Constructivist architecture was a
constructivist style of
modern architecture
Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that for ...
that flourished in the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
in the 1920s and early 1930s. Abstract and austere, the movement aimed to reflect modern
industrial society
In sociology, 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 in ...
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 (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
social purpose. Although it was divided into several competing factions, the movement produced many pioneering projects and finished buildings, before falling out of favour 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 constructing buildings ...
.
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 " Manifesto of Futurism," which espoused the rejection of the past, and a celebration of speed, machinery, violence ...
. Constructivist art had attempted to apply a three-dimensional
cubist
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
vision to wholly
abstract non-objective 'constructions' with a
kinetic
Kinetic (Ancient Greek: κίνησις “kinesis”, movement or to move) may refer to:
* Kinetic theory, describing a gas as particles in random motion
* Kinetic energy, the energy of an object that it possesses due to its motion
Art and ent ...
element. After the
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...
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
Antoine Pevsner (12 April 1962) was a Russian-born sculptor and the older brother of Alexii Pevsner and Naum Gabo. Both Antoine and Naum are considered pioneers of twentieth-century sculpture.
Biography
Pevsner was born as Natan Borisovich P ...
's and
Naum Gabo
Naum Gabo, born Naum Neemia Pevsner (23 August 1977) (Hebrew: נחום נחמיה פבזנר), was an influential sculptor, theorist, and key figure in Russia's post-Revolution avant-garde and the subsequent development of twentieth-century scul ...
'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
Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (russian: link=no, Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Ро́дченко; – 3 December 1956) was a Russian and Soviet artist, sculptor, photographer, and graphic designer. He was one of the founders ...
,
Varvara Stepanova
Varvara Fyodorovna Stepanova (russian: Варва́ра Фёдоровна Степа́нова; – May 20, 1958) was a Russian artist. With her husband Alexander Rodchenko, she was associated with the Constructivist branch of the Russian avant ...
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, wh ...
, 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 all affected individuals.
Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different charac ...
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 Revolut ...
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 (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...
in
St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
by the
Futurist
Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abo ...
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, wh ...
, often called
Tatlin's Tower
Tatlinʼs Tower, or the project for the Monument to the Third International (1919–20), Honour, H. and Fleming, J. (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: Laurence King Publishing, p. 819. was a design for a grand monumental buildin ...
. 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
Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...
(1920), a moving speaker's podium. During the
Russian Civil War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Russian Civil War
, partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I
, image =
, caption = Clockwise from top left:
{{flatlist,
*Soldiers ...
the
UNOVIS group centered on
Kasimir Malevich
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich ; german: Kasimir Malewitsch; pl, Kazimierz Malewicz; russian: Казими́р Севери́нович Мале́вич ; uk, Казимир Северинович Малевич, translit=Kazymyr Severynovych ...
and Lissitzky designed various projects that forced together the 'non-objective' abstraction of
Suprematism
Suprematism (russian: Супремати́зм) is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstra ...
with more utilitarian aims, creating ideal Constructivist cities— see also El Lissitzky's ''Prounen-Raum'', the 'Dynamic City' (1919) of
Gustav Klutsis
Gustav Klutsis ( lv, Gustavs Klucis, russian: Густав Густавович Клуцис; 4 January 1895 – 26 February 1938) was a pioneering Latvian photographer and major member of the Constructivist avant-garde in the early 20th centu ...
; Lazar Khidekel's Workers Club (1926) and his Dubrovka Power Plant and first Sots Town (1931–33).
ASNOVA and Rationalism
Immediately after the
Russian Civil War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Russian Civil War
, partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I
, image =
, caption = Clockwise from top left:
{{flatlist,
*Soldiers ...
, 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
ASNOVA (russian: АСНОВА; abbreviation for russian: АСсоциация НОВых Архитекторов, ''Association of New Architects'') was an Avant-Garde architectural association in the Soviet Union, which was active in the 1920s ...
(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 that emerged in the early twentieth century in Austria and Germany as a theory of perception that was a rejection of basic principles of Wilhelm Wundt's and Edward ...
, 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
El Lissitzky
Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...
