Constructivist architecture was a constructivist style of

modern architecture Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, or the modern movement, is an architectural movement and style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco and later postmodern movements. Modern architectur ...

that flourished in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in the 1920s and early 1930s. Abstract and austere, the movement aimed to reflect modern

industrial society In sociology, an industrial society is a society driven by the use of technology and machinery to enable mass production, supporting a large population with a high capacity for division of labour. Such a structure developed in the Western world ...

and urban space, while rejecting decorative stylization in favor of the industrial assemblage of materials. Designs combined advanced technology and engineering with an avowedly

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

social purpose. Although it was divided into several competing factions, the movement produced many pioneering projects and finished buildings, before falling out of favor around 1932. It has left marked effects on later developments in

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

Definition

Constructivist architecture emerged from the wider Constructivist art movement, which grew out of

Russian Futurism Russian Futurism is the broad term for a movement of Russian poets and artists who adopted the principles of Filippo Marinetti's "Futurist Manifesto, Manifesto of Futurism", which espoused the rejection of the past, and a celebration of speed, ...

. Constructivist art had attempted to apply a three-dimensional

cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

vision to wholly abstract non-objective 'constructions' with a kinetic element. After the

Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

, it turned its attentions to the new social demands and industrial tasks required of the new regime. Two distinct threads emerged, the first was encapsulated in Antoine Pevsner's and

Naum Gabo Naum Gabo (born Naum Neemia Pevsner; Russian language, Russian: Наум Борисович Певзнер; Hebrew language, Hebrew: נחום נחמיה פבזנר) (23 August 1977) was an influential sculptor, theorist, and key figure in Russia's ...

's '' Realist manifesto'' which was concerned with space and rhythm, the second represented a struggle within the Commissariat for Enlightenment between those who argued for ''pure art'' and the Productivists such as Alexander Rodchenko,

Varvara Stepanova Varvara Fyodorovna Stepanova (; – May 20, 1958) was a Russian artist. With her husband Alexander Rodchenko, she was associated with the Constructivist branch of the Russian avant-garde, which rejected aesthetic values in favour of revolutiona ...

and

Vladimir Tatlin Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin (; ; – 31 May 1953) was a Russian and Soviet painter, architect, and stage-designer. Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed The Monument to the Third International, more commonly known as Tatlin's Tower, ...

, a more socially oriented group who wanted this art to be absorbed in industrial production. A split occurred in 1922 when Pevsner and Gabo emigrated. The movement then developed along socially

utilitarian In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for the affected individuals. In other words, utilitarian ideas encourage actions that lead to the ...

lines. The productivist majority gained the support of the

Proletkult Proletkult ( rus, Пролетку́льт, p=prəlʲɪtˈkulʲt), a portmanteau of the Russian words "proletarskaya kultura" ( proletarian culture), was an experimental Soviet artistic institution that arose in conjunction with the Russian Revol ...

and the magazine LEF, and later became the dominant influence of the architectural group O.S.A.

A revolution in architecture

The first and most famous Constructivist architectural project was the 1919 proposal for the headquarters of the

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

by the

Futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futures studies or futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities ...

, often called Tatlin's Tower. Though it remained unbuilt, the materials—glass and steel—and its futuristic ethos and political slant (the movements of its internal volumes were meant to symbolise revolution and the dialectic) set the tone for the projects of the 1920s. Another famous early Constructivist project was the Lenin Tribune by

El Lissitzky El Lissitzky (, born Lazar Markovich Lissitzky , ; – 30 December 1941), was a Soviet Jewish artist, active as a painter, illustrator, designer, printmaker, photographer, and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian avant-garde, h ...

(1920), a moving speaker's podium. During the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

the

UNOVIS UNOVIS (, also known as MOLPOSNOVIS and POSNOVIS) was a short-lived but influential group of artists, founded and led by Russian painter Kazimir Malevich at the Vitebsk Art School in 1919. Initially formed by students and known as MOLPOSNOVIS, ...

group centered on

Kasimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (

and Lissitzky designed various projects that forced together the 'non-objective' abstraction of Suprematism with more utilitarian aims, creating ideal Constructivist cities— see also El Lissitzky's ''Prounen-Raum'', the 'Dynamic City' (1919) of

Gustav Klutsis Gustav Gustavovich Klutsis (, ; 4 January 1895 – 26 February 1938) was a pioneering Latvian photographer and major member of the Constructivist avant-garde in the early 20th century. He is known for the Soviet revolutionary and Stalinist pro ...

