and place of construction.
Virtual museum of architecture supplied with scientific texts, descriptions and annotations becomes a unique resource for historical studies of national architecture. It is progressive, mobile and easy-to-access.