,
Konstantin Melnikov
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
,
Vladimir Krinsky and the young
Berthold Lubetkin
Berthold Romanovich Lubetkin (14 December 1901 – 23 October 1990) was a Georgian-British architect who pioneered modernist design in Britain in the 1930s. His work includes the Highpoint housing complex, the Penguin Pool at London Zoo, Fins ...
.
[
]
Projects from 1923 to 1935 like Lissitzky and
Mart Stam
Mart Stam (August 5, 1899 – February 21, 1986) was a Dutch architect, urban planner, and furniture designer. Stam was extraordinarily well-connected, and his career intersects with important moments in the history of 20th-century Europe ...
'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
''Aelita'' (russian: Аэли́та, ), also known as ''Aelita: Queen of Mars'', is a 1924 Soviet silent science fiction film directed by Yakov Protazanov and produced at the Mezhrabpom-Rus film studio. It was based on Alexei Tolstoy's 1923 ...
, which had interiors and exteriors modelled in angular, geometric fashion by
Aleksandra Ekster
Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "pr ...
. 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, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in 1917, it was a newspaper of record in the Soviet Union until the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, and describes i ...
headquarters.
This was built in 1926–7 and designed by Grigori Barkhin
[S.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), Victor 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 Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...
''. In 1925 the
OSA Group, also with ties to Vkhutemas, was founded by
Alexander Vesnin
Alexander Aleksandrovich Vesnin (russian: Александр Александрович Веснин) (28 May 1883, Yuryevets – 7 September 1959, Moscow), together with his brothers Leonid and Viktor, was a leading light of Constructivist ar ...
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
Ernst May (27 July 1886 – 11 September 1970) was a List of German architects, German architect and :German urban planners, city planner.
May successfully applied urban design techniques to the city of Frankfurt am Main during the Weimar R ...
.
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. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
, 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."
Collective housing projects that were built included
Ivan Nikolaev
Ivan Sergeevich Nikolaev (19011979) was a Soviet Union, Soviet architect and educator, notable for his late 1920s constructivist architecture and later work in industrial architecture.
Life and career
Born at Voronezh, Nikolaev trained at the Mos ...
's
Communal House of the Textile Institute
Communal House of the Textile Institute (also known simply as ''Nikolaev's House'') is a constructivist architecture landmark located in the Donskoy District of Moscow, Russia. The building, designed by Ivan Nikolaev to accommodate 2000 studen ...
(Ordzhonikidze St, Moscow, 1929–1931), and Ginzburg's Moscow Gosstrakh flats and, most famously, his
Narkomfin Building
The Narkomfin Building is a block of flats at 25, Novinsky Boulevard, in the Central district of Moscow, Russia. Conceived as a "transitional type of experimental house", it is a renowned example of Constructivist architecture and avant-garde ho ...
.
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 (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to 1936 as an autonomous republic as part of t ...
, 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 ( ; rus, Екатеринбург, p=jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnˈburk), alternatively romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( rus, Свердло́вск, , svʲɪrˈdlofsk, 1924–1991), is a city and the administra ...
) 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
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, ...
.
[See the discussion in Victor Buchli's, ''An Archeology of Socialism'' (2000)] State buildings were constructed like the huge
Gosprom complex in Kharkiv (designed by Serafimov, Folger and Kravets, 1926–8) which was noted by
Reyner Banham
Peter Reyner Banham Hon. FRIBA (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: Th ...
in his ''Theory and Design in the First Machine Age'' as being, along with the
Dessau
Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßl ...
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...
, 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
Ivan Vladislavovich Zholtovsky (russian: Иван Владиславович Жолтовский, be, Іван Уладзіслававіч Жалтоўскі; November 27, 1867 – July 16, 1959) was a Soviet and Russian architect and educator ...
's 1926 MOGES power station or
Alexey Shchusev
Alexey Victorovich Shchusev (academic spelling), german: Schtschussew, french: Chtchoussev, pl, Szchusiew. (russian: Алексе́й Ви́кторович Щу́сев; – 24 May 1949) was a Russian and Soviet architect who was successf ...
's Narkomzem offices, both in Moscow.
Similarly, the engineer
Vladimir Shukhov
Vladimir Grigoryevich Shukhov (russian: link=no, Влади́мир Григо́рьевич Шу́хов; – 2 February 1939) was a Russian Empire and Soviet engineer-polymath, scientist and architect renowned for his pioneering works on new ...