; Lazar Khidekel's Workers Club (1926) and his Dubrovka Power Plant and first Sots Town (1931–33).

ASNOVA and rationalism

Immediately after the

, the USSR was too impoverished to commission any major new building projects. Nonetheless, the Soviet avant-garde school Vkhutemas started an architectural wing in 1921, which was led by the architect Nikolai Ladovsky, which was called ASNOVA (association of new architects). The teaching methods were both functional and fantastic, reflecting an interest in

Gestalt psychology Gestalt psychology, gestaltism, or configurationism is a school of psychology and a theory of perception that emphasises the processing of entire patterns and configurations, and not merely individual components. It emerged in the early twent ...

, leading to daring experiments with form such as Simbirchev's glass-clad suspended restaurant. Among the architects affiliated to the ASNOVA (Association of New Architects) were

, Konstantin Melnikov,

Vladimir Krinsky Vladimir Fyodorovich Krinsky (Владимир Фёдорович Кринский; 19 December 1890 – 2 April 1971) was a Russian people, Russian artist and architect active with the ASNOVA architectural organisation and linked with the Cologne ...

and the young

Berthold Lubetkin Berthold Romanovich Lubetkin (14 December 1901 – 23 October 1990) was a Russian-born British architecture, architect who pioneered International style (architecture), modernist design in Britain in the 1930s. His work includes the Highpoint I ...

. Projects from 1923 to 1935 like Lissitzky and Mart Stam's Wolkenbügel horizontal skyscrapers and Konstantin Melnikov's temporary pavilions showed the originality and ambition of this new group. Melnikov would design the Soviet Pavilion at the Paris Exposition of Decorative Arts of 1925, which popularised the new style, with its rooms designed by Rodchenko and its jagged, mechanical form. Another glimpse of a Constructivist lived environment is visible in the popular science fiction film Aelita, which had interiors and exteriors modelled in angular, geometric fashion by

Aleksandra Ekster Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster (née Grigorovich; ; ; 18 January 1882 – 17 March 1949), also known as Alexandra Exter, was a Russian and French painter and designer. As a young woman, her studio in Kiev attracted all the city's creative lum ...

. The state-run Mosselprom department store of 1924 was also an early modernist building for the new consumerism of the

New Economic Policy The New Economic Policy (NEP) () was an economic policy of the Soviet Union proposed by Vladimir Lenin in 1921 as a temporary expedient. Lenin characterized the NEP in 1922 as an economic system that would include "a free market and capitalism, ...

, as was the Vesnin brothers' Mostorg store, built three years later. Modern offices for the mass press were also popular, such as the

Izvestia ''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, r=Izvestiya, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in February 1917, ''Izvestia'', which covered foreign relations, was the organ of the Supreme Soviet of th ...

headquarters. This was built in 1926–7 and designed by Grigori BarkhinS.N Khan-Magomedov, Pioneers of Soviet Architecture (1988).

OSA

A colder and more technological Constructivist style was introduced by the 1923/4 glass office project by the

Vesnin brothers The Vesnin brothers: Leonid Vesnin (1880–1933), Viktor Vesnin (1882–1950) and Alexander Vesnin (1883–1959) were the leaders of Constructivist architecture, the dominant architectural school of the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. E ...

for ''Leningradskaya

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, 'Truth') is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most in ...

''. In 1925 the OSA Group, also with ties to Vkhutemas, was founded by Alexander Vesnin and Moisei Ginzburg—the Organisation of Contemporary Architects. This group had much in common with Weimar Germany's Functionalism, such as the housing projects of Ernst May. Housing, especially collective housing in specially designed ''dom kommuny'' to replace the collectivised 19th century housing that was the norm, was the main priority of this group. The term social condenser was coined to describe their aims, which followed from the ideas of V.I.

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

, who wrote in 1919 that "the real emancipation of women and real communism begins with the mass struggle against these petty household chores and the true reforming of the mass into a vast socialist household." Ref pfanner14

Collective housing projects that were built included Ivan Nikolaev's Communal House of the Textile Institute (Ordzhonikidze St, Moscow, 1929–1931), and Ginzburg's Moscow Gosstrakh apartments and, most famously, his

Narkomfin Building The Narkomfin Building is a block of flats at 25, Novinsky Boulevard, in the Moscow Central constituency, Central district of Moscow, Russia. Conceived as a "transitional type of experimental house", it is a renowned example of Constructivist arc ...

. Flats were built in a Constructivist idiom in Kharkiv, Moscow and Leningrad and in smaller towns. Ginzburg also designed a government building in

Alma-Ata Almaty, formerly Alma-Ata, is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population exceeding two million residents within its metropolitan area. Located in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains in southern Kazakhstan, near the border wi ...

, while the Vesnin brothers designed a School of Film Actors in Moscow. Ginzburg critiqued the idea of building in the new society being the same as in the old: "treating workers' housing in the same way as they would bourgeois apartments...the Constructivists however approach the same problem with maximum consideration for those shifts and changes in our everyday life...our goal is the collaboration with the proletariat in creating a new way of life".quoted in ''Art and Revolution'' ed Campbell/Lynton, Hayward Gallery London 1971 OSA published a magazine, ''SA'' or Contemporary Architecture from 1926 to 1930. The leading rationalist Ladovsky designed his own, rather different kind of mass housing, completing a Moscow apartment block in 1929. A particularly extravagant example is the 'Chekists Village' in Sverdlovsk (now

Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg (, ; ), alternatively Romanization of Russian, romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( ; 1924–1991), is a city and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the Ural Federal District, Russia. The ci ...

) designed by Ivan Antonov, Veniamin Sokolov and Arseny Tumbasov, a hammer and sickle shaped collective housing complex for staff of the People's Commissariat for the Internal Affairs (NKVD), which currently serves as a hotel.

The everyday and the utopian

The new forms of the Constructivists began to symbolise the project for a new everyday life of the Soviet Union, then in the mixed economy of the

.See the discussion in Victor Buchli's, ''An Archeology of Socialism'' (2000) State buildings were constructed like the huge Derzhprom complex in Kharkiv (designed by Serafimov, Folger and Kravets, 1926–1928) which was noted by

Reyner Banham Peter Reyner Banham (2 March 1922 – 19 March 1988) was an English architectural critic and writer best known for his theoretical treatise ''Theory and Design in the First Machine Age'' (1960) and for his 1971 book ''Los Angeles: The Architectu ...

in his ''Theory and Design in the First Machine Age'' as being, along with the

Dessau Dessau is a district of the independent city of Dessau-Roßlau in Saxony-Anhalt at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the ''States of Germany, Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Until 1 July 2007, it was an independent ...

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

, the largest scale Modernist work of the 1920s.Reyner Banham, ''Theory and Design in the First Machine Age'' (Architectural Press, 1971), p297. Other notable works included the aluminum parabola and glazed staircase of Mikhail Barsch and Mikhail Sinyavsky's 1929 Moscow Planetarium. The popularity of the new aesthetic led to traditionalist architects adopting Constructivism, as in Ivan Zholtovsky's 1926 MOGES power station or Alexey Shchusev's Narkomzem offices, both in Moscow. Similarly, the engineer

Vladimir Shukhov Vladimir Grigoryevich Shukhov (; – 2 February 1939) was a Russian and Soviet engineer-polymath, scientist and architect renowned for his pioneering works on new methods of analysis for structural engineering that led to breakthroughs in indu ...

's Shukhov Tower was often seen as an avant-garde work and was, according to

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin ( ; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German-Jewish philosopher, cultural critic, media theorist, and essayist. An eclectic thinker who combined elements of German idealism, Jewish mysticism, Western M ...

in his Moscow Diary, 'unlike any similar structure in the West'. Shukhov also collaborated with Melnikov on the Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage and Novo-Ryazanskaya Street Garage. Many of these buildings are shown in

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein; (11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is no ...

's film The General Line, which also featured a specially built mock-up Constructivist collective farm designed by Andrey Burov. A central aim of the Constructivists was instilling the avant-garde in everyday life. From 1927 they worked on projects for Workers' Clubs, communal leisure facilities usually built in factory districts. Among the most famous of these are the Kauchuk, Svoboda and Rusakov clubs by Konstantin Melnikov, the club of the Likachev works by the Vesnin brothers, and Ilya Golosov's Zuev Workers' Club. At the same time as this foray into the everyday, outlandish projects were designed such as Ivan Leonidov's Lenin Institute, a high tech work that bears comparison with

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

. This consisted of a skyscraper-sized library, a planetarium and dome, all linked together by a monorail; or Georgy Krutikov's self-explanatory Flying City, an ASNOVA project that was intended as a serious proposal for airborne housing. The Melnikov House and his Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage are fine examples of the tensions between individualism and utilitarianism in Constructivism. There were also projects for Suprematist skyscrapers called 'planits' or 'architektons' by

Kasimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (

, Lazar Khikeidel – Cosmic Habitats (1921–1922), Architectons (1922–1927), Workers Club (1926), Communal Dwelling (Коммунальное Жилище)(1927), A. Nikolsky and L. Khidekel – Moscow Cooperative Institute (1929). The fantastical element also found expression in the work of Yakov Chernikhov, who produced several books of experimental designs—most famously ''Architectural Fantasies'' (1933)—earning him the epithet 'the Soviet Piranesi'.