's
Shukhov Tower
The Shukhov Radio Tower (russian: Шуховская башня), also known as the Shabolovka Tower (), is a broadcasting tower deriving from the Russian avant-garde in Moscow designed by Vladimir Shukhov. The free-standing steel diagrid st ...
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 and essayist.
An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish ...
in his Moscow Diary, 'unlike any similar structure in the West'. Shukhov also collaborated with
Melnikov on the
Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage
Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage was a public bus garage in Moscow, designed in 1926 by Konstantin Melnikov (floorplan concept and architectural design) and Vladimir Shukhov (structural engineering). The building, completed in 1927, was an example of app ...
and
Novo-Ryazanskaya Street Garage.
Many of these buildings are shown in
Sergei Eisenstein
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein (russian: Сергей Михайлович Эйзенштейн, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ ɪjzʲɪnˈʂtʲejn, 2=Sergey Mikhaylovich Eyzenshteyn; 11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, scree ...
'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
Kauchuk is a village in Almaty Region
Almaty Region ( kk, Алматы облысы, Almaty oblysy; russian: Алматинская область, Almatinskaya oblast) is a region in Kazakhstan, located in the southeastern part of the country. ...
,
Svoboda and
Rusakov clubs by
Konstantin Melnikov
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
, 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
Ivan Ilyich Leonidov (russian: Иван Ильич Леонидов; 9 February 1902 – 6 November 1959) was a Soviet constructivist architect, urban planner, painter and teacher.
Early life
Leonidov was raised on an isolated farmstead in t ...
'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 ...
. 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.
Melnikov House
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
and his
Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage
Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage was a public bus garage in Moscow, designed in 1926 by Konstantin Melnikov (floorplan concept and architectural design) and Vladimir Shukhov (structural engineering). The building, completed in 1927, was an example of app ...
are fine examples of the tensions between individualism and utilitarianism in Constructivism.
There were also projects for
Suprematist
Suprematism (russian: Супремати́зм) is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstra ...
skyscrapers called 'planits' or 'architektons' by
Kasimir Malevich
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich ; german: Kasimir Malewitsch; pl, Kazimierz Malewicz; russian: Казими́р Севери́нович Мале́вич ; uk, Казимир Северинович Малевич, translit=Kazymyr Severynovych ...
, Lazar Khikeidel - Cosmic Habitats (1921–22), 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
Yakiv Georgievich Chernikhov (ukr. Яків Георгійович Чернихов) (5 (17) December 1889 in Pavlograd, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire (now Pavlohrad, Ukraine) – 9 May 1951 in Moscow, Soviet Union) was a Russian arc ...
, who produced several books of experimental designs—most famously ''Architectural Fantasies'' (1933)—earning him the epithet 'the Soviet
Piranesi
Giovanni Battista (or Giambattista) Piranesi (; also known as simply Piranesi; 4 October 1720 – 9 November 1778) was an Italian Classical archaeologist, architect, and artist, famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheri ...
'.
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 ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
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.
Many of the Constructivists hoped to see their ambitions realised during the 'Cultural Revolution' that accompanied the
first five-year plan
The first five-year plan (russian: I пятилетний план, ) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a list of economic goals, created by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, based on his policy of socialism in ...
. At this point the Constructivists were divided between urbanists and disurbanists who favoured a
garden city or
linear city Linear city may refer to:
* Linear settlement
* Linear city (Soria design), an 1882 concept of city planning
* Linear city (Graves and Eisenman design), a 1965 proposal for a settlement in New Jersey
* The linear city model of Hotelling's law See ...
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
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Okhitovich (russian: Михаи́л Алекса́ндрович Охито́вич) (1896—1937) was a Bolshevik sociologist, town planner and Constructivist architectural theorist, most famous for his 'Disurbanist' prop ...
. 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 (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
'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, located on the eastern side of the extreme southern extent of the Ural Mountains by the Ural River. Its population ...
were often rejected in favour of the more pragmatic German architects fleeing Nazism, such as 'May Brigade' (
Ernst May
Ernst May (27 July 1886 – 11 September 1970) was a List of German architects, German architect and :German urban planners, city planner.