The ''Sotsgorod'' and town planning

Despite the ambitiousness of many Constructivist proposals for reconstructed cities, there were fairly few examples of coherent Constructivist town planning. However, the Narvskaya Zastava district of

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

became a focus for Constructivism. Beginning in 1925 communal housing was designed for the area by architects like A. Gegello and OSA's Alexander Nikolsky, as well as public buildings like the Kirov Town Hall by Noi Trotsky (1932–4), an experimental school by G.A Simonov and a series of Communal laundries and kitchens, designed for the area by local ASNOVA members. An example of a finished Constructivist neighborhood is Sotsmisto (Sotsgorod) of

Zaporizhzhia Zaporizhzhia, formerly known as Aleksandrovsk or Oleksandrivsk until 1921, is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. It is the Capital city, administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia ...

. Many of the Constructivists hoped to see their ambitions realised during the 'Cultural Revolution' that accompanied the

first five-year plan First five-year plan may refer to: * First five-year plan (China) * First Five-Year Plans (Pakistan) * First five-year plan (Soviet Union) The first five-year plan (, ) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a list of economi ...

. At this point the Constructivists were divided between urbanists and disurbanists who favoured a garden city or linear city model. The Linear City was propagandised by the head of the Finance Commissariat Nikolay Milyutin in his book ''Sozgorod'', aka ''Sotsgorod'' (1930). This was taken to a more extreme level by the OSA theorist Mikhail Okhitovich. His disurbanism proposed a system of one-person or one-family buildings connected by linear transport networks, spread over a huge area that traversed the boundaries between the urban and agricultural, in which it resembled a socialist equivalent of

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

's Broadacre City. The disurbanists and urbanists proposed projects for new cities such as

Magnitogorsk Magnitogorsk ( rus, Магнитого́рск, p=məɡnʲɪtɐˈɡorsk, ) is an industrial city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, on the eastern side of the extreme southern extent of the Ural Mountains by the Ural River. Its population is curre ...

were often rejected in favour of the more pragmatic German architects fleeing Nazism, such as 'May Brigade' ( Ernst May, Mart Stam, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky), the 'Bauhaus Brigade' led by

Hannes Meyer Hans Emil "Hannes" Meyer (18 November 1889 – 19 July 1954) was a Swiss architect and second director of the Bauhaus Dessau from 1928 to 1930. Early life Meyer was born in Basel, Switzerland, trained as a mason, and practiced as an architect ...

, and

Bruno Taut Bruno Julius Florian Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author. He was active during the Weimar period and is known for his theoretical works as well as his building designs. Early l ...

. The city-planning of

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

found brief favour, with the architect writing a 'reply to Moscow' that later became the Ville Radieuse plan, and designing the Tsentrosoyuz government building with the Constructivist Nikolai Kolli. The duplex apartments and collective facilities of the OSA group were a major influence on his later work. Another famous modernist,

Erich Mendelsohn Erich Mendelsohn (); 21 March 1887 – 15 September 1953) was a German-British architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic functionalism in his projects for department stores and cinem ...

, designed Leningrad's Red Banner Textile Factory and popularised Constructivism in his book ''Russland, Europa, Amerika''. A Five Year Plan project with major Constructivist input was DniproHES, designed by Victor Vesnin et al. El Lissitzky also popularised the style abroad with his 1930 book ''The Reconstruction of Architecture in Russia''.

The end of constructivism

The 1932 competition for the

Palace of the Soviets The Palace of the Soviets () was a project to construct a political convention center in Moscow on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The main function of the palace was to house sessions of the Supreme Soviet in its ...

, a grandiose project to rival the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story, Art Deco-style supertall skyscraper in the Midtown South neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its n ...

, featured entries from all the major Constructivists as well as

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (; 18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-born American architect and founder of the Bauhaus, Bauhaus School, who is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of ...

and

. However, this coincided with widespread criticism of Modernism, which was always difficult to sustain in a still mostly agrarian country. There was also the critique that the style merely copied the forms of technology while using fairly routine construction methods.Catherine Cooke, ''The Avant-Garde''. The winning entry by Boris Iofan marked the start of eclectic historicism of

Stalinist Architecture Stalinist architecture (), mostly known in the former Eastern Bloc as Stalinist style or socialist classicism, is the architecture of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, between 1933 (when Boris Iofan's draft for the Palace o ...

, a style which bears similarities to

Post-Modernism Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wor ...

in that it reacted against modernist architecture's cosmopolitanism, alleged ugliness and inhumanity with a pick and mix of historical styles, sometimes achieved with new technology. Housing projects like the Narkomfin were designed for the attempts to reform everyday life in the 1920s, such as collectivisation of facilities, equality of the sexes and collective raising of children, all of which fell out of favour as Stalinism revived family values. The styles of the old world were also revived, with the

Moscow Metro The Moscow Metro) is a rapid transit system in the Moscow Oblast of Russia. It serves the capital city of Moscow and the neighbouring cities of Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast, Krasnogorsk, Reutov, Lyubertsy, and Kotelniki. Opened in 1935 with one l ...

in particular popularising the idea of 'workers' palaces'. By the end of the 1920s Constructivism was the country's dominant architecture, and surprisingly many buildings of this period survive. Initially the reaction was towards an

art deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

esque Classicism that was initially inflected with Constructivist devices, such as in Iofan's House on Embankment of 1929–32. For a few years some structures were designed in a composite style sometimes called Postconstructivism. After this brief synthesis, Neo-Classical reaction was totally dominant until 1955. Rationalist buildings were still common in industrial architecture, but extinct in urban projects. Last isolated constructivist buildings were launched in 1933–1935, such as Panteleimon Golosov's ''

'' building (finished 1935), the Moscow Textile Institute (finished 1938) or Ladovsky's rationalist vestibules for the

. Clearly Modernist competition entries were made by the Vesnin brothers and Ivan Leonidov for the Narkomtiazhprom project in Red Square, 1934, another unbuilt Stalinist edifice. Traces of Constructivism can also be found in some Socialist Realist works, for instance in the

elevations of Iofan's ultra-Stalinist 1937 Paris Pavilion, which had Suprematist interiors by Nikolai Suetin.

Legacy

Due in part to its political commitment—and its replacement by

Stalinist architecture Stalinist architecture (), mostly known in the former Eastern Bloc as Stalinist style or socialist classicism, is the architecture of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, between 1933 (when Boris Iofan's draft for the Palace o ...

—the mechanistic, dynamic forms of Constructivism were not part of the calm Platonism of the

International Style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...

as it was defined by

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect who designed modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the postmodern 550 ...

and Henry-Russell Hitchcock. Their book included only one building from the USSR, an electrical laboratory by a government team led by Nikolaev. During the 1960s Constructivism was rehabilitated to a certain extent, and both the wilder experimental buildings of the era (such as the Globus Theatre or the Tbilisi Roads Ministry Building) and the unornamented

Khrushchyovka ''Khrushchevkas'' ( rus, хрущёвка, khrushchyovka, p=xrʊˈɕːɵfkə) are a type of low-cost, concrete- paneled or brick three- to five-storied apartment buildings (and apartments in these buildings) which were designed and constructe ...

apartments are in a sense a continuation of the aborted experiment, although under very different conditions. Outside the USSR, Constructivism has often been seen as an alternative, more radical modernism, and its legacy can be seen in designers as diverse as

Team 10 Team 10 – just as often referred to as Team X or Team Ten – was a group of architects and other invited participants who assembled starting in July 1953 at the 9th Congress of the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne, International ...

Archigram Archigram was an avant-garde British architectural group whose unbuilt projects and media-savvy provocations "spawned the most influential architectural movement of the 1960's," according to Princeton Architectural Press study ''Archigram'' (19 ...

and Kenzo Tange, as well as in much

Brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...

work. Their integration of the avant-garde and everyday life has parallels with the

Situationists The Situationist International (SI) was an Proletarian internationalism, international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and Political philosophy, political theorists. It was prominent in Eu ...

, particularly the New Babylon project of

Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situat ...

and

Constant Nieuwenhuys Constant Anton Nieuwenhuys (21 July 1920 – 1 August 2005), better known as Constant, was a Dutch painter, sculptor, graphic artist, author and musician. Early period Constant was born in Amsterdam on 21 July 1920 as the first son of Pieter N ...