May successfully applied urban design techniques to the city of Frankfurt am Main during the Weimar R ...
,
Mart Stam
Mart Stam (August 5, 1899 – February 21, 1986) was a Dutch architect, urban planner, and furniture designer. Stam was extraordinarily well-connected, and his career intersects with important moments in the history of 20th-century Europe ...
,
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky
Margarete "Grete" Lihotzky (born 23 January 1897 in the Margareten district of Vienna, Austria-Hungary – 18 January 2000) was an Austrian architect and a communist activist in the Austrian resistance to Nazism. She is mostly remembered tod ...
), 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 of Prussian Lithuanian heritage ("taut" means "nation" in Lithuanian). He was active during the Weimar period and is kno ...
.
The city-planning of
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
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
Nikolai Dzhemsovich (Yakovlevich) Kolli (russian: Николай Джемсович (Яковлевич) Колли; – 3 December 1966) was a Soviet and Russian Modernist— Constructivist architect, architectural functionary, and city pl ...
. 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 architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic Functionalism (architecture), functionalism in his projects for department ...
, 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
DnieproGES, designed by
Victor Vesnin
Viktor Aleksandrovich Vesnin (russian: Виктор Александрович Веснин; April 9, 1882 – September 17, 1950), was a Russian Empire and Soviet architect. His early works (1909–1915) follow the canon of Neoclassicist Revival; ...
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 (russian: Дворец Советов, ''Dvorets Sovetov'') 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 pa ...
, a grandiose project to rival the
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from " Empire State", the nickname of the ...
, 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-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...
,
Erich Mendelsohn
Erich Mendelsohn (21 March 1887 – 15 September 1953) was a German architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic Functionalism (architecture), functionalism in his projects for department ...
and
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
. 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
Boris Mikhailovich Iofan ( rus, Борис Михайлович Иофан, p=ɪɐˈfan; April 28, 1891 – March 11, 1976) was a Soviet architect of Jewish origin, known for his Stalinist architecture buildings like 1931 House on the Embankment a ...
marked the start of eclectic historicism of
Stalinist Architecture, a style which bears similarities to
Post-Modernism
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moder ...
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 metro system serving the Russian capital of Moscow as well as the neighbouring cities of Krasnogorsk, Reutov, Lyubertsy and Kotelniki in Moscow Oblast. Opened in 1935 with one line and 13 stations, it was the first ...
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 ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...
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
Postconstructivism was a transitional architectural style that existed in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, typical of early Stalinist architecture before World War II. The term ''postconstructivism'' was coined by Selim Khan-Magomedov, a historian ...
.
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
Panteleimon Alexandrovich Golosov (1882, Moscow – 1945, Moscow) was a Constructivist architect from the Soviet Union and brother of Ilya Golosov.
Career
Golosov graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1911 ...
's ''
Pravda
''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...
'' building (finished 1935), the Moscow Textile Institute (finished 1938) or Ladovsky's rationalist vestibules for the
Moscow Metro
The Moscow Metro) is a metro system serving the Russian capital of Moscow as well as the neighbouring cities of Krasnogorsk, Reutov, Lyubertsy and Kotelniki in Moscow Oblast. Opened in 1935 with one line and 13 stations, it was the first ...
. 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
Futurist
Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abo ...
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—the mechanistic, dynamic forms of Constructivism were not part of the calm Platonism of the
International Style as it was defined by
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the po ...
and
Henry-Russell Hitchcock
Henry-Russell Hitchcock (1903–1987) was an American architectural historian, and for many years a professor at Smith College and New York University. His writings helped to define the characteristics of modernist architecture.
Early life
He ...
. 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 Novosibirsk Globus Theatre, Globus Theatre or the Tbilisi Roads Ministry Building) and the unornamented Khrushchyovka 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, Archigram and Kenzo Tange, as well as in much Brutalist work. Their integration of the avant-garde and everyday life has parallels with the Situationists, particularly the New Babylon project of Guy Debord and Constant Nieuwenhuys.