. High Tech architecture also owes a debt to Constructivism, most obviously in

Richard Rogers Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside (23 July 1933 – 18 December 2021) was a British-Italian architect noted for his modernist and constructivist designs in high-tech architecture. He was the founder at Rogers Stirk Harbour + ...

Lloyd's building The Lloyd's building (sometimes known as the Inside-Out Building) is the home of the insurance institution Lloyd's of London. It is located on the former site of East India House in Lime Street, London, Lime Street, in London's main financial d ...

Zaha Hadid Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid ( ''Zahā Ḥadīd''; 31 October 1950 – 31 March 2016) was an Iraqi-born British architect, artist, and designer. She is recognised as a key figure in the architecture of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Born ...

's early projects were adaptations of Malevich's Architektons, and the influence of Chernikhov is clear on her drawings.

Deconstructivism Deconstructivism is a postmodern architecture, postmodern architectural movement which appeared in the 1980s. It gives the impression of the fragmentation of the constructed building, commonly characterised by an absence of obvious harmony, ...

evokes the dynamism of Constructivism, though without the social aspect, as in the work of

Coop Himmelb(l)au Coop Himmelb(l)au (a pun meaning '' Coop Sky Building'' and ''Coop Sky Blue'') is an architecture, urban planning, design and art firm founded in 1968 by Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky and Michael Holzer in Vienna, Austria. History Coop Hi ...

. In the late 1970s

Rem Koolhaas Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theory, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Graduate School of ...

wrote a parable on the political trajectory of Constructivism called ''The Story of the Pool'', in which Constructivists escape from the USSR in a self-powering Modernist swimming pool, only to die, after being criticised for much the same reasons as they were under Stalinism, soon after their arrival in the USA. Meanwhile, many of the original Constructivist buildings are poorly preserved or in danger of imminent demolition.

Gallery

Будинок Громадського зібрання 1.jpg, Public Assembly Building (now Philharmonic Theater) in

Dnipro Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

(1912), which is considered a precursor of Constructivism. File:Ladovsky sketch.jpg, Collective Housing design ( Nikolai Ladovsky, 1920) File:Moscow, Mosselprom Building.jpg, Mosselprom building (David Kogan, 1923–4) File:Steel-roof-of-Novoryzansky-Garage.jpg, Novo-Ryazanskaya Street Garage ( Melnikov, 1926) File:Moscow, Izvestia Building.jpg, Izvestia Building, Moscow (Grigori & Mikhail Barkhin, 1926) File:Melnikov Svoboda Club Moscow.jpg, Svoboda Factory Club ( Melnikov, 1927) File:Kauchuk club moscow architect melnikov.jpg, Kauchuk Factory Club ( Melnikov, 1927) File:Palace of industry.jpg, Derzhprom in

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

, ( Sergei Serafimov, Samuel Kravets and Mark Felger, late 1920s) File:Constructivist housing, Zamoskvorechye, Moscow.jpg, Flats, Zamoskvorechye, Moscow (late 1920s) File:Melnikov House in MSK (img2).jpg, Melnikov House in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. It was at the top of

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

's list of "Endangered Buildings". There is an international campaign to save it. File:Iset Hotel.jpg, Hotel Iset (

, Chekists Village) File:Verzamelgebouw De Volharding - De Volharding Multi-user building (4750939167).jpg, De Volharding, mixed-use building by Jan Buijs (

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, 1927–28) File:Russian Railways headquarters building.jpg, The Peoples Commissariat For Communication Lines (

Ivan Fomin Ivan Aleksandrovich Fomin (Russian language, Russian: Иван Александрович Фомин; 3 February ld Style and New Style dates, O.S. 22 January1872 – 12 June 1936) was a Russian architect and educator. He began his career in ...

, 1929) Narkomfin fall.jpg,

, apartment house ( Moisei Ginzburg, 1930) File:Narkomfin Building Moscow 2007 03.jpg, Narkomfin Building before its restoration in 2020 (Moisei Ginzburg, 1930) File:Wiki Constructivist MPS building, 5 Novaya Basmannaya Street Moscow.jpg, MPS Building, Moscow (

, 1930s) Ростовский театр драмы Горького.jpg, Maxim Gorky Theatre, Rostov-na-Donu, 1935 File:Chernikhov tower.jpg, Red Carnation Factory, St Petersburg ( Yakov Chernikhov) E-burg asv2019-05 img70 White Tower.jpg, White Tower, Yekaterinburg (1931) File:Moscow textile institute.jpg, Textile Institute, Moscow (1930–8) File:Администрация НСО.jpg, Regional administration building, 1930–1932,

Novosibirsk Novosibirsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and the Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 1,633,595, making it the most populous city in Siber ...