High Tech architecture also owes a debt to Constructivism, most obviously in Richard Rogers' Lloyd's building. Zaha Hadid's early projects were adaptations of Malevich's Architektons, and the influence of Chernikhov is clear on her drawings. Deconstructivism evokes the dynamism of Constructivism, though without the social aspect, as in the work of Coop Himmelb(l)au. In the late 1970s Rem Koolhaas 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.
[See interview with film director Isa Willinger here: http://awayfromallsuns.de/de/on_constructivism/]
Gallery
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:Constructivist housing, Zamoskvorechye, Moscow.jpg, Flats, Zamoskvorechye, Moscow (late 1920s)
File:Melnikov House in MSK (img2).jpg, Konstantin Melnikov#Melnikov House, Melnikov House in Moscow. It is at the top of UNESCO's list of "Endangered Buildings". There is an international campaign to save it.
File:Iset Hotel.jpg, Hotel Iset (Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg ( ; rus, Екатеринбург, p=jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnˈburk), alternatively romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( rus, Свердло́вск, , svʲɪrˈdlofsk, 1924–1991), is a city and the administra ...
, Chekists Village)
File:Verzamelgebouw De Volharding - De Volharding Multi-user building (4750939167).jpg, Jan Buijs#De Volharding Building, The Hague, De Volharding, mixed-use building by Jan Buijs (The Hague, 1927–28)
File:Wiki Tank Engine Bldg in Red Gates Square, by Ivan Fomin.jpg, The Peoples Commissariat For Communication Lines (Ivan Fomin, 1929)
File:Moscow, Narkomfin building in May 2021 03.jpg, Narkomfin Building
The Narkomfin Building is a block of flats at 25, Novinsky Boulevard, in the Central district of Moscow, Russia. Conceived as a "transitional type of experimental house", it is a renowned example of Constructivist architecture and avant-garde ho ...
, apartment house ( Moisei Ginzburg, 1930)
File:Narkomfin building 2020-07.jpg, Narkomfin Building, 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 (Ivan Fomin, 1930s)
File:Teatr Gorkogo.jpg, Maxim Gorky Theatre, Rostov-na-Donu, 1935
File:Chernikhov tower.jpg, Red Carnation Factory, St Petersburg (Yakov Chernikhov
Yakiv Georgievich Chernikhov (ukr. Яків Георгійович Чернихов) (5 (17) December 1889 in Pavlograd, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire (now Pavlohrad, Ukraine) – 9 May 1951 in Moscow, Soviet Union) was a Russian arc ...
)
File:Moscow textile institute.jpg, Textile Institute, Moscow (1930–8)
File:Администрация НСО.jpg, Regional administration building, 1930–1932. Novosibirsk.
File:Krasny (Red) Prospekt 11 Novosibirsk Siberia Russian Federation.jpg, Krasny Prospekt 11. Novosibirsk
File:Будинок держпромисловості 1.jpg, Derzhprom building in Kharkiv, 1925–1928
File:Grossmann safarikovo.JPG, Club of Slovak Artists, Bratislava, Slovakia, 1926
File:Grossmann bezrucova.JPG, Former hospital Bezručova by Alois Balán and Jiří Grossmann, Bratislava (Slovakia), 1939
File:University of Leicester Engineering Building - view from below.jpg, University of Leicester Engineering Building by James Stirling (architect), James Stirling (1963)
Constructivist buildings and other modernist projects in the former USSR
Moscow
* Mosselprom building (1925) by Nikolai Strukov
*
Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage
Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage was a public bus garage in Moscow, designed in 1926 by Konstantin Melnikov (floorplan concept and architectural design) and Vladimir Shukhov (structural engineering). The building, completed in 1927, was an example of app ...
(1927) by
Konstantin Melnikov
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
and
Vladimir Shukhov
Vladimir Grigoryevich Shukhov (russian: link=no, Влади́мир Григо́рьевич Шу́хов; – 2 February 1939) was a Russian Empire and Soviet engineer-polymath, scientist and architect renowned for his pioneering works on new ...
* Kauchuk Factory Club (1929) by
Konstantin Melnikov
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
* Svoboda Factory Club (1929) by
Konstantin Melnikov
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
*
Novo-Ryazanskaya Street Garage (1929) by
Konstantin Melnikov
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
and
Vladimir Shukhov
Vladimir Grigoryevich Shukhov (russian: link=no, Влади́мир Григо́рьевич Шу́хов; – 2 February 1939) was a Russian Empire and Soviet engineer-polymath, scientist and architect renowned for his pioneering works on new ...