File:Krasny (Red) Prospekt 11 Novosibirsk Siberia Russian Federation.jpg, Krasny Prospekt 11,

File:Grossmann safarikovo.JPG, Club of Slovak Artists,

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

, 1926 File:Casa de Frida Kahlo en el Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera.JPG, House and studio of

Diego Rivera Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957) was a Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the Mexican muralism, mural movement in Mexican art, Mexican and international art. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted mural ...

and

Frida Kahlo Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by Culture of Mexico, the country' ...

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

, by

Juan O'Gorman Juan O'Gorman (6 July 1905 – 17 January 1982) was a Mexican painter and architect. Early life and family Juan O'Gorman was born on 6 July 1905 in Coyoacán, then a village to the south of Mexico City and now a borough A borough is an admini ...

, 1932 File:Grossmann bezrucova.JPG, Former hospital Bezručova by Alois Balán and Jiří Grossmann,

(

), 1939 File:University of Leicester Engineering Building - view from below.jpg, University of Leicester Engineering Building by James Stirling (1963) File:Barriodelasflores5.jpg, Barrio de las Flores,

La Coruña LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note *"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smi ...

, Galicia, (

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

) (1960s).

Constructivist buildings and other modernist projects in the former USSR

Moscow

* Mosselprom building (1925) by Nikolai Strukov * Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage (1927) by Konstantin Melnikov and

* Kauchuk Factory Club (1929) by Konstantin Melnikov * Svoboda Factory Club (1929) by Konstantin Melnikov * Novo-Ryazanskaya Street Garage (1929) by Konstantin Melnikov and Vladimir Shukhov * Melnikov House (1929) by Konstantin Melnikov *

(1930) by Moisei Ginzburg and Ignaty Milinis * Rusakov Workers' Club (1929) by Konstantin Melnikov * Zuev Workers' Club (1929) by Ilya Golosov * Tsentrosoyuz building (1936) by

and Nikolai Kolli * Gosplan Garage (1936) by Konstantin Melnikov * ZiL House of Culture (1937) by

Leningrad (Saint-Petersburg)

* Stadium for metal workers "Red Profintern" (1927) by Aleksandr Nikolsky and Lazar Khidekel * Red Flag Textile Factory (1929) by

* Bolshoy Dom in Leningrad (1932) by Noi Trotsky, Alexander Gegello and Andrey Ol. * Kirov District House of Soviets (1935) by Noi Trotsky * Moscow District House of Soviets (1935) by Igor Fomin, Igor Daugul and Boris Serebrovsky * 1st House of Lensovet (1934) by Evgeny Levinson and Igor Fomin *Club for the shipyard workers in Leningrad. by Aleksandr Nikolsky and Lazar Khidekel * Pumping station. Vasilyeostrovskaya pumping station near the harbor in Leningrad. Construction (1929-1930) by Lazar Khidekel * and Residential settlement Dubrovskaya TPP. Planning and construction of the first in the Soviet Union socialist town – sotsgorodok for workers and specialists (1931–1933) by Lazar Khidekel

Minsk

* Government House, Minsk (and similar Oblispolkom in

Mogilev Mogilev (; , ), also transliterated as Mahilyow (, ), is a city in eastern Belarus. It is located on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, about from the Belarus–Russia border, border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and from Bryansk Oblast. As of 2024, ...

) by Iosif Langbard

Kharkiv

* Derzhprom (1928) by Sergey Serafimov, Samuil Kravets and Marc Folger * House of Projects (1932) by Sergey Serafimov and Maria Sandberg-Serafimova * KhTZ neighborhood (1930–1931), originally named Sotsmisto Novyi Kharkiv * Post Office (1929) by Arkady Mordvinov

Zaporizhzhia

* DniproHES (1932) by Viktor Vesnin and Nikolai Kolli * Sotsmisto (Sotsgorod) of Zaporizhzhia (1929–1932)

Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg)

* White Tower (1931) by Moisei Reisher * Builders Club (1929) by Yakov Kornfeld * House of Printing (1930) by Vladimir Sigov * 'Gorodok chekistov' (1933) by Ivan Antonov, Veniamin Sokolov and Arseny Tumbasov * House of Communications (1933) by Kasyan Solomonov

Kuybyshev (Samara)

* House of Red Army (1930) by Pyotr Scherbachov * Factory kitchen (1933) by Evgenya Maksimova * House of Industry (1933) by Vasily Sukhov

Novosibirsk

* Prombank Dormitory (1927) by I. A. Burlakov * Polyclinic No. 1 (1928) by P. Shyokin * Business House (1928) by D. F. Fridman and I. A. Burlakov * Aeroflot House (1930s) *

State Bank In Australia and the United States, a state bank in a federated state is usually a financial institution that is chartered by the government of that state, as opposed to one regulated at the federal or national level. In British English, the ter ...

(1930) by Andrey Kryachkov * Rabochaya Pyatiletka (1930) * Krayispolkom (Regional Administration Building, 1932) by Boris Gordeev and Sergey Turgenev * Soyuzzoloto House (1932) by Boris Gordeyev and A. I. Bobrov * NKVD House (Serebrennikovskaya Street 16) (1932) by Ivan Voronov and Boris Gordeyev * Novosibirsk Chemical Engineering Technical School (1932) by A. I. Bobrov * Kuzbassugol Building Complex (1933) by D. A. Ageyev, B. A. Bitkin and Boris Gordeyev * House of Kraysnabsbyt (1934) by Boris Gordeev and Sergey Turgenev * Dinamo Residential Complex (1936) by Boris Gordeyev, S. P. Turgenev, V. N. Nikitin * NKVD House (Serebrennikovskaya Street 23) (1936) by Sergey Turgenev, Ivan Voronov and Boris Gordeyev

Non-implemented projects

* Tatlin's Tower project by

* Narkomtiazhprom Project

References

Bibliography

, ''Theory and Design in the First Machine Age'' (Architectural Press, 1972) * Victor Buchli, ''An Archaeology of Socialism'' (Berg, 2002) * Campbell/Lynton (eds.), ''Art and Revolution'' (Hayward Gallery, London 1971) * Catherine Cooke, ''Architectural Drawings of the Russian Avant-Garde'' (MOMA, 1990) * Catherine Cooke, ''The Avant Garde'' (AD magazine, 1988) * Catherine Cooke, "Fantasy and Construction: Iakov Chernikhov" (''AD'' magazine, vol. 59 no. 7–8, London 1989) * Catherine Cooke & Igor Kazus, ''Soviet Architectural Competitions'' (Phaidon, 1992) * Kenneth Frampton, ''Modern Architecture: a Critical Introduction'' (Thames & Hudson, 1980) * Moisei Ginzburg, ''Style and Epoch'' (MIT, 1981) * S. Khan-Magomedov, ''Alexander Vesnin and Russian Constructivism'' (Thames & Hudson 1986) * S. Khan-Magomedov, ''Pioneers of Soviet Architecture'' (Thames & Hudson 1988), * S. Khan-Magomedov. 100 Masterpieces of Soviet Avant-garde Architecture Russian Academy of Architecture. M., Editorial URSS, 2005 * S. Khan-Magomedov. Lazar Khidekel (Creators of Russian Classical Avant-garde series) M., 2008 *

, "The Story of the Pool" (1977) included in '' Delirious New York'' (Monacelli Press, 1997), *

, ''The Reconstruction of Architecture in the Soviet Union'' (Vienna, 1930) * Karl Schlögel, ''Moscow'' (Reaktion, 2005) *

Karel Teige Karel Teige (13 December 1900 – 1 October 1951) was a Czech modernist avant-garde artist, writer, critic and one of the most important figures of the 1920s and 1930s movement. He was a member of the '' Devětsil'' (Butterbur) movement in the ...

, ''The Minimum Dwelling'' (MIT, 2002) *

External links

*
Documentary on Moscow's Constructivist buildings
*
Heritage at Risk: Preservation of 20th Century Architecture and World Heritage
' – April 2006 Conference by the Moscow Architectural Preservation Society (MAPS)

Constructivist designs at the Russian Utopia Depository

* * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20220330102145/http://www.evapce.eu/en/texts.html Czech Constructivism - Villa Victor Kriz
Commie vs. Capitalist: Architecture
– slideshow by ''

Life magazine ''Life'' (stylized as ''LIFE'') is an American magazine launched in 1883 as a weekly publication. In 1972, it transitioned to publishing "special" issues before running as a monthly from 1978 to 2000. Since then, ''Life'' has irregularly publi ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Constructivist Architecture Architectural styles Articles containing video clips Modernist architecture . Architecture in Russia Russian avant-garde Russian art movements Architecture in the Soviet Union Architecture related to utopias