*
Melnikov House
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
(1929) by
Konstantin Melnikov
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
*
Narkomfin Building
The Narkomfin Building is a block of flats at 25, Novinsky Boulevard, in the Central district of Moscow, Russia. Conceived as a "transitional type of experimental house", it is a renowned example of Constructivist architecture and avant-garde ho ...
(1930) by
Moisei Ginzburg and Ignaty Milinis
* Rusakov Workers' Club (1929) by
Konstantin Melnikov
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
*
Zuev Workers' Club (1929) by
Ilya Golosov
* Tsentrosoyuz building (1936) by
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
and
Nikolai Kolli
Nikolai Dzhemsovich (Yakovlevich) Kolli (russian: Николай Джемсович (Яковлевич) Колли; – 3 December 1966) was a Soviet and Russian Modernist— Constructivist architect, architectural functionary, and city pl ...
* Gosplan Garage (1936) by
Konstantin Melnikov
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
* ZiL House of Culture (1937) by
Vesnin brothers
The Vesnin brothers: Leonid Vesnin (1880–1933), Victor 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 ...
Leningrad (Saint-Petersburg)
* Stadium for metal workers "Red Profintern" (1927) by [Aleksandr Nikolsky] and [Lazar Khidekel]
* Red Flag Textile Factory (1929) by [Erich Mendelsohn]
* 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]
* Dubrovskiy Electro Power Station S.M. Kirov and Residential settlement Doubrovskaya HPP. Planning and construction of the first in the Soviet Union socialist town - sotsrogodok for workers and specialists (1931-1933) by [Lazar Khidekel]
Minsk
* Government House, Minsk (and similar Oblispolkom in Mogilev) by Iosif Langbard
Kharkiv
* Derzhprom (1928) by Sergey Serafimov, Samuil Kravets and Marc Folger
* National University of Kharkiv, House of Projects (1932) by Sergey Serafimov and Maria Sandberg-Serafimova
* Post Office (1929) by Arkady Mordvinov
Zaporizhzhia
*
DnieproGES (1932) by Viktor Vesnin and
Nikolai Kolli
Nikolai Dzhemsovich (Yakovlevich) Kolli (russian: Николай Джемсович (Яковлевич) Колли; – 3 December 1966) was a Soviet and Russian Modernist— Constructivist architect, architectural functionary, and city pl ...
Sverdlovsk (Ekaterinburg)
* 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 (Novosibirsk), Polyclinic No. 1 (1928) by P. Shyokin
* Business House, Novosibirsk, Business House (1928) by D. F. Fridman and I. A. Burlakov
* Aeroflot House (1930s)
* Gosbank Building, Novosibirsk, State Bank (1930) by Andrey Kryachkov
* Rabochaya Pyatiletka (Novosibirsk), 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
*
Palace of the Soviets
The Palace of the Soviets (russian: Дворец Советов, ''Dvorets Sovetov'') 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 pa ...
Project
*
Tatlin's Tower
Tatlinʼs Tower, or the project for the Monument to the Third International (1919–20), Honour, H. and Fleming, J. (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: Laurence King Publishing, p. 819. was a design for a grand monumental buildin ...
project by
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, wh ...
*
Narkomtiazhprom Project
References
Bibliography
*
Reyner Banham
Peter Reyner Banham Hon. FRIBA (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: Th ...
, ''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
* Rem Koolhaas, "The Story of the Pool" (1977) included in ''Delirious New York'' (Monacelli Press, 1997),
*
El Lissitzky
Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...
, ''The Reconstruction of Architecture in the Soviet Union'' (Vienna, 1930)
* Karl Schlögel, ''Moscow'' (Reaktion, 2005)
* Karel Teige, ''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*
* [https://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''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Constructivist Architecture
Constructivist architecture,
Architectural styles
Articles containing video clips
Modernist architecture
Modernist architecture in Russia, .
Architecture in Russia
Russian avant-garde
Architecture in the Soviet Union
Architecture related to utopias